Black Metal News

CRYSTAL COFFIN set release date for new A BEAST IN THE FIELD album

Today, A Beast in the Field announces October 31st as the international release date for Crystal Coffin‘s highly anticipated third album, The Curse of Immortality, on digipack CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

Crystal Coffin are a melodic black metal trio from Vancouver, Canada that was formed in 2016 by Aron Shute (vocals, bass guitar), Lenkyn Ostapovich (guitars, synths, piano, scapes, secondary vocals), and Rob Poirier (drums). Comprised of members from previous Vancouver acts Destroy All, Koma, and Caskets, their music references their love for 1970s/’80s Italian horror cinema, sci-fi storytelling, and philosophies. Crystal Coffin combines black metal styles with influences of prog and ambient/electronic music while re-imagining 20th and 21st century atrocities as poetry and melody.

Combining a love for vintage horror, folk, history, storytelling, and other esoteric influences, Crystal Coffin released their debut album, The Transformation Room, in March 2020 to favorable reviews. The album presented scenes of the Holodomor famine that tore families and villages apart in Soviet-era Ukraine during the early 1930s and contained lyrics and music that were washed in pathos, both brutal and beautiful. The band’s second full-length, The Starway Eternal, released in October 2021, embraced a sci-fi concept utilizing the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Pripyat, Ukraine as a backdrop for fantastical storytelling. This second album expanded their progressive inclinations and infused a new confidence into their songwriting, helping to solidify themes and sounds that would steer the band’s next direction. Rightly so, The Starway Eternal garnered Crystal Coffin even more attention, setting expectations for their third album considerably higher.

And, amazingly, they’ve eclipsed those expectations. The Curse of Immortality, releasing on Halloween day 2023, leverages similar storytelling themes but looks forward into a future where the limitations on existence are no more, for better or for worse. Less a formal concept album from its predecessor, the eight tracks loosely depict a protagonist whose failed attempts at suicide have placed him into a rehabilitation center wherein clandestine medical personnel experiment on the captured and unconscious patients at night in chambers below. Through a combination of cryogenetics, evil rites, and state control, the subject involuntarily becomes the first successful completed case for verified immortality – a life that will no longer require death. The music and the lyrics found throughout are darker, heavier, and faster than anything Crystal Coffin have released and stand as the sonic culmination of the band’s efforts and intentions over the past six years. 

As always, form and content go hand in hand for the band, and the characteristically detailed cover artwork (once again by Ostapovich) as well as “classified document”-style inner sleeve vividly complete the totality of The Curse of Immortality. Altogether, the album stands as Crystal Coffin‘s boldest and most complete work to date.

First track and preorder info to be revealed shortly. Aforementioned cover artwork and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Crystal Coffin’s The Curse of Immortality
1. Shadows Never Cast [6:15]
2. The Undead [5:08]
3. The Vortex of Earth and Death [4:19]
4. Final Breaths [5:36]
5. Cryogenesis [6:00]
6. Rise [3:42]
7. Leviathans Encased [5:54]
8. The Closing of the Crystal Coffin [5:36]

MORE INFO:
www.crystal-coffin.com
www.facebook.com/Crystal-Coffin-2228111600765172 
www.crystalcoffin.bandcamp.com

ETERNAL ROT stream new MEMENTO MORI / GODZ OV WAR album

Today, pan-international death metallers Eternal Rot stream the entirety of their highly anticipated third album, Moribound. Set for international release on July 24th – Memento Mori will handle the CD version while Godz Ov War Productions will handle the vinyl, cassette tape, and digital formats – hear Eternal Rot‘s Moribound in its entirety here:

Eternal Rot crawled out of a musty dungeon in London in 2012, born out of a passion for death metal by Mayer and Grindak. Their 2013 Promo Tape demo (released as Grave Grooves on 7″ EP through Fallen Temple Productions a year after), featured two swampy and deadly tracks that attracted vigilant zombies who began to spread the word about a new sonic disease. A few years of disgusting excavations later, they joined forces with Godz Ov War Productions and spewed out the debut album Cadaverine, which was adorned with the artwork of Mark Riddick, who would ultimately become the band’s artist of choice from then on. Shortly after, the duo were joined by Radek Pierściński (Meat Spreader, Neuropathia, The Dead Goats) on drums, and the result was the band’s second album, Putridarium, which featured an improved formula of their already trademark purulent and über-crushing death metal. The band’s latest chapter of filth up to date was the 2021 split with death/doom metal powerhouse Coffins, on Behind the Mountain Records.

Now, at long last, Eternal Rot will release their third album, Moribound. Aptly titled in a perverse way and again graced with another unforgettable Mark Riddick cover, Moribound proves that the power-trio’s death metal is as undead as ever – “rottenly fresh,” as it were, or perhaps “freshly rotten”! No compromise made and no quarter given, Eternal Rot stick to their grimy guns and unleash another slab of organ-crushing, mind-blowing, and sickening DEATH METAL. That it’s stripped to the fucking bone is one thing (and indeed it is); that it’s insanely CATCHY is another! Someone once said that it takes a truly smart man to know when to be dumb, and Eternal Rot just might be the smartest men around with the ignorant, knuckle-dragging stomp of Moribound. There’s just no resisting these anthems-in-the-making, especially as the gut-wrenching crunch devours you whole and then sucks the very marrow from both bone and soul. Of course, a horror-drenched atmosphere still pervades all that Eternal Rot do, but the modus operandi here is undeniably the absolute CRUSH of the listener – in the catchiest way possible!

Maniacs for Autopsy, Undergang, Hooded Menace, Rippikoulu, Anatomia, Disma, Coffins, Grave, Incantation, and Funebrarum, prepare to permanently add Eternal Rot to that list with Moribound!

Aforementioned cover art and trackisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Eternal Rot’s Moribound
1. Summoned from Moribund Delusions
2. Reflected in Perpetual Waves of Despair
3. Swollen Corpse Adoration
4. Desecrated Guts
5. Gestures Never Recalled
6. Lurker in the Morgue

 

MORE INFO:

www.facebook.com/EternalRot
www.eternalrot.bandcamp.com

www.memento-mori.es
www.facebook.com/memento.mori.label

www.godzofwar.com

Spain’s MORTA set release date for SIGNAL REX debut album, reveal first track

Today, Signal Rex announces September 8th as the international release date for the highly anticipated debut album of Spain’s Morta, La España negra, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

One of the black metal underground’s best-kept secrets, Morta first fully arose from the crypt with Signal Rex’s release of their debut EP, Fúnebre. Banging ‘n’ clanging anguish echoing from the filthiest dungeons, the then-trio’s first short-length succinctly displayed their palpably physical – and surprisingly emotive – attack across nearly a half-hour. In a sense, Fúnebre felt like an album, but such was still brewing…

At long last, Morta’s debut album bubbles up from the primordial muck with no small amount of rudeness: La España negra. Pure and proud BLACK METAL from southern climes, Morta’s first full-length carries forward many/most of its predecessors’ foremost strengths – deft shifts from spiralingly violent hypnosis to scabrously headbanging segments, a remorselessly raw-yet-refined soundfield, ugly and emotional in equal measure – but a relatively wider (and wilder) swath of ideas and textures are given ample room to roam across this 39-minute recording. Just like that predecessor, La España negra resides firmly within the realm of black metal, be it elder expressions from the ‘90s and underground-entrenched ones post-Y2K; the now-quartet honor the sanctity of the artform by exploring their own vibrations rather than those of others. But within a longer format and maximizing that expanded lineup, Morta often allow bass guitar to guide their eerily hummable melodicism – again, one could liken that to a romanticism unique to their Spanish heritage – and even when pushing busier, denser tonalities, there’s a perversely ethereal quality that creates a cool disconnect. Their dungeons are deeper than ever, and the reverberations go straight to the soul…

Forever champions of Southern European black metal aristocracy, Signal Rex are honored to foster the gangrenous growth of Morta and spread the spell of La España negra.

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “La fé impura de un futuro envuelto en llamas” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Morta (Spain)’s La España negra
1. Requiem por una España fragmentad
2. La caída de los infieles
3. La fé impura de un futuro envuelto en llamas
4. La muerte santa
5. Leyenda negra del tiempo
6. Mi invierno eterno
7. Estigia
8. Transustanciación Diabólica

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/MORTA-Black-Metal-110470397260377

www.signalrex.com
www.facebook.com/signalrex

DESOLUS sign with HELLS HEADBANGERS, prepare debut album and reveal first track – features members of PIG DESTROYER, MISERY INDEX, NOISEM+++

Today, Hells Headbangers announces the signing of Desolus. The first fruit of this union shall be the band’s highly anticipated debut album, System Shock, which should release through the label early next year. In lieu of this announcement, Desolus reveal the brand-new title track “System Shock,” which can be heard here:

Hailing from the Mid-Atlantic United States, Desolus formed in 2019 at the beginning of the pandemic. Inspired by Sodom, Kreator, and Dark Angel, Jimmy Frost (guitars and vocals) and Vivek Rangarajan (bass and vocals) wrote songs as an outlet for the feeling of what seemed to be the end of times. As time went by and the dust settled, they traveled north to Baltimore, where they recorded a series of demos with Sebastian Phillips (Exhumed / Noisem / Castle Freak). Phillips engineered and tracked drums on these demos in hopes to release it for the DMV (DC, Maryland, and Virginia) metal scene. While recording these songs, they met Travis Stone (percussion), a former member of Noisem and current member of Pig Destroyer and Misery Index. Stone heard the songs and was on board as soon as the first riff played. Soon after, he began rehearsing with the band day in and day out until they were ready to take their music to the streets. Desolus gained traction within the DMV music scene over the span of a few years and began traveling across the United States to spread their love of old-school thrash.

About Desolus‘ signing with Hells Headbangers for their imminent debut album, a statement from the band reads: “This joining of Desolus and Hells Headbangers is something the Antichrist would dream of. We are massive fans of the HHR catalog and proud to be on the same label with Deathhammer and Nunslaughter. We are stoked to bring our form of thrash savagery to the ears of the metal underground!”

About Desolus‘ imminent debut album, System Shock consists of nine ripping songs featuring themes of horrors beyond this world, Satanic science fiction, and a dystopian future that is seemingly within arm’s reach. System Shock will reanimate the energy and aggression that came from bands in the ’80s such as Sodom, Kreator, and Dark Angel.

In the meantime, catch the band on their upcoming West Coast tour – dates below. For more info, consult the links further below.

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/DesolusDM
www.instagram.com/desolus_dmv

www.hellsheadbangers.com

WINTER ETERNAL reveal first track from new HELLS HEADBANGERS album

Today, second-wave black metal classicists Winter Eternal reveal the brand-new track “Two Heavens as One.” The track is the first to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated fourth album, Echoes of Primordial Gnosis, which should see release later this year via Hells Headbangers. Hear Winter Eternal‘s “Two Heavens as One” in its entirety here:

It was but the dawn of summer 2021 when Winter Eternal released their breakthrough album, Land of Darkness. The band’s third album overall and first with Hells Headbangers, Land of Darkness truly launched the name Winter Eternal onto the worldwide metal map with their absolutely authentic synthesis of 1997-vintage melodicism and mysticism. “Melodic black metal” before it became a dirty word, mainman Soulreaper proved that his heart pumped the blood of the ancients, recalling both ’90s Swedish and Hellenic scenes (the band originally formed in Greece, but later relocated to Scotland) but now with charisma and personality to spare. Above all, Land of Darkness bristled with stellar songwriting and impassioned playing – timeless black metal songcraft that can stacked alongside those old, hallowed tomes rather than simply drawing influence from them.

