Phantom of the Operant Conditioning — ESA Runs Through an Industrial Metal Labyrinth in the Video for “Rats Come Together”

I see things for what could have been

Segregation so still it can’t be seen

Feral and final. The ever upward spiral

The rats are swimming in that cream

Once upon a time, the news was about what happened. Now it’s about what sells. The world’s full of awful things—wars, disasters, corruption—and the media has figured out something: fear and outrage turn profits. Every headline is a hook, every tragedy a ticket to higher ratings. The worse it gets, the better it sells.

Profiteering media companies shovel the bad news in our faces like coal into a furnace, and we gobble it up because, guess what? We’re wired for doom. We can’t help but look. But here’s the catch—every click, every share, every ad they slip in between the carnage lines their pockets.

It’s a sad story. We get more scared, more angry, and less hopeful, while they get richer. The world burns, and they broadcast it live. The cameras roll, the cash flows, and we tune in to watch the show. As Kurt Vonnegut would say…so it goes.

The latest assault on this particular dystopia comes from Electronic Substance Abuse (ESA). The single Rats Come Together is a brutal, bone-crushing ride, dripping with dirty, destructive grooves that slam together metal, industrial, and techno-like steel doors in a storm. It’s harsh and relentless, a gut-punch of grinding beats and corrosive rhythms, twisting and churning with the manic energy of NIN on a caffeine binge. There’s the raw power of Front Line Assembly and Skinny Puppy lurking in the shadows and just a hint of Iron Maiden’s razor-sharp precision slicing through the chaos.

The music video plays out like a madman’s fever dream—a frenzied, 80s-inspired VHS psychodrama drenched in neon and paranoia. It’s a twisted tale of trying to outrun the endless barrage of negative information, the kind that media vultures fatten their pockets on. Picture Phantom of the Opera—if the Phantom traded his cape for an algorithm and a twisted sense of digital doom. The cinematography? It’s like Run Lola Run got submerged in a surreal nightmare, the visuals frantic and hallucinatory.

At its core, Rats Come Together is a red-hooded runner, nameless and desperate, tearing through a maze of misinformation, disinformation, and outright chaos. He’s not just running for his life—he’s running to warn the past, a final shot at stopping the tidal wave of dark data before it swallows the world whole. As global divisions deepen and unrest bubbles over, the profiteering media platforms fan the flames, thriving on attention, no matter the cost. The runner risks everything in a race against time, battling through the noise to deliver a dire message: the digital deluge is coming, and it’s going to drown us all.

Watch the video for “Rats Come Together” below:

For two decades, British-born Jamie Blacker, the man behind ESA, has forged his own path through the grit and grime of hard electronic music. His pounding, pulsing style has planted him firmly at the forefront of the Harsh Industrial, Power Electronics, and Darkwave scenes. ESA’s live shows hit like a hammer, electrifying audiences around the world. With twelve albums under his belt, each more punishing than the last, Blacker has cemented his place as a relentless force in the electronic underground.

The single release for “Rats Come Together,” out now through Negative Gain Productions, also includes the slightly more thoughtful “Thrashing Fraud” mix (also by ESA) and a pure Gabber rage remix from fellow UK beat maker INTSEC.

Listen below and order here

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