MERIDIAN VEIL, the Montreal progressive extreme metal band featuring members of THE AGONIST, CRYPTOPSY, SEVEN SPIRES and LEPROUS, will release their debut album Forgotten Sun on January 22, 2027 via Season of Mist. The announcement comes with the full music video for the opening track and lead single "The Watcher".
Last week, when the band signed to Season of Mist, all we had was a short trailer and the promise of a 2027 record. Now there is a title, a date, a tracklist and the finished clip:
The video was written and directed by Christopher Kells, who played bass and sang backing vocals in THE AGONIST alongside guitarist Danny Marino. Vocalist Matt McGachy has known him for almost 30 years and says it has been a pleasure to watch him grow into a director.
Forgotten Sun is a concept album, and an unusual one: the story is told from the point of view of an artificial superintelligence programmed to serve the greater good. "The Watcher" marks the moment the A.I. is welcomed into our world, with McGachy switching between harsh screams and raspy clean vocals over Dylan Gowan's blast beats while Raphael Weinroth-Browne's cello builds the tension. As the record unfolds, Marino explains, the machine stops being benevolent and becomes controlling, stepping in to fix humanity's mistakes with disastrous results. He frames the central conflict as the friction between machine logic and human biology, and notes that technology is evolving far faster than our species.
Marino and McGachy first met in Montreal in the early 2000s, but touring with THE AGONIST and CRYPTOPSY kept the idea on hold until 2024, when the first writing and recording sessions took place at Marino's home. Weinroth-Browne says the album captures the best of 2000s death and prog metal with a distinctly modern approach.
The band's vocals, guitars and drums were produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Christian Donaldson at The Grid; the cello was recorded by Darren McGill at Union Sound Studio. Cover art and band photo are by Sean Mundy. The album will be available digitally, on CD and on two gatefold vinyl variants (black, and transparent with a black-and-white crusher effect).
Forgotten Sun tracklist:
- The Watcher
- Orpheus Before the Light
- Ashen Genesis
- False Shepherd
- Only Perfection
- Downfall
- Children of Betrayal
- The Last Garden
MERIDIAN VEIL are:
- Danny Marino — guitars
- Matt McGachy — vocals
- Dylan Gowan — drums
- Raphael Weinroth-Browne — cello
Pre-order / pre-save "Forgotten Sun": orcd.co/meridianveilforgottensun
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