Now, two years later, Winter Eternal return with their boldest record yet: Echoes of Primordial Gnosis. While immediately recognizable as the same Winter Eternal that delivered the preceding modern classic, Echoes of Primordial Gnosis just-as-prominently displays a greater usage of dynamics, particularly those revolving around acoustic and clean-stringed instruments such as cello. Similarly, the still-impassioned playing has been giving an uptick in intensity and analog spirit through session drums by V. Nuctemeron (Sacral Rage, Chainsaw), lending warmth – nay, burning desire! – to the band’s ever-characteristic attack. Soulreaper, for his part, gives a masterclass in spiraling, twilit melodicism: hammering and mesmerizing at first, but his riffs become rippling layers of majesty and mayhem that seemingly echo back on each other, proving that there’s indeed complexity in simplicity of design. Add to this his anguished & emotive vocals, with guest clean vocals courtesy of Macabre Omen mainman Alexandros and Hildr Valkyrie, and the album’s overall concept fully comes into focus: calling forth the spirits of ancient gods and legendary heroes around the world, paying tribute to their timeless powers, with each song thematically focused on one such god or hero. Form meeting content, in every sense – and likewise for Mars Triumph’s symbolic cover artwork.

No longer the black metal underground’s best-kept-secret, Winter Eternal step fully into the halls of greatness with Echoes of Primordial Wisdom.

Release date, tracklisting, cover artwork, and preorder info to be announced shortly.  For more info, consult the links below.

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/WinterEternalBand

www.hellsheadbangers.com

DIKASTERION set release date for new AMOR FATI mini-album, reveal first track – features members of POSSESSION+++

Today, Amor Fati Productions announces September 1st as the international release date for a brand-new mini-album from Dikasterion, Chaos as a New World, on CD and 12″ vinyl formats.

Born from an evil alliance of North & South of Hellgium, Dikasterion began preaching His unholy gospel in 2018, following the ancient path opened by such entities as Barathrum, Archgoat, Beherit, and Holy Death. The band’s earliest attacks – a demo in 2018 and a 7″ EP the following year, courtesy of Amor Fati – featured a muscular & miasmic style of black metal, which is perhaps unsurprising given the appearance of erstwhile Possession drummer Pz. Kpfw. With a lineup shuffle that now sees the band returning to their original power-trio format, Dikasterion present a strange twist of ancient black metal energies on their first longer-length record, the Chaos as a New World mini-album.

“This new release is our return after few years finding our way,” state the band. “It represents our will to open people’s mind about the world and also a tale about our personal life. We wrote four songs with the same lineup we had back during the demo times and decided to cover ‘Armies of the Night from Stromtrooper,’ a catchy hymn that fits perfectly with the band’s energy. The last song (‘Death’s Serenade’) is the UFO of the album. It’s inspired by the ‘Schiarazula Marazula,’ a medieval song deeply attached to our personal history and childhood. It also fits perfectly with the other songs’ lyrics and the panic waves of these last years. Actually, the songs have been recorded since early 2021 and the release was supposed to be two years ago, straight after the pandemic…”

Encompassing seven tracks in a swift half-hour, Chaos as a New World charges forward in a manner most Bathorian, all dungeonic chord-clang and orkish rasp…at least initially. From there, Dikasterion turn the tables with triumphantly blown-out leads and songwriting that veers askew before going anthemic, perhaps best encapsulated in the aforementioned cover “Armies of the Night,” which the band here make their own. As Chaos of a New World plays on, the familiar and the foreign wage war against each other: BLACK METAL, in the very olde-world sense of it, this most definitely is, but the band’s note choices and production style suggest an auteur’s touch. Or, slash apart such fancy words and fully embrace the fact that black metal originally started as an unorthodox movement and that its early practitioners mostly wanted to herald Satan in a confrontational way – avant-garde wizards they were not. OR, perhaps Dikasterion here reside somewhere in between those “truths,” never quite offering the straightest/simplest line but doing so confrontationally – and gleefully, devilishly so. 

