...And Oceans Announces Two-Hour Gimme Radio Special

Symphonic black metal formation ...AND OCEANS will be guest hosting a very special two-hour radio program via Gimme Metal this Wednesday, December 7 @ 11:00 A.M. EST! In addition to curating a unique playlist of music, members of the band will also be present in the live chat! Sign up and listen for FREE at THIS LOCATION.

...AND OCEANS is supporting their upcoming full-length, 'As in Gardens, so in Tombs,' which will be released on January 27, 2023 via Season of Mist. The music video for the first single, "Cloud Heads," can be found HERE.

The album can be pre-ordered HERE and pre-saved HERE.

It’s rare for a band to commandingly return with their best effort to date, but Finland’s ...And Oceans are here to prove that 2020’s Cosmic World Mother was the sound of creative floodgates bursting through into a new body of water, an ocean if you will. Well, that was their pinnacle up until their new album, As In Gardens, So In Tombs, is let out into the world. Everything that ...And Oceans’ first full-length in 18 years did well – blistering symphonic black metal, heady themes that dealt with the connection between philosophy and psychics, and ...And Oceans’ trademark adventurous songwriting - As In Gardens, So In Tombs manages to eclipse and recontextualize. It’s the sound of a band seizing every ounce of momentum and upping the ante in every way. While ...And Oceans has never written the same album twice, in many ways, their latest sounds like an opportunity for the Finnish group to pick up and improve upon what they started. Symphonic black metal is never this fun, free, and fantastic.

Lead single “Cloud Heads” is a great introduction into the magic and serves as a statement of intent. Swirling melodies, blastbeats that sound like the rumbles after The Big Bang, and ethereal symphonic touches result in a song that’s equally fierce and pleasant to take in. A kinder, gentler (but not gentle) version of ...And Oceans.

“’Cloud Heads’ is certainly one of my favorites!” vocalist Mathias Lillmåns shares. “It was sort of an icebreaker song. It was one of the first songs we wrote straight after Cosmic World Mother was finished, and the first lyrics I wrote for the album. It was the song that paved way (or broke the ice) for the rest of the album.”

Part of the reason the band even needed to “break the ice” with this record is the pace at which their last was written, as guitarist Timo Kontio acknowledges:

“Well for me starting to do Cosmic World Mother was more nerve wrecking and even in doubt whether we should make new music or not. In the end it was quite an easy project to do, to our relief. So when we started to make this album, it was more relaxed and more or less go with the flow mentality. We had the first ‘difficult comeback album’ done, and everything came quite easily! It was really refreshing to make this kind of music after so long.”

“I was only supposed to produce guitars for Cosmic World Mother,” Lillmåns adds, “but a month before the recordings were supposed to start, my phone suddenly rang. I could sense that this phone call was going to be important when I saw it was Timo calling. I was asked to join the band and also to write lyrics for the whole thing. Immediately when I saw the first version of the [album] cover, I got this vision of what the concept of the album would be, and I wrote most of the album in sort of a frenzy with the next few weeks.”

“It’s strange with the new album,” he continues, “because I have always been forced to use tight deadlines for myself when writing music or lyrics. It seems I need the pressure to create something I’m happy with. Also, for some reason I get most done when traveling, I used to take trains to nowhere just write sometimes back in the day! This time there were no pressure, no traveling, and I was not on the edge of a burn out, and it went smoother than ever before! The lyrics just kept on coming, not as fast and not in such a trancelike frenzy as the last album, but good stuff on a steady basis.”

So while Cosmic World Mother was the sort of ravishing fever dream of an album that poured out of ...And Oceans in fits and starts, As In Gardens, So In Tombs was the result of the band taking the time to sweat the small stuff. The result can be found everywhere – melodies are brighter, the orchestral elements feel more essential, and Lillmåns’ vocals have swallowed a mushroom (in a garden or tomb?) as done a Mario-like levelling up. Even in the way the album sounds, As In Gardens, So In Tombs sounds warmer, the kind of record meant to be played while walking alone in nature. That sense of measured purpose was very intentional as Lillmåns notes:

“[The record] definitely feels grander and more melodic. I think stepping up the production also was something that helped in this sense! Having Juho Räihä at SoundSpiral Audio taking a bigger role in the recording and having it sent over to Tore Stjerna at NBS Production definitely made it sound more massive and took a load off our shoulders to focus on the music itself!”

Who could’ve guessed that leaving the musicians to focus on the music would have good results?

As noted earlier, musically and thematically, everything about Cosmic World Mother was rapidly birthed from its creators. The themes of that record weighed heavily on the band and carried over into this record. Cosmic World Mother was about how energy is eternal and how only changes form. This record doubles down on that notion by focusing on how humanity's energies toward enlightenment are often the same path, even if we have different languages, religions, customs, etc. I have this vision of us all playing different levels of a video game but ending up at the same ending. Energy is the most efficient recycler in the universe. So where and how did Lillmåns find inspiration to write the lyrics for this album? Did he end up walking gardens and pacing graveyards?

“I went back to gardens, moved away from the city into the nature. I always felt like I needed to be in a dark place to create lyrics that came from the heart, ‘when the body suffers, the mind flowers,’ kind of state. This time I was at ease, and it was surprisingly efficient. I usually don’t want to spoil too much and having people to think for themselves, but yes, I had the time to sit down and read during the pandemic and came to some conclusions (as in nature, so in books). I think it’s a very calming thought, that whatever happens, whenever it happens, makes no difference. We have always and always will be a part of the circle of eternal energy; we have always existed and will always exist in some form. A notion that became ever so clear when reading up on different religions, worldviews, customs, and philosophies.”

Recording Studio:
Drums & Bass at D-studio
Guitars & Vocals at SoundSpiral Audio
Keyboards & electronics at Ryijy’s cave.

Producer/Sound engineer: Juho Räihä
Mix/Master: Necromorbus Studio / Tore Stjerna

Line-up:
Timo Kontio - Guitar
Mathias Lillmåns - Vocals
Teemu Saari - Guitar
Pyry Hanski - Bass
Kauko Kuusisalo - Drums
Antti Simonen - Keyboards

Cover artwork: Adrien Bousson
Bio: Nick Senior
Pictures: M.Laakso

Pre-sales: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/AndOceansShop
Pre-save: https://orcd.co/andoceans-gardens

Formats:
CD Digipak
CD Clamshellbox
2x 12” Gatefold (Black)
2x 12” Gatefold (Crystal clear, red & blue marbled / limited to 600)
2x 12” Gatefold (Gold & black marbled / limited to 300)
Cassette

GAEREA Announces Gimme Radio Special + Exclusive Song Premiere

Cathartic black metal entity GAEREA will be returning to Gimme Metal to host another very special two-hour radio show tomorrow, September 21 @ 1:00 P.M. EDT // 19:00 CEST! In addition to giving away copies of their CD to two very lucky winners, the band will also be exclusively premiering a brand new single from their upcoming album, 'Mirage,' during the episode! Fans can sign up for FREE to listen and chat with the band HERE.

GAEREA will be releasing its third full-length album, 'Mirage,' on September 23, 2022! 'Mirage' is now available for pre-orders HERE.

Pre-save the album on your favorite streaming platform HERE.

GAEREA will be supporting legendary black metal band WATAIN for three dates in Mexico this December!

Prior to the dates in Mexico, GAEREA will be embarking on their first ever Latin America tour this November! The headliner will kick off in Brazil on November 15 and will conclude in El Salvador on November 30! The band will then head to Mexico City to headline Mexico Black Metal Chaos Festivalfrom December 2-4 (Exact date TBA). Venues and tickets will be announced soon!

GAEREA is also be appearing at several European festivals this summer, with their next performance taking place on August 4 at the renowned Wacken Open Air. In addition, they will be supporting label-mates Gaahls WYRD and SAOR on an extensive European tour this fall. The band's full itinerary for 2022 can be found below!

The cover artwork for 'Mirage,' which is created by the SAROS Collective, can be found below along with the track-list and further album details.

Style: Cathartic Black Metal

Behind black shrouds of obscurity and desolation, the men of GAEREA deliver their odes in cascading maelstroms of aggression and beauty. Emerging from the age of pandemic to whatever awaits humanity next, the Portuguese horde remains on the frontlines of the next generation of extreme metal. With an EP and two albums to their name, GAEREA has rapidly distinguished themselves from the thousands of bands toiling away in the underground. Brewing their cauldron of sound from a recipe of pounding black-metal blast mixed with a touch of harrowed, reflective longing, many devotees of the darkened arts have flocked to their banner. With the emergence of third full-length album Mirage, those numbers are sure to grow.

Underground metal itself is a strange and cyclical beast. Trends come and trends go. But at no point in the genre’s history have we borne witness to what happened to the world in 2020. GAEREA met this challenge by releasing their second album, the aptly titled Limbo, to excellent world reception. In the meantime, they found the total suspension of interactive life as it was previously known to be the perfect breeding ground for further creation and making. As the troupe’s main songwriter elaborates, “I lost two precious years of my life, years that I would rather have spent touring and growing as an artist. But they were crucial for us, these years, because not too many bands stayed relevant and productive. The pandemic gave us the time to make the best release we could. All the promo-shoots, interviews, videos, we all had time to prepare for everything. Mirage was the product of a sudden inspiration. The basic parts were written over about two weeks.”

Such a stunning admission goes to show that art is fickle, and the artist is merely a vessel through which the sweet sorcery we call music may flow. It can mute itself to frustrating silence – or it can explode into being regardless of all consideration. For this band on the rise, it is most certainly the latter. Sizzling with ambition from day one, GAEREA may present one unique face to their audience, masked and enshrouded, but the truth is they have not remained changeless. “We are not the same band who recorded Limbo,” he insists. “We are more eager to take on the world. If the pandemic taught us anything it is that nothing is certain.”

This lack of certainty plays heavily into newest creation Mirage. As its name suggests, the inability to trust what our senses are telling us could be construed as one of the album’s central themes. Rather than constrict their art to mythological references or anti-religious tropes, GAEREA instead plumb the depths of the human experiences of isolation and suffering. “The concept, the subject, of each song is everyone, you, me . . . if people were alone together in Limbo, in Mirage they are truly alone. Nobody is truly real until they are alone.”

If existential dread could be turned into sound, GAEREA have carved their own philosophical path through its stygian tunnels. It isn’t Satan, demons, death, or even suicide that is waiting for us there. “What if people finally reached their goal,” he posits, “to end their suffering, and instead of dying they find themselves in a new reality, lost in a big city they were once a part of – they don’t know if anyone else is still alive. They are alone inside their own world.” This theme of being alone in a world full of familiar scenes, unable to end things and unable to reach anyone else, might well terrify the listener more effectively than any glimpse into the imagined hellscapes of our nightmares. Being isolated in your own world is the real nightmare, and GAEREA strum the chords of this horror with nuance and a miserable grace.

