Florence + The Machine Bring Back Satanic Panic On “Everybody Scream”

Florence + The Machine must have command over New York City weather patterns, because now that temps have dropped to a comfortable 70 degrees, we’re officially ready to welcome fall with open arms. And what better way to usher in the season than with a brand new song from the perennially autumnal English rock band?

Florence + The Machine’s latest single, “Everybody Scream,” dropped Aug. 20, just one day after the group confirmed its upcoming album of the same name. Usually we refrain from engaging in satanic-panic discourse, but judging by the lyrics, that’s exactly what the band wants — front woman Florence Welch compares her life as a rock star to that of a cult leader in the chorus, singing, “Look at me run myself ragged / Blood on the stage / But how can I leave you when you screaming my name?” In the outro, Welch sings of witchcraft, spells, and injections before bemoaning, “The magic and the misery, madness and the mystery / Oh, what has it done to me?”

The music video is just as unsettling. Directed by Autumn de Wilde, Welch follows a man riding backwards on a horse to a mansion seemingly overtaken by a cult. And yes, there is plenty of convulsing and eyes-rolling-back-into-heads to fuel the satanic-panic allegations.

The track serves as the lead single to Everybody Scream, out Oct. 31.