Salt Lake City doom crew SubRosa release an enrapturing new track

SubRosa press photo 2016, by Chris Martindale
(Image credit: Chris Martindale)

A band whose live shows are usually marked out by the numbers of awestricken punters stumbling out as if they’ve just been told some devastating secret about the meaning of life, Salt Lake City’s SubRosa are fast becoming one of the most revered and revelatory bands in the doom scene.

The quintet’s melding of shuddering grooves, mercurial violins playing out across the songs like the heavens convulsing and frontwoman Rebecca Vernon’s cast-adrift, rage-simmering vocals have created an opulent yet apocalyptic world of their own across three spellbinding albums, and now they’re about to return once more with their evocatively titled fourth opus, For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages.

Due to be released by cult label Profound Lore on August 26, SubRosa’s latest takes its cue from the dystopian Russian novel We, written by Yevgeny Zamyatin in 1921 and whose themes of surveillance, and seeking individual freedom amidst state control resonate both with the modern age and Rebecca’s struggles with her Mormon religion. For This We Fought… is an immense, emotionally turbulent journey that’s going to mesmerise longterm and new fans alike, and we have a special preview in the heartrending form, of the penultimate track, Killing Rapture.

Ten minutes long but covering more ground than most bands do in an entire career, its a vivid quest that rises from forlorn grace to ravishing sonic storm and beyond, and if you can hear Kylesa’s kinetic motor underneath, it will ultimately leave you stranded on distant, psychic shores only SubRosa have the maps for.

Expand your consciousness, wring out your soul and prepare for the enthralling rite of passage that is Killing Rapture below!

Get yourself stranded at SubRosa’s Facebook page here

Pre-order For This We Fought The Battle Of The Ages here

And catch SubRosa on tour in the UK, alongside the also splendid Darkher at the dates below!

October 11 – London, UK @ Underworld

October 12 – Birmingham, UK @ Rainbow

October 13 – Manchester, UK @ Rebellion

Jonathan Selzer

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.