Earlier this week, Mental Cruelty dropped a surprise teaser for fans, hinting at upcoming music plus the identity of their new vocalist. Now, the band is releasing two new tracks - "Symphony Of A Dying Star" and "Zwielicht" - to coincide with their news today, revealing their singer: Lukas Nicolai [of Sun Eater (formerly known as Impale)]. The music video was directed by Marvin Kessler and produced by AMP.
Mental Cruelty comments: "The first song 'Zwielicht' (old German for twilight), which serves as the intro, is a poem written by Marvin (guitars) and it's about the demon called depression that slowly creeps into your body to a point where it takes full control over your life. The poem comes from a very personal place and serves as a way of letting go and processing hard and dark stages of life in the past. Musically, the song is heavily inspired by classic Nordic folk songs and was recorded with ancient instruments that you wouldn't quite expect in this kind of music.
“'Symphony Of A Dying Star' serves as the continuation of 'Zwielicht' musically as well as lyrically. We accompany a wanderer on his journey through a winter landscape. All life around him seems to be trapped in hibernation and eternal ice while a surreal feeling of deafness creeps up on him. The winter itself serves as a metaphor for loneliness, the end of all things and the transience of life. At some point, all things start to fade away and it is the fate that will overtake us all once when standing on the threshold between life and death. The whole concept of this 2-track song is about letting things go and die to make place for a new start and a new beginning. We couldn't quite play shows and work on new music as we wanted to the last two years due to the pandemic and having to find a new vocalist, so we wanted to make a cut and a new beginning."
Across four releases, beginning with 2016's Pereat Mundus EP, Mental Cruelty has woven together a violent tapestry of black metal, death metal, deathcore, and a madness of their very own. With 2021's landmark LP, A Hill To Die Upon (Unique Leader), the German quintet not only set a new standard for themselves, but also the genre as a whole.
Rising from the ashes of personal and professional chaos, Mental Cruelty spent the first half of 2022 seeking out a voice to continue to cement them as an uncompromising force in the German metal scene. After locking in Lukas Nicolai, the band (rounded out by guitarists Nahuel Lozano and Marvin Kessler, bassist Viktor Dick and drummer Danny Straßer) reemerged bloodied but unbowed, ready to continue on their path to becoming an international force.
Armed with new vocalist Lukas, Mental Cruelty usher in a new epoch of unlight and grim determination that's at the heart of their upcoming album - which will be announced soon.
(Photo – Kriss Jakob)
