Canadian progressive death metal outfit Æpoch will be releasing a new five-song EP titled Hiraeth on Friday, September 10th. Pre-orders are live at the group’s Bandcamp. The effort was mixed and mastered by Ominous Ruin guitarist Alex Bacey and features cover art by Mark Erskine (Fractal Generator, Dead World Reclamation, Symbolik). The group said of the direction of the effort:
“The purpose of this EP is to showcase the more refined modern progressive/tech-death direction of the band. This progression is completely natural with our new members. This EP features songs that were written by Marcus and Brett and Taylor Wroblewski (Amnesia) with contributions from Nick and Greg in all songs. Not to mention guest vocals by Jerry Martin of Alustrium in ‘Amnesia’ too. This EP also features our first dabble in the world of dissonance, while we tried to do it our way. Perhaps a little more melody and a little less melancholy.”
Regarding the subject of the EP, they add:
“This EP is a concept story about an unnamed protagonist awakening in a post-apocalyptic type world with no memory of his past or how he got there. He begins to wander in the desolate wasteland desert for days without any food or clean water. His body and mind grow weak from malnutrition and he begins to hallucinate. He eventually stumbles upon what appears to be fertile land. He sees a looming and eerie silhouette of some sort of decrepit totem. He becomes fixated on the monument.
As approaches, he gazes upon its carved trunk he notices the foul smell from all around him. This is the smell of the decaying flesh of those who walked this path before him, their minds consumed by the demonic spirit of the monolith. This creature, we call ‘The god of rot’ in the songs and the god of rot infects the mind of its victims, enthralling them to its will. The god of rot feeds off of the life source of its victims by having them sacrifice themselves once they are fully enthralled in a way similar to seppuku (Japanese samurai ritual suicide) and dress its limbs in their innards before they expire. The cover art depicts our protagonist approaching the god of rot.”
In addition to the announcement, Æpoch have debuted a music video for the song “The Flesh Totem”. Check it out below, along with the track listing and cover art for Hiraeth EP.
Hiraeth EP track listing:
- “Atonement”
- “Amnesia” feat. Jerry Martin (Alustrium)
- “Overwrought”
- “The Flesh Totem”
- “Hiraeth”
Æpoch is:
Brett MacIntosh – Vocals/Fretless Bass
Greg Carvalho – Drums (ex-Becomes Astral)
Marcus Arar – Guitar (ex-Raider live guitarist)
Nicholas Luck – Guitar (Skyless Aeons, Existential Dissipation)