THE BEAST

Days before the reissue and first-ever vinyl release of their acclaimed 2013 record “Virulent Rapture,” British blackened death metal pioneers HECATE ENTHRONED have released a brand new video for the song “Plagued By Black Death.” The lyric video, created by Raf Ortega of Ecliptic Visions, can be viewed at

 
“’Plagued By Black Death’ was a band favourite off the album and has become a big fan favourite too,” explains bassist Dylan Hughes. “Time has shown it to be a true Hecate classic, a song that still remains in our live set. It sits so well with our earlier and latter material as it encompasses all the elements that makes a Hecate track: epic, powerful, emotive and aggressive! This video captures the essence of the song, not just the lyrical content but the ebb and flow of the music, the timing of the piece building into that final passage which is a huge desolate crescendo. Raf, as always, nails these videos as he truly understands the songs and the band and we couldn’t be happier with how this turned out. Enjoy.”
 
Digipak CD and limited-edition (300) burnt orange vinyl editions of “Virulent Rapture” will be released this Friday, Sept. 25, and are available to order now at www.smarturl.com/virulent.
 
Continues Dylan, “'Virulent Rapture' was our first release after a long studio hiatus, so it was a big album for us. We wanted to give our fans something meaty with depth and range, and the mix of heavy riffs and huge orchestration gave it a big and powerful sound to match the importance of the release. Now that it has a reissue through our current label M-Theory Audio with updated artwork and an incredible vinyl print, metalheads will finally have the chance to complete their HECATE collection. All we can say is enjoy, and play it at 11!”
 
Hailed by New Noise Magazine as “an absolute must for fans of extreme gothic metal,” “Virulent Rapture” – which has been out-of-print for several years – features artwork by Nestor Avalos (Bloodbath, Rotting Christ, The Black Dahlia Murder) and guest vocals by Sarah Jezebel Deva (Cradle of Filth, Mortiis, Therion), as well as newly-written liner notes by the band.
 
One of the UK underground's longest-running and most respected acts, HECATE ENTHRONED has been praised by the likes of Terrorizer for their “mixture of death metal aggression with black metal atmosphere.” Originally co-founded in Wales by guitarist Nigel Dennen in the mid-1990s, the band is dedicated to delivering their own brand of evil metal with little regard to politics or the trends of popular demand. The group's 1997 debut, the Andy Sneap-produced “The Slaughter Of Innocence, A Requiem For The Mighty” (Blackend Records), was a seminal release in the then-burgeoning orchestral black metal movement, and since then, several studio outputs and numerous live performances have firmly established the band as one of extreme metal's most important voices.
 
The group’s 2019 M-Theory Audio debut, “Embrace Of The Godless Aeon,” was HECATE ENTHRONED's first recording with vocalist Joe Stamps, who joined the band in 2015. Co-produced by Dan Abela (Voices, The Antichrist Imperium), the album saw the band deftly mix black with death, modern with classic and extreme with symphonic. The group is currently writing material for a new record, which they hope to release in 2021.
 
For more info:
www.m-theoryaudio.com
www.facebook.com/hecateenthroned