Atlanta black metal quartet CLOAK will release Above, Below, & Through, their fourth full-length and first for Metal Blade Records, on February 12, 2027. The band marked the announcement with a video for the opening track, "Nigredo - Initium".
Formed in 2013 around vocalist/guitarist Scott Taysom and guitarist Max Brigham, CLOAK enter this chapter with a new rhythm section: drummer Matt Morris and bassist Rafay Nabeel. According to the band, the record builds on everything that worked on their previous album, Black Flame Eternal and pushes it further, while standing on its own.
This time CLOAK went for a conceptual frame. Taysom says the songs kept circling the same ideas as they were written: pathways between life and death, the space between dreaming and waking, the shift between beast and man, and shadow and light as spiritual guides. The title, he explains, came to mean something all-encompassing and complete, yet also liminal and transitional — a description that fit the band itself at the time.
"Nigredo - Initium" was the first song the new lineup worked on, which the band calls fitting given the title: it is "the initial door" into the world of the album and, in their words, "the start of a new dark age".
The album was recorded with producer Alex Parra and drum engineer John Douglass, and the band promises its biggest, most natural-sounding production yet. Cover art is by Jordan Barlow. Above, Below, & Through comes out on CD, digital and several vinyl variants, including two EU-exclusive editions limited to 250 copies each.
Tracklist:
- Nigredo - Initium
- Of Shadow & Sleep
- Into Death's Light
- Horrors Profound
- Levitation
- The Arcane Beckoning
- The Mare
- Above, Below, & Through
CLOAK live:
| Date | Event / Venue | City |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 7, 2026 | Mass Destruction Metal Fest | Atlanta, GA |
| Jan 13, 2027 | The Milestone Club | Charlotte, NC |
| Jan 14, 2027 | Heart Of Wither Festival | Richmond, VA |
| Jan 15, 2027 | Metro Baltimore | Baltimore, MD |
| Jan 16, 2027 | Chapel of Bones | Raleigh, NC |
Order & Stream "Above, Below, & Through": metalblade.com/cloak