Abhorrent Expanse's Unbound Death Metal Crystallizes: "Arcturian Nano Diamonds from the Tranquil Abyss" Video Premiere
While a fourteen-minute track consisting of mostly noise is an unusual facet for a death metal album, it makes a lot of sense for Abhorrent Expanse, who push the genre into wildly experimental territory on their upcoming debut release Gateways to Resplendence. Featuring ten improvised ‘movements,’ the album explores drone textures, free jazz, and more—it feels somewhat like a sketchbook full of eye-catching renditions, bringing observers as close as possible to the artists’ intentions, rough edges and all. These free-form expressions come with viscous impact due to the band’s suffocating and alien sound, and on “Arcturian Nano Diamonds from the Tranquil Abyss,” the lengthy track’s soundscapes teem with heavy, oppressive atmosphere. Watch the video of the performance here:
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The track feels less like a song built around a specific structure, and more of a performance designed to capture the sensation of intense, escalating pressure in a void like the name seems to suggest. The grinding, abrasive blast beats near the end firmly remind listeners of the band’s ties to extreme metal (featuring members of Zebulon Pike, Celestiial, and Obsequiae) and exemplify the album’s inherent suspense. Especially due to its unplanned nature, even the quietest moment on Gateways to Resplendence can potentially turn into a crushing outburst without warning: so, even the most non-metal moments play into a choking, intense approach to death metal that tightens its grip further the weirder it gets.
Vocalist / guitarist Luke Polipnick comments:
This is one of the last things we recorded at the session. It represents an attempt to create a swirling, monolithic sound mass and a sense of time being suspended. Brian and Erik are playing these huge drones for much of it, while Tim and I explore some of the most overtly “free jazz” territory of the record. We reach a final blasting plateau before it recedes into scraping acoustic noise and nothingness.
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Gateways To Resplendence will release on CD and digitally through Amalgam Music with a limited run of 50 tapes via Lurker Bias on April 8th. Find CD/digital pre-orders here and cassette/digital pre-orders here.