Boasting a superior production that threads the needle between clarity and causticness, GAEREA unwaveringly admit their loyalty to countryman and producer Miguel Tereso of Demigod Recordings. “Miguel is fantastic,” enthuses the band’s primary composer. “He comes from a brutal death metal background. I thought if this guy can pull off a punchy, modern, but still authentic production with a slam / death metal band, I wonder what he can do with a band like GAEREA. He has a vision for a sound, and that is what I really like. He is not a black metal fan, but it’s this very external set of ears and eyes from a guy who really knows his craft, and he brings all of that to our sound.” The fruits of this union are quite evident, as the turbulent moods of the title track are so wonderfully tossed between tension-building moments, and the explosive payoffs which set GAEREA apart from so many who try but come up short.

Tormented leads and building riffs sit atop some seriously explosive drumming, waxing and waning, on “Arson,” a tempest of moods and one of the album’s centerpieces. Emotion, at times sounding triumphant in brilliantly wrought guitar leads, is skewered by vocals that bustle with shattering despair. The dichotomy is magnificent to behold. GAEREA’s composer makes no mistake. “I want to hear the throat on the album, and if we are a vocals-driven band, I don’t want to over-process them during the recording. Striking that balance is one of the beauties for me in this record.”

In a world that increasingly elevates the shallow and the narcissistic, GAEREA pursues an artistic struggle of inward isolation, honest self-examination, and a dogged refusal to bow to the void that awaits. Thus, the persistence of their shadowed visages, draped in the masks which codify their anonymity while also creating a reliable extreme metal brand that fans can appreciate, especially in the live setting. “GAEREA are truly ourselves when we put these masks on, and we transcend into something different, and primitive,” he asserts. “It still makes total sense, and this band would not be a band anymore if we ever dropped the masks.”

As GAEREA prepares the release of Mirage, the world has resumed functioning, and as it lurches onward into its bleak future, one could stipulate that the pressure may be on to continue its rise amid the clamor of this renewal of activity. Does this challenge intimidate GAEREA? “We want to do better, but I don’t feel any pressure because we are in very good hands with the people we work with. We are building a strong team that really cares for us, stage-wise, promotional-wise, website and sales-wise. We are building a very structured confident teams that aims for the same goals we do. What I truly care about is continuing our ever-growing concept of the band GAEREA, and not becoming sterile, and I would not want people to be unaffected by our music. In the end we’re trying to express something within ourselves, and I don’t want it to be too complicated.”

The beauty of GAEREA lies in the directness and simplicity found within their florid tapestry of extremity and aggression. Whether it is in the less-polished aural dynamite of their self-titled EP, or in the lustrous textures of Mirage, GAEREA is building a mighty edifice of underground metal. With talons dipped in the inky blood of black metal and scraped across the flesh of human suffering, GAEREA is leading a charge into the future of darkness, and all those who find beauty and power in the dark side of existence would do well to take heed.

Style: Cathartic Black Metal

Recording Studio: Demigod Recordings

Producer/Sound engineer: Miguel Tereso

Mix/Master: Miguel Tereso (Demigod Recordings)

Cover artwork: Saros Collective

Bio: Nicolas Franco

Links:
http://www.facebook.com/gaerea
http://www.instagram.com/gaerea
https://gaerea.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/gaerea_official

Pre-sales: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/GaereaMirage
Pre-save: https://orcd.co/gaerea-mirage

Formats:
CD Digipak
CD Digibook
2x 12” Gatefold (Black)
2x 12” Gatefold (Dracula / limited to 300)
2x 12” Gatefold (White / limited to 500)
2x 12” Gatefold (Gold / limited to 700)

TOMBS Premieres New Song, Announces Gimme Radio Listening Party

New York/New Jersey metal collective TOMBS is now sharing "Murder Legendre," ft. Dwid Hellion of INTEGRITY. The song can be heard below.

"Murder Legendre" is the final single from TOMBS' upcoming 'Ex-Oblivion' digital EP. All songs will be available via Bandcamp, YouTube, and across all streaming services while a vinyl counterpart will be announced at a later date.

In conjunction with the EP release, TOMBS will be hosting a very special listening session via Gimme Radio THIS Friday, July 15 @ 3:00 P.M. EDT // 21:00 CEST. The band will be spinning the new EP as well as a specially curated playlist from mainman Mike Hill. The event will last for two hours and members of the band will be present in the live chat to connect with fans. It's FREE to sign up and listen! Download the Gimme Metal app or sign up at GimmeMetal.com.

About Gimme Metal:

Gimme Metal is the ultimate new music service for the true music fan, and the only online music service designed with the idea of community at its core. Fans can connect directly with their favorite artists by listening to their music (for free) and supporting them through tipping, joining the monthly vinyl subscription, and merchandise sales. Gimme is a community of over 350k fans from around the world where artists and tastemakers choose the music, and everyone is welcome to chat and socialize while they're listening. Musicians and fans can use Gimme's unique tools to connect and curate a music channel, while the entire fanbase chats and reacts in real time, building a new kind of community around music curation. We are home to DJs like Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Jeff Becerra from Possessed, Blasko, Brian Posehn, Johan Hegg from Amon Amarth, Will Carroll from Death Angel, numerous writers, metal scholars, labels like Nuclear Blast, Decibel Magazine, and festivals like Wacken. Our founders are all music executives with extensive experience at digital music services like Beats, Apple Music, Google Play, & Napster. Learn more at www.gimmemetal.com, or download the free Gimme Metal app.

'Ex-Oblivion' can be streamed or downloaded HERE.

The EP follows up TOMBS' 2020 full-length, 'Under Sullen Skies,' which was released in November of 2020. The record has been named one of the best metal releases of 2020 by Metal Insider, Decibel Magazine, The Pit, Riff Magazine, Chicago Music Guide's Global Music Podcast, and others while drummer Justin Spaeth has been dubbed one of the best drummers of 2020 by Sick Drummer Magazine.

There’s a line from Mike Hill’s audiobook/tour diary of ANODYNE’s 2004 European tour in which the gravel-throated frontman affirms, “I will always outwork you.” In that case, Hill was referring to an incident in Germany early on during a six-week long overseas jaunt with his previous band. In actuality, however, he could have been talking about any instance between when he first picked up a guitar as a teen and the present. Whether it’s his history dating back to previous bands OTIS, ANODYNE, KING GENERATOR or VERSOMA, his ongoing solo work in VASILEK, the more recent SCORPION THRONE  project or his thirteen year reign as the driving force and nerve center of post-black metal institution TOMBS, hard work is second nature and nothing will keep the guitarist/vocalist from creative endeavor and expression. And it’s not just music in which his propulsive work ethic has gleaned results: Hill also is the CEO and roast master at Savage Gold Coffee (a labelling nod to TOMBS’ 2014 album of the same name), the host/producer/creator of the Everything Went Black podcast, host and producer of Gimme Radio’s Metal Matters flagship podcast, the creator and co-host of horror podcast Necromaniacs as well as a stalwart in the print and online journalism world covering music and MMA fighting. His is, has been and always will be a life steeped in dedication and with unassailable drive in the cross hairs. And despite the world being put on pause, Hill refuses to curtail his innate determination and ongoing tenacity with the result being TOMBS emerging with the next chapter in its impressive catalog and growing legacy: the band’s fifth full-length, 'Under Sullen Skies'.

“The week VERSOMA broke up in 2007, I started TOMBS,” he says, recalling how, characteristically, the band started before any dust was permitted to settle. “The initial rehearsals ended up being the bulk of material that showed up on the first [self-titled] EP. The intent from the beginning was to get back to playing music I wanted to hear and to not be so concerned with genre or satisfying anyone else’s desires. It was to do music on a personal level and be a reflection of the darkness I’ve felt throughout my life.”

Formed in the gritty corners of pre-gentrified Brooklyn, NY, TOMBS’ early mandate was steeped in the harshness and atonality of black metal but dosed with trace amounts of the varied influences and inspirations ingrained in Hill’s musical muscle memory by previous bands. “The canon of music TOMBS has created has spanned several different genres, but I’ve always had it my intent for there to always be a certain amount of violence and hardness lurking the background.”

Those early years delivered splits and singles, the highly revered 'Winter Hours' debut in 2009 and Decibel’s 2011 Album of the Year, 'Path of Totality'. Never one to sit still, 'Path of Totality' was followed by appreciable and impressive amounts of touring in accordance with the lauding afforded by critics and fans and the braying of foes, which only served as fuel for Hill’s perseverance. Savage Gold came three years later after which a restless Hill began nudging TOMBS’ black metal base into territories populated by gothic and death rock artists like FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM and SISTERS OF MERCY as well as avant-garde purveyors Caspar Brotzmann and Live Skull while never forgetting – or being able to – scrape the grime of NYC from under his fingernails. The addition of a second guitar and live keyboards/samples brought a fuller sound and allowed noise sequences and soundscapes to be brought to the live show. It was around the time of 2016 'All Empires Fall' EP that TOMBS punctuated its iconoclastic spirit and thought process. Despite then-being part of the Relapse Records family, the band struck out with the intent of self-releasing the EP in order to retain as much independence as contractual obligations would allow – retaining the digital and publishing rights while eventually licensing the record back to Relapse. A one album stint in 2017 under the Metal Blade banner birthed 'The Grand Annihilation' into the world where TOMBS took broader and more daring steps into buffering black metal with morose melody, sullen death rock and classic METALLICA chugging. Following a parting from Metal Blade, the band – now completed by drummer Justin Spaeth, guitarist Matt Medeiros and bassist Drew Murphy, who are also 3/4ths of New Jersey death metal crew KALOPSIA - quickly found a home on Season of Mist and issued the 'Monarchy of Shadows' EP literally a week before the world went into Coronavirus lockdown.

“The original strategy assumed we would be on the road for most of 2020,” says Hill with a lamenting laugh. “We had a sick tour with Napalm Death planned right after the EP’s release. We were going to record the new full-length before the tour and have it come out in the fall. There was all kinds of tour talk and plans and 2020 would have been a tour-de-force of TOMBSactivity in the United States and Europe. Obviously, none of that is happening, but we’re still going ahead with the record.”

Of course they are. Throw a hurdle in front of Mike Hill and he’ll never shy at rolling up his sleeves and taking on the challenge. Even with the world in shutdown mode, Hill is still brimming with enthusiasm about the input and work ethic of the current TOMBS lineup and how Spaeth, Mederios and Murphy stepped up to the plate in the creation of 'Under Sullen Skies'.

“Everyone contributes on this record and the door has always been open for others to do so. There has always been this misconception that I’m some sort of tyrant always telling people what to do and play. The fact of the matter is that most of the time I outwork people; that’s just the way I am. No one is ever going to outwork me on any level in any area of my life and I was always coming up with material. Now, I have these maniacs in the band who are equally motivated and there’s a whole new life injected into TOMBS. That’s awesome and I love it. These days we’ll try anything and we actually write stuff and throw it out because it’s not perfect. It’s more like a writing committee, which I really appreciate. It’s not just me writing everything. It’s a big difference from 'The Grand Annihilation' which was basically a solo record.”

