Label: Prosthetic Records

Forming from the rain-soaked Seattle soil in late 2003, BOOK OF BLACK EARTH circa 2008 boasts a sound equally as dreary and evil as the blackened skies that set upon many a cool, damp day in the band’s hometown. Now, BOOK OF BLACK EARTH, with Horoskopus, builds upon the band’s five year history of sound – one that has yielded praise from the likes of Decibel, Terrorizer and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer – and ultimately spews forth an all-encompassing, weighty concept album deep in thought, dark in mind, and undeniably heavy in both sound and story.

"Horoskopus is about hidden astrological elements of the Christian church,” vocalist/guitarist T.J. Cowgill says. “From its origins as a state sponsored religion in the fourth century to the present day, it has been guided by astrological concepts conceived centuries before Jesus Christ was mythologized as the ‘Sun’ of God."

The follow-up to 2006’s The Feast, Horoskopus is indeed BOOK OF BLACK EARTH circa 2008: a blacker, bigger sound, more ambitious in scope and this time harnessed by producer / engineer Chris Common (Mouth of The Architect, These Arms Are Snakes) at The Red Room Studios in Seattle. With the band’s blasphemous take on blackened death metal committed to tape, and having already cut their collective teeth on the road with the likes of Intronaut, Lair of the Minotaur, and The Funeral Pyre, as well as a 2007 appearance at Los Angeles Murderfest 3.0, the impending release of Horoskopus will bring the band out of the stormy shrouds of the Seattle underground and back to the road with Swedish black metal legends Watain and new labelmates Withered for the Black Metal Magic Tour, a month-long run of dates that’s an apt home for BOOK OF BLACK EARTH’s blackened subject matter barked amidst a wall of syrupy-thick, distorted guitar work, double bass drums, and swirling, atmospheric keys.

Formed in 2003 by Cowgill and keyboardist Hank Guthrie from the ashes of Teen Cthulu along with skinsman Joe Axler (Skarp, Splatterhouse, Iamthethorn), bassist Larry Perrigo (Wormwood) and second guitarist Rebekah Dunbar (Kill Sadie, The Fitness), the newly-dubbed BOOK OF BLACK EARTH quickly established a name for itself in the extreme underground with an independently pressed, three-song demo limited to 150 copies in 2004. Two songs later emerged on a split CD release with Fall Of The Bastards in 2005, and following the departures of Perrigo and Dunbar in 2004 and 2006 respectively, Dav Tafoya-Garcia joined the band on bass/vocals with Tony Lombardi filling the guitar position in 2007, rounding out BOOK OF BLACK EARTH's current line-up, one that remained stable through the release of The Feast and its subsequent touring, something that caught the eye of new home Prosthetic Records.

With Horoskopus nearly completed and a recording schedule looming, BOOK OF BLACK EARTH set out to complete the recording of Horoskopus in May of 2008. Now, with the album’s release and subsequent touring that is as DIY, yet professional as the band’s busy history, BOOK OF BLACK EARTH looks toward a promising, bright – albeit musically blackened – future in the metal underground.

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Dan Rozenblum

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