Today, Eternal Death announces August 1st as the international release date for Ancient Torment‘s highly anticipated debut album, Follow the Echo of Curses, on CD format, with a vinyl version to come later via Goatowarex.
From the coastal reaches of New England, Rhode Island-based Ancient Torment have emerged as a leading torchbearer in the region’s black metal underground. The band formed around the core dominion established by guitarist Tormentum and drummer Zealot (both erstwhile members of Witch King) during the winter of 2016, with a handful of short-length releases in the years that followed. Taking influence from the gloomy darkness of the Finnish scene and triumphant misery of their Québécois neighbors to the north, Ancient Torment have forged their own black metal.
Now, nearly a decade after their inception, Ancient Torment are prepared to unleash their first full-length. Aptly titled Follow the Echo of Curses, the band’s debut album is an immersive, introspective journey through the shadows of abysmal suffering and mysteries of death’s embrace.
“When the debt of fortune outweighs wishes granted
Severance of life shines in the benign.
To know the accursed share
Which propels their charade;
Down the well
Falls the precious gift of life
Hung by its own cord from a dead star”
– “Dejected Dreams Molested in Purgatory”
Indeed, Follow the Echo of Curses is a sharp, sterling summation of the Ancient Torment aesthetic this past decade, but given full flight through the quintet’s most epic & compelling compositions to date. Within a duration of 42 minutes, the album’s six component tracks stretch out whilst remaining urgent every breathless step of the way. Likewise, the band’s melancholic melodicism is upfront, but it’s fired with a passion that makes each of these epics feel much quicker than their generous runtimes suggest.
Of especial note is the album’s recording, a symbiosis of form and content. Follow the Echo of Curseswas recorded at Distorted Forest Studio, a space of reclusive solitude in the woods of northern Rhode Island, over the early months of 2024. It was mixed by Josh Welshman (Flux Studios NYC), mastered by Dan Lowndes (Resonance Sound Studio), and artwork from David Thiérrée, with an overall production that traverses the caustic and sublime. A testament to the mysteries of true death worship, driven by nuanced aggression and drenched in cold melodies, it covers themes that span the swirling depths of depravity, suffering, and infernal release. Ancient Torment have at last arrived to reclaim bloodied ground.
In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Sorrow Verses” HERE at Eternal Death‘s Bandcamp, where the album can also be preordered. Aforementioned cover artwork and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Ancient Torment’s Follow the Echo of Curses
1. Hanging from a Dead Star [6:44]
2. Spectre at the Crossroads [5:47]
3. Sorrow Verses [7:04]
4. Dejected Dreams Molested in Purgatory [5:08]
5. Under the Guise of Virtue [7:31]
6. Rotting Temperament [9:00]
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