“A dark fairytale for the modern era, told through heavy yet intricate, progressive folk rock, enchanting visual art and utterly immersive storytelling.”
PROG (UK), Hannah May Kilroy
“If you think of The Gathering’s melancholy and an elegant Opeth mood, you’re still a long way from adequately describing THE SPELL, but at least you have a rough idea of it. Alone Anna’s engaging, phenomenal vocals, the congenial melody and the truly gorgeous marriage of folk, rock, prog and doom will ensure that this gem will appear in many annual best of lists of 2019.”
METAL HAMMER (D), Björn Springorum
“Majestic, gripping, and hauntingly beautiful, there should be no shortage of praise in describing what Cellar Darling have done. Not just in what will definitely be one of 2019’s strongest efforts, but in setting the bar even higher for what can be achieved through the combination of music and storytelling.”
DEAD RHETORIC (UK), Kyle McGinn
The day has come – the storytellers of CELLAR DARLING released their sophomore studio album »The Spell« and carry you away into the tale of an unnamed girl who is birthed into a world that is full of pain, damaged and debilitated by the human beings that inhabit it. We follow her as she searches for meaning in life, when suddenly she meets and falls in love with death. This haunting concept album sees the band taking a turn towards heavy progressive rock while still not neglecting their folk roots.
The band states:
“Today we release “The Spell” – a concept album based on the old motif of “Death and the Maiden”, but with our own unique story of a girl who falls in love with the personification of Death. For the first time we wrote music according to a lyrical concept, we let the words of the story guide our melodies and rhythms and fully immersed ourselves in this fictional world. Now we invite you to do the same – dream, interpret, make it your own.
“The Spell” was written over a long period of time in various parts of the world. From the peaceful mountains in Switzerland to the busiest parts of New York city. We recorded the album in two parts, one in the Soundfarm Studios in Lucerne and the other at New Sound Studio with Tommy Vetterli who co-produced the album with Anna Murphy and mixed it.
We want to thank Kate at AISAmusic UK and everyone at Nuclear Blast for making this album possible. Tommy Vetterli (mix) and Tony Lindgren (mastering) for making the music shine. Tommy, Fredy & Dennis for co-writing with us. Costin for bringing the story to life with his amazing visuals. Fredy, Shir-Ran, Mitch, Andi & Patrik for their guest appearances. And all of you for listening. We hope you enjoy it.”
You can get the new CELLAR DARLING album as 2 CD-digibook (featuring 13 songs + an audiobook of Anna Murphy telling the story behind the concept), black vinyl or digitally via this link: http://nblast.de/CDTheSpell
The band also asked Costin Chioreanu to create the dark and mesmerising artwork representing each of the 13 songs on »The Spell«. Now each chapter has been brought to life with an exclusive, signed and dedicated art print that the band are offering in their own online store.
And to get a first impression of the audiobook, the band has recently released three haunting teasers:
“Who is Death?” https://youtu.be/AkuvvKo75os
“Death, observing the love declarations of this ill-fated girl with sardonic amusement, was intrigued…”: https://youtu.be/oEDTj4MkI3o
“One, two, three… forever?”: https://youtu.be/LR_dKvEV3Y8
In addition, the Swiss trio has performed an exclusive live set and Q&A session at the Youtube Space in London on Wednesday and you can watch the full stream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EWrP4dFKyA
The Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu has created music videos for all the 13 songs on the album – the first ones can be watched here:
‘The Spell’: https://youtu.be/nnLvaHHBJOc
‘Insomnia’: https://youtu.be/QeXDYjDV2mw
‘Death’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDV_BeAZIUM
‘Drown’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU54MDtzrVU
The band is currently touring the UK, so make sure to witness the new songs live for the very first time on these dates:
CELLAR DARLING »The Spell Tour«
Tickets: https://www.cellardarling.com/shows
w/ BLANKET, APPEARANCE OF NOTHING
23.03. UK Cardiff – The Globe
24.03. UK Birmingham – Hare & Hounds
26.03. UK Norwich – The Waterfront
27.03. UK Hull – The Welly 2
28.03. UK Glasgow – Audio
29.03. IRL Dublin – On The Rox
30.03. UK Manchester – Academy 3
31.03. UK London – The Jazz Café Camden
02.04. NL Utrecht – De Helling
07.04. I Pavia (PV) – Dagda Live Club
09.04. I Rome – Traffic Live Club
27.04. F Bruguières – Echoes & Merveilles Festival
02.05. CH Winterthur – Salzhaus
04.05. CH Solothurn – Kulturfabrik Kofmehl w/ KATATONIA and WHEEL
20.05. LUX Luxembourg – Rockhal
21.05. D Cologne – Live Music Hall
22.05. D Berlin – Columbia Theater
23.05. D Hamburg – Gruenspan
24.05. B Vosselaar – Biebob
25.05. UK London – Islington Assembly Hall
13. – 15.06. CH Interlaken – Greenfield Festival
CELLAR DARLING are:
Anna Murphy – vocals, hurdy-gurdy, multi-instrumentalist
Merlin Sutter – drums
Ivo Henzi – guitars, bass
Visit CELLAR DARLING online:
www.facebook.com/cellardarlingofficial
www.twitter.com/cellar_darling
www.instagram.com/cellardarlingofficial/
UK progressive metal quintet THRESHOLD released their highly successful double concept album »Legends Of The Shires« (#13 Germany, #14 Switzerland, #31 Austria etc.) on September 8th, 2017 through Nuclear Blast, followed by extensive touring that included two European runs.
Today the band is pleased to announce their »The Legend Continues Tour 2019« in support of the aforementioned record, incl. three shows in North America.
All dates can be found below.
»The Legend Continues Tour 2019«
05.04. UK Wakefield – Warehouse23
06.04. UK Chepstow – Winter’s End
22.05. EST Tallinn – Rockclub Tapper
23.05. FIN Helsinki – Tavastia-klubi
24.05. N Hurum – We Låve Rock Festival *SOLD OUT*
25.05. N Hurum – We Låve Rock Festival
03.09. CDN Québec City, QC – Le Bûcher Bar Spectacles
04.09. CDN Montréal, QC – Les Foufounes Électriques
07.09. USA Atlanta, GA – ProgPower USA *SOLD OUT*
11.10. F Toulouse – Ready For Prog? Festival
12.10. E Barcelona – Sala Bóveda
13.10. E Madrid – Sala Caracol
]]>The short answer is a hollow and slightly disillusioned “No.”
It’s not as if there isn’t great music on this album. There certainly is. It’s clearly ambitious, with an eye to the epic and admirably diverse, although this sometimes falls over and tends toward a slightly disparate outcome where you lose the thread. But what is important is that Collector have the ability to paint pictures with their music and build a rifforama with seemingly no end. There is material in these fellows for many fine future releases, I’m sure of it.
The contributions by Vicky Psarakis (The Agonist), Chris Broderick (formerly of Megadeth, now Age of Destruction) and not least Warrel Dane are impeccable – in the case of Dane it’s a relief to finally hear a solid, professional voice towards the end of album on the song ‘End This Life’ (the irony of the title of the song is inch thick).
You see, what goes wrong for me is the contribution by vocalist/guitarist Sinan. He has no great voice. His clean song is weak to say it the least, his growls are a sort of odd belting with more air than actual power, and the spoken parts need a much more charismatic voice than his. Either Sinan needs a lot more training if he wants to keep doing this or a replacement would be advisable going forward.
Other than that, there’s a lot of promising music on Collector’s debut album. I expect we’ll hear a lot more from them.
]]>Having listened to this album three times, I can now, with clear conviction, say that it is rightfully ambitious. The overall output is technical, yet melodic, and it is riddled with a properly thick (very fat) wall of sound. It has it all: spoken lines, death growls, a mixture of clean and harsh vocals that end up sounding thrashy at times, several groovy flairs in the rhythms, slow instrumental parts, a menacing classical act on the piano, as well as dissonant riffs that create atonal and eerie sounds. Engram of Decline is really a mixed bag, equipped with orchestral elements showcased just in the right passages. In addition to all of that, there is a guitar solo by Michael Keene of The Faceless, as well as a presence of a saxophone by Jørgen Munkeby of Shining.
Although Fractal Universe doesn’t dwell in the shadows of their influences excessively, it is obvious that they have practiced their crafts with Obscura, Meshuggah, and perhaps Gorguts in mind. The kind of chord progressions the two guitarists Vince Wilquin (who is also the vocalist) and Hugo Florimond are able to summon is a testament to that in the most positive light. They were able to pick up some technical aspects necessary to be exploited and created a sound that is truly their own – technical, djenty, lengthy progressive riffs with hints of black metal, and very melodic solos.
A uniquely sophisticated approach to the prog/tech-death genre that is virtuosic, but not lacking in direction. In other words, Engram of Decline is a tornado of fine musicianship that isn’t drowned in its own soup of senseless technicality.
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