THE BEAST

Artach, an epic and raw two-man black metal band/project (Sruthán: Guitar, Bass, Fíochmhar: Battery, Vokills) based in St. John's, Newfoundland have unleashed their debut album entitled “Chronicles of a Black Winter”. Just released on February 24th, the full length consists of nine songs including “When The Forest Ends” for which the band released a music video for in the fall of 2019 plus a cover of Celtic Frost's 'Jewel Throne' as a bonus track.

Digging into the inspirations of a few of the songs, the band reveals that the typical "evil" lyrics were not territory they wanted to tread. Instead, a near-mystical connection to the land and in particular to the northern climate of their home is where their hearts lie. The title for the song "When The Forest Ends" was inspired by the recent Amazon rain forest fires. Global climate change also inspired the track "Permafrost" with the twist of what ancient contagion may be unleashed as the arctic warms. It's not all environmentalism though, as songs like "Frozen in Time" have more of a sci-fi leaning, and "Fire & Ice" questions the end of the universe.

The band adds:

“We have been crafting music for just 9 months and we have been very prolific and felt it was time to release a selection of 9 tracks on an album. We have more songs recorded and more written, and we will keep pumping them out as we head towards a second album. We hope you enjoy our old school black metal approach as we keep things raw and honest.”   

Since their formation in the spring of 2019, Artach has been consistently releasing new music. Being from the foggiest, snowiest, wettest, windiest, and gloomiest capital city in Canada, one should not be surprised that this fuels the creation of Black Metal.

“Chronicles of a Black Winter” can be streamed and downloaded at the band's  Bandcamp  and  YouTube .

Track Listing:
1. Eternal Black Winter (4:58)
2. Permafrost (4:08)
3. Leviathan... Rise (6:38)
4. Ice Raven (5:35)
5. Frozen In Time (4:39)
6. The Fallen Ones (4:29)
7. When The Forest Ends (6:02)
8. Fire & Ice (4:42)
9. Jewel Throne (Celtic Frost cover) (4:00) (Bonus Track)
Album Length: 45:15

Members:
Sruthán: Guitar, Bass
Fíochmhar: Battery, Vokills