“Dikasterion want to remain as underground as possible – well, as much as we can be nowadays,” conclude the band. “That’s why we don’t have any social media page like Facebook or Instagram and it’s difficult to find information online. We’re attached to the ‘rules’ and spirit metal was supposed to fight for, 20-30 years ago, and want to keep the ‘original’ flame burning. We don’t want to pretend to something we were too young to be part of, but show people it’s still possible, that it still exists. We believe! We worship intensity, chaos; we are a straight punch in the face of those who think metal is cool and funny. So, join us to have a sip of whisky, a good kicking line, fuck the modern world, fuck all those bands losing their way, fuck the trends, the politically correct, and see you in Hell!”

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “New World Disorder” here:

Cover artwork, courtesy of Cinis, and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Dikasterion’s Chaos of a New World
1. Intro
2. Perdition’s Call
3. New World Disorder
4. Armies Of The Night
5. Across The Line
6. Rites Of Conviction
7. Death’s Serenade

MORE INFO:
www.dikasterion.bandcamp.com

www.amor-fati-productions.de 
www.amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com

BAXAXAXA set release date for new THE SINISTER FLAME debut album, reveal first track

On September 1st internationally, The Sinister Flame is proud to present Baxaxaxa‘s second full-length album, De Vermis Mysteriis, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

De Vermis Mysteriis is a 42-minute journey that not only preserves that old flame Baxaxaxa lit with their esteemed 2021 debut album, Catacomb Cult, but delves much deeper inside their decades-old abyss. And so bearing zero connection to the modern world, the album throws you to a very dark, primordial place beyond time that is distinctively Baxaxaxa‘s own.

The seven tracks reek of death and obscurity with vicious vocals straight from beyond the grave, yet it feels genuinely fresh. From their trademark doomy and heavier passages to the more uptempo ones, Baxaxaxa‘s Ancient Black Metal is soaked in mysteries, magick, and utmost possession. The old evil is present in every note.

Fear the return!

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Above the Stellar Gateway” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Baxaxaxa’s De Vermis Mysteriis
1. Seed of Golgotha
2. De Vermis Mysteriis
3. Kiss of Shame
4. Awaken, The Old Thing in the Ground
5. Above the Stellar Gateway
6. Decarnation Monument
7. Necrolatry Libation

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/UNGOD-Baxaxaxa-1037290856315377

www.thesinisterflame.com
www.facebook.com/thesinisterflame

FINSTERFORST set release date for new AOP RECORDS mini-album, reveal first track


Today, AOP Records announces September 8th as the international release date for a special mini-album from Finsterforst, Jenseits, on digipack CD and 12″ vinyl formats.

Founded in 2004, Finsterforst have released five albums and two EPs thus far. Starting as a folk metal act with heavy usage of accordion, the German band have evolved their sound to an epic, cinematic mix of post-black metal, traditional black metal, and folk metal featuring an enormous range of different singing styles and always-heavy riffing. The quintet calls this sound Black Forest Metal, referencing their roots in the Black Forest region.

During the Covid pandemic, Finsterforst asked their fans to help fund a new mini-album with only one song clocking in at almost 40 minutes. The fans came to help, and Jenseits was born. Arguably the band’s boldest statement to date, Jenseits is definitely not made for streaming, but those who enter this ominous but soon-awe-inspiring forest of sound will be infinitely rewarded: their characteristic Black Forest Metal here unfolds with a mesmerizing majesty that takes many, MANY twists and turns, but always with superlative songwriting acumen. Although the mini-album is broken up into four parts, Jenseits is undeniably an immersive experience that requires attention to its totality, and the 3D production itself renders that experience incredibly cinematic – again, arguably the band’s most cinematic to date.

With Jenseits, Finsterforst continue to go their own way of creating mind-bending art that will stand the test of time – and long may it continue!

