The future of British metal lies in safe hands with Conjurer, who today have announced their long-awaited new album Páthos, which will be released 1st July 2022 via Nuclear Blast. Conjurer continue their journey as the country’s most exciting young metal band with the incredible new album. Celebrating the news, the Midlands quartet have also streamed the first single from Páthos, the mighty ‘It Dwells‘.
A triumphant return from Conjurer following their world-renowned 2018 debut Mire, Páthos is a band flexing their creative muscles, deepening their approach and thought, and expanding their sound.
Bassist Conor Marshall comments: “Excited to finally be able to share the album with everyone! I’m sure this is the same for every band trying to release an album during the pandemic but it feels like we’ve been holding on to it for so long, so it’s nice for it to not be my problem any more and to be able to actually talk about it!”
Opener ‘It Dwells’ is the perfect introduction – earth-shatteringly heavy, unconventional, uniquely beautiful, and instantly recognisable as Conjurer. The track is centred on the contradictions of the emotion of ‘fear’ – that fear can be comfortable and constant, haunting and crushing. It builds to a point of breaking – the need to end fear battling against your will to go on. The repeated screams ‘I’ll have peace’ are an ambivalent declaration of defiance – give in, or fight, either way fear is gone.
Of the single, guitarist/vocalist Dan Nightingale states: “I think ‘It Dwells’ is a good introduction to the sound of the record, from the musical influences to the lyrics and how we’ve drawn from what’s been going on in our lives, it’s one of our most personal outings for sure. It’s nice to have been able to step up our game with the music videos for this album as well. Good album. Top track. Boss man.”
Páthos is not an album for the half-hearted or faint-hearted. Elements of Sumac, Gojira, old Mastodon and Oathbreaker, the new record is a multi-layered beast – sludge, death, doom, black metal and hardcore influences clash and collide throughout, all masterfully finished by Will Putney’s exquisite mix and master.
The fifty-minute runtime of Páthos is not without its moments of the sublime, with post-metal nods to Conjurer and Pijn’s acclaimed Curse These Metal Hands project throughout. That a band can be at once so triumphantly beautiful and gut-punchingly heavy is testament to Conjurer’s quality, and a surefire sign of their future longevity at the top of Britain’s heavy music scene.
