photo by Roelof Herbst-Witmans
ALKYMIST enters the void between heaven and hell with the release of their impending second album, Sanctuary. As the album nears release in May through Indisciplinarian, Decibel Magazine is now streaming the new single, “The Dead.”
Just a year-and-a-half after their acclaimed eponymous debut album, Danish progressive doom act ALKYMIST sets out once more on a trip that takes you far beyond this world and into their strange and crushingly heavy realm of brutal, yet beautiful and grandiose soundscapes. On Sanctuary, ALKYMIST offers the listener an immersive, spiritual and transcendent journey. The record revolves around metaphysical questioning, soul searching, mental and cerebral escape and ultimately the quest to achieve redemption of spirit and flesh.
Following the release of the LP’s lead single, “Draugr,” the quartet now unleashes the mesmerizing, “The Dead,” about which lead vocalist Peter Bjørneg states, “‘The Dead’ is a song inspired by two verses from Hávamál, the old Norse codex of conduct. Good advice as how to behave yourself and reconcile in life in order to move peacefully into the afterlife.”
- 77.
Livestock die, kindred die Livestock die, kindred die
Every man is mortal Every man is mortal
But the good name never dies But I know one thing that never dies
Of one who has done well The glory of a great dead
Decibel Magazine writes with their song premiere, “less than two years since their staggering debut, the band will soon unveil their massive sophomore album.”
Stream ALKYMIST’s “The Dead” early through Decibel Magazine RIGHT HERE.
Sanctuary will be released May 1st, 2020 on vinyl, cassette, and digital formats. The vinyl edition comes in runs of 400 black and 100 crystal clear copies, and the cassette limited to 100 copies. Both physical versions of the album are now available for preordering at the label webshop HERE.
ALKYMIST was to play this year’s SPOT Festival in Aarhus Denmark, but the show has been cancelled due to the current pandemic, and the band’s release shows in April and May are also endangered, without having been cancelled just yet. Luckily the band is planning a string of Danish, Norwegian, and German Fall dates to be announced in the coming months.
ALKYMIST Live:
4/30/2020 Alice – Copenhagen, DK *Sanctuary release show [tickets]
5/15/2020 Gimle – Roskilde, DK
12/05/2020 Bhaal Fest IV – Odense, DK
Since 2016, ALKYMIST has trod its own trail and challenged the preconceptions of heavy music, with a dynamic, textured and progressive doom metal, first heard on the 2018 EP, Element, and subsequently on the band’s eponymous debut LP later that year. The new album Sanctuary and its six tracks delivers two sound collages over its forty-three-minute duration, and fully lives up to the band’s eclectic vision. As on the first record, the new collection of songs is recorded and mixed by producer Lasse Ballade (Orm, Slægt, Solbrud) and the artwork created by Anders Kidmose.
https://alkymist.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/alkymist
https://www.instagram.com/handofthealkymist
http://www.indisciplinarian.com
http://www.facebook.com/indisciplinarian
https://indisciplinarian.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/indisciplinarian_/