Earlier this month, metalcore supergroup Umbra Vitae announced their much-anticipated return, confirming that a new album, Light of Death, was due this summer and offering up the old-school-death-metal-inflected lead single "Belief Is Obsolete."
Now, the quintet — comprised of vocalist-lyricist Jacob Bannon (Converge), guitarists Sean Martin (Twitching Tongues, ex-Hatebreed) and Mike McKenzie (The Red Chord), bassist Greg Weeks (The Red Chord) and drummer Jon Rice (Uncle Acid, Tsjuder) — have dropped a doomier follow-up titled "Velvet Black."
The song diverges from the band's usual OSDM sound and features gloomy clean vocals from Bannon, Martin and Weeks. It arrived today (April 30th) along with a enigmatic music video directed by John Bradburn. Watch and listen above.
Bannon commented, "Lyrically, this song is about pressure and how it forces actions that aren't in line with who we want to be. It breaks and changes people; making monsters and the meek. These cycles of dysfunction indiscriminately harm everything around us."
He added: "Metaphorically I explore this in two interlinked ways. Firstly, the idea of growth coming from decay. Secondly, as an afterlife scenario where dead attempt to overrun golden gates. Not worthy of passing through due to their actions on the mortal plane, they retreat back into the 'velvet black' darkness which they came from."
Light of Death will be released through Deathwish Inc. on June 7th. You can pre-order the album here.
