Primitive Man announce new LP ‘Observance’, share “Social Contract” single!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEmwu1jDYI0

Primitive Man return with their most crushing album to date: Observance, incoming October 31, 2025. After twelve years at the forefront of underground music, Primitive Man take merciless aim at the plentiful ills that besiege the world around them, and in the process of doing so do not spare themselves from their flagellating tongue-lashings.

Observance will be birthed into a very different musical landscape to the one that Primitive Man first emerged into; arguably worse in every conceivable way. The overwhelming sense of disillusionment is pervasive as vocalist and guitarist Ethan Lee McCarthy charts the complexities and toxicities that have dissolved his sense of wonder at living out his childhood dreams of being a musician. As Primitive Man move into a new era, they unshackled themselves from expectations and found themselves galvanized by the notion that they don’t belong to any particular scene or movement. Within this isolation comes a sense of freedom.

With motifs and symbols recurring throughout the lyrics and artwork (also created by McCarthy), and drawing influence from the work of Tongo Eisen-Martin— specifically Blood on the Fog— McCarthy doesn’t offer answers, he only seeks to share his experiences. Personal and professional pitfalls are explored against the backdrop of a broken social contract that is decimating the lives of working class citizens. While party politics dominate the media, a more insidious divide preoccupies McCarthy as he is haunted by technofeudalism and the future of social unrest. With human rights being eroded at every turn, the lives of regular, working class people are fair game for the wealthy few to capitalize upon. Less a rallying cry, more a howl of exasperation, McCarthy contemplates the futility of there being more of us than there are of them if we fail to to seize any control for ourselves.

The album's first single “Social Contract" "...deals with some of the universal issues that people are collectively facing in terms of the rise of authoritarianism and the erasure of history.  It is a backdrop for some of the more personal issues I speak about. The overarching fear, madness, anger and dread to accompany the pain of the rest. The hits at the beginning of the song also suggest a clock ticking as I believe our time with life as we know it, is about to change drastically as things are currently not moving on a path that is sustainable.  The video shows examples of these "problems" and insinuates who may be to blame and who may be benefiting from techno feudalism and other 'world events.'” comments McCarthy.