Deus Ex Machina is an arresting sonic and theatrical experience of man’s perennial struggle between fate and free will. Charged with both pathos and ethos, the song is a musical revisitation of classical literature’s greatest tragedy – the story of Oedipus Rex. Behemothic metal guitar and bass riffs give way to the hypnotic sounds of the classical Persian Tar. Ominous poetic passages and lamenting rhyming verse are spoken and recited over the rhythmic beat of colossal war drums.
Deus Ex Machina is an ideological endeavour to revisit the famous greek tragedy from a modern perspective as well as to address the relevance of the enduring themes in classical literature within the medium of music. Conceived and created by the artists themselves, the accompanying music video reiterates these themes even further.
Drawing from a montage of imagery drawn from the art and archaeology of the ancient world juxtaposed against footage of current times, the theme of mankind’s futile struggle against systems of prophecy and the notion of an inescapable predetermined fate has never been so relevant to contemporary society in these uncertain times.
The images used in this video comprise digitally manipulated original photographs taken by the artists as well as a selection of public domain artworks.
