(written by Islander)
On September 4th the Bergen-based melodic black metal band Sworn will release their fifth album, Null Crowned the Infinite, which follows their well-received fourth album, A Journey Told Through Fire (2023). The new album is a conceptually ambitious and coherent work, one which traces the cyclical nature of the cosmos from its initial spark in the void to its inevitable dissolution.:
“Lyrically, the album explores the terrifying scale of cosmic darkness and the fragility of existence within a primordial emptiness. Sworn investigates the philosophy of becoming and unmaking, where reality and time emerge from nothingness only to eventually collapse back into the same unfathomable origin.”
To help introduce the new album we’re premiering a song called “The Entropic Void“. Sworn describe how it fits within their cosmic narrative:
“It’s probably the coldest and most eerie track of the album. As it’s the second to last track, thematically this one is about the closure of the cosmos in the endless cycle of creation and unmaking.”
The idea that the cosmos has undergone (and will continue to undergo) an endless cycle of creation, destruction, and rebirth has daunted and haunted humankind ever since astronomical evidence of its existence began to emerge through our increasing ability to gaze into an unimaginably distant past by gazing unimaginably far away. The arrow of time points forward to the heat death of the universe, and that’s a stunning thing to contemplate despite the fact that none of us will live to see it.
Sworn lend their own imagination to the event with the “The Entropic Void“. At its outset, the music heavily throbs and mysteriously rings, creating moods that are simultaneously ominous and wondrous. The band then add slow detonations of crushing heaviness and towering scale, and as the drums begin to rumble and tumble, the groaning and ringing notes create even more frightening sonic visions.
Screamed vocals scorch the listener in the midst of the heavily heaving and brilliantly glittering music — a magnification of the song’s intensity, which then magnifies further through the advent of furiously blasting percussion, the urgency of gravel-toned bass notes, the roiling of guitars, and the swelling cascade of synths.
All of that creates a breathtaking and grievous experience, a vast and engulfing experience that seems steeped in moods of desolation and anguish. But the song continues to evolve — the drums rumble and then rock; the riffing feverishly throbs; and piercing tones up in the sonic stratosphere wondrously swirl and gleam. It creates a finale that will move heads and spin them too.
We should add that on Sworn’s new album this song is followed by a final track named “Circle of the Eternal“, and the conclusion of “The Entropic Void” seems to point the way to that song, and to the cycle beginning anew.
SWORN:
Max Wilson – Vocals
Christoffer Kjørsvik – Guitars, Bass and Synthesizers
Gøran Hope – Guitars
Tom Ian Klungland – Drums
Sworn collaborated with renowned producer Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden, who handled the mixing and mastering. The striking album artwork is the work of the equally renowned artist Pär Olofsson.
While Sworn continues to operate as an independent entity for the recording and production, they have partnered with The Circle Music to handle the physical releases under a special licensing deal. The release includes a Digipak CD alongside two distinct vinyl variants: Marbled Smoke and Marbled Green. Find pre-orders via the link below, and follow Sworn via the links below that. You can also pre-save the song we’ve now premiered, which will be available on streaming services on August 7th.
Lastly, we’ve included a stream of the new album’s previously released title song, which is the second track in the album-length narrative.
PRE-ORDER:
https://thecirclemusic.gr/product-category/distributed-stuff/?filter_artist-name=sworn
SWORN ONLINE:
Website: https://www.sworn.no/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swornnorway/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swornnorway/
Bandcamp: http://swornnorway.bandcamp.com/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/08gKW64lS9Yfg79BZIc4PS