Prolific Colorado metallers NECROPANTHER announce the May 3rd release of Oblivion Jones: A Tale Of False Consciousness, their latest EP, which features saxophonist Rico Jones. The cover art, track listing, preorders, and lead single “The Denver School” have today been unveiled.
NECROPANTHER hails from the metal music cauldron of Denver. Masters of genre manipulation, the band blends elements of death, thrash, black metal, and more to create riff-heavy albums for a dystopian future. All four band members are composers and collaboratively create their full-length albums. Since 2014 they have amassed a catalog of startling diversity and consistent quality.
The four-song Oblivion Jones: A Tale Of False Consciousness was written and produced by NECROPANTHER guitarist, Joe Johnson. The EP completes a cycle of “solo” EPs, written and produced by each band member that are released between full-length albums.
The EP’s story follows the eponymous Oblivion Jones, a fictional mid-century painter and loose associate of the Beats. The artist is from Baltimore, working in Denver. After his death at the end of the second movement, he is astonished to find himself “resurrected” as a cybernetic replicant attending a retrospective exhibition of his work in a near-future dystopia.
Musically, the EP continues NECROPANTHER’s experimentation in their EPs, with a large-scale bass solo, spoken textures, mood shifts within songs, and influences from beyond metal, presented as a four-movement program reminiscent of a four-movement symphony but reimagined for an expansive vision of heavy metal, infusing thrash, doom, melodic death, and NWOBHM styles. Additionally, the EP sees the band joined by accomplished jazz musician/band leader Rico Jones performing tenor saxophone as a guest soloist across all four songs. Jones has performed as a leader with notable artists such as Dave Kikoski, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Matt Clohesy, Yasushi Nakimura, Ari Hoenig, Lage Lund, Kush Abaday, Joe Martin, Colin Stranahan, Rick Rosato, Rich Perry, Steven Feifke and many others. The release will include alternate versions of all four songs “sans sax” as bonus tracks.
Comments Johnson on “The Denver School, “’The Denver School’ is a jumping off point for the action of the rest of the EP, both narratively and stylistically. It places the artist in his studio in Denver, where he’s attempting to create one last great work to solidify his legacy, in the twilight of his career. Both Rico and I get a solo on the tune, and the interplay of the tones, dynamics, and hopefully drama were things that allowed to take shape on their own as we developed and produced this music as a band and production team.”
Stream “The Denver School” now at THIS LOCATION.
Oblivion Jones: A Tale Of False Consciousness was recorded, mixed, and mastered by longtime collaborator, Felipe Patino of Denver’s Green Door Recordings, and completed with cover art by Max Sherman
NECROPANTHER will release Oblivion Jones: A Tale Of False Consciousness independently on CD, LP, and digital formats on May 1st. Preorders can be placed HERE.
Oblivion Jones: A Tale Of False Consciousness Track Listing:
1. The Denver School (Thrash-Allegro)
2. The Transported Man (Doom-Largo)
3. First Friday / Palest Piano (Melodeath-Scherzo Nowherzo)
4. Thrash Till Death (NWOBHM-Rondo)
[5-8. Alternate versions sans sax]
NECROPANTHER:
Paul Anop – guitar, vocals
Marcus Corich – bass, vocals
Joe Johnson – guitars
Haakon Sjogren – drums
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https://necropanther.bandcamp.com