WITHERSCAPE, the stunning new atmospheric and progressive dark metal outfit formed by Swedish singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer extraordinaire Dan Swanö together with fellow Swedish multi-instrumentalist Ragnar Widerberg, will release their debut album, The Inheritance, on July 29th in Europe and August 6th in North America via Century Media Records. See below for album details.
The Inheritance track-listing:
1. Mother Of The Soul 2. Astrid Falls 3. Dead For A Day 4. Dying For The Sun 5. To The Calling Of Blood And Dreams 6. The Math Of The Myth 7. Crawling From Validity 8. The Wedlock Observation 9. The Inheritance
For a preview of WITHERSCAPE’s upcoming concept album, be sure to check out the first single, “Astrid Falls” .
The Inheritance‘s concept is split into different episodes, with the story briefly taking place in a remote village in northern Sweden in the late 1800’s. The central character lives in Stockholm and comes from wealth, and upon the death of his family, he’s informed by the family lawyer that he has inherited a large estate up north. Having been oblivious to the estate’s existence, he decides to investigate, and once he’s there, as Dan Swanö puts it, “all kinds of weird shit happens…”
The hauntingly beautiful cover artwork for The Inheritance was created by Travis Smith/Seempieces, who has previously worked with bands such as OPETH, NEVERMORE, DEATH and KATATONIA. Dan Swanö comments about the artwork:
“Both me and Ragnar are fascinated by old abandoned buildings and it was pretty clear from the start that we would have the estate our main character inherits on the album cover. We used Travis Smith as a ‘medium’ for our visual ideas and he did a spectacular job transforming our written wishes into a real image.”
WITHERSCAPE marks the long overdue return for Dan Swanö as an active composer and recording artist in the world of extreme metal, after having mostly been involved with mixing in the studio during these past years. While The Inheritance is not purely a death metal release, it showcases both the heavier and mellower sides of Swanö’s creativity, and should consequently not only please fans of his earlier efforts like Moontower or the EDGE OF SANITY catalogue, but also attract fans of progressively atmospheric contemporary metal in the vein of OPETH, KATATONIA or AMORPHIS.
According to Swanö, WITHERSCAPE had been in the works for a long time, spawned as a result of his working relationship with Widerberg, which began at a Swedish music store. The two multi-instrumentalists discovered that they had so much in common musically that brainstorming for a full-on metal project of their own was the next logical step. Widerberg cites acts such as early JUDAS PRIEST, RUSH, KING CRIMSON and MERCYFUL FATE as far as his inspirations for The Inheritance, and Swanö elaborates this list to also include JUDAS PRIEST (1975-1989), VOIVOD, QUEENSRYCHE, RUSH, MARILLION and MERCYFUL FATE.
WITHERSCAPE’s The Inheritance is the first release under a long-term worldwide recording deal signed between Dan Swanö and Century Media Records earlier this year. Stay tuned for more news about this release coming soon!
WITHERSCAPE line-up:
Dan Swanö – Vocals, Drums and Keyboards Ragnar Widerberg – Guitar and Bass
WITHERSCAPE online: