Reaching nigh on forty years since their formation, Spear of Destiny’s early career was a fractious one. But since reforming in the late ‘90s, ringleader Kirk Brandon has continued to look to the future: supervising a major reissue campaign of the band’s back catalogue, playing sell-out shows at iconic venues including London’s 100 Club and Manchester’s Ritz, adorning festival line-ups and relentlessly writing new music.
New album ‘Ghost Population’ sees the band take another solid step forwards, with tracks spanning everything from personal to political and past to present. Speaking of the LP, Brandon explains:
“The album title came about because of a piece I read online where scientists were researching the available DNA samples from human history — Denisovans, Neanderthals etc. It became clear to them from fragments in the DNA that there was another race back then. They haven’t found out who these people were yet, but they nicknamed them a ‘Ghost Population’.
I applied this in my non-scientific way and thought of how social engineering has marginalised so much of society, not acknowledging the disenfranchised and writing them out of existence. When someone is no longer talked about, eventually they no longer exist.”
With some tracks written during lockdown, and others penned as far back as 1986, ‘Ghost Population’ is a journey through the evolution of society as much as it is the evolution of the band.
Spear of Destiny mark the album’s release with an extensive UK tour this November and December. With a date at Cardiff’s Globe on November 23, giving audiences a chance to see the tracks of ‘Ghost Population’ performed live for the first time.