'Under Sullen Skies' is this lineup’s second kick at twisting black metal’s DNA around dank emotional corners, psychological turmoil and the urban underbelly all of which is unavoidably coloured and touched by the present-day status of life on this here Earth.

“The album’s title came during all this and the sort of post-apocalyptic world we’re living in,” Hill explains. “It encapsulates an overall feeling of gloom and depression which is pretty much how we’ve been living for most of this year. The title was the last piece to fall into place. I remember standing on the roof of the building I was living in at the time on a grey day and it was raining – actually, it wasn’t even raining; it was a half-assed attempt at rain! – and depressing and I just thought, ‘What a sullen sky’ and it just stuck with me.”

The album starts with “Bone Collector,” a furious blast of melodic black metal that shifts gears towards an anthemic fist-pumping slog through the goth rock-thrash metal VENN DIAGRAM. “Void Constellation” takes as many cues from Peaceville Three gloom and doom as it does the death metal stomp of OBITUARY and INCANTATION. “Descensum” mines the various well-worn parts of Ride the Lightning for influence before blasting the doors open with some startlingly spacious chromatic single-note atonality. As the album progresses, further textures and moods are employed via acoustic instrumentation and keyboards as well as sampled soundscapes all butting heads with furious second wave black metal and sly to nods to death rock heroes SISTERS OF MERCY and FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM, all of the band’s motivations and interests being dropped into the chameleonic pair of tracks closing the album, “Sombre Ruin” and the appropriately titled “Plague Years.”

“‘Barren’ stands out as the song that’s most collaborative,” notes Hill. “Justin wrote the bulk of the riffs on that one, that sort of NWOBHM/SCORPIONS ending part is something I came up with, Matt added a bunch of guitar harmonies over it and Drew’s bass is laid thick underneath. That one is one of the biggest group efforts and one of the strongest songs on the record.

“I explore a lot of the archetypes that are used in folklore on this record, like werewolves and vampires which I’ve always been interested in, and on a song like ‘Secrets of the Black Sun’ I talk about the finite nature of our time on this planet, that nothing is really permanent and being aware of that whether as an individual or as a civilization, which I guess fits in with the pandemic and the changes that are going on. There are all kinds of other people, civilizations and creatures that have come and gone long before us and if you think about it over a long enough time span, everyone’s life expectancy goes down to zero.”

The new album not only sees Hill expanding his creative and collaborative comfort zone by wholly embracing the offerings of his band mates, but he’s also let down the drawbridge to allow folks from beyond the immediate TOMBSfamily to include what he describes as “mad guest spots.”

“There’s Cat Cabral, who does the spoken word piece on ‘Angel of Darkness.’ She’s not a musician per se; she’s more from the occult and witchcraft world. I’ve been friends with her for a really long time and she’s a great resource for esoteric knowledge. She’s also an actress who has done plays and commercials and been in films, so I figured she’d be the perfect person to deliver dialogue in an emotionally deep way, and be good at taking direction. Ray Suhy from SIX FEET UNDER rips the guitar solo in ‘Barren’ and that solo is its own masterpiece, in my opinion. BLACK CROWN INITIATE and former TOMBS live guitarist Andy Thomas contributed a guitar solo in ‘Void Constellation.’ Todd Stern from PSYCROPTIC plays the solo in ‘Mortem.’ Sera Timms from IDES OF GEMINI  and BLACK MATH HORSEMAN does guest vocals on ‘Secrets of the Black Sun.’ We’ve got INTEGRITY’s Dwid Hellion singing the chorus on ‘The Hunger’ and BLACK ANVIL’s Paul Delaney also doing a couple of verses on ‘Angel of Darkness.’ So, yeah, there are a bunch of people on there and it’s like a community effort which I enjoy. I like involving people I respect and having them be a part of the whole thing.”  

After spending his entire adult life navigating the pitfalls and pratfalls of the industry for expressive and creative opportunity, Hill has amassed an impressive legacy, one that 'Under Sullen Skies' contributes to admirably and irreverently. Like most, the extreme music underground lifer and veteran is probably justified in approaching the future with very muted optimism, but while the world works at screwing its head back on straight, Hill is going to do what he wants to do as well as he possibly can. Uncertainty may reign at the moment, but Hill and TOMBS are still going to do their thing and will be content to please themselves in the process. If anyone else happens to be along for the ride, then welcome aboard.

“'Under Sullen Skies' is a dark and introspective album,” he asserts. “It’s not a happy record that anyone is going to use to get pumped up on a Friday night. We wanted to pull out the stops, go full-on and make a nice body of work. I could care less if anyone likes the band or not because I’ve been through so many ups and downs with this thing that I don’t give a fuck if people enjoy the music. I know I like it, I know the guys in the band like it and we’re just rocking and rolling. This record and the EP came out about as close as I could imagine to what I have in my brain about how this band should sound. The whole trajectory of the band has had each record never quite hitting, but 'Monarchy of Shadows' and 'Under Sullen Skies' have both really come out how I envisioned the songs to be.”

TOMBS Line-up:
Mike Hill – guitars, vocals, electronics, synth
Todd Stern – guitars
Drew Murphy – bass, vocals
Justin Spaeth – drums, guitars, electronics, synth

Recording Lineup:
Mike Hill – guitar, vocals
Justin Spaeth – Drums
Drew Murphy – Bass, vocals

Guest Musicians:
Dwid Hellion (INTEGRITY) - modified piano & noise on "Murder Legendre"
Dan Higgins (HAMMERFIGHT, ENGINEHEAD)– lead guitar on "Killed by Death"

Album Credits:
"Ex Oblivion"
Recorded by Justin Spaeth at the Tombs Metal Compound, Keyport, NJ May, 2021
Mixed by Bobby Torres at Frightbox Studio, Clifton, NJ, June, 2021

"Killed by Death" + "Commit Suicide"
Recorded and mixed by Justin Spaeth at the Tombs Metal Compound, Keyport, NJ June 2021

"Sombre Ruins Nothing Remains"
Original stems recorded by Bobby Torres at Frightbox Studios, Clifton, NJ March – May 2020
RKGD audio remix recorded and mixed by Alap Momin at Uptown Mixers, Harlem, NY November, 2020

"Murder Legendre"
Recorded by Dwid Hellion and Mike Hill at remote locations over the course of 2020 – 2021

Cover Art: Mike Goncalves

Bio: Kevin Stewart-Panko

Links
https://www.facebook.com/TombsBklyn/
https://www.instagram.com/tombscult/  
https://twitter.com/TOMBS666  
https://tombscult.bandcamp.com/
EverythingWentBlack.podbean.com

Pre-save: https://orcd.co/tombsexoblivion

Shop: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/tombs-skies

For more on TOMBS, visit their official FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, and BANDCAMP.

For more on SEASON OF MIST artists, visit our official WEBSITE, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE, and TWITTER.

SYLVAINE Announces Two-Hour Guest DJ Special via Gimme Radio

Norwegian multi-instrumentalist SYLVAINE will be releasing her fourth studio album, 'Nova,' this Friday, March 4! To celebrate the release of the record, SYLVAINE will be hosting a two-hour guest DJ special on Friday at 3:00 P.M. EST // 21:00 CET, in which she picked an eclectic playlist and will be present in the live chat to talk to fans! As usual, it is totally free to sign up and listen - download the Gimme Metal app or visit GimmeMetal.com.

In addition, SYLVAINE will be embarking on her first ever North American tour this spring in support of AMORPHIS, along with UADA and HOAXED! SYLVAINE will join the tour on April 18 in Millvale, PA and will cross the country before circling back to the East Coast where the trek will conclude in Baltimore, MD on May 12. The full run of dates can be found below! Tickets are on sale now at THIS LOCATION.

The song and album are available for pre-saving on all other digital platformsHERE while the record is available for pre-ordersHERE.

SYLVAINE North American Tour (w/ AMORPHIS, UADA, + HOAXED):
04/18: Millvale, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre [TICKETS]
04/19: Joliet, IL @ The Forge [TICKETS]
04/20: Minneapolis, MN @ Skyway Theatre [TICKETS]
04/22: Denver, CO @ The Oriental Theater [TICKETS]
04/23: Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell [TICKETS]
04/25: Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre [TICKETS]
04/26: Vancouver, BC @ The Imperial [TICKETS]
04/27: Seattle, WA @ El Corazon [TICKETS]
04/29: San Francisco, CA @ The UC Theatre [TICKETS]
04/30: Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre [TICKETS]
05/01: Mesa, AZ @ The Nile Theater [TICKETS]
05/03: Austin, TX @ Come and Take it Live [TICKETS]
05/04: Dallas, TX @ Amplified Theater [TICKETS]
05/06: Atlanta, GA @ Center Stage (The Loft) [TICKETS]
05/07: Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum [TICKETS]
05/08: Orlando, FL @ The Abbey [TICKETS]
05/10: Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre [TICKETS]
05/11: Richmond, VA @ The Broadberry [TICKETS]
05/12: Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage [TICKETS]

To speak to Sylvaine, the one-woman multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and composer born Kathrine Shepard, is to speak to some spirit that exists beyond the veil of convention and stereotypes. This is not a woman playing to the vogue dark melodic folklorist trope that has become so prevalent in the metal scene but rather, this is a woman who is a serious and classically trained composer and arranger whose songs, that originate on unplugged electric guitars in lavender and black bedrooms, end up exploding against the unlimited conventions of what modern music can accomplish. 

For some time, Kathrine Shepard has been seen as the petite pixie of the Norwegian black gaze scene but her small eleven features and lightheartedness belie the woman warrior behind Nova, her complex and personal fourth release. Following her 2018 Atoms Aligned Coming Undone release, Sylvaine (a play on the name of one of her beloved French poets, Paul Verlaine) gives us Nova, an album that is both a musical and personal reawakening of a singer/composer finding her way in this world.  

The Lord of the Rings type choir arrangement heralds in the opening of her latest release as we the entranced listeners follow her to the realm of Lothlorien. The creation of this ambitious release began in 2019, before the world changed before all of our eyes. Experiencing a personal loss in a time the world was suffering a collective loss, Sylvaine composed on her guitar and wrote in her notebooks, eventually leading her into the small rooms of Drudenhaus in early 2021. Sequestered away in the countryside of France, the Norwegian native and her musical cohorts would all contract Covid. Asthmatic since birth, our heroine isolated herself in a small room to score out the different soprano and alto melodies of an actual choir to make her vision for the opening track “Nova,” come to life. Sung in an imagined language, the syllables of NO-VA continued to emerge, suggesting to the singer something linguistically symbolic and important. 

“I’ve been wanting to write a choir piece since my 'Wistful' days,” she says, “Just a purely vocal piece. I love harmonies and the most personal instrument you have is yourself, your voice. I wanted to really show who I am this time around.” 

