Cities of Mars Announce Self-Titled LP Due May 20; New Video Posted
No-brainer here. Sweden’s Cities of Mars have been rolling out grooves for well over half a decade now and they’ve got a third album ready to go for May on Ripple. That’s good news. Okay. Even more encouraging is the fact that the three-piece have self-titled it. That says to me there’s a purpose in declaring Cities of Mars as something definitive. This isn’t a band naming the first record after the band — or the band after the first record, which I guess also happens — but deciding after 2019’s The Horologist (review here), 2017’s Temporal Rifts (review here), 2016’s Celestial Mistress EP (review here) and 2015’s Cyclopean Ritual/The Third Eye (review here) single that they’ve found the thing they’ve been looking for all this time. And if you’ve followed along their path to any degree, you know their work also has a central sci-fi plotline — or at least a universe in which it takes place — and they bring that forward across seven new songs here too, the first of which is streaming now.
Given the thought they put into their work anyway, and the hints the PR wire is dropping below about arrangement-depth here, I’m more than willing to blindly look forward to this new Cities of Mars even before I manage to click play on “Towering Graves (Osmos),” their new video which you can stream at the bottom of this post, along with The Horologist. Hey, sometimes you just want to get the news up on the quick.
Art (rules), info (infomative), preorder links (useful for financial planning), and video (let’s find out) follow, in that order:
Gothenburg cosmic doom unit CITIES OF MARS to release new album on Ripple Music this May; watch new video “Towering Graves (Osmos)”
Swedish doom cosmonauts CITIES OF MARS announce the release of their third studio full-length ‘Cities of Mars’, to be issued on May 20th through Ripple Music. Unfold the mysteries of their heavy realm with new video “Towering Graves (Osmos)”! https://smarturl.it/toweringgraves
CITIES OF MARS combine heavy doom riffs with ambient soundscapes and haunting vocals. The lyrics on each song add a chapter in a continuing story, where a Soviet cosmonaut on a covert space mission in 1971 discovers an ancient Martian city and awakens a sleeping conspiracy from the dawn of humanity…
Their third album is even more rooted in the band’s evolving mythos, with each song adding another piece to the puzzle. ‘Cities of Mars’ contains a story from each of the seven cities on the red planet, each invoking a distinct identity and character. Seven years of existence as a band, several European tours and countless hours of relentless 105 dB creativity later, CITIES OF MARS present their widest sonic palette to date, including acoustic songs, more intricate vocals and prominent electronic soundscapes, all recorded by the band but mixed and mastered by Kent Stump (of Wo Fat fame) in his Crystal Clear Sound studio in Texas.
From the ethereal melody of the ghost city of Sarraqum in “Reflected Skyline”, the haunted skyscraper riff of “Towering Graves”, to the desperate howls from the buried city of Methusalem in “The Prophet”, this album represents all the musical facets so far of Daniel, Chris and Johan in their quest for not only the heaviest of riffs but also great melodies, hooks and the occasional 80’s throwback. Artwork was designed by Mirkow Gastow.
CITIES OF MARS ‘Cities Of Mars’
Out May 20th on Ripple Music
US preorder: https://ripplemusic.bigcartel.com/products
EU preorder: https://en.ripple.spkr.media/
Bandcamp: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/cities-of-mars
Line-up:
Danne Palm – lead vocals, bass, synths
Christoffer Norén – lead vocals, guitar
Johan Aronstedt – backing vocals, drums & percussion, sound FX
www.facebook.com/citiesofmars
http://citiesofmars.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/citiesofmars
https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/
