THE EMBER, THE ASH has today released a new Bandcamp exclusive single, titled A Growing Emptiness, alongside an accompanying lyric video. A Growing Emptiness is the latest song to be taken from their upcoming sophomore album, Fixation, and further explores the project’s blend of symphonic black metal and highly stylized modern metalcore.
THE EMBER, THE ASH‘s sophomore album, Fixation, will be released via Prosthetic Records on May 14.
Listen to A Growing Emptiness via Bandcamp.
Speaking on the single release, 鬼 comments: “As opposed to the previous tracks, featuring mostly themes of inner turmoil, this track takes a far more outward and oppressive twist. The flame of life is extinguished from the disaffected, leading them to impose the same affliction upon all of creation. A Growing Emptiness encapsulates all of the sonic elements that have been introduced on the record up to this point.”
THE EMBER, THE ASH is the solo endeavour from a musical polymath known only as 鬼, who also performs in the black metal band Unreqvited. Fixation follows on from THE EMBER, THE ASH’s 2019 highly acclaimed release, Consciousness Torn From The Void. Fixation is a unique blend of ice cold precision and a swirl of enveloping audio textures. The seven tracks that make up the album were written in 2019/20 before being entirely self-recorded and mixed in their home studio; mastering was handled by Nekkomix.
With a theme that picks through the debris of mental illness, 鬼 drew upon their own experiences of witnessing a loved one suffer through a traumatic episode. Exploring their own reaction to the fraught timeline of events, 鬼 channels their emotional response into the lyrics and music that make up Fixation. Suicidal ideation and spiraling thought patterns loom large over the album that is steeped in sombre atmosphere throughout. The distress of both witnessing and harboring such dark thoughts are at the core of the record’s aggressive sound as well as its lyrical content.
Fixation will be released via Prosthetic Records on May 14.
Watch the lyric videos for Fixation‘s singles so far: