Irish death dealers Overoth recently revealed long awaited details for the follow up to their debut, Kingdom Of Shadows. With no less than ten tracks and over 40 minutes of extreme metal laden with orchestration, and artwork from none other than Will Simpson (Game Of Thrones, DC Comics), the quartet’s forthcoming grand opus entitled The Forgotten Tome is set for release 22nd September 2017 via Hostile Media.
Today the band have unveiled the first song and video from the album, ‘The Keeper’, which is available to watch at Decibel Magazine:
“This song was written in the realms of dark fantasy,” states vocalist Andy Ennis, “and it was that essence that we wanted to capture on camera. It’s the story of a prisoner and his torturer… more a glimpse into this story as it leaves more questions than answers. The detainee awakens into what appears to be a nightmare. He is chained to the walls in a dank stone cell and has no memory of how he came to be there. It has all the sights, smells and sounds of a torture chamber. Any thoughts of escape, of home are crushed when he meets his nemesis, ‘The Keeper’.”
The video, shot and edited by Adam Edgerley and directed by the band, was filmed in and around a castle and 1500 years old monastic site on the shores of Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland. Guitarist Andrew Pennington adds, “Our local area has a long history, with nearby settlements dating back to a time of stone age hunter-gatherers, the Vikings later settled here much to the distaste of the locals, and as we were scouting for locations for this video we had all this in mind, looking for something interesting… We heard of an old 5th century monastic site on a small island nearby so we went to check it out. For hundreds of years this place had been abandoned and forgotten in time. As we arrived we also found an old ruined castle and we knew immediately that this was the place we were looking for, as a setting for ‘The Keeper’ video, it was perfect.”
The band recorded The Forgotten Tome at Sonic Forge in Wales with producers Joe Thompson and Mike Hourihan at the helm.
The band comments, “We’ve been working on this album for what seems like an aeon, but finally we’re pleased to announce that our hard work and determination for perfection has come to a close. We actually tracked the drums, guitars and vocals for this album around two years ago, and we had planned to add some subtle orchestration as we had done in our debut Kingdom Of Shadows… however… when Dan (guitars) got started, the songs yearned for much more than we had anticipated. It would be further months of writing, from violins to piano, to the use of ancient instruments like the duduk and ney flute and then back and forwards with mixing… it would appear mixing twenty instruments isn’t all that easy! We also had a grand vision for the artwork and working with a talent such as Will Simpson was a great experience, he really did bring our vision to life. The artwork is a story in itself, with multiple pieces all intertwined. There is more than what the cover art depicts, but we’ll reveal all that at some point in the very near future. Finally, The Forgotten Tome is complete and we are set to unleash the beast into the world this September.”
“Lyrically, for the most part this collection of tales at a first glance would appear fantasy based, with fables of war and magic, good and evil, but actually there is a more human narrative underlying each song. We have our own interpretation of these stories, and we hope that people can find it or come up with some other moral of their own.”
The Forgotten Tome is set for release 22nd September via Hostile Media on CD, limited edition heavyweight vinyl as well as digitally. Album pre-orders and bundle deals available HERE.
