BLOOD CEREMONY
Since the release of their highly acclaimed sophomore 2011 album, Living With the Ancients, Blood Ceremony has been recognised as an internationally regarded live act. Having played main support toGhost on the majorly successful ‘13 Dates of Doom’ US tour, they concluded their debut headline European tour with a sell-out show in London.
After these live performances, Blood Ceremony enclosed themselves within a dank, tomb-like chamber to begin preparations for their third album. After a mind-numbing spell in the analogue womb of Toronto’s ProGold Studios, the band is now ready to unveil their newest, and most accomplished, musical offering:The Eldritch Dark.
Recorded and mixed by producer Ian Blurton (Cauldron, Cursed) and mastered by Canadian recording legend Nick Blagona (Deep Purple, Rainbow, Crazy World of Arthur Brown), The Eldritch Dark is a full-length paean to the darker corners of folklore and legend. Containing eight tracks of black magic rock ‘n’ roll, the album crackles with the excitement of a nocturnal ritual.
Tales of witch-cult gatherings in wooded glens, pacts made in torch-lit abbeys and Victorian magic are accompanied by vintage-style hard rock riffs, snaking bass lines and stirring flute melodies.The Eldritch Dark also sees the band exploring a more folkier side of their sound; most evident in the hymn-like Lord Summerisle and the murderous early Fairport Convention tinged folk-rock epic, Ballad of the Weird Sisters. 19th century sorcerer, Oliver Haddo, makes a return appearance in the riff-hypnotic album closer,The Magician.