Swedish folk / medieval / doom metallers APOCALYSPE ORCHESTRA unveil their debut album,The End is Nigh through Despotz Records today.
Formed in 2013, mult-instrumentalists Mikael Lindstrom and Erik Larsson bonded over their mutual love of the unlikely combination of folk music and doom metal. With a foundation of original music and lyrics the duo also decided to incorporate melodies stemming from as far back as the eleventh century – the goal was to create a musical homage to a long gone era. “From plague ridden bodies to great power from above, we tried to infuse this album with it all,” says frontman Erik Larsson. “Darkness and despair, pain and suffering, war and pestilence. But also progress and renewal, science and beauty, art and hope. The hard and heavy dances with the soft and frail.”
The drums were recorded by William Blackmon (Gadget, Beardfish, Isole) at Studio Overlook, and the rest was recorded by the band themselves at Studio Bordun, spending the latter part of 2016 working on the record, incorporating non traditional instruments such as the hurdy gurdy, cittern, bagpipes and others, as well as enlisting the services of an actual live orchestra. Finally the was mixed by Per Nilsson (Scar Symmetry, Kaipa) at Studio Kabyss.
The End is Nigh tracklisting:
1. The Garden of Earthly Delights
2. Pyre
3. Flagellants’ Song
4. Exhale
5. Theatre of War
6. The Great Mortality
7. To Embark
8. Here Be Monsters
The End of Nigh can be purchased on (iTunes and streamed on Spotify.