Almost two decades into their existence, the Bulgarian atmospheric black/doom metal band Darkflight have completed a new album (their fifth) entitled The Hereafter, which will be released on June 22nd, and today we bring you the premiere of the album’s opening track, the well-named “Crushed“.
While Darkflight is a two-person band consisting of Ivo Iliev (vocals, guitars, synths, drums) and Milen Todorov (bass, clean vocals), the new album also features guest appearances by current or former members of Ars Moriendi (France), Hallows Eve (U.S.), and Eleven Drops To Sink Into (Bulgaria) — and former Hallows Eve vocalist Steve Cannon appears on the song we’re streaming today.
“Crushed” is a long, multifaceted song that’s a deep dive into a chilling but glinting lake of tears. Anchored by slow, booming doom chords and crushing drum beats, the song is also shrouded in a gothic and ghostly ambience thanks to ethereal and anguished melodies that shimmer, swirl, chime, and cascade over the earth-moving low end. The music is given added dimensions of pain and pestilence through the vocals, which are a tandem of scalding, throat-ripping black-metal howls and bleak but emotionally charged clean vocals. The song is heavy enough to vibrate your teeth and hypnotic enough to cast you into haunted reveries of loss and lament.
The Hereafter will be co-released on June 22nd by Symbol Of Domination (Belarus), Metallic Media (USA), and Black Plague Records (USA). Pre-order and band links are below, along with streams of two other previously released songs from the new album — “Expiring Soul” and “The Outpost“.
Pre-order:
https://symbolofdomination.bandcamp.com/album/sodp099-darkflight-the-hereafter-2017
Darkflight:
http://darkflight.net
http://www.facebook.com/darkflightband
4 Responses to “AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DARKFLIGHT — “CRUSHED””
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When the music tucks you in – with a straitjacket – and immerse you in water so cold you can’t feel it because you turn instantly numb. Your own tears merging with the very cause of your demise. Embraced till the light fades, to never shine anew.
Well said, as usual.
I actually have another version of this song that I like infinitely better; it features the higher sung vocals prominently throughout the last part of the clean vocals I do… Ivo liked the other version better, and it’s kinda growing on me. Maybe someday there will be a Darkflight album of alternate versions and covers… I have some ideas for that, if we can get everything together…
I’m a recent convert to this band and, holy shit, this is amazing music. Their songs have a combination of weight and melody I find really powerful. I’ve always held that guitar solos are dependent on the rhythms driving them, and Darkflight is a great example of how that can work. Emotional, transportive music. Glad I found this, cannot wait to hit the buy-button for this new album. Respect!