Immortal Bird announce new effort Empress/Abscess; reveal spring tour dates

Midwestern blackened death grinders Immortal Bird have a new record due out this year titled Empress/Abscess. The effort was produced by Pete Grossmann (Weekend Nachos, Harm’s Way, Dead In The Dirt) at Bricktop Recording in Chicago, IL earlier this year and mixed and mastered by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Krallice, Nader Sadek, Atheist, Origin etc.) at Menegroth, The Thousand Caves in Queens, NY. The record will include a guest appearance by Weekend Nachos frontman John Hoffman and also sees vocalist/drummer Rae Amitay standing down from behind the kit. The frontwoman commented on the decision:

“I’ve stepped away from drumming duties and enlisted our live drummer, Garry Naples (Novembers Doom). Essentially, I had to set my ego aside and determine what was going to be the best for this music. [Guitarist] Evan [Berry] and I wrote some incredibly challenging material for Empress/Abscess, and Garry had been playing it live for months, whereas I’d been focusing a lot of my drumming energy on the newest Thrawsunblat album. My chops are in a very different place than they were when we recorded Akrasia and it would take me a week in the studio to do what Garry can accomplish in two days. Having him behind the kit saved us time, the finished product is stronger, and I was able to delve into the vocal performances and lyrics with my undivided attention. Will I play drums on future Immortal Bird albums? It’s entirely likely, but for Empress/Abscess, I passed the sticks over to the best person for the job.”

While an official release date for Empress/Abscess hasn’t been scheduled, the band have their sights set on a June release for the album. In the interim, the band will be hitting the road on the Western Migration Tour 2015. Regarding the upcoming trek, Amitay adds: