Sentient Ruin and Lower Your Head are to proud announce Hell’s colossal fifth official full length album, “Submersus”, to be released on July 11 2025 on LP, CD and MC formats via Sentient Ruin and digitally via Lower Your Head, all pre-orderable now along with an exclusive limited edition screen printed long sleeve shirt from both labels. The album’s monstrous opening track “Hevy” can also be streamed now via both label channels.
In yet another feat of unrivaled auditory heaviness which will further cement his status of visionary, MSW takes the listener once again deep into the darkest abysses of inner turmoil and personal struggle, reaffirming the Oregon musician’s inscrutable and unique ability to transform emotional torment into a masterclass of crushing sonic burden. Across its five abysmal movements "Submersus" recaptures the unfair and woeful essence of life which has driven the project from its inception almost twenty years ago, embodying the affliction that shapes human existence as it’s perpetually torn between ephemeral and fragile moments of respite, and their inexorable dissolution, as joy and hope are cyclically eclipsed and devoured back into the eternal storming vastness of circumstance and inevitability. Pessimism and resignation act as the inescapable tidal forces to this immense emotional abyss which implacably pulls all toward it, drawing life deep into the maelstrom where it's drowned under its own weight and implodes into the lightless crush-depth of unending sorrow and despondency.
Since at least 2009, Oregon’s Hell has been crafting one of the most crushing and evocative strains of extreme doom to ever appear on North American soil. Continuing the abysmal legacy of bands like Corrupted, Moss, Sunn O))) and Burning Witch, the solo endeavor led and conceived by multi-instrumentalist and sound engineer Matthew Scott Williams has from inception set out to shatter the boundaries of musical heaviness while acting as a primordial cathartic vessel for the musician’s boundless imagination and inner demons. Always and forever a representation of one’s inner hell, the project has evolved throughout the years from of a foundational framework of feedback and amplifier-worshipping slow-crawling doom, developing into an imposing experimental beast encompassing the realms of drone music, neo-folk, black metal, funeral doom, sludge metal and beyond. The project emerged from the Salem punk, folk and metal scene in the late 00’s, around the musician collective and living space known as Burial Grounds, which at aside from Williams also included Nate Meyers of Mania, Liam Neighbors of Mizmor, and Paul Riedl of Blood Incantation, among many others. [continue reading]