The Translation Loss label has repeatedly demonstrated eclectic but dependable tastes, and we have a further vivid reminder of that in the album Spiritfraud that they’ve set for release on July 15th.

This album is the second full-length by a classically trained, avant-garde black metal duo who call themselves Xenoglyph. Conceptually, as the band explain, Spiritfraud is written in call-and-response format “as a dystopian cosmic journey between humans left on earth after technology and robotic overlords have taken reign”. It presents “an inverse relationship between technological advancement and the relevance of humanity, illustrated in a narrative where digital beings want to expedite their own evolution by means of stealing human dreams”.

Yet this tale is clearly presented as a metaphor that confronts us with a choice in the modern age: “Unbeknownst to man, humanity’s spirit has been drained from our collective consciousness by the very technology that we invented (an inevitable consequence of even existing in the 21st century) and replaced with a shadow of our former greatness. The only way out is to channel and meditate on the strength of the cosmos – the only constant in our world”.

With themes as expansive and visionary as those, one would hope for music of a similar scale and imaginative power. As you’ll discover through our premiere of the song “Iconocide“, that hope has been fulfilled. Continue reading »