Following up on 2013's highly acclaimed debut album, The Inheritance, WITHERSCAPE return with another mesmerizingly dense conceptual album entitled The Northern Sanctuary, which has been scheduled to see a worldwide release on Friday July 22nd, 2016.
WITHERSCAPE features singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer extraordinaire Dan Swanö (Edge Of Sanity, Bloodbath, Nightingale, etc.) on vocals/keyboards/drums pairing up with fellow Swedish multi-instrumentalist Ragnar Widerberg on guitars/bass.
Musically, The Northern Sanctuary manages to seamlessly blend the best elements of 70's & 80's Prog/Hard Rock with atmospheric yet subtle extreme Metal. The versatile vocal gymnastics alternate between hauntingly quiet tones to utterly ferocious growls, further extending the stylistic whirlwind that the limitless nature of the songs produce.
On lyrics, as well as the overall theme, we see that once again, Paul Kuhr (Novembers Doom) contributes lyrically to the new album. Swanö explains further: "The theme picks up where we left off with the "The New Tomorrow" EP. There is a 50 year jump in the timeline from the 1st album and the main character "Mannen i vitt" (The Man in White) has purchased the house where all the horror initially happened. He's restored it and rents out rooms to people from the big cities, who are aiming for some peaceful northern Swedish silence. But the entity still haunts the house and "Mannen i vitt" is possessed by it, so consequently he/it does terrible things to the "patients". Since the house is built on one of the gates to hell, there's a ritual taking place, opening the hellish dimension from where the evil entity once came, so it can go back there!"
Artistically, The Northern Sanctuary is enhanced by breathtakingly powerful artwork, courtesy of Hungarian artist Gyula Havancsák (Nightingale, Destruction, Tyr, etc.). With their sophomore album WITHERSCAPE has raised the bar in terms of production and continued on their quest for fearless, no-boundaries songwriting.
You can now listen to the album's opening track, "Wake Of Infinity" on YouTube here:
https://youtu.be/yYC0MWb3aFo
Multi-instrumentalist and producer Dan Swanö (ex Edge Of Sanity/Bloodbath, Nightingale, etc.), checked in with the following comment about the song:
"'Wake Of Infinity' is a good summary of the evolution of the WITHERSCAPE sound. Every corner of our sound has been slightly enhanced towards "more is more" and this track shows off the expansion in every part. The fastest we've ever been, the most melodic we've ever been...it's all here in this track, that we believe is the embodiment of WITHERSCAPE 2016."
Album artwork courtesy of Gyula Havancsák | www.hjules.com
WITHERSCAPE - The Northern Sanctuary (46:59):
1. Wake Of Infinity (04:38)
2. In The Eyes Of Idols (03:58)
3. Rapture Ballet (04:25)
4. The Examiner (05:03)
5. Marionette (04:37)
6. Divinity (03:02)
7. God Of Ruin (05:32)
8. The Northern Sanctuary (13:44)
9. Vila I Frid (01:54)
Further music samples as well as details on album formats and pre-order options will be available soon...
"Dead For A Day" lyric video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVWWEZ46l_M
"Astrid Falls" song stream: https://youtu.be/EwsLxPBknOk
"The Math Of The Myth" song stream: https://snd.sc/11I5IZd
"The New Tomorrow" song stream: https://soundcloud.com/centurymedia/witherscape-the-new-tomorrow
WITHERSCAPE Line-Up:
Dan Swanö - Vocals, Keyboards and Drums
Ragnar Widerberg - Guitars and Bass
WITHERSCAPE Discography:
The Inheritance - 2013
The New Tomorrow - EP 2014
The Northern Sanctuary - 2016
WITHERSCAPE Online:
www.witherscape.com
www.facebook.com/witherscape
www.danswano.com
