EZRA BROOKS, the solo project of SMOULDER guitarist and co-founder S. Vincent, is streaming its first proper studio album, "Tales from the Ezra Brooks Cycle", in full ahead of its November 27 release. Gates of Hell Records, the Cruz Del Sur Music imprint, will issue it on CD limited to 500 copies and on opaque royal blue vinyl limited to 300.
The project grew out of Vincent's habit of digging for the most obscure and forgotten metal bands he can find. The result is traditional heavy metal in the lineage of BROCAS HELM, SLOUGH FEG and TALES OF MEDUSA, pushed toward what the label calls a collision of proto-metal roots and futuristic space-age metal. EZRA BROOKS previously put out several demos and splits as well as the "Target" EP in 2017.
The album took a long road. Vincent finished writing the songs in 2021, started recording in 2022 and wrapped up the mix and master this year. He wrote and played everything himself, with Tucker Thomasson (THRONE OF IRON) of Megadungeon Recording handling re-amping and mixing, and Andrew Lee (RIPPED TO SHREDS, HOUKAGO GRIND TIME) mastering.
It's not a concept album in the strict sense, as only "Secrets of the Obzidion Cauldron – Breathing the Zilvor Mist of Understanding" and "The Jet Moons of Drakzon" are directly linked. But every song is set in the same world: a time traveler named Ezra Brooks finds a mysterious amulet buried beneath Antarctica that lets her move through time, and is then hunted for crimes she has yet to commit. Vincent cites Barrington J. Bayley's science fiction, the "Metroid" games and the "Terminator" films as inspiration. He also says his growing contempt for the lack of basic empathy in the name of "a line going up on a computer screen" pushed him to finish the record, which closes on two messages: there is no future for fascism, and heavy metal will never die.
Tracklist:
- Prime Condition for Danger
- Concerning Jump Gates and Well Cloaked Scans
- Fall of the Protectors
- A Curse from the Stars
- Destroying the Reactor
- Secrets of the Obzidion Cauldron – Breathing the Zilvor Mist of Understanding
- The Jet Moons of Drakzon
Order & Stream "Tales from the Ezra Brooks Cycle": Bandcamp