It may have been three long years since WOLVSERPENT’s watershed first LP Blood Seed saw the cruel light of day, but the Boise, Idaho duo have been hard at work on its successor. They’ve just completed work on their sophomore release (and Relapse Records debut), a four song 80 minute opus entitled Perigaea Antahkarana. The album was recorded this past autumn with producer/engineer Mell Dettmer (SUNN 0))), BORIS, ASVA, EARTH, EYVIND KANG) in Seattle and in Idaho at in their home studio, and features another apocalyptic performance from Blake Green (guitar, vocals, keys) and Brittany McConnell (drums, percussion, violin, viola).
After a two year writing period, WOLVSERPENT first recorded the Perigaea 2012 demo (pronounced “pear-a-guy-a”) between December 2011 and January 2012, and chose to keep it under wraps until the timing was right and their doomed hymns realized their full potential. After nine months and several rewrites had come to pass, the demo was unleashed. They’re now offering it as a free stream on Bandcamp and as a download or tape cassette via their official site here, but be forewarned: the upcoming full-length version Perigaea Antahkarana will be an entirely different two horned beast, a completely new manifestation of the ideas heard on the demo.
WOLVSERPENT’s sprawling compositions gracefully wend their way through the valleys of death, drone, black metal, doom, and chamber music and arrive triumphantly on foreign shores. Borne of the duo’s 20+ years of classical training and deep appreciation for the works of composers like Arvo Part, Gyorgy Ligeti, and Krzysztof Penderecki, WOLVSERPENT’s vision combines stringed amplified instruments with a 21st century approach to composition to create works that are dark, emotional, menacing, cinematic, atmospheric, and heartbreakingly beautiful.