If you didn’t hear Megaton Leviathan‘s Water Wealth Hell on Earth (review here) when it was released in 2011, you’re probably going to want to stop reading this sentence immediately and get to whatever outlet will allow you to put it in your ears the fastest. An all-consuming wash of psych-doom experimentation that called forth black metal’s buzz but expanded the scope beyond genre confines. There were times throughout that album where it was simply too much to take, but wow, what a sound.

Band spearhead Andrew James Costa Reuscher has had a few limited releases out since then, and there was first discussion of an allegiance with Seventh Rule — now also based in Portland, OR — back in late 2012, but not much word has come out of a new album since. Enter Past 21: Beyond the Arctic Cell as the first Megaton Leviathan full-length in three years and mark me down as on-fucking-board. As you can see in the live clip below, the drone wash is in full effect, and Megaton Leviathan offer all the ritual with none of the “cult” silliness of many of their contemporaries. Much as they have any.

Past 21: Beyond the Arctic Cell is out Sept. 9:

MEGATON LEVIATHAN: Psychedelic Doom Masters Release Sophomore Full-Length Via Seventh Rule Next Month; Summer Live Performances Confirmed

The only constant is change. Standing in stark contrast to the droning, gorgeous slabs of psychedelic and atmospherically infused doom that comprise the aural output of MEGATON LEVIATHAN, the band itself has been in a constant state of flux since its inception in 2007. By the end of 2012, despite the official announcement of a new album, not only that album, but the fate of the entire project itself were positioned beneath a very precariously dangled sword. Circumstance and internal conflict nearly saw the band’s next major release a specter with no corporeal form. However, after a redoubling of effort, a reshuffling of the deck and some inevitable missteps along the way, MEGATON LEVIATHAN’s second full length album, Past 21: Beyond The Arctic Cell, has emerged from the chaos of its birth pangs, prepared to thoroughly swath a blazing path through the dense forest of the modern musical landscape.

Mixed by Mort Subite (V.I.I.R.L., Alfheimr, Benighted in Sodom live), MEGATON LEVIATHAN’s newest resident thaumaturgist, Past 21 is a near lethal dose of solemn audio narcotic, shifting the listener somewhere outside the realm of space-time for the duration of its dissociative transduction from speakers to brain. Glacial, yet burning with divine fire, Past 21’s spell is simultaneously whispered in a hallowed chapel, and torn from a throat rent by the gnashing of teeth.

Past 21: Beyond The Arctic Cell Track Listing:
1. Past 21
2. The Foolish Man
3. Arctic Cell
4. Here Come The Tears

In April of 2014, MEGATON founder and lone original member, Andrew James Costa Reuscher and Subite took Past 21 on the road for a first round of West Coast dates as a one man show/performance piece, featuring heavy visual elements, Reuscher the unifying human component, and Subite as the hidden hand, mixing live audio. MEGATON LEVIATHAN later tapped V.I.I.R.L. drummer Markus Covello to join the onstage lineup. With Reuscher handling vocal and guitar operations, and Subite continuing his live audio duties, this revamped, three-man cast will form the core of the MEGATON LEVIATHAN live experience for the duration of the forthcoming West Coast dates surrounding Deadfest in Oakland where the band will perform alongside the likes of Ephemeros, Connoisseur, Augurs and more. See confirmed dates below.

MEGATON LEVIATHAN Live 2014:
8/09/2014 Megaton House (cassette release show) – Portland, OR
8/14/2014 Ink Annex – Eureka, CA
8/15/2014 Dead Fest – Oakland, CA
8/16/2014 Rock Shop – San Jose, CA
8/17/2014 Starlight Lounge – Sacramento, CA
8/24/2014 Hive Portland, OR * LP Release Show
8/30/2014 TBA – Bozeman, MT
8/31/2014 Black Sparrow Tattoo Club – Billings, MT
9/02/2014 TBA
9/03/2014 Quarters – Milwaukee, WI
9/04/2014 Ghost House – Bloomington, IN
9/05/2014 5th Quarter Lounge – Indianapolis, IN
9/06/2014 TBA
9/07/2014 Acheron – Brooklyn, NY
9/08/2014 Kung Fu Necktie – Philadelphia, PA
9/09/2014 The Crown – Baltimore, MD
9/10/2014 Static Age – Asheville, NC
9/12/2014 Springwater – Nashville, TN
9/14/2014 Siberia – New Orleans, LA
9/15/2014 TBA – Austin, TX
9/16/2014 TBA – Dallas, TX
9/18/2014 Bar Bar – Denver, CO

Past 21: Beyond The Arctic Cell will be released via Seventh Rule Recordings on September 9th, 2014. Further info including track teasers to be unveiled in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

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Megaton Leviathan, Live at First Church of the Buzzard, April 19, 2014