Elijah Blue Allman has released a new song called "(study for a portrait of) Napoleon In Rags" through his musical project Deadsy.
The band's past work was mostly alternative metal, but the new track is an austere acoustic ballad. It was first posted to Spotify on Thursday, Feb. 8.
The composition is vaguely reminiscent of David Bowie's "Space Oddity." It's punctuated by searing electronic pulses that wouldn't be out of place on a Yeah Yeah Yeahs record.
Allman is currently in the midst of a highly-publicized legal battle with his mother Cher, who wants him placed under a conservatorship due to his long history of substance abuse and mental health issues. The singer has argued that Allman can't be trusted to manage the inheritance left by his father Gregg, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band.
Allman, who claims he's been sober since October, is working hard to rebuff this effort.
A judge temporarily denied Cher's conservatorship request twice. There's another hearing scheduled for March 6, but the court encouraged the family to mediate the situation privately before then.
The lyrics on the new song indicate that Allman is hoping for a less contentious future.
"Someday soon I hope I'll wear the finest of threads, but now I'm Napoleon in rags," he sings.
The title may be a reference to the Bob Dylan track "Like a Rolling Stone," which also mentions a "Napoleon in rags."
'Someday soon I hope I'll wear the finest of threads, but now I'm Napoleon in rags,' Allman said in the song's lyrics.
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The new song was released through Gramoscope Music. The company's CEO Alec Puro is Deadsy's founding drummer who also composed electronics for the band. He went on to have a successful career scoring TV shows and movies.
Deadsy is best known for its 2002 album Commencement, which included the single "Key to Gramercy Park." In this era the band had a close relationship with Korn frontman Jonathan Davis, who was featured on the LP. They also made several appearances on the Family Values Tour.
Deadsy hasn't officially released any new music since their 2006 album Phantasmagore.
For years, there have been rumblings about a new LP called Subterfuge. Short demo clips have been posted online intermittently, but there's not much other information about the project.
Many fans believed that Deadsy was done for good when founding keyboardist Renn Hawkey announced his departure from the group in an Instagram post last April.
"It is painful to say goodbye to something that helped inform who I am today," he wrote. "I hope Subterfuge makes it to the surface as I am extremely proud of those tracks. It deserves to be heard and celebrated. But I am no longer part of that equation."
There's another court hearing scheduled for the conservatorship request on March 6.
Deadsy was never a smashing commercial success, but the comment section below the Instagram post announcing "Napoleon in Rags" indicates they do have some genuine fans.
"I am so eager to hear new Deadsy," one person said. "I'm cautiously optimistic here but I am not sure how to feel about a version of Deadsy without Renn," a different commenter said.
Others complained about the band allegedly accepting money from fans for vinyls that were never sent out.
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