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Singled Out: The Black Atlas' Black Milk

08/21/2015
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Doom-rock artist The Black Atlas recently released his new solo EP "Devils" and to celebrate we asked him to tell us the story behin the song "Black Milk". Here is the story:

I was about halfway through a pot of French press coffee, sitting at a bar on Long Island, waiting for the rain to let up. I remember that I hadn't eaten anything since the previous afternoon. That would account for why I began to feel disoriented.

I reached out for a cocktail napkin and asked the bartender for a pen. The words I began to write were not lyrics. They were questions. I was making a list of questions that suddenly appeared in my head. As I listed them, I grew more anxious and frustrated. It seemed like nonsense at first, but I felt I had to get them on paper, in front of me, to understand them.

Then, looking at my cup of coffee, I remembered the poem Death Fugue by Paul Celan. "Black Milk of morning, we drink you at dusk time." In the context of the poem, there seems to be a connection between the drinking of the "Black Milk" and human suffering. I put my pen down for a moment, and finished my coffee.

I might guess that I came in contact with something that day that was very deeply buried in my mind, something very abstract. Or, I had way too much coffee on an empty stomach.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the EP here.

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