If you are a band who resides within a stones throw of the Arctic Circle, there exists an unwritten rule that your music must sing praises of grim frostbitten lands. It only makes sense when one considers that Northerners spend much of their time blazing paths through snow-blanketed forests and scaling the summits of towering, ice-capped mountains. To what effort, you ask? Of course, to spill the blood of their enemies upon harsh northern landscapes.
These particular feats are especially true of Canadian extreme metallers Battlesoul and their brand new album, Sunward And Starward. We are of course speaking metaphorically – the music itself being the vessel through which such monumental feats of death metal savagery and trad metal practices are achieved.
This isn't to take anything away from the guys who created Sunward And Starward. One listen to the album, and you'd be hard-pressed not to believe the guys spend all their time (away from making brutally epic music) climbing mountains and crossing vast winter wastelands. Yes, it is that brutal. Yes, it is that epic.
On that note, we present to you an exclusive first-listen of Sunward And Starward, ahead of its February 23rd release. In the meantime, head over to the brand spanking new CDN Records site to to preorder your copy of the album today!