Uzumaki

***Uzumaki*** is a song by Softcult. It's the final track of ***Year Of The Snake***. It was originally released in February 21st 2021 and was supposed to be part of ***Year Of The Rat***, but it was taken off all platforms following a controversy over the song's originality. It was re-worked and re-released as part of ***Year Of The Snake*** on February 4, 2022. The song was written by Mercedes Arn-Horn and Phoenix Arn-Horn, produced by Phoenix Arn-Horn and mixed by Chris Perry.

## Background

The song title is a reference to the horror manga Uzumaki, written by the famous mangaka Junji Ito. Uzumaki means "spiral" in Japanese, reflecting the song's discussion of the cycle of abuse and the trauma that it leaves behind.

"Even after you’ve escaped from an abusive situation, it can take years to recover from it," Mercedes said in an interview with *Upset*. "This song is about that struggle, assuring everyone you’re fine when you’re really not fine at all. It’s to let other survivors know that they aren’t alone and that there are people out there that can relate to what they’re going through." Phoenix, answering a fan on Discord, said this is the favorite song they wrote.

### Controversy

Within 24 hours of Uzumaki's release, a lot of people said to have noted similarities between the chorus of the song and the chorus of Two-Way Mirror, a song originally written and performed by the British heavy metal band Loathe. Two-Way Mirror was released on January 10 2020, over a year before Uzumaki's original release date. This led to a huge amount of controversy. The band were accused of ripping off the Loathe song. Softcult ended up taking the song down very quickly. In a Facebook post, Softcult stated that they didn't have any intentions to copy Loathe and everything between Softcult and Loathe has settled down and they could handle the situation professionally. Uzumaki was eventually re-written with a different chorus, so it could be released without any of those issues happening again.

Mercedes later talked about the controversy the song received with *Upset*. "It’s kind of insane people will still ask us about it and what happened to it, even though it was technically only online for a day. We knew that there was something special there and that the song deserved to live, even if it had to change. In our hearts, we knew we’d have to re-write it."

"We were sort of avoiding it, though, since the song was a source of sadness and anxiety for us for a long time. [...] When we finally got around to re-writing it, it was the final piece of the puzzle to finishing ‘Year Of The Snake’."

## Artwork

The artwork of the single is a spiral, referencing the song's title and the inspiration from the manga.

## Music Video

“We wanted the video to make a clear statement about the issue of abuse and assault, so we filmed in locations late at night where women generally feel the most unsafe," Mercedes said to *Dork*. "We wanted to hit people over the head with the message, our goal was to make the viewer feel uncomfortable, constantly questioning where the danger could be coming from.”

The music video was directed and edited by Mercedes Arn-Horn. Iced Out Visuals served as the director of photography.

## Lyrics

It doesn't matter to me now
Sick of dragging this dead horse around
So much weight we don't talk about
But it doesn't matter to me now

Circle around again
This vicious cycle's infinite
Like a dream where my teeth all fall out
On repeat
I keep telling myself

It doesn't matter to me now
House of cards fell apart on the ground
Built it up just to knock it down
Cuz it doesn't matter to me now

Circle around again
This vicious cycle's infinite
Like a dream where my teeth all fall out
On repeat
I keep telling myself

It doesn't matter to me now
It doesn't matter to me now
It doesn't matter to me now
It doesn't matter to me now

## Media

Softcult - Uzumaki -official video-Official Video
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Track by Track: ﻿Softcult – Year Of The Snake EP | Upset
Phoenix talked about it in Softcult's official Discord
3. ↑ the tea | Softcult post in Facebook
4. ↑ Track by Track: ﻿Softcult – Year Of The Snake EP | Upset
5. ↑ SOFTCULT HAVE LAUNCHED THEIR DEBUT EP WITH NEW SINGLE, ‘UZUMAKI’ | Dork
6. ↑ Credits at the video description