Photo by Kyle Kaminski
Decibel Magazine is currently streaming II. Eternal Meditations Of A Deathless Crown, the new full-length from Arkansas hardcore/doom trio BONES OF THE EARTH in its devastating entirety. The premiere comes in advance of the record’s official release this Friday, April 2nd.
Bound by a mutual love of medieval fantasy, sci-fi, and a desire to create uncompromisingly heavy music, BONES OF THE EARTH was forged in 2018 and immediately began writing material that would become their debut concept album, 2019’s I. The Imminent Decline Of Human Spirit. Weaving jagged hardcore tempos, dominating vocals, and sludgy riffs with post-metal ambiance across the entirety of its twenty-nine-minute run time, the body of work was composed with the intent to be performed in its entirety live.
This year’s II. Eternal Meditations Of A Deathless Crown was written as a continuation of that saga. Influenced by film scores, soundtracks, tabletop RPGs, and various mythos, the six-track recording delves deeper into the already established foundation listeners have come to know to be BONES OF THE EARTH while seamlessly branching out further into sonic experimentation and narrative-driven lyrics.
Writes Decibel Magazine, “II. Eternal Meditations of a Deathless Crown is highly influenced by the members’ devotion to tabletop gaming, mythology and other realms of nerdy escapism. But other styles mine this ground for soaring power metal flourishes, the band releases an eldritch blast of crushing power. For anyone who loves doom and sludge, but wishes their favorite modern hardcore bands would give those styles a spin, this is the record for you. On songs like ‘The Empire Never Ended,’ the band combines the in-your-face fury of hardcore, with the guitar tones of sludge and the wandering spirit of proggy post-metal. It’s an exciting and engaging listen that has something for fans of several styles, combined into one cohesive, totally rad whole.”
Stream BONES OF THE EARTH’s II. Eternal Meditations Of A Deathless Crown exclusively at Decibel Magazine HERE.
II.. Eternal Meditations Of A Deathless Crown, which includes the entrancing artwork of Michael Steinheiser, was captured at bassist/vocalist Raif Box’s own Holy Anvil Recording Company and will be released on CD, cassette and digital formats.
For preorders, visit the BONES OF THE EARTH Bandcamp page at THIS LOCATION.
I. The Imminent Decline Of Human Spirit is the first part of a continuing story, detailing a set of events that takes place in one of the many cycles that govern this universe. Each cycle begins with organic life, ends with artificial life, and is doomed to repeat again and again.
A prehistoric human finds himself being pulled to an ancient relic, buried deep underground. After unearthing this strange beacon he unwittingly sets in motion the start of the artificial cycle, and all organic life begins to wither away and die… all except for him. He slowly loses what makes him organic: feeling, emotion, self awareness, human spirit. He wears the relic as a crown. It speaks to him, and instructs him how to build this new world. As everything and everyone he knows fades away and is replaced by slate obelisks and steel cabling from within the core of the planet, he commands an army of machines to build a great spire, and sits atop it on his throne, looking out at a cold dead world.
II. Eternal Meditations Of A Deathless Crown picks up where the previous album left off. The crown is fused to the protagonist’s skull and he has lost all of his humanity. He now exists purely as a vessel for the relic, to oversee this new age of machines. The machines fuel their construction with organic material, and work in an exceedingly efficient fashion. The relic revels in this creation and basks in its own glory: it has yet again created a perfect world. However, the protagonist starts to regain feeling and emotion. He questions the relic’s intentions for the first time in a very, very long time. Now aware that he is being controlled by the relic, he attempts to sever the connection between himself and the crown, and reclaim his human spirit by feeding the crown to the very machine it created, and plunging it back into the center of the earth to perhaps one day be found again…
BONES OF THE EARTH:
Cody Martin – drums, vocals
Erik Ebsen – guitar
Raif Box – bass, vocals
“BONES OF THE EARTH do a good job of capturing a distinctly dystopian feel on the record, and definitely take their listeners on a journey…a record that definitely bears repeated listening.” – Distorted Sound
“There is an unstoppable quality in the music. You feel like you are on a ride that has no exit. Progressive-sounding elements twinkle in the sludge and doom, but they are not reassuring. No, they are the sound of the mechanical overlord, the cadence of inevitability. Trapped in the system, in the cycle, anxiety builds in the music and it gets to you as you listen. The story genuinely is part of the music and it comes through naturally. The album is exceptional.” – Flying Fiddlesticks
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