Azure Emote unveils the noire video clip Bleed with the Moon as the final advance single taken from their new full-length Cryptic Aura. The fourth studio album of the American progressive death alchemists has been chalked up for release on July 25th, via Testimony Records.
Azure Emote comments:
“Overall, Bleed with the Moon is conceptually very simple and straightforward, but also one of the more personal songs on the album”, mastermind Mike Hrubovcak reveals. “Alcohol is a demon and I’ve named him Al-Kuhl. This analogy is based on my personal experiences and the lyrics are about getting possessed by this demon around a bonfire in the woods at night. I’m not trying to glorify excessive drinking here. I rather artistically convey the passion, euphoria, and physical and mental dangers of convening with such ‘spirits’ in the heat of the moment. I have a love/hate relationship with Al-Kuhl and I have learned that eventually it ends up taking much more than it gives. This song was written during such a night however, and even the album cover is a photo of a homemade skeleton that I made and burned in the woods along with a bottle and a bonfire.”
About the upcoming album
Can they play with madness? With their fourth album Cryptic Aura, Azure Emote offers a tour de force through the outer stellar realms of death metal… Indeed, one where the musical possibilities seem to become infinite and to expand into all directions and dimensions until the gravity of ultra heavy sound pulls everything back into a crushing event horizon.
After years of existential turmoil, Azure Emote returns with a cast of death metal veterans that never tried to sell itself cheaply as an ‘all-star’ project that is best for name dropping, but a band of real people driven by a passionate love for extreme music. Each track on Cryptic Aura is unique with its own abstract insanity… However, they all bond together nicely by an amalgamation of disturbing atmospheres, restless unease, and defiant creativity.
About the band
Azure Emote was founded by vocalist and keyboard player Mike Hrubovcak with the support of long-time friend and the band’s guitarist Ryan Moll in Philadelphia, in 2003. His intention was the creation of an experimental musical outlet to express personal negativity without the arbitrary limitations of genre that are so often present within the extreme metal scenes. Often dubbed avant-garde or progressive death metal, the unique sound of the Americans incorporates a wide variety of instruments and musical styles, which include elements of experimental, industrial, electronic, doom, progressive, and blackened death metal.
Although the debut album Chronicles of an Aging Mammal (2007) quickly accumulated a cult following, Azure Emote nevertheless entered a hiatus period, as Hrubovcak focused on touring extensively with his other bands at the time, in particular Monstrosity and Vile.
In the summer of 2011, the band came back with Fear Factory and Malignancy drummer Mike Heller joining the fold. Eventually, this led to the release of the sophomore full-length The Gravity of Impermanence in 2013. Continuing to deliver surprising innovations to their avid listeners, this album presented an even more ambitious songwriting and improved production.
More about the band
Despite the continued success, their third full-length still got to be written in between touring breaks with other bands during a span of seven years. The Third Perspective (2020) made well use of the extra time and looks like a bold summary of the many additional years of experience and continued honing of songwriting skills. The lineup is still featuring Kelly Conlon, who played bass on Death‘s Symbolic album and has been a member in Monstrosity among many other bands. With the inclusion of former Eluveitie lead-vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Anna Murphy, now with Cellar Darling, as well as violin player Pete Johansen (ex-Sirenia), Azure Emote has expanded their impressive musical range further than ever.
Cryptic Aura is the promise of what death metal can sound like when all considerations of genre limitations and musical preconceptions are abandoned while its brutal core remains untouched. Let it take you on a mind-blowing ride into deadly infinity.
Current lineup
Mike Hrubovcak – vocals, keyboards
Ryan Moll – guitars
Mike Heller – drums
Kelly Conlon – bass, trumpet
Pete Johansen – violins
Anna Murphy – clean vocals
Guest musicians
James Murphy – 2nd guitar solo on ‘Into Abysmal Oblivion’
Andy LaRocque – 3rd guitar solo on ‘Into Abysmal Oblivion’
Bob Davodian – guitar solo on ‘Insomnia Nervosa’
Tracklist
1. Into Abysmal Oblivion
2. Insomnia Nervosa
3. Aeons Adrift
4. Bleed with the Moon
5. Defiance Infernus
6. Provoking the Obscene
7. Disease of the Soul
8. Feast of Leeches
9. Return to the Unknown
10. Writhing Lunacy
