SERPENT · The Pit and the Pendulum | RED LP

Red vinyl.

Background information about 'The Pit and the Pendulum'

Serpent have been lurking in Stockholm's underground for over two decades, and now the wait finally pays off. "The Pit and the Pendulum" is the debut full-length from these Swedish occult melodic death metal diehards, and it lands like a hammer blow. Six acclaimed demos over the years built a small but fiercely loyal following, and every ounce of that slow-burning dedication is poured into these nine tracks. Razor-sharp guitar work cuts through haunting melodies, while the rhythm section delivers the kind of crushing weight that makes the speakers tremble. This is melodic death metal with brains and atmosphere in equal measure.

The title track drags you straight into Edgar Allan Poe's nightmare vision of the Spanish Inquisition, all architectural grandeur and suffocating dread. From there the record only gets darker: "Der Hexenjäger" puts you face to face with Matthew Hopkins, history's most notorious Witchfinder General, before the Salem witch trials of 1692 unfold in all their bloody hysteria. The closing stretch follows the Black Death as it sweeps across Europe, a spectral plague that snuffs out light, hope and life. And then there's that cover artwork by Gyula Havancsák, who has worked with Nile, Kreator and Accept. It is no mere decoration. Each of the eight tracks is encoded into the front cover through symbols and recurring motifs, a visual index that rewards a closer look. Two decades of underground devotion, finally unleashed.

For fans of:
Dissection, Necrophobic, Sacramentum, Unanimated, Hypocrisy

Track listing

A1. Introitus Ad Inferos
A2. Serpent Rising
A3. Necromancer
A4. The Pit and the Pendulum
A5. Der Hexenjäger
B1. Lightbringer
B2. Season of the Witch
B3. Salem 1692
B4. Magna Mortalitas

Manufacturer: Hammerheart Records BV, P.O. Box 277, 6300 AG Valkenburg, Netherlands, Contact: www.hammerheart.com