Guitarist Michael Ciravolo assembled an all-star cast for his moody, hard-hitting 2018 album Finding Beauty in Chaos. Ministry’s Al Jourgensen, Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander, Van Halen’s Michael Anthony, the Cure’s Simon Gallup and many others contributed to the LP, released under the project name Beauty in Chaos. Now, Ciravolo — who has worked with bands including Human Drama and Gene Loves Jezebel and also serves as president of Schecter Guitar Research — and producer Michael Rozon are prepping Beauty Re-Envisioned, a companion release featuring remixes and alternate versions of the album’s tracks.
Today, they’re unveiling a video for “Un-Natural Disaster (Collide Mix),” a remix of an intense Finding Beauty in Chaos track that features contributions from Ice-T, King’s X’s Doug Pinnick and Offspring drummer Pete Parada. Starting out with a heavy guitar riiff from Ciravolo, the original version centers on Pinnick’s account of the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Harvey. The King’s X frontman’s poignant vocals and booming bass add gravity to the track, which culminates in his howls of “I can’t believe city’s underwater” on the song’s chorus.
An ominous Ice-T rap (“Hell from the heavens as the body count grows/Watch news at 11 for the final death toll”) rounds out the powerhouse song.
“This song really hits close to home as I was born and raised in New Orleans,” Ciravolo said of “Un-Natural Disaster” in a statement. “I lived in Los Angeles when Katrina hit, but watched as friends and family lost everything. My elderly aunt was evacuated as the city’s services shut down, and sadly she did not survive the move to Alabama. She, along with at least 1,200 others, lost their lives as a result of this devastating hurricane.”
The song’s new remix, by Chicago producer Statik, adds sleek electronic drums, and augments the vocals and guitars with tastefully glitchy effects. A new guitar solo by Zakk Wylde — full of dramatic string bends and speedy, head-spinning shred — replaces Ciravolo’s squalling lead on the original.
Directed by Vicente Cordero for Industrialism Films, the video shows Ciravolo and Pinnick performing under a torrent of rain, as Parada plays on a TV screen. Ice-T and Wylde each turn up separately to deliver their parts. Simulated news footage, bearing the tag line “Hurricanes Slam Gulf Coast,” adds to the clip’s gritty feel.
“The remix of this track is even heavier, more brutal and danceable than the album version, which I love!” Pinnick says in a statement. “I know Michael was from New Orleans … and I lived in Houston for quite a while. I witnessed what Hurricane Harvey did there and saw the good and bad in humanity. I think the video translates the lyrics and what was in my head and heart extremely well. Loved that Ice put his punctuation mark on it as only he can!”
“This song is striking in its imagery,” Parada adds. “The destruction and devastation left behind from these storms is brought to life in the music. I was completely honored to play on a track with both Michael, Dug, and Ice. Then to have Zakk Wylde on the remix really elevated it to a whole new level.”
As Ciravolo explains, he was thrilled with the contributions his guests made not just to this song but to the Beauty in Chaos project as a whole.
“These artists, with platinum records hanging on their walls, treated me as their musical equal,” he tells Rolling Stone in a statement. “Not one artist phoned in a single note, and every single artist poured a lot of heart and soul into the making of this album.”
Beauty Re-Envisioned is out June 21st.