Swedish black metallers WATAIN recently announced The Wild Hunt as the title for their upcoming fifth studio album, slated for release on August 19 in Europe and August 20 in North America. WATAIN will also be unleashing a new single from The Wild Hunt titled, “All That May Bleed”, which will be released at the end of June. The CD was mixed once again at the Necromorbus Studio in Alvik, Sweden by Tore Stjerna and will be released through Century Media Records. Today, the black metal horde unveiled the track listing and artwork for the upcoming studio album which may be viewed below.
Created using oil and mixed materials, the cover of The Wild Hunt was crafted by Zbigniew M Bielak, the same artist responsible for the Lawless Darkness artwork. The piece depicts one of the inmost shrines of WATAIN’s temple. As on every classic still life, each object has a significant meaning, while each song of the album is also connected to an object.
WATAIN comments on the new single: “‘All That May Bleed’ shows but one facet of a quite diverse album, but we chose this song as a first glimpse into The Wild Hunt because of its bombastic lunacy and white-eyed malevolence which could be said to constitute a main foundation for the album. The lyric is an invitation to sacrificial blood letting, ecstatic zealotry and human sacrifice. The salt of Satan in the wounds of Christ!”
WATAIN spoke further on The Wild Hunt: “After 120 nights of iron will and ardent magic, the fifth full-length album of Watain is now complete. With broken bones and burning hearts we have ploughed our way through deepest winter into a new wilderness, to which we will open the gates at summers end. The Wild Hunt will be released on August 19th in Europe and August 20th in North America (via His Master’s Noise in collaboration with Century Media Records). Beware the rising star of dawn…”
Side B will feature a track called “Play With The Devil”, originally recorded by the blackened heavy metal band TAIWAZ in 1988 in WATAIN’s hometown, Uppsala. Gottfrid Åhman from IN SOLITUDE participates on solo guitar on WATAIN’s rendition of the song.
The single will be released in the following formats: Black 7″ vinyl limited to 2 000 copies worldwide, red 7″ vinyl with sticker limited to 500 copies only available from Woldwear.net, 7″ picture disc limited to 500 copies only available from Wolfwear.net and CMdistro.com and as a digital download.
“All That May Bleed” will be made available to the masses on the following dates: Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Finland/Norway and worldwide through CMdistro.com and Wolfwear.net on June 21, UK/Benelux/France on June 24, US/Spain on June 25 and WATAIN’s native country of Sweden on June 26.
All That May Bleed physical release dates:
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Italy, Australia, New Zealand: Friday, June 21
UK: Sunday, June 23
USA, Spain: Tuesday, June 25
Sweden, Hungary: Wednesday, June 26
Rest Of Europe: Monday, June 24
The Wild Hunt track listing:
1. Night Vision
2. De Profundis
3. Black Flames March
4. All That May Bleed
5. The Child Must Die
6. They Rode On
7. Sleepless Evil
8. The Wild Hunt
9. Outlaw
10. Ignem Veni Mittere
11. Holocaust Dawn