Naked on the cover, which may raise some eyebrows, Sylvaine insists to her fans that this is a symbol of her own vulnerability and personal rebirth that transpired over these years of creating Nova. “Nova" in terms of language is connected to words such as nuova (Italian) or nueva (Spanish), meaning ‘new’ and speaks to a rebirth, to loss, the temporality of life, grieving as nothing lasting forever, but looking forward as new doors are forever opening.  

Album tracks “Mono No Aware” and “Fortapt” are compositions in the 10-minute range, showing the progressive skills of the multi-instrumentalist’s musical mastery and magic. Taking the loud and quiet back-and-forth of the ‘90s a step farther, she manages to haunt every note with primal sincerity. “Fortapt” is a particularly unique track, paying homage to Sylvaine’s Norwegian roots. And while critics may want to pin a song like “Nowhere, Still Somewhere” in the shoegaze or dreampop category, her mysterious resonance adds something to the composition that makes Sylvaine’s work defy categorization.  

Much like Joan of Arc, Sylvaine is not a one-woman army without her legionaries. Instead of enlisting members of the folk metal glitterati, she has been a bit more selective about her surprise guests on her album, choosing Scottish violinist Lambert Segura of SAOR and cellist Nostarion aka Patrik Urban, whom she met while performing a very special acoustic show in Belgium in 2019. For Sylvaine, it felt emotionally appropriate to weave classically trained instrumentalists into her work, demonstrated on the last track on the album, "Everything Must Come to an End." 

Unlike so many of the pixie dream girls haunting the American metal landscape right now, Sylvaine sings but also screams from the very depths. There is absolutely no one in the metal game right now who can match her vocal range, which traverses from the elvish sounds of Enya and Lisa Gerard to the black metal Ericthro screeches of her kvlt counterparts of the land of ice and snow. 

In the U.S., we have a tendency to clarify bedroom pop as music that is composed in the feminine space of one’s bedroom confines. Although orchestral and incredibly composed, Sylvaine does not shy away from admitting her songs always start bare bones—almost all of her compositions begin with an unplugged electric guitar. “A melody and a chord progression should be able to stand on its own without any effects whatsoever. The song will go on to manifest itself in different ways but that main guitar part has to be solid enough to emotionally work just by itself, “ she says.  

But to this lover of Verlaine and the French Romantic poets (as well as a diehard Type O Negative fan), the written word is still paramount to her heart. After all, she explains, “Music is an attempt to avoid the words we can’t always express in life.” 

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/sylvainemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/sylvainemusic/
https://sylvainemusic.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/sylvainemusic/
https://soundcloud.com/sylvainemusic
https://twitter.com/sylvainemusic
https://www.sylvainemusic.com/

Recording Lineup:
Sylvaine – vocals/guitars/bass/synths/arrangements
Dorian Mansiaux – session drums

Current Lineup:
Sylvaine

Live line-up:
Sylvaine - Main vocals/guitar
Dorian Mansiaux - Drums
Florian Ehrenberg - Guitar/backing vocals
Maxime Mouquet - Bass/background vocals

Guest Musicians:
- Lambert Segura (SAOR) - violins on “Everything Must Come To An End”
- Patrick Urban - cellos on “Everything Must Come To An End”

Recording Studio: Drudenhaus Studio, Issé, France

Producer, mixer, sound engineer: Benoît Roux

Mastering Studio + engineer: Karl Daniel Lidén at Karl Daniel Lidén Productions

Cover Art: Photo by Andy Julia, post-production/digital illustration by Daria Endrese

Biography: Veronika Lee

Pre-sales: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/SylvaineNova

Album formats:
CD Digipak
Digital
Vinyl in various colours

ABYSMAL DAWN Announces Two-Hour Guest DJ Special via Gimme Metal

Los Angeles death metal titans ABYSMAL DAWN will be returning to Gimme Metal to host another two-hour guest DJ special on Wednesday, March 2 @ 3:00 P.M. EST // 21:00 CET! The band has curated a very special playlist and will be present in the live chat to hang with fans! As always, it is completely free to sign up and listen! Either download the Gimme Radio app or tune in via desktop at THIS LOCATION.

The band is supporting the release of their brand new EP, 'Nightmare Frontier,' which is out now!

'Nightmare Frontier' is available to order at the Season of Mist E-Shop, Abysmal Dawn Bandcamp, and Abysmal Dawn Store. The single and EP can be streamed via your favorite streaming services HERE.

'Nightmare Frontier' follows up 2020's critically-acclaimed album, 'Phylogenesis.' The album was named one of the best albums of 2020 by Metal Injection, Metal Insider (#7), Teeth of the Divine, Cursed Zine, and more! In addition, drummer James Coppolino is listed as one of Sick Drummer Magazine's favorite drummers of 2020 and the band's song "Soul Sick Nation" was among Loudwire's "66 Best Metal Songs of 2020."

'Nightmare Frontier' was mixed and mastered by Charles Elliott at Tastemaker Audio. Drums were engineered by John Haddad at Trench Studios, while tracking for all instruments was handled by Elliott.

American death metal masters Abysmal Dawn are back! After a six-year gap, the Los Angeles-based outfit and Season of Mist hereby present Phylogenesis. Not that Abysmal Dawn have laid low since the release of 2014’s lauded Obsolescence full-length. Far from it. They toured North America four times and hit Europe and South America for the first time. Meanwhile, founding member Charles Elliott opened his studio, Tastemaker Audio, to accelerate Abysmal Dawn's own recording needs, as well to act as a bridge to other bands in need of a knowledgeable and relatable audio technician. But the road to Phylogenesis wasn’t an easy one. Besides work-horsing it throughout the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Germany, the UK, Brazil, Chile, and beyond in support of Obsolescence, Elliott and crew managed through some of the lowest points in Abysmal Dawn’s career. Internal strife, administrative burdens, musical differences, and motivation all had their various ways with the Californians. Yet, from the darkest depths, they prevailed, heralding a new chapter in the group’s storied history. Indeed, Phylogenesis is Abysmal Dawn’s rebirth!

“There was a brief period after doing two months of touring back-to-back in the U.S. and Europe in 2015 that I almost felt like calling it quits,” Abysmal Dawn’s Charles Elliott says. "It was our first time in Europe and I just had a hard time enjoying it. The band had grown, and I was a bit tired of having to handle most of the managerial aspects of what we do. The joy had been ripped from things and people weren't getting along, and some people acted like they didn't want to be there. But we went our separate ways with some of the members and all of a sudden, the band was fun again. They went on to other things and we're probably all happier in the end. Sometimes, I feel it's a miracle this album or band even still exists. I've avoided swearing on our records in the past, but the album's opening line is actually, 'Fuck you all!' Maybe it's primitive by our past lyrical standards but it's genuine and it's the most heartfelt, ‘Fuck you, we’re still here’ I could put on a record. I’m glad we stuck it out because I think this is our proudest moment so far.”

To say Phylogenesis is an extension or continuation of Obsolescence isn’t exactly as straightforward as it should be. On one hand, all the Abysmal Dawn trademarks—technicality, brutality, and melody—remain ingrained in the songwriting fabric. On the other, the band’s fifth full-length is more cohesive, rhythmically sophisticated, and far more adventurous. Elliott calls it “a major evolution.” Certainly, the six years of constant refinement, edge smoothing, and transition adjustments have paid off. What started as jam sessions between Elliott, bassist Eliseo Garcia, and drummer James Coppolino in 2016 eventually turned into one-offs. That there was no time limit to put Phylogenesis together ended up both a blessing and a curse. Total creative freedom at very little expense is a dream scenario, something a band of Abysmal Dawn’s stature took advantage of for their magnum opus. But without a ticking clock and dollars burning, the pressure to focus was far less severe, resulting in delays and feature creep.

“It was basically James, Eliseo and me meeting up at my place, jamming on ideas, seeing what worked and tweaking them from there,” says Elliott. “With the exception of ‘Hedonistic,’ James wrote all his drum parts. Obsolescence was demoed with me programming all the drums since our drummer at the time had moved up north. It was what it was, but it was pretty frustrating at the time. Having someone to bounce ideas off of in real-time, helped in maintaining the joy and momentum of making this album. Once it was time to record bass and leads, Eliseo and Vito [Petroni; guitars] would trickle in when they had ideas. We had no real deadline and seemingly infinite time to do things. Admittedly, I think it was hard for me to focus on the lyrics, not only because of things in my personal life but because I was focused on getting the guys in to complete their parts so I could focus.”

Finish Phylogenesis they did, in fact. Under significant duress, Abysmal Dawn had overcome their roadblocks. The results of the group’s undulating professional and personal schedules aren’t to be trifled with, however. Opening track “Mundane Existence” is a firestorm of labyrinthine yet savage riffs, enraged vocals, and machine-gun drumming. It’s death metal personified, enlightened, and perfected. Elsewhere, tracks such as “The Path of the Totalitarian,” “A Speck in the Fabric of Eternity,” and “Soul-Sick Nation” (feat. Fredrik Folkare of Unleashed, Firespawn, et al.) pose real threats to the status quo. In all three, Elliott’s passion for and dominance of death metal’s tenets are tangible. But there’s more to Abysmal Dawn on Phylogenesis than customary ritual. From the ruthless groove of “Hedonistic” and the staccato stabs of “Coerced Evolution” to the late album gem “The Lament Configuration” and the blistering cover of Death classic “Flattening of Emotion,” the songs are designed to slay in ways we’re just beginning to understand.

“We’re a pretty brutal death metal band, but what I feel like sets us apart is that no matter what we do there’s always some underlying sense of melody and hooks,” Elliott says. “There are lots of bands that are ridiculously brutal. There are lots of bands that are over-the-top technically or are blatantly melodic. We combine all that but we try to write something that sticks with you over time; that you'll keep coming back to, and that works well in the live environment. We love all types of music, whether it's fusion or industrial music, and it shines through here and there. But in the end, though, we're a pure death metal band at heart trying to retain that old-school feel with an updated take for a new generation.”

Conceptually, Phylogenesis deals with the breakdown of social constructs humans have built over time. The album title is defined by the evolution of (or diversification) a species. So, Phylogenesis is an ironic take on Elliott’s observations, particularly how social media has accelerated and exacerbated the de-evolution of humanity’s interactive abilities. The cover art, again by Swedish artist Pär Olofsson, isn’t directly correlated to the lyrical narrative, but it does continue where Obsolescence left off. The Olofsson cover art has envisioned what it’s like on the inside of the Obsolescence tower, and that it’s humans that are being fed back to humans. The cover art continuity is akin to Richard Fleischer’s famed Soylent Green film but ripped through Elliott’s demented death metal lens.

