London, UK duo SERMON have shared a new single, titled Departure, along with an accompanying visualizer. The track serves as the closing song to SERMON’s forthcoming second album, Of Golden Verse, and sees chief songwriter Him and drummer James Stewart (Vader and Decapitated) ramp up the intensity of their progressive metal sound. Of Golden Verse is set for release via Prosthetic Records on March 31.
SERMON – DEPARTURE (OFFICIAL VISUALIZER) – YouTube
Speaking on Departure’s release SERMON’s Him comments: „Departure is the curtain call of the album. The final climax. It’s a tense topic that describes the horrifying moment between a victim and attacker, within a war crime.
„To match the subject, musically this is the most intense song on the album, and it could only live at the end. I had always had it in my head that I wanted to create a song where I could potentially make a blast beat listenable to an average listener. I had the melody for the vocal and guitar lead infecting my head for months. Always a good basis for a song, and I think if you take the blast away, it could almost be a pop song (in minor, of course). I’m sure this intent alone would make some metal fans recoil in horror, and that’s fine by me.
„James Stewart claims this might be his longest (and favourite) blast beat, which is quite something considering he was in Vader for 3 years. It was honestly magical to watch the take, for something that sounds like a hyper-speed flailing of limbs, the amount of control and precision that’s actually there is astounding and makes it all the more musical.
„So far, this song seems to be getting the most questions from people. For a band that get’s frequently compared to Tool or Katatonia, I think this breaks us away from it and into a different musical space.“
