Portland, Maine-based black/death metal collective SHABTI — uniting members of OBSIDIAN TONGUE, FALLS OF RAUROS, FIRES IN THE DISTANCE, PANOPTICON and more — has unveiled "Sojourner," the latest preview of the band's upcoming third album, "Haze, Cacophony, And White Light," premiered by No Clean Singing.
Musically, SHABTI deploys an incinerating salvo of black-edged, ripping death metal wrought in layers of technical prowess and progressive flourishes on the new record. The album's conceptual lyrics reflect hazy, past-lived experiences intersecting with mythological and dream-like imagery, exploring grief, longing, religion and alienation, culminating in a dire augury of the future where the Shabti succeed their masters.
The album was tracked by the band, with additional vocal and guitar tracking at Acadia Recording Company in Portland, before being mixed at The Cathedral Of Psychic Death by Aaron Charles of FALLS OF RAUROS, mastered by Dan Lowndes at Resonance Sound Studio, and completed with cover art by Ibay Arifin.
Vocalist and guitarist Rob Cook described "Sojourner" as a standout within the record. "I always think of 'Sojourner' as the most 'black metal' sounding track of our album, but listening back with fresh ears I think the listener can pick out several other prominent extreme metal genres that are enmeshed into the song," Cook said. "It is more austere and mournful than our last single. I don't set out to write songs in any particular style for SHABTI; I am influenced by many genres of music, and we just play what comes naturally."
On the song's lyrical content, Cook added: "The lyrics deal with aspects of loss, regret, and struggling and failing to reach a lofty goal. They develop into a play on the myth of Hades abducting Persephone where the protagonist descends into the underworld in an attempt to see the entity (or thing) that has been taken away from him. There is hope of reunion, or at least a return of the seasons."
No Clean Singing, premiering the track, described it as "a head-spinner from its earliest moments, moments in which the tempo repeatedly (and dramatically) changes and the guitars alternately sound desolate and blaring, feverishly darting, and blisteringly delirious," adding that the rhythm section again proves "impressive technical chops and adrenaline-fueled inventiveness" before the track slows into "an unsettling pall of pain" in its final moments.
SHABTI has booked a hometown album release show at Geno's on August 14, with additional touring plans still in development.