To Sail Black Waters, the lauded and defining debut full-length from Oakland-based atmospheric doom outfit, SECRETS OF THE SKY, is now about to see its first ever vinyl incarnation, as a deluxe LP is now confirmed for co-release between American label Battleground Records and Italy’s Kolony Records.
Financed and initially released by SECRETS OF THE SKY, the album made waves with major metal outlets like Decibel Magazine, MetalSucks and others on its own, along the way attracting Kolony Records, who then signed the band to give the album a proper worldwide CD and digital pressing, which helped the band rapidly explode into the metal public. Several West Coast tour runs led to the split GH/0ST:S LP with Godhunter (2014, Battleground Records/The Compound Recs.), and not long after, the band was picked up by Metal Blade Records. The band’s sophomore LP, Pathway, saw release through Metal Blade in May of 2015, the album reaping even more accolades internationally from major publications and fans alike.
To Sail Black Waters will now be issued on vinyl for the first time, as a cooperative release with Battleground Records handling the album for America and Kolony Records taking care of international territories. The record is pressed on clear blue 180-gram vinyl with a gatefold cover, and is limited to 500 copies worldwide.
Issuing the LP stateside on December 11th, US preorders are now available at Battleground at THIS LOCATION. Stand by for the European preorders and info from Kolony to be released in the coming days.
Stream To Sail Black Waters in its entirety HERE and view the “Sunrise” lyric video from the album HERE.
Culminating elements of doom, death, black, prog and post-metal into their own cohesive, textured, organic and precisely-executed delivery, while the current SECRETS OF THE SKY lineup has since been altered and bears one less member, on the essential To Sail Black Waters, the band’s permanent personnel featured six musicians, with more than half of the lineup providing multiple instruments to the recording sessions. To Sail Black Waters was recorded and mixed over an eight month period at Trident Studios with engineer/producer Juan Urteaga (Testament, Machine Head, Cattle Decapitation), capturing every bit of work put into the massive recording sessions with mammoth tones and brilliant clarity.
Decibel Magazine’s 9/10 review issued that To Sail Black Waters, “overflows with that rare quality of sounding familiar while remaining wholly unique. Imagine if fraternal twins Death and Black Metal talked Doom into rummaging through the bathroom trash for one of Goth’s used tampons to stick down Old Man Prog’s snoring yap, causing him to yark a hot, chunky load all down the front of Post-Metal’s shirt… TSBW is the universal cure for a dull day, smarmy suburban consumerism, and all varieties of weak-willed hack music. Do not miss this.” Metal Injection boasted, “Imagine if you tossed Neurosis, more recent Immortal, and Porcupine Tree into a blender. Sounds like a fucked up mix, right? It’s an awesome fucked up mix though.” MetalSucks compared the record to, “equal parts Insomnium, The Ocean, Agalloch, Type O Negative, Opeth and something all their own. It’s dark, dark stuff with a tinge of progginess that crosses multiple sub-genres and it sounds fantastic.” Metal Insider exclaimed, “Doom metal in general is a tricky field to hoe. There are a lot of different ways that a band can take this style of music and muddy it like a toddler trying to dial a phone and just mashing the keypad until someone finally picks up. SECRETS OF THE SKY though are quickly becoming masters of taking so many different elements and styles and weaving them into this unique tapestry of sounds and aural experiences.”
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