Zornheym have just announced the graphic novel version of the band’s latest album, The Zornheim Sleep Experiment, and a brand new acoustic EP, entitled The Forgotten Inmates, which will be released on November 3 via Noble Demon. With the lyric video for the first single, "Keep The Devil Away", the band has unleashed a first preview of the upcoming graphic novel today. Watch the video in English and French below.
Founded and led by multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Zorn (ex-Dark Funeral / ex-Devian), Swedish symphonic extreme metal act Zornheym quickly grew from an ambitious idea into a dramatic musical and narrative driven concept revolving around the horrors of a mental institution and its prisoners. In 2017, Zornheym officially opened the doors of the asylum with their debut album Where Hatred Dwells And Darkness Reigns, introducing the terrifying concept and the gruesome characters within. With powerful, cinematic and captivating symphonic extreme metal, the band took the listener under its spell and the story found its disturbing continuation in 2021 with the band's latest full-length record The Zornheim Sleep Experiment.
Two critically acclaimed albums that not only musically represent the class of Zornheym, but also visually are something quite exceptional, as both records are accompanied by a stunning graphic novel, in which each chapter takes a closer look at the different inmates of the Zornheym asylum. While the album's lyrics and the session notes in the booklet served as two parts of the complete story, Zornheym now deliver the third and final piece of the puzzle with the graphic novel, and you will follow Dr. Bettelheim from when he is putting the final touches on his statement of intent till the horrific ending of the experiment. As on their debut "Where Hatred Dwells and Darkness Reigns" Zornheym have again collaborated with the super talented Finnish artist Anu Saari, who has brought the story to life with her amazing painting skills!
Zornheym about the making of their new EP: "During the pandemic Zorn and Bendler did some live streaming and played acoustic interpretations of some of our songs. When it was time to record The Zornheim Sleep Experiment we decided to record 'Whom The Night Brings' as an acoustic version to add as a bonus.
The original plan was to release that bonus track when the graphic novel was done. Due to a pregnancy the graphic novel was delayed. Zorn then remembered that Blind Guardian had released an album with acoustic interpretations of some of their songs in the ‘90’s. To reward our patient inmates we felt that we wanted to record a couple of songs, since the graphic novel took longer than expected to finalize. To thank our French fans that gave us an extra warm welcome on the successful French tour last year we decided to record 'Keep the Devil Away' in French as well.
For “Slumber Comes in Time” we decided to make it in Swedish, since it’s based around an old folk tune that the Vallons brought to Sweden during the 1700’s, and base the whole song around that old folk melody."
The Forgotten Inmates was recorded at Wing Studios. Mix and master by Sverker Widgren. The EP was produced by Sverker Widgren & Zorn. Artwork by Anu Saari.
The Forgotten Inmates is now available for pre-order, here.
The Forgotten Inmates tracklisting:
"Keep the Devil Away" (acoustic version)
"Slumber Comes In Time" (folk version)
"Whom The Night Brings…" (lockdown version)
"Corpus Vile" (acapella)
"Garde le Diable Éloigné" (French version)
"Keep The Devil Away" lyric videos:
