COFFIN LURKER: Dutch Extreme Doom Duo Ready Release of Inhumanly Crushing Debut LP "Foul and Defiled" - Track Unveiled at Last Rites.

Sentient Ruin is honored to partake in the abominable birth of dutch extreme doom experiment Coffin Lurker, whose overwhelmingly crushing debut LP "Foul and Defiled" is set to be released June 7 2021 on LP/MC and digital formats worldwide.

Formed by Maurice De Jong AKA Mories (Gnaw Their Tongues, Cloak of Altering, De Magia Veterum, Dodenbezweerder etc.), and Rene Aquarius (Cryptae, Dead Neanderthals, Imperial Cult, Plague Organ etc.), Coffin Lurker is a repulsive experiment begotten unto a perverse delusion of ushering doom metal beyond extremes of heaviness and horror it has never before seen or fathomed. Overwhelming and abominable in its every aspect, on their hideous debut LP "Foul and Defiled" the dutch terror-doom duo set out on a mission of terrifying extremism to take doom metal to its most harrowing consequences, crossing every threshold of extreme known, to materialize a humongous slow moving nightmare of paralyzing and horrific doom metal horror that will flatten the listener and devour them inside a nauseating void. Emanating with a monstrous and oppressive aura of total death and decay, "Foul and Defiled" is a gargantuan sepulchral abomination of subterranean megaton doom rising from an underworld of ageless and unnameable death and suffering that sonically aims to re-evoke the hideous and death-obsessed immensity of other underground extreme/experimental doom abominations like Moss and Grave Upheaval, while taking the heinous formula, if possible, even beyond its own already incomprehensible and remote confines of sanity.

A taste of the destabilizing album has been brought to us via an exclusive premiere of the track “Of Suffering” at iconic underground metal blog Last Rites, who in reflecting on the albums absurd heaviness and ugliness have aptly remarked that“ ‘Foul And Defiled’ stylistically nests itself snugly between the juggernaut crawl of death/doom, the ritualistic atmosphere of primitive black metal, and the dirging, somber tones of funeral doom. This skeleton is fully cloaked in static nightmares, lacing the claustrophobic soundscape with subtle pops and etchings that will have the listener jumping at shadows for its full duration.“ - you can read the full feature and stream the track HERE.

Coffin Lurker is the rogue brainchild of dutch musicians Maurice De Jong AKA Mories (Gnaw Their Tongues, Cloak of Altering, De Magia Veterum, Dodenbezweerder etc.), and Rene Aquarius (Cryptae, Dead Neanderthals, Imperial Cult, Plague Organ etc.). As seen with their preexisting respective projects and the natural inclination of the musicians involved, the connecting thread in Coffin Lurker is also pure and unbridled experimentalism and attempting to break new ground by reshaping and reinterpreting familiar sounds through the lens of near homicidal extremism and deviant deconstructionism. In this sense the duo set out in a perverse plan to take doom metal to extremes it has never before seen, by adding ulterior shapes and dimensions to the foundations already set by doom metal’s most extreme bands ever, namely entities like Grave Upheaval, Moss, Corrupted, Hell, Meth Drinker, Tyranny, Sunn O))), Encoffination, Primitive Man, along with more experimental and outlandish extreme metal entities like Ride For Revenge, Profanatica and Void Meditation Cult. Extending doom’s path into a dark future unknown, in Coffin Lurker everything got more extreme in every aspect possible: atmospheres more antihuman and overwhelming, guitars more downtuned, layered and crushing than ever before, tempos crawling at the edge of oblivion and nearly frozen to a suffocating stasis, soundscapes and song structures overbearingly cold and oppressive slowed down to a mechanical aural entombment reminiscent of certain extreme strains of industrial music, death-doom vocals reaching inhuman low registers bellowed out from guts turned inside out, and of course steeping piles of hatred, nihilism, disgust, misanthropy and all-encompassing negativity to round out an experiment of both familiar yet aberrant and futuristic traits. On these premises during 2020 the band patiently and carefully crafted their debut LP aptly titled "Foul and Defiled" which in its inhumanly overbearing traits of extremism and experimentalism was surely destined to cross path with Sentient Ruin, which will issue the abominable work on June 7 2021 on LP/MC and digital formats worldwide.

DECOHERENCE: UK/US Industrial Black Metal Deconstructors Reveal Immense Third LP "System I" - Entire Work Premiered in Full at Pop Matters

We’re proud and excited to announce a new chapter in our long lasting partnership with UK/US industrial black metal void-sculptors Decoherence, as we ready the release of their imposing third album “System I”, to be released officially on LP/MC/digital formats worldwide on May 21 2021. All formats are now pre-ordeable on our Bandcamp and web shop.

Because most of the tracks that comprise “System I” date back to 2020 the album has been made available in full today in occasion of Bandcamp Friday, and the entire album was reveled by Pop Matters in an exclusive premiere, where they explain that these tracks “showcase a further evolution on the Decoherence sound, a pristine and poignant unraveling of their identity. While retaining much of their black metal core, Decoherence would strive towards a disfigured post-punk direction, at the same time boosting their industrial influence.“ - you can read the full feature and listen to the album HERE.

"System I" is a 12" vinyl, digital and cassette tape full-length album/”compilation” of all the band's recent digital only singles and EPs, remastered to their final and ultimate form along with a glorious and previously unreleased cover rendition of Killing Joke's classic cut "The Wait". While these tracks were previously already digitally (self)released, don't be fooled or misled to think you're hearing any "b-sides" or otherwise "left over" material, rather, consider "System I" not only the righteous third official full-length album from the band, but also by far Decoherence's most visionary, cohesive, and imposing songs to date.

Awe-inducing and ghastly in its enveloping immensity, the tracks on "System I" see the enigmatic multinational black metal band morph into their most defiant and commanding form yet, as they construct an impenetrable mechanized swarm of liquefying industrial hallucinations and swirling dissonance that eradicates the listener from their corporeal and terrestrial self to cast them at the edge of a light-devouring void. Stylistically "System I" sees Decoherence's sound still thrive and evolve within the familiar synthetic black metal deconstructionist framework of progenitors like Blut Aus Nord and Darkspace, but as the Killing Joke cover included unmistakably hints at, these tracks also reveal a marked shift for the band toward a more unintelligible, unpredictable, and ominous immateriality, as elements incorporated from post-punk and experimental industrial assume stronger delineations adding ulterior dimensions and identities to the band's already alien and otherworldly sound.

HUMAN FAILURE: American One-Man Raw Death Metal/Punk Aberration Readies Release of Debut 10" EP "Crown on the Head of a King of Mud" - Tracks Unveiled at Decibel Magazine and Antichrist Magazine.

We’re excited to announce the imminent release of “Crown on the head of a King of Mud”, the debut offering by California-based one-man noise metal/punk deformation Human Failure, a mangled and gnarled disfiguration of raw death metal, raw punk and harsh noise spewn from the outer limits of complete nihilism and inhumanity. The wretched offering will arrive in early May 2021 on 10” EP format via Sentient Ruin in collaboration with Caligari Records.

A taste of plague-riddled release has been provided by Antichrist Magazine who has offered an exclusive premiere of the opening track “Poison Ideals“ (check out the track and feature HERE), while Decibel Magazine unveiled the track “Your Hope Is a Noose”, explaining that “Human Failure’s debut full-length Crown on the Head of a King of Mud is just one explosion after the other as harsh-noise, hardcore punk and utterly detached death metal brawl for dominance“ - you can check out the track and feature HERE.

An antihuman display of total sonic barbarism, “Crown on the head of a King of Mud” unifies various schools of thought in the realm of raw, stripped down and purposely under-produced and stylistically regressed forms of audial anarchy. In its unforgiving and mindless quest for total filth and primeval animalistic violence, the release brings us back to early punk-derived releases from Napalm Death, Discharge, G.I.S.M., and (early) Carcass, and follows their natural evolution through the first wave of primitive death metal bands like Nihilist and Autopsy, only to then deliberately skip entire generations of musical progress to embrace instead the chaos and and disarray of contemporary noise and power electronics. The end result is something that while sounding timelessly feral and atavistic also comes with a compelling aura of modernity and experimentalism that places the project among one of the most interesting and still considerably unexplored extremisms of contemporary underground music: the hybridizations of extreme metal and electronic noise that seek new ways to blindside and annihilate the listener and which are shaping up to becoming the most violent and transformative fringes in the underground today.

The brainchild of prolific American solo artist D. Cornejo (also in the projects Hermit, Vual, Akasha, Sadisme, Nekrohex, Temple Ash, and Dekagram among others), Human Failure is artist’s reflection on the horrors and absurdities that permeate society, the abhorrent and failed construct of one of creation’s most contradictory and disturbing deformities: mankind. Constructed on a cesspool of total nihilism and abnegation, as its name aptly suggests, Human Failure rummages the depths of humanity’s most repulsive and harrowing traits to unearth the complete illogicality and absurdity of its existence and of the mindless suffering and degradation that it endlessly drags in its wake. For this reason the project has conjoined the three musical doctrines that in modern times most have been shaped by society and the most negative traits of the human condition: the politically charged antagonism and dissent of hardcore punk, the mindless escape from reality of death metal, and the spiteful abjection and misanthropy of harsh noise. These three primal ingredients have been whipped together by Cornejo into an inhuman and extremely deranged aural deformity of complete atavism and barbarity that in its spiraling descent into humanity’s darkest depths attempts to uncover the meaning and origin to all the suffering and pain that simply existing as a human among our peers harbors and carries with it

“Crown on the head of a King of Mud” will be officially released on May 7 2021 on 10” vinyl EP format and digital via Sentient Ruin in collaboration with Caligari Records, who will also issue ca cassette tape version.

LAST AGONY: Canadian Raw Hardcore Punk Horde Announce Pulverizing Debut Album "The Imminent Slaughter" - Track Premiered at No Echo.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve teamed up with Canadian nuclear wasteland raw hardcore noise-punk incursors Last Agony to issue their pulverizing debut album "The Imminent Slaughter" on May 7 2021 on vinyl, cassette tape and digital formats, all now pre-ordeable on our Bandcamp and webshop.

An introductory taste of the savage album has been provided by notorious underground blog No Echo, who premiered the song “Diabolism” remarking that “the Toronto-based outfit specializes in a particular strain of raw-as-fuck hardcore punk they've mastered by studying the greats, namely bands like Anti Cimex, Extreme Noise Terror, and Lärm.“ - you can read the full feature and checkout the track HERE.

On "The Imminent Slaughter" debut album Last Agony let loose all their most negative and harrowing visions of a polluted, dark and violent world, birthing one of the most unnerving and lawless strains of primitive aural chaos to have been vomited from the North American punk scene this year. In the war-torn twenty minutes of weaponized aural mayhem, Last Agony put on display an unrivaled sonic assault of primitive cruelty and raw hostility, thrusting influences ranging from European early heavy punk bastions like Doom, Anti-Cimex and Electro Hippies, to Japanese d-beat noise deviants in the vein of Gauze and Deathside, all the way to primitive grindcore vanguards like Repulsion, Extreme Noise Terror, early Napalm Death and Terrorizer into a blown out and noise-corroded terrorscape of total anarchy and chaos. If you like it fast, loud, raw, visceral and lawless, search no further, because Last Agony have brought us one of the most nerve-shattering and apocalyptic storms of unhinged and primordial punk-metal wrath that you will hear all year.

Disgusted by visions of a dark, doomed and fucked up world, the Canadian raw hardcore legion Last Agony formed in a freezing hell of 2017 in Toronto, with the aim of creating devastatingly fast, raw, and unhinged metallic hardcore punk to resound the sirens of the apocalypse and reduce humanity's senses to ash. With a pulverizing and blown out sound inspired by 80s and 90s defining acts of early grindcore and crust, the band's members are bastions of their local scene, also militating in other well established bands like Absolut, Dragged In, Make No Gains, Murder Squad, IDNS, and Endprogram. An experienced and established unit of sonic pillagers with a unique pedigree which has made of Last Agony an unstoppable and fucked up aural assault weapon. Since forming, Last Agony have slaughtered venues and crowds on the East Coast and West Coast of Canada as well unleashing two demos and a self titled 7” released on Phobia Records. Yet, the nightmare continues... and their most savage and weaponized work to date - the incinerating debut full-length LP "The Imminent Slaughter" is a punk-metal firestorm of wounds and shrapnel that will resound humanity's last breath.



HADIT: Italian Cosmological Dark Death Metal Conjurors Unveil Long Awaited Debut Album - Track Premiered at Scene Point Blank.

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We’re excited to announce that elusive Italian mystical dark death metal conjurors HADIT are about to return after six years of silence from their grandiose "Introspective Contemplation of the Microcosmus" EP with their long awaited debut album "With Joy and Ardour Through the Incommensurable Path", slated for a May 7 2021 release on vinyl for North America and digital via Sentient Ruin, on cassette tape via Caligari Records, and on CD and EU vinyl via Terror from Hell Records.

Leading up the early May 2021 release, the track “A Digression and Her Eternal Domain Above the Atmosphere“ has been Premiered by Scene Point Blank, with the renowned metal blog stating that “The majority of this album thrashes and seethes, but it has some comparatively subdued doomy moments as well. Personally, I dug the shifting rhythmic structures, the way individual tracks seemed to do any number of different things while they played out, and the manner in which certain melodic motifs are utilized to hold things together“. You can check out the track and read the full feature HERE.

The towering new album is an obfuscating spell of dark cosmological death metal destruction shrouded in crushing dissonance, otherworldly atmospheres, and an aura of profound mysticism and esotericism. With death metal ritualized and used almost as an aural rite of passage to a higher order, on the devastating new opus the recluse Italian duo explore concepts pertaining to time, cyclicality, fatality, and to death as the true engine and ultimate motivator of life, and submit to the symbolism of chaos to access the higher knowledge and order which comes through it. Inspired by ancient black and death metal forces like Inquisition, Incantation, Morbid Angel, Immolation, and Archgoat as well as by occult scriptures found in ancient monotheistic doctrines and theology, "With Joy and Ardour Through the Incommensurable Path" is a supernatural extreme metal crucible that plumbs the darkest depths of sonic ruin and of deviant arcane esotericism to harness the primordial order from chaos and the inaccessible truths on mankind's true nature and existence that it harbors.

The Italian dark occult death metal alchemists have been silently forging their own strain of crepuscular cosmological death metal darkness since at least 2012 when the duo self-released their "Creating a Kult" demo establishing themselves as one of the most cryptic and obscure new entities to appear in the Italian extreme metal underground. After a period of dormancy their foreboding and darkened strain of mystical and chaotic death metal appeared again, evolved and highly metamorphosed, and found further refinement and a higher degree of expression in the mesmerizing "Introspective Contemplation of the Microcosmus" EP which was released on tape in 2015 by Caligari Records (becoming one of the founding release pillars of the label), and on CD by Italian extreme metal forge Terror From Hell Records. It was this EP which first truly materialized a full and comprehensive depiction of Hadit's tenebrous and twisted death metal twilight made of erratic and formless patterns and layers of abysmal guitar fretwork annihilation, demonic vocals, telluric drum work, and crepuscular atmospheres emanating from a darkened dimension used as a conduit to funnel their abhorrent lovecraftian and occult conceptual horrors. While cryptic and somewhat undecipherable in its sound true shape, with its monstrous sound and abysmal atmospheres "Introspective Contemplation of the Microcosmus" went on to become one of 2015's best kept secrets in extreme metal and of the most fascinating and strongest underground death metal debuts for that year. Innately elusive and undecipherable the band followed the release of their "Introspective Contemplation of the Microcosmus" EP with another period of lengthy and quiet dormancy punctuated in rare occasions by a few live appearances to share the stage with elite death metal beasts like Bolzer, Funebrarum, Archgoat, Incantation and Dead Congregation, all while the band presumably hammered away at their proper debut full length album in complete seclusion. This album would eventually take final shape sometime in 2019 in the form of "With Joy and Ardour Through the Incommensurable Path" - the most foreboding and annihilating incarnation of occult and otherworldly death metal tyranny conceived by the duo this far, to be released in May 2021 once again by Caligari Records on tape, by Terror From Hell Records on CD and for the first time by Sentient Ruin handling the vinyl release for the Western Hemipshere in collaboration with Terror From Hell Records handling the Eastern Hemisphere.



SUSPIRAL: Spanish Black Metal Trance Sorcerers Issue Remastered Reissue of Soul-Tearing 2016 Debut Album "Delve Into the Mysteries of Transcendence".

Galician psychedelic black metal conjurors Suspiral announce a glorious and much needed reissue of their immense and highly overlooked 2016 debut LP “Delve into the Mysteries of Transcendence" via Sentient Ruin with an official release date set to April 2 2020. All formats are now (pre)ordeable on our webshop and Bandcamp.

Finally available again in its ultimate and most destructive form, "Delve into the Mysteries of Transcendence" gets remastered, re-designed, and re-packaged for Sentient Ruin, a revisitation aimed at celebrating and rediscovering one of underground black metal's most unique, underrated and feral releases. Influenced by some of the most savage extreme metal progenitors like Beherit, Necrovore, Morbid Angel and Sadistik Execution, and fueled by overwhelming consumptions of psychedelics, "Delve into the Mysteries of Transcendence" is an abhorrent trip deep inside the psyche's most deconstructed and annihilated states, where a psychoactive and aberrant strain of raging atmospheric black metal serves as the primal hallucinogen to obliterate consciousness and dissolve reality in a violent and and feral ritual of total aural disassociation.

Originally released in 2016 on vinyl by now defunct Spanish label Equinox Discos, and on CD by I Voidhanger Records, with this new Sentient Ruin reissue, this unforgivably underrated experimental black metal masterpiece sees its first ever release on cassette format, while entirely new and restored digital and vinyl products are offered with remastered audio and a brand new graphic layout that consecrates and re-enhances the immensity of one of extreme metal's most overlooked, obscure and devastating hidden gems.

Galician mystical black death sorcerers Suspiral were formed in 2014 by A.T. (Sheidim, Black Earth, Krossfyre) and M.S. (Arkaik Excruciation, Sudaria, Scythe), after the duo had envisioned a black/death entity of otherworldly and alien traits dominated by two opposite but coexisting souls: on one side the raw and unforgiving darkness and aggression of bands like Thou Shalt Suffer, Necrovore, early Emperor and Satyricon, Katharsis, Sadistik Exekution, Beherit, Samael, along with the repetitive, vorticose and abstract patterns of more ritualistic, trance inducing, and meditative entities like Ash Ra Tempel and other Kraut and drone bands on the other. The improbable sonic design was meticulously planned and executed by the duo and that same year their debut EP Dawn of Kezef saw the light spawned in a wake of ruinous black/death destruction set against a chasm of disorienting and sensorially devastating psychedelic patterns and repetitions. The rawer sound of this debut EP soon evolved into what became their mind-alterating debut album Delve into the Mysteries of Transcendence, released in 2016 on famed Italian extreme metal label I Voidhanger Records. While maintaining its devastating black/death metal assault, Delve into the Mysteries of Transcendence, was an album cloaked in otherworldly and enveloping atmospheres and drenched in mystery and alien psychedelic mysticism, conceptually rooted in experiences with psychoactive drugs as a means of transcendence, and more specifically with experiences obtained under the influence of DMT. The band’s second full length entitled Chasm is slated for a 2019 release on Sentient Ruin in the USA and Clavis Secretorvm in Europe, and is yet another sensorially devastating work which further dramatizes the band’s innate and ever-evolving duality of unrelenting and lawless black/death sonic annihilation juxtaposed to its deeply mystical and entrancing atmospheres.




夢遊病者: Multinational Avantgarde Black Metal Band Reveal Mind-altering New Album "Noč Na Krayu Sveta" - Track Preview and Exclusive Interview Available at Last Rites.

Russian/Japanese/American experimental ritualistic black metal entity 夢遊病者 (Sleepwalker) emerge from slumber with "Noč Na Krayu Sveta" a two song/half-hour LP of liquefying hallucinogenic sonic alchemy and transcendental avant-garde excellence. In the vast two-song composition 夢遊病者 morph into their most abstract and defiant state yet, reaching a state of near-ethereal cinematic deconstructionism that only leaves vague traces and queues of their primordial and vast melting pot of influences. Within, black metal, kraut, noise rock, free-jazz, drone, middle-eastern incantations and ritualistic psychedelia are melted down in a lysergic kaleidoscopic frenzy of sounds and then sublimated to reach a new zenith of masterful immateriality which consecrates the band at its most ambitious and confrontational state yet. Challenging the listener's senses and perception at multiple levels, "Noč Na Krayu Sveta" pries the mind open to enter its deepest levels, defying its boundaries and expectations almost with arrogant unpredictability, crossing thresholds of experimentalism and of creative ambition we hadn't yet fathomed in the band's still short but extraordinary career, but which we can now gaze into in complete awe and wonder. The result... something standing astonishingly between Ved Buens Ende, Zeni Geva, Bohren And Der Club of Gore, Galloping Coroners, Urfaust, and The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble.

Leading up to the release the track "Boundless Love / Resilience" was premiered by Last Rites, and the notorious metal blog also conducted and in depth interview with guitarist/vocalist PBV. In their feature Last Rites explained that “while the black metal atmosphere and undeniable heaviness of the album, drenched in jazz-laden compositions and free interpretation along with the krautrock ambition to discover new and exciting sounds, remains at the core of the band, it somehow exists outside of these boundaries” - you can check out the feature HERE.

States the band on the release:


As with much of the 夢遊病者 catalog, the root entity of inspiration for this release was a person, which then expanded out into the idea of how this person exists in the Sleepwalker universe and interacts with the world old and new. Are they open, kind, selfless, self-sacrificing and good natured—or are they cold, self-protective, brutish and menacing?

”Noč Na Krayu Sveta” (Night at the Edge of the World) plays with the notion of this dichotomy, interpolating the idea that what comes at night can be both devastating and exhilarating, driven by unsurmountable and inexplicable loss or an ecstatic revelation, an end or a new beginning. In continuing from the last release, to further magnify the self-referential and collaborative spirit of the band—other musicians, friends and fans, even family members were tapped to appear on the album. We are forever humbled and honored by them taking their time to contribute. This was a labor of love, loss, joy and disgust that we hope, in some abstract way, will make its proper connection.

LABORED BREATH: Debut Album "Dyspnea" from Crushing New USBM Entity to See the Light April 2 2021 Via Sentient Ruin - Track Unveiled at Invisible Oranges.

We’re proud to announce the release of emerging USBM entity Labored Breath’s towering debut album "Dyspnea", to be released in early April on LP, MC, and digital formats.

Thirty six minutes of soul-destroying evolved black metal, "Dyspnea" is the towering debut offering from this new Oakland CA-based one-man black metal entity, a project conceived as unapologetic devotion to the moment of reckoning of one's ultimate finality, and as a conceptual aural evisceration of mankind's minuscule and pathetic existence within the blink of an eye of an infinite, eternal void. The literal medical definition of gasping for air as the final breath appears at the horizon, and of finite stubborn existence attempting to subvert the infinity and inevitability of death, "Dyspnea" is a harrowing trip deep inside humanity's biggest fears and its all-encompassing insignificance. It is the moment of realization and the crippling instance within one’s existence in which the immensity and omnipotence of death pierces the final and most armored under layers of consciousness and denial and stares at the human being straight in the eye to make it kneel in the shadow of total unavoidability. Bridging the spellbinding atmospherics and evocative power of Icelandic black metal (Sinmara, Carpe Noctem, Misþyrming, Svartidauði) with the crushing violence and brute antagonism of French black metal (Aosoth, Drastus, Antaeus), Labored Breath has created an intimidating and majestic black metal crucible that shape-shifts and morphs in perpetual motion, stirring an immense sinister aural maelstrom of tenebrous surrealism and masterful sonic destruction as ultimate and supreme homage to the omnipotence and splendor of our endless Destroyer.

Leading up the album’s release, the track “Belie” has been unveiled exclusively by Invisible Oranges, with the notorious metal blog asserting that “Dyspnea forges out on a different axis to create a belligerent and intense trail to lesser-tread territory in black metal“ - you can read the full feature and check out the track HERE.

The brainchild of SF Bay Area-based solo musician JK, Labored Breath is the artist's sonic interpretation of the slow and inexorable claiming of death. The idea and concept for the project came to into JK’s mind during the time of self-seclusion imposed by the COVID pandemic, and the times of uncertainty, pessimism, fear, and death which ensued from it worldwide. As a skilled and highly proficient multi instrumentalist, the obligate isolation and lack of opportunities to make music with other people pushed JK to finally pursue a long planned and fully self-exectued solo project with no other instrumentalists involved. It is not purely coincidental that the album is titled “Dyspnea", like the condition which plagues people with difficulty breathing, as the COVID pandemic primarily resulted in widespread respiratory symptoms worldwide, as such the project is a true snapshot of the artist’s reality and of its most harrowing and demoralizing possible outcomes and developments. It is a reflection on death in a time in which death entered everyone’s consciousness and every day reality. It is the onset of reckoning, the moment in which the end comes into sight for the first time in a person's life. It is the total and unmistakeable first manifestation of death to the living, and Labored Breath explores this concept sonically via the implacable and merciless life-devourment of black metal. Aside from the aforementioned French black metal and Icelandic black metal, Labored Breath remains a purely USBM-bred entity with an almost encyclopedic yet defiant approach to the craft, and a strong penchant for unpredictability and unorthodoxy. Bands like Nightbringer, Ruins if Beverast, Blut Aus Nord, as well as certain strains of European funeral doom and death metal are also skillfully referenced or hinted at in the songwriting without ever becoming overly obvious structural identifiers, leaving the project perpetually shrouded in a profound sense of shapeshifting ambiguity.

"Dyspnea" is officially scheduled for an April 2 2021 release date on LP, MC, and digital, and can now be pre-ordered in all formats from our shop or Bandcamp.