ARKAIK returns to the West Coast again fresh off the release of their new album, Lucid Dawn, as headliners of the Unique Leader Winter Showcase. This stacked bill highlights some of the label’s best and most brutal featuring ARKAIK alongside WRVTH, INANIMATE EXISTENCE and LORD OF WAR on select dates. The short but wildly hyper-technical frenzy begins December 9th in Sailnas, California for five straight days sweeping through the Southwest and wrapping up in Anaheim, California.
Unique Leader Winter Showcase 2015 w/ ARKIAK, WRVTH, INANIMATE EXISTENCE, LORD OR WAR:
12/09/2015 La Movida – Salinas, CA *
12/10/2015 Divebar – Las Vegas, NV *
12/11/2015 The Hub – Colton, CA
12/12/2015 Nile Theater – Mesa, AZ
12/13/2015 Brick By Brick – San Diego, CA **
12/14/2015 Doll Hut – Anaheim, CA **
*no INANIMATE EXISTENCE and LORD OF WAR
**no ARKAIK
ARKAIK‘s second installment in a series of concept albums, Lucid Dawn, released earlier this year via Unique Leader, centers itself around Cyrix, a disillusioned character in a dystopian society. In Cyrix’ realm, dreaming is systematically controlled by a tyrannical ruler named Khaal-Li-Phar and his army of dark shamans, where people are forced to build monuments to the tyrant to stifle their imaginations and inhibit their ability to achieve a multi-dimensional existence. Musically and conceptually, Lucid Dawn is a death metal take on American mythologist, writer and lecturer, Joseph Campbell’s monomyth and the beginning of Cyrix’s “Hero’s Journey,” that seamlessly carries its listeners on a visceral expedition through the depths of evil and beyond the threshold of mundane reality.
WRVTH will be touring in support of their self-titled new full-length, issued this past June. Tracked at SharkBite/Castle Ultimate Studios by Zack Ohren (Suffocation, Fallujah, All Shall Perish et al.), the record features a guest appearance from Daniel Casares of Bay Area jazz group, Atta Kid, on saxophone and continues to astound the ears of fans and critics globally for its expert balance of beauty and brutality. Said No Clean Singing of the offering, “WRVTH’s long stretches of ambience, combined with a half-billion different guitar riffs and occasional blast-beats, give the band the sense of an auteur, painting a multitude of different, distinctive pictures within their new disc’s run-time… you can relax to this album and then just as quickly want to groove and headbang. It’s an ambitious disc whose sensibilities strive for independence, reflecting the band’s desire to separate themselves from everyone around them, and it has a massive amount of appeal for that.”
INANIMATE EXISTENCE continues to tour in support of their A Never-Ending Cycle OfAtonement full-length, released last Summer. Tracked by Max Zigman (Son Of Aurelius, Smaragos) at Parade Outrageous in Santa Cruz and produced by Zack Ohren (Light This City, All Shall Perish, First Blood, Cattle Decapitation, Warbringer et al) at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, A Never-Ending Cycle Of Atonement finds INANIMATE EXISTENCE elevating their signature, outlandish compositions to an entirely new level of profundity. A conceptual offering centered on Tibetan folk, each movement marvels at its own innovative density as intricate guitar structures coil seamlessly around complex rhythms and venomous vocal assaults as female vocal accents, clarinet, bass flute, harp, bongos and other nuances add to the record’s already confounding depth.
LORD OF WAR will be touring with a pending sophomore album release itching to be unveiled to the world. The space metal quintet are currently putting the final touches on the production with a release date set to be announced soon. They will be playing new, unreleased music throughout these handful of dates. This will be the band’s first release on Unique Leader Records after an independent venture, Celestial Pestilence, in 2011.
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