Exclusive: Schammasch announce a new album and unveil a mind-melting new track

Schammasch promo pic 2019, by Ester Segarra

(Image credit: Ester Segarra)

Since their formation in 2009, Switzerland’s Schammasch have not only taken black metal into blazing new realms far beyond the scene’s original template, they’ve also proved to be a constantly evolving entity, their promethean spirit and philosophical quest growing ever more ambitious in its scope.

If the experimental, 2017 EP, The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite was a means to catch artistic breath after the previous year’s monolithic, three-disc Triangle opus, the band’s forthcoming full-length album, Hearts Of No Light – released on November 8 via Prosthetic Records – proves that rather than being daunted by the prospect of a follow-up, the band have reached a new, creative zenith.

Their most flowing and organic album to date, Hearts Of No Light is jet-black at its core but is vast. expansive dynamics mark out a new, exhilaratingly dramatic musical frontier – a fevered and transformative spiritual quest that sounds like it’s interrogating the surface of the sun.

Hearts Of No Light also celebrates artistic collaboration; classical pianist Lillian Liu added new dimensions to two pieces on the album whilst I Burn With You features lyrical/vocal guest Aldrahn (ex-Dødheimsgard/Thorns). Visionary visual artist and musician Dehn Sora (Treha Sektori, Throane, Ovtrenoir) also contributes to the sprawling final track, Innermost, Lowermost Abyss. The artwork was created by frontman C.S.R and the SAROS Collective, featuring photography by renowned photographer Ester Segarra. The vinyl will be presented as a double gatefold LP in several variants and the CD will be a housed in a six-panel digipak.

Rays Like Razors is the first single to be taken from Hearts Of No Light and we are proud to offer an exclusive premiere in the form of a video visualiser curated by Schammasch and the SAROS Collective. Featuring sigils, eyeball, burning tomes, dark passages and a host of rites and stunning imagery, Rays Like Razors is going to take you to the brink both sonically and visually.

“It's been a bit over two years now since the Hermaphrodite record was released,” says C.S.R, “and well over (adequately) three years since the release of Triangle. today a new chapter begins for Schammasch, one with realigned focus, that is stripped of aged skin, under a darkness that burns vividly. Hearts Of No Light opens a new cycle of work, spreading a different kind of rays.”

Without further ado, open up your third eye and scale the spiritual heights with Rays Like Razors below. Once you’ve come back to this physical plane, scroll down for a full track listing, tour dates and pre-order links!

SCHAMMASCH // HEARTS OF NO LIGHT TRACKLIST

1. Winds That Pierce The Silence

2. Ego Sum Omega

3. A Bridge Ablaze

4. Qadmon‘s Heir

5. Rays Like Razors

6. I Burn Within You

7. A Paradigm Of Beauty

8. Katabasis

9. Innermost, Lowermost Abyss

Schammasch - Hearts Of No Light album cover — (Image credit: Schammasch/SAROS Collective Prosthetic Records)

COLD BLACK HEARTS EUROPEAN TOUR 2020

ENTHRONED • SCHAMMASCH • CARONTE

January 2, 2020 - Viper Room, Vienna, AT

January 3, 2020 - Club Seilerstraße, Zwickau, DE

January 4, 2020 - Hedon, Zwolle, NL

January 5, 2020 - P60, Amstelveen, NL

January 6, 2020 - The Dome, London, UK

January 7, 2020 - Albert's, Nottingham, UK

January 8, 2020 - Petit Bain, Paris, FR

January 9, 2020 - Zappa, Antwerp, BE

January 10, 2020 - MS Connexion Complex, Mannheim, DE

January 11, 2020 - Zwischenbau, Rostock, DE

January 12, 2020 - Nuke Club, Berlin, DE

Visit the Schammasch homepage here

Visit their Facebook page here

And their Instagram page here

Pre-order Hearts Of No Light here!

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.