HORRENDOUS offer first glimpse inside ‘Ontological Mysterium’
The progressive death metal band HORRENDOUS have finished their fifth studio album. Today, they’re releasing the title track ‘Ontological Mysterium‘. The album will be released worldwide on August 18, 2023 and is now available for pre-order.
The album contains everything you’d expect from HORRENDOUS:technical proficiency, riffs that thrash and churn through a labyrinth of progressively twisted arrangements, charred vocals and melodic destruction.
“The album is our love letter to the bombastic spirit of heavy metal from the ’80s and early ’90s”, says Matthew Knox, who plays guitar and also pitches in on vocals. ‘Ontological Mysterium’ is an allegorical tale of creation, the formation of organic life, and the inadvertently and ironically destructive fate of unbound growth and uncontrollable reproduction. It represents the wild voracity of youth and inevitable transition into the gradual decay of aging in its various forms, fulfilling the unbroken circle of a biological existence”.
FFO: Atheist (early), Death (middle period), Coroner, Martyr, Sadist.
The cover artwork for Ontological Mysterium is designed by Brian Smith, who also designed the covers for the band’s last three albums.
Tracklist:
1. The Blaze (02:00)
2. Chrysopoeia (The Archaeology of Dawn) (07:16)
3. Neon Leviathan (03:30)
4. Aurora Neoterica (01:56)
4. Preterition Hymn (03:58)
5. Cult of Shaad’oah (05:24)
6. Exeg(en)esis, (03:38)
7. Ontological Mysterium (04:44) [WATCH HERE]
8. The Death Knell Ringeth (05:20)
Total run time: 37:44
“Surprises always come up during writing — spontaneous ideas pull you into new territory and enable the realization of novel possibilities that previously were inaccessible.”
Such are the words from Horrendous drummer Jamie Knox when discussing the creation of the band’s fifth full-length, the highly anticipated ‘Ontological Mysterium’. Knox’s quote also encapsulates Horrendous’s approach to extreme metal. Since 2009, the band has capably tapped into the inaccessible by providing a fresh, unconventional take on death metal that harnesses technical brilliance with elaborate, mind-melding melodies, frothy, spewing vocals and labyrinthine song structures. This combination has made each Horrendous long play a clinic in the gratifyingly unorthodox. The trend continues on Ontological Mysterium.
The follow-up to 2018’s Idol was recorded, mixed and mastered at Subterranean Watchtower Studios in Virginia, which doubles as the homestead of guitarist/vocalist Damian Herring. While the band (completed by guitarist/vocalist Matt Knox and bassist Alex Kulick) finished much of the songwriting for Ontological Mysterium in 2019, its recording was delayed by the 2020 global pandemic and various life events. Horrendous eventually finished recording in early 2022 and mastered the album before the start of 2023.
The album upholds Horrendous’s position as one of the underground’s best outside-of-the-box extreme metal bands. Having long abandoned concern whether people would appreciate their “uniqueness,” Horrendous has embraced its role as a band willing to veer far from death metal conventions, intentionally stretching and breaking norms. To wit, the band primarily views its music as filtered through a death metal lens. This may be Horrendous’s defining trait: By not accepting parameters, nothing is off-limits.
Lineup:
Damian Herring – Guitar, Vocals
Matt Knox – Guitar, Vocals
Alex Kulick – Bass
Jamie Knox – Drums
Producer / Sound Engineer / Mixing / Mastering: Damian Herring at Subterranean Watchtower Studio, Arlington, VA, USA
Style: Progressive death metal
Pre-save: : https://orcd.co/ontologicalmysteriumpresave
Pre-sales: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/HorrendousShop
For more on HORRENDOUS,
https://www.facebook.com/HorrendousDeathMetal
https://www.instagram.com/horrendous_official/
https://horrendoussom.bandcamp.com/
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/horrendous/496063134
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Na6P4MqOassrZtvT9Z12s
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