Naeemah Maddox joins Morton Gaster Papadopoulos on urgent new single “The Burnt Offerings”

Metal supergroup Morton Gaster Papadopoulos has emerged, blending the talents of musicians from Lamb of God, Clutch, and Stinking Lizaveta for a bluesy, prog metal-ish new project. Their first single, “The Burnt Offerings,” gives a glimpse of what this new project has in store, and features compelling vocals vocals from Philly-born singer-songwriter Naeemah Maddox .

Morton Gaster Papadopoulos is made up of Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton, Clutch drummer Jean-Paul Gaster, and West Philly’s Stinking Lizaveta guitarist Yanni Papadopoulos. The three collaborated before on “Blur,” from Morton’s 2019 solo album Anaesthetic. In addition to Maddox’s lad, “These Burnt Offerings” also features keyboards by Chris Brooks.

The result is a collaboration between all five musicians. Papadopoulos describes, “These were my riffs that I brought to the table when jamming with Mark and JP. Those guys took the parts and rearranged them in a less linear order and Mark added his own fills in the spaces. Of course, Naeemah wrote her own arts to the arrangement with lyrics, vox and flute. Chris Brooks filled in the keys. However, it all started with a bassline which I thought JP could really sink his teeth into.”

The song itself is a grooving track that allows each contributor to quite literally play to their strengths. Maddox’s role as vocalist is especially important, centering a woman of color in a song about race. Maddox says of the song,

In the current social climate it is no longer sufficient to be non-racist. One must be anti-racist. This moment demands true accountability, and real change.

Transnational corporations stating their support for BLM should only be taken as sincere if they also advocate and lobby for social reforms like a living wage, universal healthcare, and defunding and demilitarising the police; using these new freed up resources to reinvest in vulnerable communities that need it most.

The time has long passed for petty sloganeering and cynical tokenism. Being against police brutality in 2020 shouldn’t even be a political issue. This is a failure of our society and goes beyond political persuasion. This is about human rights and creating a world our children would want to live in.

Listen to “The Burnt Offerings” below.