The iconic British metal band earthtone9 have signed to Candlelight, and they’ve announced their first album in 11 years. It’s titled In Resonance Nexus, and it’s set to release June 21. To celebrate, they’ve shared the first single, “Oceanic Drift.” They have also released an accompanying music video that was filmed by Shaun Hudson at Loki Films.
Stream “Oceanic Drift” here.
The band’s take on signing to Candlelight:
“Candlelight feels like the perfecet home for us. They’ve released so many earth-shaking albums, and to be part of that history is both thrilling and a privilege. It’s magic to continue the next chapter of et9 working with trusted comrades, and we couldn’t be more excited.”
To show how the band have distilled at its core, at the same time as reaching out to new creative pastures, their first single feels perfect. The lyrics of all things may not be what they seem. It also serves as a metaphor for the record whilst taken at a literal value. The new album also shows the band’s core members, Karl Middleton, Owen Packard, and Joe Roberts who rediscover and reconnect with what makes them so special.
It was produced by British production master Lewis Johns at The Ranch in Southampton: a collaboration that brought the band’s vision further to life. Karl adds that “Lewis is unbelievable, super creative, and super enthusiastic. We were attracted to the stuff he’s done with bands like Employed To Serve, Svalbard, and Rolo Tomassi. He has a style, but you can also tell in everything he does that he enhances the vision of the band, rather than just imposing his thing. He was incredible in bringing the intensity and drive back to earthtone9.”
More than anything, In Resonance Nexus represents the idea that some things are just too good and too special to lie perpetually dormant. With something as pure as earthtone9, that desire to create never truly leaves you.
Vocalist, Karl Middleton on “Oceanic Drift”:
“I was thinking about the Joker movie and the idea of him being the unreliable witness. So it just seemed like a really funny opening line, “Whaat you see is what you get,” because that’s never been the case. Also the idea of oceanic drift is, in gelogical time, an incredibly slow process. That’s partially a reflection on how our last record was over a decade ago; the record before that was 12 years before that, so it’s just these incredibly slow-moving things.”
Earthtone9 are known as one of the most forward-thinking, clever, musically wise, and creatively smart in the history of British metal. Emerging in the late ’90s, during the commencement of the nu-metal wave, they made three albums between 1998 and 2000, one each year, and they all began with their expertly crafted Lo-Def(inition) Discord, and culminating in 2000’s Arc’tan’gent. They split up in 2002, and returned in 2013 with a crowdfunded album: IV. After their revival, they made select appearances in the live arena (including the ArcTanGent Festival, pawned from their third album).
Karl Middleton on In Resonance Nexus:
“’In Resonance Nexus,’ as a title, is saying that we’ve found the core and the essence of the band again. We were digging deep to find common musical ground, and between Joe and Owen and I. It really felt like there was a resonance there. It feels like we’ve landed on a really legitimate, 21st-century version of the band. We were asking, ‘Why are we doing this?’ and having a very authentic answer.”
In Resonance Nexus features 10 tracks where the band’s signature sound is present and correct but now expands with touches of a variety of genres: from doom to black metal, from shoegaze to deathcore. The song count began with nearly 40 tracks before they picked off tracks that didn’t make the cut. The final results had drum duties taken on in the studio by Bullet For My Valentine’s Jason Bowld.
In Resonance Nexus Track List:
- The Polyphony of Animals
- Navison Record
- Under The Snake
- Oceanic Drift
- Black Swan Roulette
- Lash of the Tongues
- Etiquette of Distortion
- Obvserve Your Course (feat. Malli Malpass of One Dice/“MetalHead” on the BBC Show – The Ranganation)
- Third Mutuality
- Strength Is My Weakness
