Description
THEOPHONOS (ex-Serpent Column) and Profound Lore Records present "Ashes in the Huron River" to be released on LP and CD. The new LP is named in honor of the local woods and riverlands that continue to inspire the studio project. This record is an account of a life spent in the rotten heartlands of neoliberal capitalism and a tribute to the vibrant underground music cultures that thrived before the second half of the last decade.
Expanding on the directness of "Nightmare Visions", "Ashes" is grander in scope, and is internally regarded as a more focused analogue to 2019's "Mirror in Darkness". Hafsteinn Vioar Arsaelsson's dark and intricate illustrations once again accompany the music with striking depictions of abandoned landscapes, arranged to invoke a sense of catastrophe and unwilling transformation.
Primary musical influences include Death Grips' "Jenny Death" (which the record homages in its gradient-like structure, its centerpiece "Still You Haunt Me" even acting as a reimagined "On GP"), the downtuned hyperaggressions of Morbid Angel's "Gateways to Annihilation", and the cinematic, raw intimacies of Pelican's "The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw".
Contributions include reamping and additional mixing by longtime collaborator Maya Chun (of screamo prodigies Heavenly Blue and countless solo projects) in the frigid spaces of Detroit's Telescope Vision Studio.
SALES NOTES PLUS TRACK LISTING
- THEOPHONOS create a punishing sound that amalgamates dissonant black metal with forward thinking post-metal/post-hardcore/screamo. A sound coming across as a mix between artists found on labels such as Norma Evangelium Diaboli, Hydra Head, Revelation Records, and Equal Vision. Picture Deathspell Omega meets Converge/His Hero Is Gone.
- Vinyl edition comes in two exclusive limited colour variants (black marble smoke and black cloud editions) and packaged in a single LP jacket with a vinyl sized 12-page booklet.