Vancouver melodic death metal collective DUNGEON SERPENT have released "Tranquil Sleep Of The Dead, Endless Seas Aflame", the latest preview of their second album, Lamentations Of The Shadowkingdoms. The record — the band's first for Profound Lore Records — arrives October 30 on LP, CD and digital.
The new song is the album's fifth track and, by mastermind Arawn's own account, a close cousin of "Cosmic Sorcery" from 2021 debut World Of Sorrows: a little more "positive" in tone, calmer and more repetitive in structure, but still built on evil riffing that nods to IMMOLATION, ABSU and MALEFICARUM. It closes with an attempt at screamo-style "whistle" vocals for maximum intensity.
The track also carries a strong guest list from the Pacific Northwest underground. Guitar solos come from Brandon and Jeremy of GYIBAAW — "one of my all-time favorite bands", Arawn says — while Shawn of MITOCHONDRION recorded the acoustic guitars for the opening movement.
When we covered the album announcement in September, DUNGEON SERPENT had just shared the video for "Rainland's Elegy". Lamentations Of The Shadowkingdoms ends five years of silence: six tonally distinct but thematically linked pieces, played faster and more ferociously than the debut and pulling in black metal, brutal death metal, grind and even jazz, with Hellenic-style keyboards and violins from composer Anju Singh (THE NAUSEA) adding orchestral sweep. Arawn handles vocals, guitars, keyboards and bass, joined by drummer Bhraonáin (FAKE DUST). Damian Herring of HORRENDOUS mixed and mastered the album at Subterranean Watchtower Studios, and the cover art is by Marc Potts.
Tracklist:
- A Wanderer's Dirge/Ashes From The Temple
- Festering Malediction (The Fifth Kingdom)
- Rainland's Elegy (The Lamentations Of The Shadowkingdoms)
- Garden Of Grotesque Forms (Act I. Lineage Of Failure, Act II. Dreamlike Odyssey)
- Tranquil Sleep Of The Dead, Endless Seas Aflame
- Cast Through (Outro)
Order & Stream "Lamentations Of The Shadowkingdoms": Linktree