Along with the release of DAMNUM, Allegaeon’s sixth album, on Friday, February 25, the group shared a new music video for their song “Vermin.” New album, song and video follow the group’s previous singletheir single “Of Beasts and Worms” and accompanying video.

The songs intertwine to form the DAMNUM album with their haunting exploration of the human psyche.

“Vermin” discusses disreputable characters and how they seek to drag decent people down to no avail. These “creatures/skins of humans, souls of ghosts” are portrayed in a way that encourages fear in the audience. Exploring these themes, Allegaeon singer Riley McShane said, “We’ve had personal encounters with some extremely predatory and bad-tempered figures in this industry and ‘Vermin’ is dedicated to them.”

The video is shot in low lighting, so it is often difficult to make out the features of the band members when they are in frame. The video is already figuratively dark, and Allegaeon has made it blatantly, literally dark as well.

The video alternates between scenes of the group and a plot based on what looks like a hall of horrors. Rats are kept in the room alongside a pair of people who are chained up, one of whom is later tortured in medieval times.

The Abuser and similar subjects are so absorbed in their evilness that they lack what makes people human, which Allegaeon has dubbed “the flame”. While these “monsters[s]a descending nightmare” have lost their humanity, McShane speaks on behalf of the masses who have not, who have a “flame/that burns inside of us and rages…/that never dies, only transforms us and/or shape us again”.

Allegaeon will be touring with Finnish metal band Omnium Gatherum starting February 26 in Brooklyn, NY.