Back in May, DevilDriver announced not one but two upcoming albums, representing the band's first new, original material in four years (their last LP was the 2018 country covers LP Outlaws 'til the End, Vol. 1). The first part of the planned double album is Dealing With Demons I, which is set for release on October 9th via Napalm Records and is available for pre-order now. It's lead single was the grooving and timely "Keep Away From Me." It's second is "Iona," which the group unleashed today (July 1st) along with its haunting, graveyard-set music video. Watch and listen above.
"Iona is unlike any other DevilDriver song we've put out," says bandleader Dez Fafara. "From the frantic verses to the haunting chorus, this song is another move forward to push our sound and the listener's ears into the fray! The chorus, 'she carries a black rose, effigy from a story closed,' tells the story of the long dead ghost of Iona and her obsession with death represented by the black roses in her hands — each one the soul of someone she's taken from this life on a lonely dark road, assimilating their souls into black roses, which she carries for eternity.
"This theme relates to myself and Dealing With Demons in that, often times, we as people have a hard time 'letting go' of things. This can be applied to relationships, death, and so on. Iona carrying the black roses symbolizes her inability to move on — always seeking revenge. The past is exactly that — the past — it's important to let go and not be stuck in a perpetual loop of living in it."
