THE BEAST

Revolver is currently streaming "The Chasm At The Mouth Of The All" from Denver-based doom bringers IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS. The haunting new hymn comes by way of the band's impending Lux full-length, set for release on May 15th.

 

Revolver hails the band's "tectonic slabs of thunderous doom and spacey drone," while guitarist/vocalist Grant Netzorg elaborates of the track in part, "The title and opening lyrics are a nod to destiny -- Divinity gets what it wants, and often comes barring fangs. The overarching theme of Prima Materia and the notion of  'All is Sound/All is Mind/All is Light' are at play here. The opening lyric, 'We live in Chasm at the mouth of the All,' is meant to confer that we live in an embodied, living universe, or God, if you will. The second line, 'Her lips are wet with venom and her quarry will fall,' is both a homage to a vinyl-only bonus track from one of my all-time favorite records, Sunn O))) and Boris' Altar, as well as an assertion that, if we live in an embodied universe and it is all of God, God gets what it wants. There are other themes at play as well here: In the second verse we have the lines, 'The sky above is the celestial womb; The soil beneath us the seed and our tomb.' This is playing with a Nuit/Hadit dynamic from Crowley's infamous Book Of The Law, which he posited he had received telepathically from an angelic entity after performing the Headless Rite from the Greek Magical Papyri in the chamber of the great pyramid. The themes of Sex/Life/Death are all fairly intertwined here, and this could function thematically as a sibling of the earlier tune, 'Scales Of Maat"..."

 

Read more and stream "The Chasm At The Mouth Of The All" only at Revolver at THIS LOCATION .

 

Lux will be released digitally and in several limited physical formats including deluxe vinyl, standard vinyl, deluxe cassette, and digipak CD. For preorders, visit the IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS Bandcamp Page at THIS LOCATION where opening track, "The Fool's Journey," can be streamed.

 

Marking IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS' first release as a trio featuring Netzorg with Ben Pitts (Nightwraith, False Cathedrals) on bass and lap steel guitar and JP Damron (Vermin Womb, Bleakheart, Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire) on drums, Lux was produced, mixed, and mastered by Dave Otero (Cattle Decapitation, Khemmis, Primitive Man) at Flatline Audio with additional engineering by Charlie Abend. Lux includes guest appearances by Colorado Chamber Players violist Paul Primus, Primitive Man guitarist/vocalist Ethan Lee McCarthy, and Khemmis guitarist/vocalist Ben Hutcherson.

 

The eight track offering focuses on the notion of a Prima Materia, or a fundamental root-essence, behind everything in the manifest universe. Illustrated by Christina Hunt with layout by Jake Harnett, the alluring cover is an artistic re-imagining of The Sun arcana from Tarot. "This ties into the broader solar and light themes at play in the album," notes Netzorg, "but the title, cover, and broader theme is also uniquely personal to me. Lux is the etymology of my daughter's name, Lucia. So, while this album functions as a form of esoteric prayer on one hand, it also serves as a message to my two-year-old, who, as they say in the cliché, is the light of my life."

 

Founded in 2011, IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS traffics in sonic catharsis. Their music inhabits the strange fringes between sludge metal and sprawling spaghetti western scores, constantly striving for visceral power and raw intensity, contrasted with eerie, spare instrumental passages.