In the meantime, hear the brand-new excerpt/track “Kapitel I: Freiheit here:

Cover artwork, courtesy of Yaroslav Gerzhedovich, and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Finsterforst’s Jenseits
1. Kapitel I – Freiheit [8:31]
2. Kapitel II – Dualitaet [9:17]
3. Kapitel III – Reflexionen [5:32]
4. Kapitel IV – Katharsis [15:49]

MORE INFO:
www.finsterforst.de 

www.aoprecords.de

PORTA NIGRA reveal third track from new SOULSELLER album

Today, avant-garde extreme metallers Porta Nigra reveal the new track “Es ist Krieg.” The track is the third to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated fourth album, Weltende, set for international release on July 28th via Soulseller Records. Hear Porta Nigra‘s “Es ist Krieg” in its entirety here:

Since their formation in 2010, Germany’s Porta Nigra have achieved the status of being one purveyors of the avant-garde within extreme metal. Starting with their sinister and opium-infused debut of 2012’s Fin de Siècle to the martial and militant mock of the Prussian empire in 2015’s Kaiserschnitt to the more straightforward but no-less-theatrical black metal opus Schöpfungswut in 2020, the band have cemented their leading position within the vanguard scene of German extreme metal.

Bringing the past into the present with bold and belligerent strokes, Porta Nigra return with Weltende, recasting the eclectic expression of their first two albums in a new, brilliant light. Immediately, the shapeshifting-yet-signature sound of the band is established – austere but restless, spacious but suffocating – and vocalist André Meyrink incredibly dynamic throat leads the charge with stentorian flair. But as much of a rush as Weltende is from that very beginning – and truly, Porta Nigra can rush and race with the best of them – the band’s fourth full-length soon blossoms like a deadly flower into myriad dread shapes, all breathtaking to behold. No sonic stone is left uncovered here: black metal, death metal, doom, thrash, and various connecting points in between. But, above all, Porta Nigra keep the grandiose edge that’s unified all their work, however varied, and Weltende vividly illustrates a deep lyrical focus.

As Meyrink explains, “This album transports the very aspects of war and what war causes to you mentally quite perfect. It is shocking, fanatic, dramatic, and depressing in equal measure and almost devoured me. Definitely no easy-listening stuff, but an album that grows and grows like the horrors of martial destruction.” 

Guitarist/songwriter Tobias (AKA Gilles de Rais) delves deeper: “With Weltende, we did again what we prefer the most – time travelling. Our destination of choice was the troubled period before the dawn of the monstrous sin of the 20th century – the Great War. An art called expressionism gave hints of the abyss that the European continent and its citizens would get thrown into. Especially authors like Georg Heym, Jakob van Hoddis, Georg Trakl, or Gottfried Benn would paint in their poems with drastic metaphors of war, death, and decay a picture of a moribund world overpopulated by lunatic and doomed souls. Many of those young men would not grow old and never be able to live a life beyond their apocalyptic visions. This album, for which we respectfully borrowed a handful of ideas, is dedicated to them and their legacy.”

Also hear the previously revealed “Die himmlische Revolution” exclusively HERE, courtesy of Deaf Forever magazine, as well as the previously revealed “Götterblut” HERE, also at Soulseller‘s official YouTube channel. Preorder info for world can be found HERE while preorder info for the Americas can found HERE. Cover artwork, courtesy of Käthe Kollwitz, and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Porta Nigra’s Weltende
1. Es ist Krieg
2. Götterblut
3. Völkerbrand
4. Verlorene Paradiese
5. Bestienschlund
6. Die himmlische Revolution
7. Weltende
8. Triebgeschwärme
9. Hora Mortis

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/portanigraband

www.soulsellerrecords.com 
www.facebook.com/soulsellerrecords

THE RITE premiere new track – features members of DENIAL OF GOD, BLACK OATH+++

Today, morbid metallers The Rite premiere the new track “The Fathomless Dark”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated second album, The Astral Gloom, set for international release on August 11th via Iron Bonehead Productions. Hear The Rite‘s “The Fathomless Dark” in its entirety here:

The Rite was formed in autumn 2017 when A.th (Black Oath) and Ustumallagam (Denial of God) joined forces to create a band that exclusively plays morbid black metal, praising complete and utmost darkness. Their influences range from iconic bands such as Mercyful Fate, Death SS, Celtic Frost, Samael, Goatlord, Ripper, and others, as well as occult literature. The music walks a fine line between slow and dreary parts and fast and merciless attacks, but by and large, it falls into the black/doom 
category. 

