Progressive metallers Shrines unveil a mesmerising new video

Emerging like a charred and bewildered butterfly from the festering cocoons of wrongness that are Voices and Obscene Entity, Shrines – featuring Sam Loynes from the former on vocals as well as Matt Adnett from the latter – are about to embark on the first phase of their compass-destroying progressive metal odyssey with the release of their self-titled debut album.

Due out on Apocalyptic Witchcraft Records on October 30, Shrines is a cinematic, if sublimely disorienting rite of passage through the kind of ever-shifting musical terrain that could only be the work of master musicians, as each of its 10 tracks unfold like trials to be overcome on the way to enlightenment.

By turns turbulent, delicate and mind-warpingly agile, this is progressive metal that dispenses with the polite, milquetoast meanderings of their peers as it merges the urgent and the abstract into an utterly enthralling new sound.

We have an exclusive first glimpse, in the form of a glacially artistic video for the track Ariadne’s Thread. Riding a crest of churning guitars as it gradually approaches the ends of the earth, it’s part solemn hymn, part black-metal-in-zero-gravity act of wonder, and a track whose scope reaches far beyond it’s three-minute length.

“In Shrines we hope to bring together the influence of past experience whilst reaching into an uncertain yet profound future,” says frontman Sam. “It is here that our song Ariadne’s Thread resides. The song and it themes are symbolic of the completed album, the lessons we learn through creative collaboration and most importantly the drive to return to our loved ones.”

Bid farewell to your bearings and give yourself to Ariadne’s Thread below!

Heed the omens and find your way to Shrines’ Facebook page here!

And pre-order Shrines 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.