Mortal Scepter - Ethereal Dominance
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MORTAL SCEPTER – ETHEREAL DOMINANCE LABEL: XTREEM MUSIC RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 9th 2025
Behind the enshrouding, velvet curtain of the night sky, the grandest of dramas is played out between the distant planets. Civilisations rise and fall beneath the towering nebulae and alien intelligences surf the crimson clouds of gas giants. Gods and robots, forms of life for which we have no words, scheme and slaughter across the light years of heaven. Unfathomable technologies create life in wild profusion and evolutionary theories and the limits of knowledge unravel like debris spilling into the vacuum from the fatal wounds in ravaged starships. We sleep in ignorance as the voices of eternity roar from the heart of black holes and the fringes of existence lie just beyond the next horizon…
Combining the golden elixir of violent thrash metal and the burning venom of primal death metal, Mortal Scepter first formed in the history-laden streets of Dunkirk, France in 2012. A first EP, As Time Sharpens The Sentence, was released by Unspeakable Axe Records in 2015 and with the dawning of 2019 the first Mortal Scepter album, Where Light Suffocates was unleashed by Xtreem Music. It’s been more than six years since that highly praised debut first stalked the Earth, but finally its successor is here – and as the old saying goes, some things are worth waiting for…
Every day of the intervening years is forgotten as soon as Ethereal Dominance begins with its momentous title track. Sounds from the cold void give way to rolling thrash riffs and then the song explodes as the vicious vocals cut in. The production is strong and powerful, the guitar motifs dextrous and intricate and the feel and emotion comes straight from the great days of the mid-‘80s. Packed with adrenalin and threat ‘Redshifting Death’ rampages through the wastelands where the heaviest of thrash bleeds into the darkness of death and ‘Blindsight’ follows in its wake, unswerving, unrelenting and hungry for blood. Each track forms an intrinsic part of the Ethereal Dominance whole – individually devastating, collectively world destroying. The quality never drops and the iron grip on both your throat and your imagination never loosens for a second, from ‘Reverse Paradigm’ with its spiralling riffs locked into a dance of death, to ‘Sense Of Ablation’ with its abundance of headbanging crunch and a solo that lights up the song like a meteor shower across the darkness of the heavens. With ‘Into The Wolves Den’ providing an epic conclusion to this interstellar odyssey, Ethereal Dominance is a stunning album of formidable potency.
Ethereal Dominance was recorded and mixed by Raph Henry (Mercyless, Carcolh etc) and mastered by Benoît Roux (Alcest, Anorexia Nervosa etc) and together they have captured the perfect sound for Mortal Scepter; clarity and power, a biting edge and an authentic feel - no trace of modern sterility! The package is completed by the intricate artwork of Jon Whiplash whose work has adorned Mortal Scepter’s previous releases, as well as albums by the likes of Skelethal and Hexecutor. Ethereal Dominance will descend from the skies on September 9th – brought to our world by Xtreem Music, on vinyl, CD, cassette and digital formats. Do not miss this.
Genre: Death/Thrash Metal
For Fans Of: Kreator | Dark Angel | Sadus | Torture Line-up:
Valentin – Vocals/Bass
Maxime – Guitars
Guillaume – Drums
Lukk – Guitars/Vocals
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