PREMIERE: Contrive Get Their Chug On In Deeply Unsettling Clip For The Thunderous 'Connect-dead'

Lauded Australian metal outfit Contrive — the creative vessel for Melburnian twin brothers Paul and Andrew Haug — have returned as a lean, mean two-piece ahead of the release of their third studio album, Slow Dissolve.

The newly streamlined line-up is on full display in the clip for the album's opening track, Connect-dead, chugging and scorching (and, briefly, glistening) their way through the song's winding, ominous path.

Directed by David Hunter/Band Factory, the video is made all the more unsettling by the presence of a mysterious, bloodied and bandaged extra, whose obscured face and creepy grin we'll be seeing in our nightmares for the next week, honestly. So thanks for that, Contrive.

The band's last record, The Internal Dialogue, arrived in 2010, with Slow Dissolve marking the culmination of seven years' musical and personal growth for the brothers and a long-awaited continuation of their creative journey.

The "loose" concept album is about "the varying options we all now have to communicate with each other … creating a Catch-22 that the digital age is also turning many people away from real connection, or creating a fear anxiety of it".

Slow Dissolve will be released on 1 September. Pre-orders are available now, and include Connect-dead as an immediate grat download.

To keep on top of what the brothers Haug are up to next and in the near future, connect with them on Facebook.