TORII, the solo project of Rogers, Arkansas musician Bill Masino, has premiered "Dagger in Hand", the second single from the upcoming album Despaire, due December 18. The track debuted via The Toilet Ov Hell.
Despaire is the seventh TORII album and the first in five years. Masino handles everything himself: all instruments, programming, vocals, lyrics and artwork. Having left the project's black metal beginnings behind, TORII now drifts between post-metal, death-doom and doom, and the press release names YOB, PALLBEARER, MORNE and CULT OF LUNA as reference points.
The record takes its cue from Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene and moves through dreams and nightmares, with the idea of constantly pushing forward to overcome darkness and make the most of the time left. "Dagger in Hand" closes the album, and Masino frames it as the turning point: most of Despaire, he says, churns through longing, frustration and isolation, while the closer "is the moment one chooses to break free, overcome, and move forward." The title track was released earlier as the first single.
Despaire tracklist:
- Forge of Creation
- Shimmer
- Snow
- Becoming
- A Loathsome Life
- Stream
- Momentum
- Despaire
- The Blue
- Dagger in Hand