EMBRACE OF THORNS

EMBRACE OF THORNS stream new NUCLEAR WINTER album

Today, Greek black/death titans Embrace of Thorns stream the entirety of their highly anticipated sixth album, Entropy Dynamics. Set for international release on October 10th via Nuclear Winter Records, hear Embrace of Thorns‘ Entropy Dynamics in its entirety here:

Emerging in the late ’90s from western Athens as Requiem, only to be soon renamed to the more apt Embrace of Thorns, the Greek Temple of Black Death has been championing Darkness Impenetrable for more than 20 years.
 
Having released five albums on labels such as Nuclear War Now! and Iron Bonehead plus an arsenal of demo tapes and split releases, Embrace of Thorns have been acknowledged as a force to be reckoned with. Their poison, a highly atmospheric and dense amalgam of death and black metal, has been gaining momentum since the release of their acclaimed sophomore album, Atonement Ritual, in 2009. Their third full-length, 2011’s Praying for Absolution, considered by many as their magnum opus, saw them fully embracing their potential and heralding knowledge through strife. Their latest full-length offering, 2018’s Scorn Aesthetics, was unanimously hailed and celebrated as arguably their ripest album, an idiosyncratic mix of somber, melodious, yet punishing Black Metal of Death that relies heavily on the organic mood of the performances and production. The new EP called The Pantheon I they unleashed in March continues exploring the pits of strife that is blackened metal of death, with music that is full of anguish, glorious darkness, and crushing dynamics.

Now aligned with longtime fans Nuclear Winter, Embrace of Thorns are set to release their sixth album, Entropy Dynamics. The band’s first full-length recording in four years, Entropy Dynamics indeed includes many/most of the dynamics of their preceding LPs – death metalled muscularity, pitch-blackened atmosphere, stellar songwriting, and powerful production – but it also points the way toward new, creepier territory. For sure, Embrace of Thorns‘ grounding in the early bestial sound can still be heard, but rendered with the world-eating totality of classic death metal, that surge takes on a different, far-more-frightening form. The quartet heighten that frightening aspect with a subtle-yet-no-less-noticeable emphasis on dynamics rather than just crushing their enemies straightaway; when the soundfield strips back to its barest bones and ringing-into-the-abyss clean guitars take center stage, the full force of Entropy Dynamics is felt. 

Always staying true to themselves whilst maturing in the most respectable manner, Embrace of Thorns continue their campaign of extreme metal destruction with Entropy Dynamics. To coincide with its release, celebratory reissues of their sold-out albums Atonement Ritual and Praying for Absolution will also be available again via Nuclear Winter, as well as a CD version of the preceding EP The Pantheon I, which will be supplemented with an exclusive bonus track.  

 Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Embrace of Thorns’ Entropy Dynamics
1. Blackest Orthodoxy Perpetuated
2. Entropy Dynamics / Nucleus Dissolved
3. The Arrow of Time
4. The Breath of the Beast
5. I Wish you Burn in an Endless Funeral Pyre
6. Scythes Reaping Conscience
7. The Lament of the Destroyed
8. Wormfeast
9. Transformation into a Celestial Ghoul
10. Vultures’ Ritual Dance
11. Ululation

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/EmbraceOfThorns
www.embracethorns.bandcamp.com

www.nuclearwinterrecords.com
www.nuclearwinterrecords.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/martyrdoomproductions

EMBRACE OF THORNS to release special live CD+DVD set via SATURNAL – reveal first track

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” (Rev. 8:10, 11).

Today, Saturnal Records announces January 15th, 2021 as the international release date of a special live album from Embrace of Thorns, Revelation of All Sins, on CD+DVD format.

Emerging in the late ‘90s from western Athens as Requiem, only to be soon renamed to the more apt Embrace of Thorns, the Greek Temple of Black Death has been championing death for more than 20 years.

Having released five albums on labels such as Nuclear War Now! and Iron Bonehead plus an arsenal of demo tapes and split releases, Embrace of Thorns has been acknowledged as a force to be reckoned with. Their poison, a highly atmospheric and dense amalgam of death and black metal, has been gaining momentum since the release of their acclaimed sophomore album, Atonement Ritual, in 2009. Their third full-length, 2011’s Praying for Absolution, considered by many as their magnum opus, saw them fully embracing their potential and pontificating knowledge through strife. Their latest offering, 2018’s Scorn Aesthetics, was unanimously hailed and celebrated as arguably their ripest album, an idiosyncratic mix of somber, melodious, yet punishing Black Metal of Death that relies heavily on the organic mood of the performances and production.

On the live front, Embrace of Thorns has likewise been a force to be reckoned with since 2009, having performed at various festivals around Europe and the United States. On that live front, the dense, suffocating, and oppressive trappings of their sound seem more pronounced. With relentless drumming, crushingly heavy guitar tones, and abominable vocals, their material gets re-interpreted and is transformed to a vile celebration of all things morbid.

