INSPIRED BY COMIC BOOKS AND HORROR FICTION, THE NINE TRACKS THAT COMPRISE "THE WINE-DARK SEA" ARE A DARKLY PSYCHEDELIC JOURNY INTO THE SOUND OF THE OSIRIS CLUB!
On their sophomore album 'The Wine-Dark Sea', London’s The Osiris Club follow on from their 2014 debut ‘The Blazing World’ by encompassing the worlds of progressive rock, metal and post-punk.
Drummer and principal writer Andrew Prestidge on the album’s influences: "Much as we were proud of the first album we felt we needed to move forward with this release, both musically and lyrically. Several of the songs were shaped by the strange horror stories of Robert Aickman and H.P. Lovecraft. We wanted to create a spooky, foreboding atmosphere, the same as you would find on 1970s albums by King Crimson or Genesis."
This proto-gothic feel can be heard to greatest effect on the song-suite that takes up all of side 2 of the vinyl version. The song ‘Citadel of the Fly’ is inspired by the fictional occultist character Gustav Strobl from Mike Mignola’s ‘Hellboy’ comics universe, and the culminating three-part epic ‘A Winter’s Night on Sentinel Hill’ is based on Lovecraft’s ‘Dunwich Horror’. Singer/bassist Sean Cooper: "We attempted to summon a musical counterpart to the hellish, apocalyptic themes of our favourite fictional worlds. At the same time we kept a strong melodic core to the arrangements, as we feel that even the deepest darkness always needs to be balanced out by some element of light."
The record was tracked and mixed at Subsonic Society studios in Oslo. Producer Anders Møller has also worked with Myrkur and Ulver, whose Kristoffer Rygg makes a guest appearance on the song ‘Island of Stone’. Guitarist Chris Fullard on the recording process: "Anders is someone we’d spoken with about working together for some years. Finally collaborating with him was a great experience –he truly knows how to get the best sounds out of whoever he’s working with. We had the advantage of being able to use the stacks of analog gear he has in the studio, including a selection of vintage synthesizers we made sure to put on almost every track."
As with the debut album the artwork has been created by drummer Andrew Prestidge in collaboration with Julia Harris of Nuovo Creative, whose terrifying doll's-house art montage revives childhood memories of trauma and unease. The illustrations included in the album package mirror the range of emotions the music provokes in the listener, and serve as a suitable counterpoint to each song. Once more, The Osiris Club have dug deep to bring their innermost creativity into the world. 'The Wine-Dark Sea' is both the closing of a chapter and the beginning of a new story.
Reviews from The Osiris Club's debut album "Blazing World":
90/100 - Concrete Web
9/10 - ShockMagazin
9/10 - The Midlands Rocks
8,5/10 -Powermetal.de
4/5 - Planetmosh.com
5/7 - Metalnews.de
Voice of the Sun -: "Blazing World is the debut of The Osiris Club and it’s absolutely stunning and worth having."
FOLLOW THE OSIRIS CLUB ON:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | BANDCAMP