“I think the lyrics deal a lot with things we encounter in our modern society and the effect it has on the individual,” says Elliott. “The dehumanization effect and divisiveness caused by bickering on social media (‘The Path of the Totalitarian’), the decay of legitimate journalism (‘True to the Blind’), struggling to find purpose in the pursuit of happiness (‘Hedonistic’), wishing something was greater than yourself (‘Mundane Existence’), the mental illness epidemic (‘Soul-Sick Nation’), embracing pain over numbness to feel alive (‘The Lament Configuration’), having our consciousnesses uploaded to a grid in order to make life sustainable on Earth (‘Coerced Evolution’), and the common theme throughout the band of wishing life on Earth would just start over (‘A Speck in the Fabric of Eternity’). I had started off wanting it to be a concept record but later scrapped that idea because I didn't like how it was going. In the end though, it just naturally all tied together in some way. Even the Death cover seemed to fit lyrically in hindsight. ‘Coerced Evolution’ is really the only song that in the sci-fi vein this time around. As for Pär, yes, he did the cover art once again. We love working with him and we’ve been creating great covers with him since 2006.”

Abysmal Dawn recorded Phylogenesis over a multi-year timeframe. In fact, Coppolino’s drums were tracked as far back as 2017 with long-time collaborator John Haddad at Trench Studios. The rhythm guitars and vocals, as produced by Mike Bear and Elliott, were also done at Tastemaker Audio the same year. So, some of Phylogenesis goes back, but the parts are no less lethal. Slowly but surely, the group’s newest and greatest materialized, with Elliott finishing the lead guitars, bass, additional vocals, re-amping, and mixing sessions in 2019, again at Tastemaker Audio. Abysmal Dawn then packaged up their fifth for mastering ace Tony Lindgren (Rotting Christ) to handle at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden. Contemporary yet absolutely remorseless, Abysmal Dawn’s Phylogenesis is death metal for a new age.

“We took our time and went to few studios this time around, so it’s a bit of a laundry list,” Elliott says. “John Haddad engineered the drums at Trench Studios. John has been involved with all our records in some form since From Ashes. Mike Bear helped track and produce the vast majority of my vocals and rhythm guitars out of my studio. Mike produced both Leveling the Plane of Existence (2010) and Obsolescence. I tracked and produced all the leads, bass parts, and other odds and ends and mixed the album as well. Tony Lindgren at Fascination Street Studios mastered the record in the end.”

As for Abysmal Dawn’s next steps, the quartet await the release of Phylogenesis. With past support coming from the Village Voice, Decibel, PopMatters, and Pandora, as well as the group's rabidly-devoted fanbase, the future of death metal is in good hands.

Lineup:
Charles Elliott: guitars, vocals
Eliseo Garcia: bass, additional vocals
James Coppolino: drums
Vito Petroni: guitars

Guest Musicians: Orchestral arrangement on “Behind Space” by Craig Peters (Destroying the Devoid, Deeds of Flesh)

Recording Studio:
Tastemaker Audio, Los Angeles, CA (USA) – everything excl. drums
Trench Studios, California (USA) – drums

Production, mixing, mastering, + sound engineer:
Charles Elliott @ Tastemaker Audio
Additional drum engineering by John Haddad @ Trench Studios

Cover Art:
Pär Olofsson

Biography:
Chris Dick

Pre-sales: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/AbysmalNightmare

Pre-save: https://orcd.co/abysmalnightmare

For more on ABYSMAL DAWN, visit their official FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, and BANDCAMP.

WITHERED Announces Album Release Show

WITHERED
Announces Album Release Show,
Tops Gimme Radio Charts as #1 Song of the Week!

Tortured blackened death metal machine WITHERED have announced their triumphant return to the stage! One August 6, the band will be performing an album release show to support their upcoming record, 'Verloren,' at The Earl in their hometown of Atlanta, GA. Tickets are on sale now and available HERE.

Moreover, the band's latest single, "Casting in Wait," has landed the #1 spot on Gimme Radio's weekly Top 40 charts! The song and video can be found at THIS LOCATION.
ICYMI: Artist Paul Romano (MASTODON, HATE ETERNAL, etc.) gave an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the unique album art for 'Verloren!' Both Romano and WITHERED vocalist/guitarist Mike Thompson give in-depth interviews about the concept, working together, and more in this detailed article, which is accompanied by an exclusive video clip and photos! Check it out via Heaviest of Art at THIS LOCATION.

'Verloren' is due on June 25 via Season of Mist Underground Activists! The album can be pre-ordered HERE.

From its inception, WITHERED has been an outlier, a perplexing charge of extremity which the metal scene has never been able to put its finger on.

“We want to compound new elements into every album,” posits guitarist/vocalist Mike Thompson, “and we’re definitely a band for metal nerds. Our audience seems to be the old-schoolers who are absorbed by this stuff every day and jaded folks of a certain age. Industry types and peers tend to get it, but that’s about it.”

Thompson’s self deprecating assessment of his creative output might be part gentlemanly humility talking or a harshly realistic take on WITHERED’s cult status, or somewhere in between, but with an impressive body of work fanned out over the course of 18 years and five albums which have weathered as many trends, the Atlanta quartet continues to confound and refuses to compromise. New album, Verloren is the band’s most daring and iconoclastic work yet, one that spits in the eye of complacency and exists as a contrarian masterstroke.

Originally formed by Thompson and ex-guitarist/vocalist Chris Freeman in 2003 following a spell in local grind institution Social Infestation (alongside Mastodon’s Troy Sanders), WITHERED’s initial goal was to re-write black, doom and death metal modes and mores. To that end, the band has achieved that goal as their sound and aesthetic refuses to clearly state which subgenre they call home. Over the course of its history, WITHERED has generated more questions than answers about who they are and what they do. They’ve toured with the varied likes of Mastodon, High on Fire, Dismember, Grave, Vital Remains, Possessed, Watain, Mayhem, 1349, Krallice, Skeletonwitch and Danzig. Their live show provides an air of never-know-what-you’re-gonna-get mystery. See them on one occasion and it’s a DIY kick in the gut with stripped down, rehearsal room bareness appropriately complementing the lunacy. The next time they get in the van they’ll do so accompanied by rigged up columns of light cloaking the stage in bloody reds and searing whites. And with Verloren, the band’s forthcoming fifth album, Thompson and his band mates – drummer Beau Brandon, bassist Rafay Nabeel and fellow guitarist/vocalist Dan Caycedo – continue to nudge both thematic and sonic goalposts by providing relatable food for thought while retaining the adversarial fire that has powered the engine since the start.

“There’s a philosophical introspective approach to the subject matter that informs our writing style. We’re trying to create an atmosphere that complements the themes and that’s something we’re trying to circle back around to on Verloren.”

WITHERED’s first album, 2005’s Memento Mori, generally speaking, tackled the subject of mortality and the grieving process that follows significant loss, trauma and tragedy. Album number two, 2008’s Folie Circulaire was, as Thompson describes, “more existentialist, nihilistic and Nietzsche-ian” while 2010’s Dualities was an exploration of Jungian psychology and the shadow self. As alluded to in the title, 2016’s Grief Relic started into the U-turn back towards the exploration of the role and impact of grief as the men of WITHERED themselves entered that stage of life in which older family members, friends and childhood heroes were passing away, expectedly and otherwise. Five years on, Verloren rounds out the turn with a sinister sound and an area of study more akin to a deep therapy/counseling session instead of the usual gore and lore that often emboldens extreme music.

“Rafay wanted to use the theme of ‘missing’,” explains Thompson, “which was broad and abstract, so I dialed it down to be more about this outlook I’ve developed over the years about how each of us have a ‘Love Well.’ Every bit of love you get from your parents, your upbringing and your learning how to receive and experience love in relationships and through experiences contributes to the well. Your traumas counterbalance that and take away from it, especially when foundational core elements take a hit, like the untimely loss of a parent. That’s one of life’s unique puzzle pieces and when that piece is removed it’s never going to be replaced.

“We’re equipped with a certain capacity – our wells are filled to a certain level – and when you start getting smacked with traumas, whatever you have in that well - your defense mechanisms - can get worn down pretty quickly, especially for someone who has never really known love because of a broken home, difficult relationships or whatever. Each one of us in WITHERED carry unique traumas that we’ve focused this new record on. For me, most of my significant losses are from older wounds that I’ve dealt with through WITHERED from the very beginning, but with this being the first album with Dan and Rafay, it’s like a new exercise for them to really focus on the things they’ve been carrying around.”

Verloren translates to “missing” from German and relates not just to the friends, family and pieces of the member’s lives and hearts that have, and will go, missing as the time ticks on unfettered, but also, in the face of the global pandemic, just how much the activity of being in a band has been missed by everyone who took the write/record/tour cycle for granted. Verloren demonstrates a topical uniqueness; one that discusses the stuff everyone from the steeliest of black metal cape wearers to the gore-obsessed death metal crushers and everyone playing in a band or not has had to - or will have to - confront at some point. By leveling the elitist playing field so often found in extreme metal underground attitudes, Verloren offers a more holistic experience, elevating WITHERED by being unafraid to discuss topics that fly in the face of what most would connect to the sounds they make.

“About two years before I started WITHERED,” Thompson recalls, “I went through a series of traumas where I was forced to take stock of and define my foundational ‘puzzle pieces’ that could be taken away and what the trauma and grief is going to look like when I lose close family and/or friends I truly care about. Ironically, one I didn’t face until recently was WITHERED. No one ever thought that not being able to play shows or tour because of a pandemic was even feasible. I processed the idea of losing WITHERED and playing music and touring and everything else around the time of Grief Relic when two guys quit the band and I lost a lot of steam and inspiration. Luckily, Beau was there to kick my ass and shake me out of it. When it comes to this album, there was an initial suffering of anxiety because of the uncertainty in the world and the fear of losing this album because we put a lot into it, are super proud of it and it is the best WITHERED album yet. It’s important for my inspiration and motivation to go forward. It takes so much effort for us to create a record, the thought of it for it to all be for naught or potentially be wasted just destroys me.

“Surprisingly, we haven’t had a lot of push back on these themes, though I would love to take on that conflict!” he laughs. “For most people, metal is purely aesthetic, a grandstanding ‘f-you!’ to society and an adolescent rebellion kind of thing. But at the same time, we do get positive feedback from the people who have looked a bit deeper and done some research. We just want to be honest. We used to make the joke when we go out on tour, especially in the early days when deathcore was all the rage and we’d be on these weird package bills, that ‘Hey, we’re WITHERED and we’re here to bum you out.’ We’re not a party band or a shock band so you don’t get the fun aspect from us when going to a show. I’ve always been frustrated that we’ve never been able to communicate our super-realism and the different perspectives of life. If I want to sing about how much gratitude I have for my mother in a roundabout way, then whatever, we’ll do it!”

As WITHERED enters its third decade, they’ve drawn a more insular and conclusive line in the sand. The band has forged further forward with the process of eschewing typicality, including not utilizing any of the usual producer suspects to help sculpt Verloren. Instead, they flew the flag of independence by again going down the route of self-production with Thompson himself taking the bull by its horns.

