AN NCS PREMIERE: GLOOMY GRIM — “A LADY IN WHITE”

 

On June 6, Satanath Records will release a new album named The Age of Aquarius by the Finnish horror-prone black metal band Gloomy Grim. To whet your appetite for the album, today we bring you the stream of one of the new songs, “A Lady In White“.

This premiere marks Gloomy Grim’s first appearance at our putrid site, and so a word of introduction may be in order. The band first took shape in the mid-’90s as the solo project of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Agathon. Since then, Gloomy Grim evolved into a full band and have released six albums (including this new one), along with a few shorter releases. They have consistently been inspired by horror movies and their soundtracks, as well as by the darkness of life in general.

(Fair warning… there’s a band photo after the jump that’s NSFW.)

 

 

A long period of apparent silence followed the band’s last album, 2008’s Under the Spell of the Unlight, but with this new full-length the band have made up for lost time in fine fashion.

We obtained this statement from Agathon about the new song we’re bringing you today:

“The lyrics of the song are based on true events which I experienced while living in an old house in the middle of the forest and where an old lady had died.

“This song was made by writing the lyrics before the music and on an “old GG”-style by composing on keyboard and later to work on the guitars.

“It was almost left in the drawer since I had no idea what the guitars should play. But as I gave the guitarists a chance to check it out for what to play, they composed their parts quite fast. Especially Micko Hell’s nylon-string solo gave me the shivers on my spine, and the despair of the Lady Dressed in White can be sensed in it. The song itself represents the old style Gloomy Grim at its best. This is also one of the first songs I composed for the new album.”

Even the brief seconds of piano keys and choral voices at the launch of the song immediately create a spooky atmosphere, but if you’re expecting some kind of gloomy gothic plodding, you’re in for a surprise — because after those few seconds, the song erupts into an inferno of scalding black metal laced with wraithlike keyboards melody.

The pacing and intensity are dynamic, with slower passages segmenting the conflagration, showcasing Agathon’s keyboard work, a big grinding bass sound, and that solo mentioned above — which combine to create a tangible aura of supernatural horror.

 

To pre-order the album, visit this page on Bandcamp:

https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat151-gloomy-grim-the-age-of-aquarius-2016

Another song from the album named “The Shameful Kiss” premiered earlier at Decibel, and we’re including that stream below as well.

http://satanath.com
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