Obsidian Tongue | Hypnotic Dirge Records

Obsidian Tongue “Pure Sonic Catharsis”

From the haunted shores of Massachusetts, Obsidian Tongue was founded in January 2009 by Brendan James Hayter as a solo project. It transformed into a 2-piece band with the addition of Greg Murphy in November 2009. After 2 demos and about 2 dozen live shows in New England, they self-released their debut album “Volume I: Subradiant Architecture” in May 2012. The album is 50 minutes of cold, organic, melodic Black Metal recorded and mixed entirely analog at Mystic Valley Studio in Medford, Massachusetts. The vintage tape machines perfectly capture the passion of the band’s live performances, and the album has received high praises internationally for its exceptional balance of the melodic and raw aspects of black metal. Just as epic as it is cold, and just as atmospheric as it is oppressive, fans and critics across the world agreed that Volume I is a very promising debut album from this young band.

A year has passed and these 2 men are ready to offer their next collection of Introspective Black Metal Dirges to the metal underground.

In May 2013, Obsidian Tongue returned to Mystic Valley Studios to record their second installment named “A Nest of Ravens in the Throat of Time”. 6 songs averaging 9 minutes in length, the album is a psychedelic and introspective journey through the collective unconscious of Man and the Dark Half of the emotional spectrum; A sonic depiction of the spiritual affirmation and personal evolution attainable only through sorrow, anger and disillusionment.

“We took a slower and less aggressive, spacey kind of approach with the new album. We wanted to conjure a hypnotic atmosphere that perpetuates through the record, yet we wanted to cover a lot of ground within that atmosphere, conceptually and emotionally. We infused a lot of very personal ideas and feelings into these songs, almost too much to list.

It’s almost unnecessary to list…all I can really tell people is, A Nest of Ravens in the Throat of Time is our lifeblood, our mission statement, and really the only thing we give a fuck about right now.”

-Brendan James Hayter, May 2013

A noteworthy contribution to this musical odyssey has been made by John Haughm of the legendary dark metal outfit Agalloch, taking lead vocal duties for the album's title track.

Obsidian Tongue signed with Hypnotic Dirge Records from Canada in the spring of 2013 in time for the release of “A Nest of Ravens in the Throat of Time”, making it a dual release with the band’s own imprint Dissociation Records. The album was released on July 29, 2013 to substantially high acclaim! In support, Obsidian Tongue went on an extensive US-tour with fellow New England Black Metal horde Autolatry, for the entire month of August.

In 2014, Obsidian Tongue has continued to bring their intense and memorable live performances to listeners across North America, playing for many new listeners and sharing the stage with many great bands. Highlights so far include Obsidian Tongue's first trek to Canada to participate in the annual "Black Metal Origines" festival in Montreal and Quebec City in March, followed by sharing the stage with Agalloch in June on their Serpens in Culmination North American Tour. During this tour, John Haughm joined the band to perform vocals on the title track "A Nest of Ravens in the Throat of Time."

Obsidian Tongue is busy working on new material. More news will surface soon.

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