The recording of The Rite‘s five-track mini-album, The Brocken Fires, was finished in August 2018 and originally released on tape by Unholy Domain Records in October 2018. In August 2019, the mini-album was then released on CD and 12″ vinyl formats by Iron Bonehead and successively received a great response from the underground scene. 

In July 2019, The Rite performed their debut show at Denmark’s Metal Magic Festival. In the autumn of that year, the band performed their second show, this time in Italy. Around the same time, The Rite entered the studio again to record their debut album, Liturgy of the Black, which contained 10 tracks of morbid black metal, including a cover of Ripper. The album was released in June 2020 by Iron Bonehead, showing The Rite creating an atmosphere of darkness and the occult rather than focusing on speed or technicality. The music, written by A.th, this time incorporated both guitar solos and keyboards while staying true to The Rite‘s original path of mainly slow and heavy black metal. The lyrics, penned by Ustumallagam, covered various intriguing subjects such as pure devil worship, devotion to the dark, strange rituals, and the afterlife, and the man’s characteristically creepy annunciation brought those subjects to undead life with drama and intensity.

Around the turn of 2020 to 2021, The Rite returned to the studio to record new tracks for two upcoming releases. Some of the tracks were included on a split CD with Coven of Impurity, released by Cursed Recordings (A.th’s label), and one track was featured on a split 7″ EP with Bezwering, released on Headkick Music (Ustumallagam’s label) in May 2022, after facing cursed delays. The split CD with Coven of Impurity sold out quickly, and most of the copies of the split 7″ with Bezwering were sold within a few days. 

In 2022, The Rite‘s lineup underwent some changes. The original drummer, P. Guts, was replaced by someone else who the band parted ways with just days before their third show at Winter Metal Magic in Denmark. War D. (Morbus Grave) stepped in at the last moment and saved the day, and has been with the band ever since. A second guitar player was found in M. Desecrator (VomitVulva, Funest), making The Rite a five-piece band, even stronger in their live performances. 

Despite being busy with both Denial of God and Black Oath, The Rite began working intensely on the follow-up to Liturgy of the Black. After some initial rehearsals, their second album was recorded in December 2022. Titled The Astral Gloom, The Rite‘s new album contains another 10 tracks, proving as dark and dynamic as ever, with creepier excursions into quieter territory and an even more heightened atmospheric element without losing any heaviness – thus, the title The Astral Gloom is more than fitting. That heaviness is provocatively played to the hilt with this two-guitar lineup, and the lead parts evoke a macabre majesty only hinted at before. Once again, The Rite choose a unique cover – this time, the Lollipops’ “Naked When You Come,” an eerie psychedelic pop song from 1966 – and they truly make it their own.

With this new lineup bolstered and better than ever, The Rite seek to take their morbid metal to the stage more often and promote The Astral Gloom as fully as possible. The black bells toll more ominously than ever, the veil between worlds begins to open…step forth into The Astral Gloom!

Also hear the previously revealed “Nosophoros” HERE at Iron Bonehead‘s Soundcloud. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for The Rite’s The Astral Gloom
1. Intro – The Evocation
2. The Spirit of Mendes
3. The Fathomless Dark
4. Under A Lunar Spell
5. Walpurgis Night
6. The Astral Gloom
7. Nosophoros
8. Naked When You Come
9. The Valley of Megiddo
10. Outro – Sheol

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/The-Rite-band-page-219647875291113