Enter the immersive world of doom voyagers Loviatar

Ottowa, Canada’s Loviatar may be named after a Finnish goddess of disease, but there’s something very healing about their imminent, self-titled debut album. Due to unfurl from the Prosthetic Records pit on July 28, Loviatar is an expansive, far-reaching odyssey whose unhurried pace allows for all manner of scenic wonders to seep into their sound.

From the kind panoramic, subtly tribal of rhythms that once drove post-rock deities Isis into the most evocative of hinterlands, through gently nudging grooves to glinting riffs that grow ever more incandescent, the four-piece weave a twin tale of wonder over the album’s 37, spellbinding minutes.

Split between the three-part Stygian Wyrm suite and the 19-minute ode to their titular muse, Blind Goddess Of The Nine Plagues, it packs in a host of ideas without ever sounding rushed – and we have a special preview in the mesmeric form of a lyric video for the track, Nascent (Stygian Wyrm Part I).

“Nascent is the first movement of Loviatar’s Stygian Wyrm trilogy,” the band explain. “The song relates the birth of a dragon in fire, death and thunder, his formative years in solitude and his experiences among humans. Focusing on human failings, corruption and the inevitable apocalypse, Loviatar’s debut opus will be released over the coming weeks.”

Open your third eye, enter the everlasting cycle of destruction and rebirth and tune into the wondrous Nascent (Stygian Wyrm Part I) below!

Follow Loviatar on Facebook and pre-order their album now.

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Having freelanced regularly for the Melody Maker and Kerrang!, and edited the extreme metal monthly, Terrorizer, for seven years, Jonathan is now the overseer of all the album and live reviews in Metal Hammer. Bemoans his obsolete superpower of being invisible to Routemaster bus conductors, finds men without sideburns slightly circumspect, and thinks songs that aren’t about Satan, swords or witches are a bit silly.