Priest – Python

How Priest put the dance floor under constant dystopian observation with ‘Python’

Official music video "Python" per­formed by "Priest" taken from the album "Altered State Police". Direction / cam­era / story­board / edit­ing: Linton Rubino.

Priest have done it again: with “Python”, the Swedish band bring a new, extremely inter­est­ing twist to their sound. I was hooked straight away, because whilst the band still sounds dis­tinctly like Priest, which is abso­lutely fine, here they’re incor­por­at­ing driv­ing techno and dance-pop ele­ments into their music­al frame­work more strongly than ever before. Even I find it rather dif­fi­cult to describe this pre­cisely in words. But what I can def­in­itely say is that when that unex­pec­ted 90s techno melody kicks in at 1:52, I think it’s integ­rated abso­lutely bril­liantly. It inev­it­ably draws me, and I hope every­one in the scene, onto the dance floor.

You know that someone’s watch­ing you
With black eyes that burn
Lyrics of "Python" per­formed by Priest

Sonically, the single is extremely appeal­ing and incred­ibly catchy. Yet this is pre­cisely where “Python” cre­ates a fas­cin­at­ing con­trast, because lyr­ic­ally I’m plunged deep into a dark dysto­pia that almost already rep­res­ents the present. When the lyr­ics say that a “rogue eaves­drop­per of your mind” is spy­ing on us through “mobile phone mics” and “Android eyes”, it strikes a chord with the spir­it of the times. Whilst the theme of con­stant sur­veil­lance is not new to Priest, here it is mer­ci­lessly brought up to date in terms of con­tent. The fact that every­one walks around vol­un­tar­ily with mobile phone cam­er­as and open micro­phones these days is, in prin­ciple, every sur­veil­lance state’s wet dream. Priest set it to music in a dance­able, mas­ter­ful way.

Listen to "Priest – Python" on Spotify

Listen to "Priest – Python" on Bandcamp

Lyrics of "Priest – Python"

A digit­al spy
Slithering sly
In seas of information
Through bor­ders and walls
Into serv­er halls
Impairing the foundation
A rogue eaves­drop­per of your mind
There’s no stop­per to this Kind

You know that someone’s watch­ing you

Cell phone mics
Android eyes
Knows where you’re located
A wired embrace
With a deep fake face
All mem­branes activated
A rogue eaves­drop­per of your mind
There’s no stop­per to this Kind

You know that someone’s watch­ing you
You know that someone’s watch­ing you
With black eyes that burn

A rogue eaves­drop­per of your mind
There’s no stop­per to this Kind

You know that someone’s watch­ing you
You know that someone’s watch­ing you
With black eyes that burn

You know that someone’s watch­ing you
You know that someone’s watch­ing you
With black eyes that burn
With black eyes that burn
With black eyes that burn