Revelation of All Sins combines audio and video performances from two professionally captured shows. The audio CD, titled The Fall of Athens, was recorded live in Athens at Kyttaro club in 2015, from Embrace of Thorns’ historical show with Dead Congregation and Nigredo, while the DVD was professionally recorded and filmed by Necrokatarsis, when the band visited Vilnius, Lithuania for Armageddon Descends festival.

Both shows were mixed and mastered by Herald of Demonic Pestilence, and while the performances are left untouched, the final product is the best representation one could have from the band as a live act. Embrace of Thorns’ modus operandi doesn’t rely on gimmickry, but they fully embrace the spirit of old, when black metal was about embracing one’s own demons and spewing them forth, unharnessed and ferocious, while onstage.

Holiness has indeed expired… Experience the expiration of holiness with the live track “Atonement Ritual

Cover artwork, courtesy of Gilbert Miranda, and full tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Embrace of Thorns’ Revelation of All Sins
LIVE CD:
THE FALL OF ATHENS
27-12-2015
 1. Intro / Praying For Absolution
2. Sons Of Fire And Brimstone Levitate!
3. My Hermetic Quest For Thy Blackest Temple
4. Darkness Impenetrable
5. Atonement Ritual
6. Tombs Of The Desecrated Zealots
7. Debris Crowns His Earthly Wombs
8. Perished In Mortal Agony / Second Death
9. Sempiternally Cursing The Weak
10. Aiwaz Arisen/ Outro


LIVE DVD:
LIVE AT ARMAGEDDON DESCENDS V
 22-4-2017 Vilnius, Lithuania
1. Erect Bloodstained Totems
2. Praying For Absolution
3. Sons Of Fire And Brimstone Levitate!
4. Venom In Veins
5. Passionate Destroyer
6. Debris Crowns His Earthly Worms
7. Atonement Ritual
8. Tombs Of The Desecrated Zealots
9. Sempiternally Cursing The Weak
10. Perished In Mortal Agony / Second Death

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/EmbraceOfThorns
 

www.saturnalrecords.com

EMBRACE OF THORNS stream new track

IRON BONEHEAD PRODUCTIONS is proud to present EMBRACE OF THORNS’ highly anticipated fifth album, Scorn Aesthetics, on CD and vinyl LP format.

For nearly 20 years now, EMBRACE OF THORNS have built a prolific-yet-patient catalog that defies easy categorization. Deeply rooted in ancient black metal and death metal to be sure, these Greek iconoclasts’ sound nevertheless has often been “too black metal” for most death metallers and “too death metal” for most black metallers – likewise, they preempted the bestial metal by at least four years, and later on solidified songwriting finesse far “too clean” for most bestial worshipers – and sadly, wider acclaim in the underground has eluded them. For those KNOW, though, the name EMBRACE OF THORNS has come to mean a gold standard in black/death METAL, and while “acclaim” has never been in their lexicon, longtime supporters IRON BONEHEAD welcomes the band with the riveting Scorn Aesthetics.

Whereas earlier EMBRACE OF THORNS recordings – particularly their cult earliest albums, 2007’s …for I See Death in Their Eyes… and 2009’s classic Atonement Ritual – melded the swarming, gibbering chaos of bestial black metal with the molten muscle of the most sepulchral death metal, with 2014’s largely overlooked Darkness Impenetrable did the band cross a Rubicon, of sorts, into more streamlined and martial territory. It’s a move that might’ve alienated the more underground-dwelling of EMBRACE OF THORNS’ potential fanbase, but one that made their name ever more unique, and they continue that upward/onward trajectory with Scorn Aesthetics.

Encased in their most powerful and punishing production to date, which amplifies the band’s growing clarity without sacrificing an ounce of grit, Scorn Aesthetics sees EMBRACE OF THORNS firing on all cylinders…and then crushing them underfoot. Across the album’s generous-yet-concise 43 minutes, each of these seven tracks builds with patience and poise, but somehow elusively convey a sense of explosion, detonation, immolation. The effect is one of vortextural churn ‘n’ spun, slipstreaming the listener into a roiling, ceaselessly humid mass but offering no hope nor reprieve. More generally, Scorn Aesthetics is built upon walls of RIFFS – be they “death metal,” “black metal,” or just pure METAL – all coalescing into an occult fury, immediately engaging every step of the way and memorable to the very end.

Iron-willed and resolute, EMBRACE OF THORNS challenge convention and stagnation with Scorn Aesthetics. Prepare to be flattened, or step aside like a coward.

MORE INFO:
http://www.facebook.com/EmbraceOfThorns
http://www.ironbonehead.de
http://www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions
http://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com