Memphis (TN) – Melodic/Blackened Death Metal vets Epoch of Unlight are set to release their first album in 17 years! The band’s fourth full-length album, At War With the Multiverse, will be released on September 16 through Dark Horizon Records.
First single “An Amarathine Line” is streaming now at: epochofunlight.bandcamp.com/track/an-amarathine-line-2
The song is also available on Spotify and YouTube.
Epoch of Unlight last released an album in 2005, The Continuum Hypothesis, on The End Records. With that album, their 3rd full length, they fulfilled their contract and decided to step away from being a recording and touring band, partially due to exhaustion and partially due to wanting to pursue other avenues in life. Though the momentum they had generated from tireless touring in support of their albums slowed, they would continue to write and perform, but several member changes would cause perennial resets in plans to record with a stable lineup.
In 2016, Scott Baggett joined the band as vocalist, allowing guitarist/vocalist Jason Smith to step back and focus on guitar. His vocal style, a classic death metal growl mixed with the same sort of highs used by previous Epoch of Unlight vocalists, added a new dynamic to the band’s established style. In 2018, Jason left the band, causing yet another setback. Josh Braddock, who recorded all of the guitars on The Continuum Hypothesis, returned to the group, bringing with him a chaotic yet melodic lead style to complement the more technical lead style of longtime guitarist John Fortier, and the lineup has been stable ever since.
The COVID pandemic, while forcing an end to live performances, gave the band a chance to focus on 10 songs, refine them, practice them over and over, run them through a lengthy preproduction until finally, in October 2021, they were ready to record their fourth album, At War With the Multiverse. They entered ABR studios with longtime friend and former guitarist Alan Burcham at the helm, who used his considerable patience and skills to capture the band at its tightest, highlighting the rhythm section of drummer Tino LoSicco and bassist Joe Totty, a pair that formed the steady nucleus of Epoch of Unlightever since their second album.
The end result is 42 minutes of technical melodic death metal, full of hooks and relentlessly catchy, while still retaining some of the straight-ahead American Black Metal that started their career and garnered so much attention back in the 90’s. Lyrically, it follows the same sort of science fiction/fantasy themes as previous efforts. Sonically, it’s the best-sounding Epoch of Unlight album yet, a result of Alan Burcham’s meticulous attention to detail while recording and mixing … and mixing … and mixing again, and the band’s years-long effort to perfect their performances of these songs.
The album was mastered at Fascination Street Studios by Tony Lindgren, who has worked with some of the biggest names in death and thrash metal. Knowing this album needed to make a mark after such a long absence from recording, even as an unsigned independent band, they pulled out all the stops in performance and production.
FFO: Intense melodic blackened death metal in the vein of The Crown, Dimension Zero, Swordmaster, Defleshed, Cardinal Sin, older Dark Tranquility and Necroticism to Heartwork-era Carcass.
Pre-order:
Track Listing:
- The Anthropocene
- The Numbing Stillness
- Wrath of the Cryomancer
- An Amaranthine Line
- Beneath a Dying Sun
- Elysian Immortals
- The Möbius Path
- Night Hunt
- All Light Dies
- The Lie of Tomorrow’s Dawn
Epoch of Unlight is a melodic blackened death metal band from Memphis, Tennessee. The band formed in 1990, playing under a variety of different names including Enraptured and Requiem until 1994, when they officially settled on Epoch of Unlight.
In 1998 Epoch of Unlight signed with The End Records. Shortly thereafter the band entered the studio to record their debut full-length album, What Will Be Has Been. The band supported the release with numerous live shows including a five-week national tour with Norwegian symphonic black metallers, Dimmu Borgir and Samael and Florida Death Metal legends Monstrosity. The tour consisted of over 30 shows throughout the USA.
The band’s second album, Caught in the Unlight!, was recorded in December 2000 with Keith Falgout (Soilent Green, Crisis, Crowbar and Cephalic Carnage, among others). This album placed less emphasis on the black metal aspects that had been present in their prior work, opting for a more melodic and technical death metal sound. The band supported Caught in the Unlight!with numerous live shows through the country including a two-week national tour with Enslaved and an appearance at the first annual Northern Lights Festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The band entered Big Blue Meenie studio in New Jersey October 27, 2004, to record their third and final release for The End Records, The Continuum Hypothesis. The album was engineered and co-produced by Erin Farley (All Out War, Agnostic Front, Sick of It All, Madball, M.O.D., Overkill, among others). The band also supported The Continuum Hypothesis with numerous live shows through the country including a slot on the 2005 “International Extreme Music Festival” North American tour with God Dethroned, Nightrage, Hell Within, Thine Eyes Bleed and Lilitu.
On October 1, 2021, Epoch of Unlight entered the studio to begin recording of their fourth full-length (and first album in 17 years).
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