Photo by Stephanie Sintra
Maine atmospheric black metal duo Obsidian Tongue—Raymond Capizzo (drums/synths), Brendan Hayter (guitar/bass/vocals)—are preparing for the release of their upcoming EP, The Stone Heart, with a brand new video of the title track. “The Stone Heart” is a moody, slow burn that builds from clean, strummed minor chords to a full-on melodic and majestic black metal attack over the course of seven minutes. Guest vocalist Tanner Anderson (Obsequiae, Majesties) handles clean vocals in the first third of the song, adding a strong contrast to the harsh vocals that follow.
The video is equally moody and fairly obtuse as far as a “plot” goes and is mostly just a lot of dark, grainy B&W imagery: watery caves, crashing waves, shrouded beings, storm clouds. As the song intensifies, so does video, which was created by Chariot of Black Moth.
The Stone Heart was recorded by Obsidian Tongue, mixed by Dave Kaminsky at Studio Wormwood, Asheville, NC, and mastered by Ryan Williams at Augmented Audio. It’s set for release digitally on February 2. You can place your preorder here.
This is what Brendan Hayter had to say about the new track and video:
“The beginning clean passage is an unused piece from the Volume III writing sessions. We never finished it, but during 2020, as a means of coping with the inability to tour in support of the album we cared so much about, the second half was written. There’s devastation but also perseverance woven throughout, cementing our priority to never stop writing no matter who hears the end result, even if it’s nobody. We owe it to ourselves as musicians to always be working.
“Our music has always been especially visual to us; there’s constantly colors, textures and strange scenes that occur and then reoccur when the compositions are taking shape. We’re thrilled to finally have commissioned our first video piece, after tireless searching for an artist whose approach seemed to match ours. Many thanks to Chariot of Black Moth for bringing our song to life in such an intense way.”
