(written by Islander)
Each of us who contributes to NCS has favorite bands (many of them!) that we try to follow over time, and we try to pay special attention to underground groups and projects who lack support from big labels or a PR apparatus, i.e., names that don’t draw as much attention in the music press. Yet despite such efforts we can still overlook releases from artists we follow, though sometimes we discover and rectify the oversight.
In the fall of 2020, which you may remember as a wretched time in the life of the world, I came across music from Conqueror Worm, the debut album of a one-person UK project called Sepulchre by the Sea. I was initially intrigued by the album in part because the project’s creator (Ash) drew his inspiration from the writing of Edgar Allen Poe, and then the music proved to be very, very good. I tried to help spread the word about it here, and then did so again the following year in the lead-up to a new Sepulchre by the Sea EP named Ratiocinations.
Yet I somehow overlooked Sepulchre by the Sea’s second album Seven Chambers, which was released in August 2024. Like the previous releases, it was inspired by Poe. Specifically, it was a concept album inspired by Masque of the Red Death and it incorporated ambient and electronic soundscapes into the band’s genre-blurring configurations of black metal, shoegaze, melodic death metal, doom, and hardcore.
Now Sepulchre by the Sea is returning with a new three-track EP titled Goldseeker, which was inspired by the Poe stories “Some Words with a Mummy”, “The Gold Bug”, and “Ligeia”, all of which reference ancient Egypt. We will not overlook this one, because today we have the privilege of premiering and enthralling video for the EP’s first single, “Goldseeker“.
For this new EP, which will be released on November 6th, Sepulchre by the Sea has returned to a hybrid of atmospheric black metal, shoegaze, and doom — and it proves to be a captivating amalgam in “Goldseeker” (though that list of ingredients isn’t exhaustive).
The song quickly seizes attention with a brief and exotic overture and then abruptly and unexpectedly begins to stomp and crush. Ethereal glimmering tones from the overture persist, but the music also abrasively snarls — and then it changes again as the drums begin to vigorously hammer and then blast away.
Scorching screams vent the words through abrasive tonal blizzards both low and high, and the music itself begins to sear, and to soar. The song perpetuates the contrasts already revealed — the gleaming and slow-moving sheen of keys joined together with the roiling steel-wool harshness and rapidly quivering delirium of the riffing and the full-throttle propulsiveness of the beats.
Sepulchre by the Sea also returns to the brutish throb of hard-slugging grooves, which become the backdrop to a slowly slithering melody with a miserable mood. But still more changes lie ahead, changes of both instrumentation and mood: The music shifts into acoustic-guitar strumming and the lilting twang of a second guitar whose refrain is entrancing, matched with rocking beats and slow waves of mesmerizing melody.
That makes for a wonderful finale, and it could easily have gone on for minutes longer without losing its allure.
The song provides a strong reminder that Sepulchre by the Sea is well worth following closely. To hear all of the project’s released music, visit these locations:
https://sepulchrebythesea.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2CD17Ab5FPNiCdCv0XFUVD
Follow the project here:
https://www.facebook.com/sepulchrebytheseamusic
https://www.instagram.com/sepulchrebytheseamusic