Watch Schammasch's dazzling new, Iceland-shot video, