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Zhrine
announce new drummer
and release more
live dates
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ZHRINE are now announcing that former ANGIST and OPHIDIAN I drummer Tumi Snær Gíslason will take over all duties on the sticks from long-time collaborator Stefán Ari Stefánsson. In a statement, which is agreed upon by all parties involved, the Icelanders comment:
“After nine years of musical collaboration, we regretfully announce that our original drummer Stefán Ari Stefánsson has parted ways with ZHRINE. Since joining our friends from THE VINTAGE CARAVAN some years ago, his availability has obviously been much reduced and with the recent success of both bands our situation grew untenable.
ZHRINE therefore gladly welcome Tumi Snær Gíslason, who formerly played in fellow Icelandic bands ANGIST and OPHIDIAN I into our fold as a full member. He will already start to perform with us during the upcoming North-American tour with ULCERATE and PHOBOCOSM.
We sincerely wish our friend Stefán all the very best in his future endeavours and would like to thank him for his generous musical contributions throughout the years. Without Stefán, ‘Unortheta’ would definitely not have become the same album that we are still very proud of.”
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The Icelandic bringers of darkness have furthermore announced a North American tour and a first set of festival shows in 2017. Please see below for a list of all currently confirmed dates with more to follow soon.
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ZHRINE North America
+ULCERATE +PHOBOCOSM
02 Nov 16 Los Angeles, CA (US) Complex
03 Nov 16 San Francisco, CA (US) Elbo Room
04 Nov 16 Portland, OR (US) Panic Room
05 Nov 16 Seattle, WA (US) Highline
06 Nov 16 Vancouver, BC (CA) Astoria
08 Nov 16 Oakland, CA (US) The Golden Bull
09 Nov 16 San Diego, CA (US) Brick By Brick
10 Nov 16 Tempe, AZ (US) Yucca Tap Room
11 Nov 16 El Paso, TX (US) Mesa Music Hall
12 Nov 16 San Antonio, TX (US) Limelight
13 Nov 16 Houston, TX (US) Acadia Bar
14 Nov 16 Dallas, TX (US) Renos Chop Shop
15 Nov 16 New Orleans, LA (US) Siberia
16 Nov 16 Gainesville, FL (US) Atlantic
17 Nov 16 Tampa, FL (US) The Brass Mug
18 Nov 16 Atlanta, GA (US) The Earl
19 Nov 16 Richmond, VA (US) Strange Matter
20 Nov 16 Baltimore, MD (US) Metro Gallery
22 Nov 16 Philadelphia, PA (US) Boot & Saddle
23 Nov 16 Boston, MA (US) Great Scott
24 Nov 16 Montreal, QC (CA) Piranha Bar (Messe des Mortes)
25 Nov 16 Toronto, ON (CA) Coalition
26 Nov 16 Detroit, MI (US) Corktown Tavern
27 Nov 16 Chicago, IL (US) Reggies
28 Nov 16 Pittsburgh, PA (US) The Smiling Moose
29 Nov 16 New York, NY (US) Saint Vitus Bar
ZHRINE Shows & Festivals
01 Oct 16 Reykjavík (IS) Gaukurinn +Dynfari, Future Figment, Grave Superior
18 Feb 17 Reykjavík (IS) Húrra (Oration Fest (exact date tbc))
23 Feb 17 Bergen (NO) USF Verftet (Blastfest)
15 Apr 17 Oslo (NO) John Dee (Inferno Festival (exact date tbc))
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ZHRINE will be touring in support of their highly acclaimed latest album ‘Unortheta’, which is still available from the Season of Mist shop at the link below.
http://smarturl.it/ZhrineShop
Regarding their album, ZHRINE commented: “It is with great pride in our hearts that we finally unveil the grand statement of chords and chaos that is ‘Unortheta’. This churning collection of dark, ethereal, odes to the desperate void has long been yearning to be set free on the unsuspecting public like a tempest of raging atonality in a glass of aural unreason, and today is the day that the deed shall be done.”
Artwork and tracklist of ‘Unortheta’ can be viewed below. The cover was created by renowned artist Zbigniew M. Bielak.
Bielak commented on his artwork: “Perhaps the most valuable thing that one can bring back from Iceland – besides the Flames of Hell vinyl – is humility. Of all places, there is where the brute force of nature and still ongoing geological processes, which shaped our environment, can be experienced in their most intimidating and vivid form. ZHRINE‘s decadent concept seems to tread much in the quicksand footsteps of Alan Weisman’s seminal ‘The World Without Us’. His book simulates and scientifically analyses the inevitable succession of nature after the hypothetical disappearance of humankind from the face of earth. And just as the music on ‘Unortheta’, his conclusions are far from merry. Being more powerful than any human endeavour, in its primeval cycle, nature devours and transforms everything that we have created. Evolution itself uses disaster as an impulse for creativity within its self-reconstructive system. Brutally speaking, nature is completely indifferent to whether mankind survives or not. It is indeed a tragedy for religion that the world does not need humans, just as it is for science, that nature cannot be preserved. Conservation and environmental protection that we aspire towards are a mere act of self-defense. The shrines that future prepared for us are cold, dark and gloomy, and so is the artwork.”
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Tracklisting
1. Utopian Warfare
2. Spewing Gloom
3. The Syringe Dance
4. World
5. Empire
6. The Earth Inhaled
7. Unortheta
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ZHRINE are part of an extreme musical phenomenon rising from the Kópavogur area of Iceland’s capital Reykjavik. Although the name is new, the band is not. Starting out under the GONE POSTAL moniker in 2007, they embraced a dark death metal approach at first. Easily winning the 2012 Wacken Metal Battle at home, the Icelanders scored very high at the famous festival itself in front of an international jury.
Darkness comes natural to the high north and black is very much present in the image of Iceland’s landscapes, where volcanic ash covers large stretches of land. Winter is long and harsh with a biting cold that seeps deep into the bones. Yet it would be too simplistic to just blame nature and the surroundings on the currently fast rising black metal scene of this fiery land situated literally on the edge of the Americas and Europe.
Bands from the polar circle are making their appearance at prestigious festivals such as the Inferno in Oslo, Norway or Roadburn in the Netherlands and the impact is beginning to be felt. As often with somewhat isolated scenes developing a distinguishable handwriting, the particular darkness emerging from Iceland is drawing heavily on the French sonic pioneers DEATHSPELL OMEGA. Yet the circle encompassing groups like SVARTIDAUÐI, MISÞYRMING, SINMARA, and of course ZHRINE translates those influences into their own musical language and each group stands for an individual expression, which can be clearly distinguished from the others.
When they were still known as GONE POSTAL, the band decided to bury this name alongside their old songs in a final memorable performance at the much talked about Eistnaflug Festival. Instead the Icelanders felt the need to continue further on a path already taken. Their music has with time turned darker, more atmospheric, and filled with bleak despair. Out of this metamorphosis ZHRINE finally came into being.
Their debut album ‘Unortheta’ is now more than proving that the band made the right choices. This amazing piece of a newly formulated expression of black and death metal, sludge as well as other heavy and dark ingredients has all the chances to be regarded as one of the cornerstones of the burgeoning Icelandic scene. We can confidently claim that ZHRINE will be worth your time.
Album line-up
Þorbjörn Steingrímsson: guitar and vocals
Nökkvi Gylfason: guitar
Ævar Örn Sigurðsson: bass
Stefán Ari Stefánsson: drums
Current line-up
Þorbjörn Steingrímsson: guitar and vocals
Nökkvi Gylfason: guitar
Ævar Örn Sigurðsson: bass
Tumi Snær Gíslason: drums
www.facebook.com/zhrineofficial
Style: Ethereal Blackened Death
Shop: http://smarturl.it/ZhrineShop
Available formats
Digipak CD
Gatefold LP in various colours
Artwork: Zbigniew M. Bielak
www.facebook.com/zbigniewmbielak
www.graphic-noise.com/zbigniew-m-bielak
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