“We get a little bit more deliberate every time around and starting with Grief Relic we decided not to hire anyone to help produce and filter it through a particular lens. We started self-producing and I kind of took the reins on that last time and more so this time and also when it came to selecting who was going to engineer [Raheen Amlani at Orange Peel Recordings], then mix [Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios] and master it [Jarrett Pritchard]. The trick is to find someone who loves Times of Grace as much as they love Clandestine and His Hero is Gone, Napalm Death and all the way out to later Enslaved and can balance all those things. If it’s truly honest and truly communicating the intention of a song, then it’ll be powerful, heavy and generate emotion.”

Verloren also revisits WITHERED’s traditional methodological step of sitting down and looking at the present state of metal before consciously lashing out against what’s taking up most of the broader public’s attention.

“We’re constantly looking for something new to do. We love genre bending and putting D-beats next to funereal riffs next to black metal blasts and heavy doom riffs and figuring out how to make it all work and make sense with whatever vibe we’re trying to nail down. For this one, I wanted to lean back into the funereal doom world. I got burnt out when doom – especially southern doom, being a southern band - was the word of the day around the time of our first two records. We basically ran in the other direction and got away from doing any full-on doom parts for a while. I wanted to come back around to that, so we went back to bigger stuff like My Dying Bride for the couple of eight minute epics on the album [album opener “By Tooth in Tongue” and closer “From Ashen Shores”]. Also, for the first time in my life and against my better judgment, I decided to write clean vocals and I’m singing on two songs. They’re kind of buried in the mix a little bit because I’m still self-conscious about them, but they were the only things that made sense for the parts we wrote. I tried to fight it, but nothing extreme was accomplishing the goal. On top of that, we go the other way where three of the songs have some super crusty and grind elements. Part of why I asked Dan to join the band was because I knew he would get the sludgy, crusty side of things and help me cultivate that better in WITHERED. On the album, ‘The Predation,’ ‘Dissolve’ and ‘Casting in Wait’ are his. Those would be the twists on this album because we’re always trying to write what we think is missing and what we want to hear in heavy music after sitting down and looking at the landscape of what’s out there.”

And despite being deliberate oppositional in the subject matter they choose to explore and express, how much of their hearts and souls they choose to strip bare for fickle crowds and grind against whatever current musical grain the rest are cruising along, the determination, seriousness and importance of WITHERED in each member’s lives hasn’t ebbed. In fact, it’s only been magnified with time and circumstance. Having been forced into a year off from normal band life has made it clear how vital WITHERED is for everything from creative expression, social networking, wanderlust, overall personal sanity and moving forward.

“Personally, I’m very, very fortunate with regards to my family and others being supportive and taking what I do seriously. Looking back, I could be really selfish and headstrong about music. My family got so used to it that they would volunteer to schedule dinners and family events around rehearsals and practice because they were able to glean how important this was to me and how seriously I took it. Even moving out into the real world with the professional realm of things and the jobs that we have had in order to keep this going, I’d say it’s taken more seriously now than ever. We’re constantly challenging ourselves to progress and carve our own path. WITHERED is a permanent part of my life, it’s what I expect to be there. I’ve built so much on it and I’ve somehow been able to weave it into my life to where it’s a defining part of me as well. This isn’t rock star fantasy camp, although the other weekend I was bored, missing travelling and sitting around so I took the band van out and just drove out for three hours, turned around and came home!”

Links:
https://withered.bandcamp.com/merch
https://www.facebook.com/witheredmetal
https://twitter.com/WITHEREDMETAL
https://www.instagram.com/witheredmetal/

Line-up
Beau Brandon – Drums
Dan Caycedo – Vocals, Guitars
Rafay Nabeel – Bass Guitar
Mike Thompson – Vocals, Guitar

Guest Musicians:
Ethan McCarthy (Primitive Man) on “Passing through…” which is a noise track done under his “Many Blessings” nomenclature using field recordings Mike Thompson made at a family funeral.

Recording Studio:Orange Peel Recordings in Kennesaw, GA (USA)
Producer:Mike Thompson
Recording Engineer:Raheem Amlani
Mixing studio and engineer:Greg Wilkinson @ Earhammer Studios in Oakland, CA (USA)
Mastering studio and engineer: Jarett Pritchard

Cover art:Paul Romano

Biography:Kevin Stewart-Panko

Pre-sales:https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/WitheredVerloren

Available formats
CD Digipak
Vinyl in various colours
Digital

THE LION'S DAUGHTER to Host Two Hour Radio Special via Gimme Metal on April 9

St. Louis horror metal trio THE LION'S DAUGHTER will be hosting a two-hour radio special via Gimme Metal on April 9 @ 3:00 P.M. EDT to celebrate the release of their new full-length, 'Skin Show,' which drops the same day! Frontman Rick Giordano has cultivated a very special playlist and will be present in the live chat to interact with fans! As always, it is FREE to subscribe and sign up! Tune in HERE.

Moreover, THE LION'S DAUGHTER will also be supporting the new offering with a brand new live stream! The stream is part of a four night event by Sinkhole and will air on Sunday, April 11 @ 8:00 P.M. EDT. The band will also be joined by HELL NIGHT for a double feature! Tickets and merch bundles are available at THIS LOCATION.

The band will also be hosting an in-person album release party and merch pop up in their hometown of St. Louis, MO on April 8 on the Punk Patio of The Record Space. Fans who attend the event will be able to purchase the record one day in advance of the release and will have an opportunity to meet and greet the band. 4 Hands Brewing will be sponsoring the event and providing free beverages to those who are 21+. The event is free to attend and will occur from 4:00 - 8:00 P.M. CDT. RSVP HERE.

'Skin Show' could serve as the soundtrack to Times Square in the 1970s - the epicenter of sin and salacious misdeeds; a haven for sex, drugs, and crime beneath the inviting glow of neon signs from sleazy adult video stores; a place one would not dare walk alone after midnight unless tempted by devil himself. Its deviant, raw, nasty, disturbing, and yet, the most lively, evolved, and polished version of the trio yet.

'Skin Show' is due on April 9 and is available now for pre-orders HERE.

Skin Show could serve as the soundtrack to Times Square in the 1970s - the epicenter of sin and salacious misdeeds; a haven for sex, drugs, and crime beneath the inviting glow of neon signs from sleazy adult video stores; a place one would not dare walk alone after midnight unless tempted by devil himself. Its deviant, raw, nasty, disturbing, and yet, the most lively, evolved, and polished version of the trio yet.

For the first part of its career, The Lion’s Daughter was deeply rooted in blackened sludge metal. However, when it came time for album number three, the St. Louis trio abandoned all tradition and traversed into new territory through bold experimentations with Future Cult, a synth-laden metal record that could easily serve as the score to a Dario Argento film. Now, the band picks up where it left off, once again delivering an opus that cannot be labeled or defined. “The synths were always something that I heard in my head, but just couldn't figure out the logistics,” explains frontman Rick Giordano regarding the distinct directional change. “I also had to completely stop giving a fuck about how anyone might react to them. Most of the synths on Future Cult are very aggressive and rooted in horror, which I think was a safe way to use them. For this record, I wanted to stop playing it safe. I wanted to use more natural synth sounds and let things take on soft and somber tones at times, rather than just screaming alongside the guitars at all times. There was a lot of experimenting to see what other roles the synths could play in the music and what shapes they could create. I think we spent our early years as a band just trying to figure out who we were, and on Future Cult, the answer became clear to us. Instead of changing that formula, we chose to expand on it and see where else it could lead.”

While Skin Show is rife with the trepidation of eerie synths and a cinematic atmosphere much like its former, it is not a replica, nor does it follow the same formulaic approach. Future Cult delivered darkness in excess – heavy, unnerving, and unmistakably inspired by vintage horror and sci-fi movie scores. In contrast, Skin Show is its brighter counterpart, capturing an essence that, on the surface, might seem tamer and more palatable in comparison. However, the album still dwells deep in deviance. Each passage, no matter how glossy, is offset with belligerent vocals and lyrics that detail sexual violence, shame, abuse, desperation, and paranoia. It’s the type of record that can easily garner coveted radio airplay, and yet, it can also serve as the background playlist for a BDSM orgy in an illegal dungeon or abandoned warehouse. “This was our attempt at a straight-forward pop record,” says Giordano. “It, of course, all still came out fucked because it's us creating it. But I tried to imagine our band playing a giant arena and what that would sound like. I wanted to strip away some of the chaos and just write stronger songs. I didn't want the band to mellow out, but I did want to see if we could mature a bit. If the previous album was an intense sci-fi slasher, this one would be closer to a Hitchcock or DePalma film.”

Make no mistake, while there is a blatant antithesis between the band’s two personalities, the duality is a major part of Skin Show’s identity. Reflected not only in the music, but also through the ominous and unsettling artwork created by Mothmeister. When asked about the collaboration, Giordano says, “We worked with Mothmeister again for the album art and used a similar approach as we did with the music. Things are stripped down, more direct, more focused. There's a sense of fear, isolation, and madness that very much correlates with the music. The character on the outside is in white and surrounded in light, while the character on the inside is in black surrounded by darkness. But it's ultimately two sides of the same character. I think that's a good representation of the themes within the album, dark things within people that they may want to keep hidden.”

The Lion’s Daughter may elude all characterization, fitting in all boxes while also fitting in none at all, but one thing is for certain, the genuine artistry behind Skin Show is forthright and undeniable. Whether it be a poppy opus like the title track or the haunting and sludgy vibes of “The Chemist,” all ten tracks are guaranteed to be bangers, holding the listener at knifepoint and demanding their attention with each and every note.

Recording Lineup:
Rick Giordano - Guitars, vocals, synths, bass
Erik Ramsier - Drums and percussion
Scott Fogelbach - Vocals

Live Lineup:
Rick Giordano - Guitars, vocals, synths
Erik Ramsier - Drums and percussion
Scott Fogelbach - Bass, vocals

Recording Studio: Firebrand Recording (St. Louis, MO, USA)

Producer/Sound Engineer: Sanford Parker

Mixing Studio & Engineer: Sanford Parker @ Hybercube (St. Louis, MO, USA)

Mastering Studio and Engineer: Colin Jordan @ The Boiler Room (Chicago, IL, USA)

Cover Art: Mothmeister

Pre-sales: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/TLDshop

For more info on THE LION'S DAUGHTER, visit the band's official FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, and BANDCAMP.

FUATH To Host Two Hour Radio Special via Gimme Metal

FUATH, the atmospheric black metal offshoot of SAOR’s Andy Marshall, will be releasing its upcoming full-length 'II,' on March 19 via Season of Mist Underground Activists. To celebrate the release, Marshall will be hosting a two-hour radio special via Gimme Metal in which he will be spinning some black metal classics and joining the chat! Sign up for free and tune in HERE.

Pre-orders for 'II' are available now HERE.

Translated as “hatred” in Gaelic, FUATH is the atmospheric black metal offshoot of SAOR’s Andy Marshall. Taking inspiration from arguably black metal’s most fertile and explosive period — the early to mid-1990s — the music channels the unrelenting tenor and iciness of forebears BURZUM, DARKTHRONE and MAYHEM.

Originally slated as a one-off project after the release of 2016’s I, Marshall has decided to turn FUATH into a serious project. Early 2021 will see the release of the band’s second album, II, via Season of Mist’s Underground Activists sub-label.

Marshall’s Scottish roots seemingly belie a Scandinavian black metal influence. While SAOR leans heavily on Scottish themes and melodies that he has classified as “Caledonian” metal, FUATH is a through-and-through purveyor of the black arts, firmly heralding a time when there was mystery and intrigue within extreme metal. BURZUM and DARKTHRONE were Marshall’s initial black metal discoveries and DRUDKH and WINDIR provided balance due to their unyielding ability to convey atmosphere. It adds up to an array of influences dedicated solely to recapturing black metal’s storied spirit and atmosphere.

The rugged landscapes, harsh climates and foreboding darkness make winter the perfect backdrop to ’90s black metal. There is perhaps no climate greater celebrated within a subgenre of metal — winter and black metal are permanently entwined. Therefore, it is no surprise that it is the favored season of many battle-tested black metaller — including Marshall, who has always been attracted to darkness in nature as well as pagan mysticism. He cites his ritual of walking through the forest in the frost and snow as “spiritual,” and the primary source of inspiration for FUATH’s new studio album.

Written during the winter of 2019 and then recorded in August and September 2020 at Fortriu Studios in Scotland, ‘II’ features Marshall handling vocals and all instrumentation except for drums, which were performed by Carlos Vivas in Spain. Whereas ‘I’ dutifully remained within the boundaries of conventional black metal, ‘II’ finds the songs going further into the frozen plains with elaborate doses of melody, ominous riffing and hypnotic blast-beat sections. ‘II’ marks a huge progression for Fuath from ‘I’. When writing the debut album, Marshall was treading FUATH as a side-project and didn’t have a formalized idea of how he wanted it to sound. In contrast, ‘II’ is an improvement across the board with better-crafted songs, sharper black metal vocals from Marshall and enhanced production values.

In contrast to SAOR’s lyrics about Scottish heritage and history, Marshall has decided to keep FUATH’s lyrics behind a veil of secrecy and will not be released along with the album. It’s another throwback to black metal of the 1990s when its core constituents were dark and evasive in both presentation and their lyrics. However, song titles such as “The Pyre,” “Into the Forest of Shadows” and “Endless Winter” do, at least, give a glimpse into Marshall’s headspace — they leave plenty to the imagination, especially in the context of the cold and wintry landscape depicted on the album’s cover art.

After the release of ‘I’ in 2016, Marshall often stated in interviews that FUATH would be a “one-off” project with no chance for future recordings. But, the never-ending desire to travel into the dark the wilderness of black metal’s most chaotic — and beloved — period was too much to resist. FUATH is now a serious band and has shed its side-project status, ensuring that Marshall will be venturing back into the heart of winter for future releases.

Genre: Black Metal

Artwork: Luciana Nedelea Artworks

Recording studio: Fortriu Studios
Producer / sound engineer: Andy Marshall
Mixing: The Amplogia Studio, Vitold Buznaev
Mastering: Turan Studio, Tim Turan

Recording line-up: all songs composed and performed by Andy Marshall
Session drums by Carlos Vivas

FUATH live:
05/30/21 - Metal East (Nove Kolo), Ukraine
07/25/21 - Metal Over Russia, Russia

Pre-sales: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/fuath-II

For more on FUATH, visit the band's official BANDCAMP, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM.

AUTARKH Announces Two-Hour Gimme Radio Special

Dutch extreme metal outfit AUTARKH will be airing a two-hour special via Gimme Radio's Gimme Metal platform on March 15 @ 11:00 A.M. EST // 17:00 CET! The specially curated set will be hosted by band mastermind Michel Nienhuis (former DODECAHEDRON), who will also be present for a live Q&A! The band will be celebrating the upcoming release of their debut opus, 'Form in Motion,' which will drop this Friday, March 12! You can sign up for free and listen HERE.

To misquote Allen Ginsburg "the circle DODECAHEDRON is broken. But with death comes rebirth." AUTARKH takes a radical approach to their musical assault, consuming the listener with dizzying maelstroms of chaos. ‘Form In Motion’ embodies the word “extreme,” putting forth an intrusive battery of blistering guitars, pummeling drums, spastic math metal salvos and cacophonous electronics that culminates in one of the most robust and daring debut records metal has seen yet.

'Form in Motion' is due on March 12. Pre-orders are now live HERE.

From the fertile grounds of Tilburg (NL) rises new contemporary metal outfit AUTARKH, a group of musical extremists dedicated to pushing the boundaries of the auditory senses. Autarkh is the brainchild of Michel Nienhuis, founding member and composer/guitarist of DODECAHEDRON. Dodecahedron released 2 albums on the French record label Season Of Mist in 2012 and 2017 and has played at Inferno festival (NO), Reykjavík Metalfest (IS) Brutal Assault (CZ), Roadburn Festival (NL) and Eurosonic (NL) amongst others.

Death and illness was closing in on Dodecahedron, triggering a conceptual transformation that was necessary to effectuate Nienhuis’ artistic development. In the fall of 2019 Nienhuis teamed up with producer Joris Bonis (Dodecahedron, Ulsect), guitarist David Luiten and electronic composer / producer Tijnn Verbruggen, a set of musicians with backgrounds ranging from metal to techno. Autarkh’s first full length album ‘Form In Motion’ will be released the 12th of March 2021 through Season of Mist records.

AUTARKH takes a unique position in the world of extreme metal. Synthetic, IDM-style beats and glitch effects - reminiscent of those produced by artists such as Aphex Twin and Autechre - are perfectly balanced with overwhelming riffs and vocals that range from dark growls and exasperating screams to semi-clean harmonies. Together with fluttering blast beats, dense bass lines and eerie soundscapes these elements produce an intense and crystal clear tunnel of sound where the energy of contrasting emotions is constantly felt.

‘Form In Motion’ feels like an evolution in both sound and lyrical content from the two albums Nienhuis released with Dodecahedron. Musically, because of the radical approach the band takes with their rhythm section; lyrically because the album is more about a personal experience of human nature and the nature of the universe. The album takes us from unraveling storms and destructive chaos to transformation, liberation and fundamental shifts in understanding in order to align with the divine. That progression is also present in a linear sense – the intrusive uneasiness the album starts with gives way to a sense of epic victory towards the end.

Give yourself the opportunity to dive into this radical exploration of sonic and spiritual ideas and allow yourself to get inspired by what AUTARKH has to offer.

Genre: Contemporary Extreme Metal

Recording line-up:
Michel Nienhuis: vocals, guitars, bass, programming
David Luiten: vocals, guitars
Tijnn Verbruggen: synthesis, beat design
Joris Bonis: synthesis, sound design

Music and lyrics: Michel Nienhuis
Production: Joris Bonis & Michel Nienhuis

Mix:
Turbulence, Cyclic Terror, Introspectrum, Lost To Sight, Clouded Aura and Alignment: David Luiten
Impasse: Tijnn Verbruggen
Primitive Constructs, Metacognition and Zeit ist nur eine Illusion: Michel Nienhuis

Master: Joris Bonis

Artwork: Manuel Tinnemans / Comaworx
Design & Layout: Arno Frericks & Reinier Bonis

www.autarkh.com
www.facebook.com/autarkh
www.instagram.com/autarkhband

Pre-orders: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/AutarkhShop

Formats:
CD Digipak
LP in various colours
Digital

For more information on AUTARKH, please visit the band's official WEBSITE, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM.

CULTED Announces Two Hour Radio Special for Gimme Metal

From the icy expanse of the Canadian prairies to the Nordic coast of Sweden, industrial blackened doom collective CULTED have long been innovators of creating music remotely, transcending both literal and metaphorical boundaries for over a decade. Michael Klassen and Matthew Friesen were first approached by Daniel Jansson to collaborate on an international project and come 2008, these ideas began to coalesce, with fellow Canadian Kevin Stevenson joining the cult. The band soon recorded and unveiled their first LP, Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep (2009), as well as the EP Of Death and Ritual(2010.)

In 2013, sophomore full-length Oblique to All Paths was released upon being written, recorded, and produced in various closets, basements, dens, and domiciles. After forming a union with Season of Mist, CULTED continued their down-tempo exploration of blackened and industrial soundscapes with 2019’s mini-album, Vespertina Synaxis; A Prayer for Union and Emptiness, which was inspired by the isolation, alienation, and damnation that dominates the rime-encrusted lands CULTED inhabit. Now, the band is ready to unleash their most devastating and personal opus yet, Nous.

Nous was born in turmoil after members of the band endured a period of extreme personal experiences, both psychological and physical. The creation process was informed by disease, death, and the resulting existential crises. Instead of predetermining the direction CULTED would take with their third full-length, the band allowed the music to speak for itself as it came together organically. Nous was a result of its creators attempting to destroy or ignore the egoic (that chatter and everything outside of pure consciousness that attempts to sabotage you of peace and rob you of the moment) and instead, opening themselves up to the unidentifiable and nameless muse of sound.

CULTED further explores their relationship with doom, black metal, and industrial on yet another experimental effort in which the band’s collective agony is translated into something both nihilistic and tangible through dissonant soundscapes. Each song is a nightmare in the abyss, dragging the listener through caverns of inexplicable darkness and suffering.

Exemplifying the themes, meditations, and diatribes of the human condition, Nous, which roughly translates to “common sense” or “practical intelligence,” explores both the religious and conspiratorial processes of the mind within the framework of critical thought. According to biblical scripture, Satan convinced Eve that the most powerful of conspirators - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - were secretly trying to keep the first humans shrouded in a veil of ignorance, preventing them from becoming “like God” and “knowing good and evil.” Eve became the first in a long line, from Gnostics to flat-earthers, to believe powerful forces were withholding secret information. Nous attempts to know God or the inner essence or principles of created things by means of direct perception. Nous must be carefully distinguished from reason as it does not formulate abstract concepts or argue them using deductive reasoning, but rather, it understands divine truth by means of immediate experience. Thelema of the gods.
To further solidify these introspective concepts, the cover art is an interpretation of the Temptation of St. Anthony who was one of the first monks to retire to the desert to devote himself to fasting and prayer, which is an often-repeated subject in the history of art and literature, especially concerning the supernatural temptation reportedly faced by Saint Anthony during his sojourn in the Egyptian desert. The art encapsulates both the music and lyrical concept, visually.

CULTED is now inviting you to open your mind, abandon your religion, and to join the cult on this existential and devastating journey.

