Photo by Eva Tusquets
Mendacium, the monolithic new full-length from American death/funeral doom emissaries EVOKEN is currently streaming in its forlorn entirety. The premiere comes on the eve of the record’s official unveiling, Friday, October 17th on Profound Lore Records.
Mendacium tells the tale of a fourteenth-century elderly Benedictine monk whose illness prevents him from leaving his cell in the monastery. His faith and service to God can never be satiated. Slowly declining in health and sleepless from continuous pain, the monk encounters a hideous entity emerging through a tear in reality. The story questions, “is the torment of this monk by each passing hour being inflicted by this entity or is it all within his own mind?”
Decibel Magazine writes in part, “There’s an all-consuming darkness at the heart of Mendacium… In fairness, there’s a darkness at the heart of every EVOKEN album… the… album bridges all eras of EVOKEN, marrying the sepulchral stomp of their ‘90s work to the melodic sophistication they’ve honed over the decades.” No Clean Singing agrees lauding the, “… same brand of gloom you expect from this band, but delivered with more longing and colored with isolation… one of the most compelling doom albums I’ve heard in some time.” Adds Grimm Gent, “EVOKEN unfolds an unforgettable experience, bringing a surreal and spine-chilling tale to fans of funeral doom metal.”
Stream EVOKEN’s Mendacium HERE.
Watch EVOKEN’s first ever video for the track “None” HERE.
Mendacium, which comes adorned in the cover art of Worthless, was produced by Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal who worked with EVOKEN on their Antithesis Of Light and Quietus albums respectively and serves as EVOKEN’s most powerful sounding album to date.
The record will be released on CD, LP and digital formats. Find preorders at THIS LOCATION.
Mendacium is a work that will reveal itself as one of the darkest and most oppressive EVOKEN albums among their unparalleled repertoire. Where 2018’s Hypnagogia would see the band capture and focus on a more melancholic, tangible, and even more of an accessible sonic design, Mendacium takes that acute shift back to the monumental dirge-like dread and woeful catacombic and disharmonious heaviness reminiscent of the band’s Quietus and Antithesis Of Light masterworks, all while still encapsulating the tectonic-shifting nature of their Caress Of The Void and Atra Mors releases and venturing more through classic gothic audial textures and even treading a little down experimental mire as well, reminiscing an aura seeping from such luminary artists as Dead Can Dance, Monumentum, and Disembowelment.
Mendacium Track Listing:
1. Matins
2. Lauds
3. Prime
4. Terce
5. Sext
6. None
7. Vesper
8. Compline
“There’s an all-consuming darkness at the heart of Mendacium… In fairness, there’s a darkness at the heart of every EVOKEN album… the… album bridges all eras of EVOKEN, marrying the sepulchral stomp of their ‘90s work to the melodic sophistication they’ve honed over the decades.” – Decibel Magazine
“… the same brand of gloom you expect from this band, but delivered with more longing and colored with isolation. It is one of the most compelling doom albums I’ve heard in some time, which is impressive since I actively hunt the interwebs for this sort of aural depressant daily. Fans of the band have yet to be let down by these guys, and this album is another victory worth celebrating.” – No Clean Singing
“Their work continues to stand apart from imitation and worship as each passing song makes a case, in albeit ominously stated terms, for the enduring singularity of their voice and the high standard applied to every aspect of it. A highest possible recommendation.” – Mystification ‘Zine
“Funeral doom can be many things: morose, hopeless, alleviating etc, but Mendacium pushes something that’s tricky and tough to define in extreme metal: inner turmoil… There’s something in the songwriting, the way riffs churn and stomp with methodical cadence, with that synthesizer playing behind them, that removes us from the realm of actuality and into some more intangible space where we can’t be sure of what’s ahead… a special record and one of the few truly unique experiences one will have in studio albums this year.” – The Razors Edge
“On the seventh studio album, Mendacium, EVOKEN unfolds an unforgettable experience, bringing a surreal and spine-chilling tale to fans of funeral doom metal. The eight tracks invoke dark and sinister entities from dimensions beyond our space and time.” – Grimm Gent
“No other band in this genre can awaken the inner demon in the listener quite like these guys can… colossal…” – Sputnik Music
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