(written by Islander)

The Irish blackened doom band Soothsayer released their debut album Echoes of the Earth in 2021. In the context of premiering a song from it, we described the music as “harrowing in the extreme, and also transportive”, the kind of experience that “makes such a transfixing and mind-bending impact that it’s very hard to forget, no matter how unreal and disturbing it can become”.

Soothsayer didn’t hurry in creating their next album, but we would have been surprised if they had. The first album was so carefully crafted and so accomplished in its rendering of changing visions that any follow-up was likely to involve unhurried effort if it was to successfully build upon the debut’s formidable foundations.

But now their second album, The Unbinding, has at last been released (just 10 days ago) by Soothsayer’s new label Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings. It includes five songs of substantial length and tremendous emotional force. To help draw deserved attention to it, today we’re premiering a video for the song “Sooner Acceptance“. Continue reading »

A soothsayer is a seer, a speaker of truths enabled by visions, an oracle enabled by magic, but perhaps just as likely to be ignored as to be believed. Soothsayer is also the name chosen by an Irish quintet whose visions are very much rooted in the desperate reality of the here and now, but who defiantly refuse to succumb. Their music, as represented in what we’ve heard so far from their forthcoming debut album, is harrowing in the extreme, and also transportive. It’s not “easy listening” by any stretch, but it makes such a transfixing and mind-bending impact that it’s very hard to forget, no matter how unreal and disturbing it can become.

This debut full-length, which follows a small handful of excellent short releases (for which we’ve done premieres in the past), is named Echoes of the Earth. It will be forthcoming from Transcending Obscurity Records. The first two tracks bear the names “Fringe” and “Outer Fringe“, and we’re presenting them to you today for the first time, accompanied by a video prepared by Irish drone artist Ruairi O’Baoighill that enhances the mind-altering impact of the sounds. Continue reading »

Sixteen-minute songs present a challenge for bands who compose them, because they present a challenge for listeners. Long attention spans are not exactly a hallmark of modern culture or society. But when a band succeed in holding their listeners’ attention for songs of such length, the experience can be even more rewarding than songs of more conventional duration. And that’s what the Irish band Soothsayer have done on the song we’re about to premiere for you. Its name is “Umpire” and it appears on Soothsayer’s new album At This Great Depth, which will be released on December 30 by Transcending Obscurity Records.

This is the band’s second release, following their 2015 debut The Soothsayer. It consists of two songs, of which “Umpire” is the first; the second, which is not as long, is “Locusts and Moths”. Continue reading »