THE BEAST

The watcher stands alone in a memory of the primordial forests that once covered this land. He stands in perfect stillness as the hunter passes, dipping beneath the vault of branches, a natural cathedral reflecting the gentle beauty of the fractured architecture of sadness. The hunter flies on through the still forest air on soft wings, the bringer of death; always alone, always in darkness, always in silence...a ghost upon the wing. And the watcher continues his vigil in the tender company of his heartbreak and his reflections upon sunlight remembered...
 
Born under the vast skies of the Norfolk countryside, in the solitude of the secretive wetlands to the echoes of the curlew’s haunting cry, And Now The Owls Are Smiling explore the beauty of nature and the beauty in melancholy, the forests of the mist shrouded past and the dark forests of the human heart. New album, The Comforting Grip Of Misery is sweeping and majestic, an autumn wind rushing across the fenlands and through the gnarled and mighty oaks, but also intensely intimate; sweetly summoning up the spectres of sadness and weaving them into bitter sweet vistas of memory, tapestries of treasured tears woven with the words that meant more to you than any others you have heard or spoken. The trembling melodies of ‘The Comforting Grip Of Misery’ draw you through the valleys of the scars upon your heart, while the bewitching simplicity of ‘Winter’s Elegy’ draws you back into a past you have forgotten to remember.
 
Following on from the haunting touch of 2018s Desolation, The Comforting Grip Of Misery casts even more potent spells, incantations that can unlock the essence of your being and bring the secret loves and losses of your soul out into the dappled sunlight beneath the ancient trees. These songs, these distillations of the essence of humanity can teach you to find the beauty in everything...even misery. Look for this precious tome of sound, rooted in the most expressive forms of depressive, atmospheric black metal as winter approaches.
 
On November 1st Clobber Records will unveil these songs from the smiling hunter on CD, Digital, Cassette and limited edition double cassette box set.
 
Line-up: 
Nre – All instruments and vocals
Guest vocals on ‘Winter’s Elegy’ - Linds Bestwicke
Guest guitar solo on 'The Comforting Grip Of Misery' - Steve Blackwood
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
For fans of: Xasthur | Grift | Drudkh | Old Corpse Road
Further Information: www.facebook.com/andnowtheowlsaresmiling
 
“...compelling music that has emotion, musical talent and raw creativity behind it....” – METAL PURGATORY MEDIA