Union Black, the new project formed by drummer Gus Rios (Gruesome, ex- Malevolent Creation), has teamed up with Metal Insider to share a video for their cover of Information Society’s classic song “What’s On Your Mind.” Rios has returned to his roots as the guitarist and singer for Union Black, as the group consists of his brother Hector Rios on lead guitar, Sondra Hemmerick on bass, and Ruston Grosse (Master) on drums. The band reimagines classic songs from Depeche Mode, NIN, Information Society, and Type O Negative, bringing a darker and heavier style to each version. 

 

Gus Rios comments:

“I’ve had this idea floating around my clouded head for over 15yrs. Insert a global pandemic, over a year off from pretty much any musical activity, almost dying from covid, and I finally made it happen! For the first single, ‘What’s on Your Mind’ from Information Society, I was simply humming the verse melody in my head one day and couldn’t remember what song it was?! Then it hit me and I thought ‘man, this would make such a killer metal tune!’ So I went to my studio, tracked the whole thing myself, Hector added synths/ and I sent it off to Matt Laplant (Skindred, Nonpoint, Sikth) to mix and master and we couldn’t be happier with the result. Video was shot and directed by Ileana Frey of Blind Beast Productions. My concept was to have a visual contrast which to me is similar to what we do musically… one part brutal metal and one part beautiful melody.”

 

Watch the video below: