Killing Joke co-founder and percussionist Big Paul Ferguson has released a new album Virtual Control, which features 10 new songs and guest appearances by Tim Skold, who toured with Marilyn Manson and Jürgen Engler of Die Krupps. This album release is accompanied by a new music video for “The Unraveling,” which was directed by Vicente Cordero.

These 10 song were also co-written by guitarist Mark Gemini Thwaite, who has worked with Peter Murphy and Gary Numan. Thwaite also handled a majority of the album’s mixing, adding in elements of keyboards and bass along the way.

“The Unraveling” is a glitchy visual experience, as Ferguson delivers dark monologues about technology, coinciding with the performer’s social media crawls throughout the video. The song is a mix between Ferguson’s punk style and electronica, as ambient synths are greeted by hardcore drum beats and dark, brooding riffs. Shots of Los Angeles and people roaming the streets are also shown throughout the visual, capturing the chaotic nature in which humans connect with each other during the digital age.

Ferguson also intended “The Unraveling” to discuss social media bombardment, as users are often confronted by a massive amount of information in such a small amount of time. The numerous screens in the video display this bombardment, which often causes others to sacrifice their identity for the web.

“The seemingly endless months where most of our interactions were online, were filled by a bombardment of images and disparate messages where the truth of anything became a fiction in itself,” Ferguson was quoted by Cleopatra Records. “Living our lives online, we have become marionettes pulled every which way by the latest catchphrase or trend. I hope this song and video shed a little light on the larger forces at work.”

Virtual Control tracklist

1. Lapdogs
2. Shiny Toys
3. The Unraveling
4. Extrapolate
5. Sea Of Judgement
6. Seeping Through The Cracks feat. Tim Skold
7. Data Lama
8. Glass Houses
9. Plausible Deniability
10. Dystopian Vibe feat. Jürgen Engler