Goatpsalm & Horthodox prepare to release Ash

September 08, 2021

Goatpsalm and Horthodox are both outliers, margin walkers and seekers of secrets. They wander the darkness on the edge of existence, tasting forgotten truths and harvesting the shadows of history. In their music they present dreams and visions outside everyday experience and with Ash, a collaborative album, they have pooled their unique talents to create a new form of magic, a beautifully unsettling, immersive listening experience.

As these two entities sifted through the sands of history their searching brought them to the same point in time, the same dark chapter in a nation’s tale. In 17th Century Russia the Zealots Of Piety clashed with the Old Believers over the details of doctrine, bringing about the Raskol, the great schism of the Russian Orthodox Church. It’s a story lost to many, yet it is one rife with grief and tragedy; the Old Believers seeing in the reformation of their sacred traditions the coming of the end. They fled their homes, searching for sanctuary in the woods and wilderness, some committing their bodies to the flames of immolation in desperate hope of redemption. The power of their faith leading them to an agonising end. Ash tells the story of the Old Believers, of their flight and fear, their fervent prayers, the empty silence that greeted those prayers and their last walk into the fire. It tells this story without words, but with the use of ancient Russian instruments and the strange, bewitching sorcery that this blending of powers has created. Ash can transport and transform, it can evoke emotion as its story unfolds, it can touch the heart and chill the blood. This is an album of true power, a gift to all who hear it.

Few collaborations have produced such stunning results as that between Goatpsalm and Horthodox, but then even fewer are the bands that walk their individual paths. Ash will be released on six panel digipack by Aesthetic Death and cassette by Death Scream Recordings, both on October 1st and it will consume you; draw your soul inexorably into its world of forest, firelight and shadow. Step back in time with Goatpsalm and Horthodox, peer beneath a veil of secrets and taste the darkness of utter and absolute devotion.

Track Listing:

1 – The Last Days
2 – Fragile Walls Of Salvation
3 – When God Went Silent
4 – A House With No Windows
5 – Night Over Onega
6 – Horned Shades Of His Servants
7 – Ash

GOATPSALM LINKS »

HORTHODOX LINKS »