Lineup:
Matthew Friesen – guitar, bass, keyboards, noise and percussion
Michael Klassen – guitar, bass keyboards, noise and percussion
Kevin Stevenson – drums and percussion
Daniel Jansson – Vocals and noise

Recording:
Vocals and sound recorded at Culted home studios in Gothenburg, Sweden and Winnipeg, Canada. Drums were recorded at Bedside Studios in Winnipeg, Canada.

Producer / sound engineer:
Vocals and sound produced and recorded by Culted
Drums recorded by Len Milne

Mixing studio and engineer:
Culted via home studio

Mastering studio and engineer:
John Golden at Golden Mastering in California, USA (Neurosis, Melvins, Sonic Youth)

Guest Musicians:
Jay Gambit (Crowhurst): Additional sound treatment on “Crush My Soul”

Cover Art: Ettore Aldo Del Vigo

Pre-Sales: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/CultedShop


Available formats
CD/Digital/LP/Merch

For more on CULTED, visit the band's official FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, and BANDCAMP.

Blackened industrial doom collective CULTED will be hosting a two-hour radio special via Gimme Metal on Friday, February 26 @ 3:00 P.M. EST to celebrate the imminent release of their new full-length, 'Nous!' In addition to curating a unique playlist, members Matthew Friesen and Michael Klassen will also be present in the chat for a live Q&A! As always, it is FREE to listen and you can sign up HERE.

'Nous' is due on on February 26, 2021. 'Nous' is available for pre-orders HERE

MÖRK GRYNING Announces Two-Hour Radio Special via Gimme Metal

Legendary Swedish black metal formation MÖRK GRYNING will be hosting a two-hour radio special via Gimme Metal on Friday, January 22 @ 3:00 P.M. EST! This will be a rare opportunity for fans to interact with the band as they will be present in the chatroom for the duration of the show! Moreover, there will be a very special merch giveaway for some lucky winners. To tune in, sign up for FREE at THIS LOCATION.

The band is supporting their recently released and long-awaited opus, 'Hinsides Vrede,' which was named one of the best albums of 2020 via Metal Insider, Chicago Music Guide's "Global Music Podcast," The Terminus Podcast, Teeth of the Divine, and others!

The album can be streamed, downloaded, and purchased HERE.

Moreover, MÖRK GRYNING has reissued four of their previous full-length albums in vinyl and digipak formats, including their seminal debut record. The following records are now available HERE.
'Tusen år har gått…' (1995)
'Return Fire' (1997)
'Maelstrom Chaos' (2001)
'Pieces Of Primal Expressionism (2003)

After fifteen years of slumber, Swedish black metal cult MÖRK GRYNING have awakened to unleash their fury upon the masses with their deadly new album Hinsides Vrede. Translating into “otherworldly wrath” or “wrath of the world beyond,” Hinsides Vrederepresents the impending doom of a world coming undone at its seams. The quintet temper their deathly assault with their signature melodic edge, and with recall the halcyon days of Swedish extremity. The comeback of MÖRK GRYNING is complete, and Hinsides Vrede opens up a deadly new chapter in their evolving legacy.

Founded in 1993 in Stockholm, MÖRK GRYNING were among the incipient purveyors of the melodic black and death metal scene. In May 1995, founding members Goth Gorgon and Draakh Khimera entered the Unisound Studios to record their now legendary debut album Tusen År Har Gått, produced by legend Dan Swanö (OPETH , DARK FUNERAL, DISSECTION , etc.) The haunting and melodic offering quickly gained attention among the cult of the underground, solidying their place among black metal’s clandestine elite.

The arrival of guitarist Avathar in 1999 further defined the band’s sound, adding further dimension with icy solos. The three-piece later traveled to famous Grieghallen Studios in Bergen, Norway to finish their third full-length, Maelstrom Chaos, which produced by Pytten (MAYHEM, BURZUM, EMPEROR).

In early 2003, MÖRK GRYNING entered the Dug Out Studio (MESHUGGAH, DEVIN TOWNSEND, IN FLAMES, DARK FUNERAL) with producers David Bergstrand and Örjan Örnkloo. Never shy to reinvent themselves, the aptly titled Pieces of Primal Expressionismreshaped the band entirely. The record put forth a daring grandiosity of dissonant harmony that had previously been unexplored in MÖRK GRYNING’s prior efforts.

By the time of the release of the band’s self-titled full-length in 2005, MÖRK GRYNINGseemingly disbanded for good. Fans likely did not expect a second act after the band’s grand finale, however, the flames of chaos were reignited in 2017 when the band performed a rare and long-overdue anniversary set at Party San Open Air. Following appearances across Europe on the festival circuit, founding members Goth Gorgon, Draakh Kimera and Avatar reunited for real and MÖRK GRYNING signed a new deal with Season of Mist.

With Hinsides Vrede, MÖRK GRYNING have rediscovered the synergy they had while writing their legendary debut record and have returned to their foundations. Yet, by striving to reinvent themselves with every record, the long-awaited comeback of the band is by no means a reiteration of a glorious musical past, but is still certain to appease both old and new fans alike.

Pre-sales: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/mork-gryning-vrede

Genre: Melodic black metal

Photographer: Peter Wendin

Recording studio: Wing Studios, Sverker Widgren

Producer / sound engineer, mixing and mastering: Wing Studios, Sverker Widgren

Line-up:
Draakh Kimera – Lead Vocals, Guitar, Drums
Goth Gorgon – Bass, Guitar, Backing Vocals
Avathar – Lead Guitar
Recording line-up:
Draakh Kimera: Lead & Backing Vocals, Guitars, Drums, Keyboards
Goth Gorgon: Bass, Lead Guitar, Backing vocals, Lead vocals on “Black Spirit”, Keyboards
Avathar: Lead Guitar
C-G: Drums on “Fältherren” & “Black Spirit”
Aeon: Backing Vocals, Piano on “For Those Departed” & “On The Elysian Fields”

Guest musicians:
Laura Ute: Vocals on “Black Spirit”

Live members:
C-G – Drums
Aeon – Keyboards
For more on MÖRK GRYNING, visit the band's official FACEBOOK, BANDCAMP, and INSTAGRAM.

CLOAK to Host Gimme Radio Special on May 4

Atlanta's CLOAK will be hosting a two-hour Gimme Radio special on Monday, May 4 at 1:00 P.M. EDT! The band will spin a playlist that they curated themselves and will be present in the chat for a live Q&A. You can sign up for FREE and tune in at THIS LOCATION. May the fourth be with you!

CLOAK will be supporting 2019's 'The Burning Dawn,' which was named one of the Best Albums of the year by Metal Insider (#6), A&P Reacts (#8), Treble Zine (#11), and others. The album can be streamed HERE ordered in various formats HERE.

Unyielding darkness and brutality emerge from the deep south of the United States.  Atlanta, GA based quartet CLOAK blend the sounds of black metal, rock ‘n’ roll, and homegrown Southern sludge to create their own unique and menacing sound.
 
Their debut full-length, 'To Venomous Depths,' (2017) was met with critical acclaim upon its release. Decibel Magazine placed it at #20 among their “Top 40 Albums of 2017,” solidifying the band’s place among the heavy metal elite. Now, CLOAK is back with 'The Burning Dawn,' a riff-heavy and groove-laden follow-up that proves the band are still rife with fresh ideas.
 
Conceptually, the record comes from a place below the surface where the sleepless and sinister dwell, and is absorbed by the darkest of dreams and the most primal desires. Musically, this exploration takes the gothic nuances of its predecessor while abandoning any hesitation in exchange for a more aggressive and vehement spirit.
 
While rippers like “On Poisoned Ground” and “Into the Storm” deliver a fury of soulful aggression, songs like “Lifeless Silence” and “The Fire, The Faith, The Void” offer a darker, gothic essence, ultimately displaying CLOAK’s multi-faceted and dynamic musical diversity. So, raise your fists and set fire to the world; this is 'The Burning Dawn.'

For more on CLOAK, visit their official FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and BANDCAMP.

CANNABIS CORPSE Hosts 4/20 Gimme Radio "Wake and Bake" Special

Weed lovers have been blessed with an entire month of 4/20 this year and what better way to celebrate the high holidaze than with stoner death metal icons CANNABIS CORPSE! The  band will be hosting a very special two-hour "Wake and Bake" show via Gimme Radio on April 20 at 8:00 A.M. PDT // 11:00 A.M. EDT // 17:00 CEST. Bassist/vocalist Phil "Landphil" Hall hand selected some of his favorite tunes and will be present for a live Q&A and to talk all things weed and metal. You can sign up for FREE and listen at THIS LOCATION.

CANNABIS CORPSE are supporting their dank new album, 'Nug So Vile,' which was released in 2019.

CANNABIS CORPSE have also recently released a new lyric video for the track 'From Enslavement to Hydrobliteration,' which is created entirely by drummer Josh "Hallhammer" Hall. The hilarious animated video can be viewed HERE

'Nug So Vile' is available for purchase HERE.

CANNABIS CORPSE’s latest strain of weed-metal is another potent dose of bong ripping brutality laced with tasty riffs, vicious drumming, and powerful THC. With a title inspired by CRYPTOPSY’s seminal album, 'Nug So Vile' is a horrifying look into the mind of a hardcore marijuana abuser with the demented fantasies of a reefer addict fully on display. The record is more than just a mere follow up to 2017’s 'Left Hand Pass', but rather serves as a solid companion piece, seamlessly picking up right where the band left off.

Sharing a passion for marijuana and death metal, brothers Phil 'Landphil' Hall (MUNICIPAL WASTE, IRON REAGAN) and Josh 'Hallhammer' Hall formed CANNABIS CORPSE in 2006 in Richmond, VA as a loving homage to the genre’s forefathers. The brothers decided from the start to separate themselves from the pack by infusing a green sense of humour into their horror-inspired lyrics. Meanwhile, it has become a badge of honour for many of the Halls’ idols to have one of their titles parodied by the Richmond outfit.

Now, CANNABIS CORPSE has returned as a three-piece and despite slimming the line-up down since 'Left Hand Pass', 'Nug So Vile' still sounds as full and thick as ever, solidifying their place among death metal’s elite. So, roll a blunt, grab a neckbrace, and prepare yourself for another nasty assault from the kings of weed metal.

Style: Marijuana Death Metal

Line-up:
Phil 'Landphil' Hall: vocals, bass
Josh 'HallHammer' Hall: drums
Adam Gulliams: guitars

Recording and Mixing: Blaze of Torment Studio, Jarrett Pritchard
Producer/engineer: Philip Hall and Josh Hall
Mastering: Jarret Pritchard (GOATWHORE, 1349)

Guest Musicians: 
Brandon Ellis (THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER), guitars on 'Blasphemy Made Hash'

Cover art: Par Olofsson

Shop: https://smarturl.it/Nugsovile

Available formats: 
Digipak
LP in various colours
LP picture vinyl
Cassette

For more on CANNABIS CORPSE, visit the band's official FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and INSTAGRAM.