Inter Arma have announced their sixth full-length album, New Heaven, out April 26th via Relapse Records. The title track is available to stream below.
Known for its colossal atmospheric sludge metal epics, the Richmond outfit go grindy on “New Heaven.” Almost full-on dissonant death metal in parts, the song conjures a barren otherworldly landscape — not unlike the cratered moon-like surface depicted on the album cover — and is among the more suffocatingly brutal tracks we’ve heard from Inter Arma.
The album itself has origins dating back to four years ago, during the pandemic, and saw the group facing what it calls the “Inter Arma Curse” head on: two decades of complications and hurdles (i.e. travel issues, near-death experiences, internal band member turmoil) that have seemingly plagued the band from the start. That includes the “pervasive paradoxical sense that they have either been too metal or not metal enough” — a question “New Heaven” answers resoundingly.
“New Heaven is the culmination of four years worth of adversity ranging from near death experiences, multiple member changes and of course a global pandemic,” stated drummer T.J. Childers. “It marks a new chapter for us musically as we feel we’ve taken our songwriting to places we’ve never explored before. We’re excited to have come out of the madness relatively unscathed and feel as though we’ve created something completely unique that will stand apart in the sometimes homogenous extreme music community.”
Added guitarist Trey Dalton, “This record, maybe more than our previous efforts, more fully represents what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s still very much us — you know, music made by dudes coming from disparate musical backgrounds and perspectives, but with a more collective and defined sense of purpose. Clarity in direction, maybe. Your mileage may vary, but we like it a lot, and we hope you do too.”
Inter Arma are set to perform the full New Heaven album in its entirety at this year’s Roadburn Festival on April 18th in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, you can pre-order the LP via Relapse Records and stream the title track and see the album art and tracklist below.
New Heaven Artwork:
New Heaven Tracklist:
01. New Heaven
02. Violet Seizures
03. Desolation’s Harp
04. Endless Grey
05. Gardens in the Dark
06. The Children the Bombs Overlooked
07. Concrete Cliffs
08. Forest Service Road Blues