Finnish cult black metal outfit Darkwoods My Betrothed have announced their overall return with their first new full-length album in twenty-three years with, Angel of Carnage Unleashed, out November 12th via Napalm Records. The follow-up to 1998’s Witch-Hunts shares stories of war, the plague, and Finland’s brutal history on the Great Northern War (1700-1721), and we will also see the return of the original 1993 line-up along with Nightwish’s Tuomas Holopainen as a full member, and Kai Hahto as the session drummer.
Guitarist Jouni Mikkonen comments on Tuomas Holopainen being a full member of the group:
“Tuomas was featured as a session keyboardist on all previous albums. This time he was fully on board from the moment we decided to make this album and hence it was natural for him to become a full band member. He also made a substantial contribution to the creative process.”
To celebrate the album announcement and the band’s overall return, the group has unveiled a video for the first single, “In Evil, Sickness and in Grief.” The reveal arrives on a historic anniversary of the Treaty of Uusikaupunki, on August 30th, 1721, which ended the Great Northern War and put the Angel of Carnage to rest. The group has brought this back from the dead with their upcoming full-length album.
The band comments:
“In Evil, Sickness and in Grief” is our first new release since 1998. For the comeback after 23 years of silence, we chose a song that showcases everything that the band is about: murderous blastbeats, catchy riffs spiced with haunting melodies, vicious screams contrasted by clean vocals and choirs, majestic keyboards and eerily beautiful female vocals layers. These ingredients provide the musical canvas for a lyric that features a dialogue between a peasant soldier forcibly drafted to the Swedish army and the Slaughter’s Holy Angel of War, who demands such horrific deeds from the soldier that he ends up with a shredded soul.”
Bassist Teemu Kautonen adds:
“The lyrics are based on the work of the renowned Finnish historian Teemu Keskisarja. His research inspired us both to carefully embed all lyrics in the appropriate historical context and to bring forth the human dimension by focusing on stories of individual people and how they experienced this perhaps darkest period of Finnish history.”
Vocalist/guitarist Pasi Kankkunen states:
“It was very important for us to have the original line-up on the comeback album. We also agreed right at the beginning of the process to share the songwriting in equal proportions – just as we did on the 1996 classic album, Autumn Roars Thunder.”
Watch the clip below and pre-order the album here:
Tracklist:
01) Name the Dead
02) In Evil, Sickness and in Grief
03) Murktide and Midnight Sun
04) You Bitter Source of Sorrow
05) Where We Dwell
06) In Thrall to Ironskull’s Heart
07) Massacre
08) Black Fog and Poison Wind
09) Outro
