Starting with today, the doom/crust/prog-infused Swedish death metal quartet, Usurpress, will be revealing a new song from their upcoming album each day until September 18th, exclusively via Agonia Records YouTube channel (available here). The band, featuring the death metal expert Daniel Ekeroth on bass (author of the book "Swedish Death Metal") and recently acquired drummer Mattias "Matte" Modin (ex-Dark Funeral), will release a new album, "The Regal Tribe", on September 23rd. The first track, "In The Shadow Of The New Gods", is available for streaming at:
https://youtu.be/8GcVl9VxDvs?list=PLJk8CRwYztySQhK9PpUyapPTM84vf8Vr_
"The Regal Tribe" was recorded under the supervision of rising star producer Lawrence Mackrory (FKÜ, Darkane) while the album's haunting cover artwork was created by renowned Dutch artist Marald van Haasteren (Bolt Thrower, High on Fire, Baroness, Kylesa), who was given a carte blanche with rgeards to the visual interpretation of the album's lyrical concept.
"The Regal Tribe" is the follow up to "Ordained" (2014) which saw Usurpress leave their deathcrust path for more uncharted territories. During the composing of the new album, the band was plagued by mental disorders/depressions and life threatening illnesses in the member's immediate families, most notably vocalist/lyricist Stefan Pettersson's battle with his bone marrow cancer. Therefore "The Regal Tribe" is a heavier and darker, yet more varied, complex and thoughtful effort than their previous albums. This concept album is a tragic story about life versus death, about vanity and the relentless passing of time and is by far Usurpress' most ambitious output to date.
Pettersson Develops: "We decided early on to discard the traditional way of songwriting/arranging and compose The Regal Tribe one piece at the time, starting with the first riff in the first song and ending with the last riff in the 10:th song. That way we hoped to avoid the album becoming repetitive and stale and instead more fluent and powerful. Listening back to the finished album, I'm convinced we did the right thing. This is the album we have always sought to do".
Since their formation in 2010, Usurpress have gained a reputation as a creative and hardworking band that in a relative short time already have built up an extensive back catalogue of albums, EP's and splits. Their aim has always been to constantly evolve and expand their soundscape, always looking forward in a restless and tireless way.
