Xasthur are now revealing the video clip of the title track and first single taken from the forthcoming double-album “Inevitably Dark”, which is slated for release on June 23, 2023.
The American stylistically highly diverse act instigated by multi-instrumentalist Scott Conner has created a kaleidoscopic double-album that is ranging from acid folk to black metal. Please see below for cover art, tracklist, and further details of Xasthur‘s new full-length.
On further news, parallel to “Inevitably Dark”, Xasthur will release a limited red transparent vinyl LP entitled “Rehearsals 1997-1999” on June 23, 2023, which contains ten nameless tracks that were recorded with the aid of nameless musicians on a cassette Walkman at Conner’s home. These have previously been released on a CDR of which less than a 100 were made in 2013. “Rehearsals 1997-1999” will also be available on regular black vinyl.
Xasthur title track of the double-album “Inevitably Dark”: https://youtu.be/N0lnBY0n988
Xasthur comment: “There’s a difference between being a guitarist and a black metal guitarist”, mastermind Scott Conner writes. “I don’t consider myself to be a black metal guitarist. However, after more than 10 years, I see no reason not to work within those constrictions temporarily again.”
Tracklist Disc 1: 1. Affect/Infect 2. A Future to Fear II 3. Psychiatric Masochists 4. Euphoric Bad Trip 5. Live Like a Broken Mirror 6. Trauma Fiends 7. Abandoned Intuition 8. Concrete Mattress 9. Not guilty of Your Past 10. Another Gutter 11. Inevitably Dark 12. Spectrum of Hate 13. Benefits of Dying // Tracklist Disc 2: 14. Mirroring Failure 15. Overdose on Diversions 16. Worse than the Good Old Days 17. Blizzard inside a Coma 18. HellRot 19. Hypnotized by Lies 20. Stigmatized Grave 21. Delusional Identities 22. Sing It at Your Funeral 23. Projection of Inferiority II
There is hardly a more fitting title for the new Xasthur compositions than “Inevitably Dark”. Darkness is the element that holds all the tracks together despite the fact that they are expressed in a multitude of genres, which even includes black metal. This time. Be warned: this album is neither meant as a return to black metal of mastermind Scott Conner, even though he does this time, nor a guarantee that it will happen again next time – although, he might. Maybe.
This monolith of musical darkness that is balefully towering in the shape of a monumental Xasthur double album has been made from sonic granite. Like the intrusive igneous type of rock, it is coarse-grained, composed from different minerals that have formed from magma erupting to the surface from infernal depths, and has a high content of metal oxides that do not always show at a superficial glance.
Instead of quartz, alkali feldspar, and other types of rock, Conner has used black metal, dark ambient, acid folk, doomgrass, and other genres to express what he has seen and felt, as well as a way to find his own sound or style at a point in time – for example when he was without a steady home and often living in hotels or cars. His insights into the underbelly of the American dream are reflected in the lyrics of “Inevitably Dark”, which are there even though there is no singing on the album. Conner is taking a look into the minds of the mentally ill. The puzzle of people that he encountered on the road and that might be homeless because they are ill, or whose minds shattered when they lost their homes.
Documenting what he has heard and seen, Conner recorded all the tracks of “Inevitably Dark” live and by himself, which might make it sound coarse to modern ears, but it is just the grit and stain of unfiltered reality. His way is the old hard way of a live sound and not the fake glitter of a perfectly polished product. Xasthur are sounding exactly as the mastermind has envisioned his album to be: real.
Xasthur were originally conceived by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Scott Conner in California, USA in the year 1995. The project started out in the vein of bleak black metal in the tradition of the Nordic second wave. Over the course of nine albums and a host of split-singles, EPs, and occasional demos, Xasthur‘s individual, particularly depressive style became highly regarded within the extreme genre. In 2010, Scott announced the end of Xasthur and returned with an acoustic dark folk project under the banner of NOCTURNAL POISONING. In 2015, the American artist returned to the name Xasthur, but insisted that his black metal days were over.
With “Inevitably Dark”, Xasthur have partly lifted the self-imposed ban on black metal, simply because Conner felt like it and therefore did it. Yet this double-album is not written to serve any genre purpose or intended to pander to any scene. “Inevitably Dark” is what it is, foremost a piece of musical darkness and self-reflection, because Scott Conner can do what he wills. And that is no small artistic achievement.
Xasthur line-up: Scott – 12 & 6-string Guild, Martin and Taylor acoustic guitars, B.C Rich 6 string electric guitars, B.C Rich Bass, Roland and Yamaha Keyboards, tambourine, and Boss DR 660/770 drum machine
Guest musician: Robert N. – occasional keyboard sections
Recorded live on a Tascam DP-03 by Scott Conner / Mastered by Javier Salvatierra / Artwork sketches by Stanislav Krawczyk / Layout by Łukasz Jaszak
Shop link: http://lnk.spkr.media/xasthur-inevitably-dark
Available formats: “Inevitably Dark” is available as 48-page hardcover 3CD artbook incl. exclusive recordings, feat. an essay by Scott Conner and drawings by Stanislav Krawczyk, as a gatefold marble red and black vinyl 2LP, a gatefold black vinyl 2LP, and as 2CD Digipak CD.
