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Göden (ex-Winter) Sign to Svart Records; Debut Album Beyond Darkness Coming May 7

When they were last heard from, New York death-doom pioneers Winter — who formed in 1988 and cast their legacy in their 1990 full-length debut/swansong Into Darkness (discussed here) — were about to announce a European tour in 2015 to take place the next year. The would-be stint was canceled, and any further plans the band had in working toward an awaited follow-up to the since-reissued Into Darkness or their 1994 Eternal Frost EP were likewise shelved. So much for that.

Founding guitarist Stephen Flam shortly set to work on what has become Göden, a project that has inherited much of Winter‘s ultra-bleak apocalyptic scope, but in the spirit of the transition between Celtic Frost and Triptykon, also taken the opportunity presented by the new identity to forge its own forward path. That forward path, by the way, leads to utter sonic devastation.

I mean it. Flam — joined in the endeavor by Vas Kallas (Hanzel und Gretyl) and Tony Pinnisi (also ex-Winter) — wasn’t just playing off the reference when he titled Göden‘s debut album Beyond Darkness. The record follows a hyper-complicated and hyper-immersive narrative course, and all the while the sound seems to dig further and further into an chasm of its own making. It is deeply creative and genuinely challenging, and whatever totally-fucked image you might have in your head of what it sounds like, I guarantee you’re wrong.

Today, Göden announce they’ve signed to Svart Records — a choice alignment on both sides — and the label will release Beyond Darkness on May 7. Winter reissue is booked for the same day.

More background follows:

goden beyond darkness

Göden – Beyond Darkness – Svart Records

Göden is the spiritual successor to Winter, a band that has been heavily influential and highly revered in the metal underground since its inception and treasured demos. A long-awaited continuation of what Winter would have been from co-founder Stephen Flam’s vision, the new album “Beyond Darkness” throws us into an existential voyage out of the past and into the future. A familiar yet distinctive new opus that expands the unmapped shadow world that Winter once opened in our nightmares.

A soundtrack that takes the listener on a dark and ominous journey, Beyond Darkness is a conceptual deep dive into wildly unexplored and unknown sonic territory. The story has three characters, each with different symbols: Stephen Flam as “Spacewinds”, the time and space in which these characters dwell; Vas Kallas as “NXYTA (Goddess of Night)”, lead vocalist and the darkness: Tony Pinnisi as “The Prophet of Göden”, who speaks in the name of Göden and is the light, plays keyboards and also played in Winter. Beyond Darkness is a tale of the dark and the light, set to a score of heavy music.

The artwork was conceived by Eva Petric, a Slovene multimedia artist based in Vienna, Austria and New York. Eva worked with Stephen Flam, creating a visual story book within the LP/CD booklet that the listener can look at while they are consumed by this heavy sound trip.

Stephen Flam leaves us in the outer blackness and inner gloom with these last words as ethereal guidance: “I hope you enjoy this endeavor. Listen with a free and open mind, and journey now Beyond Darkness.”

https://www.facebook.com/Goden-108097534096988
https://goden.net/
https://www.facebook.com/Winter-official-172406259480429/
www.facebook.com/svartrecords
https://www.instagram.com/svartrecords/
https://svartrecords.bandcamp.com/
www.svartrecords.com

Winter, Into Darkness/Eternal Frost

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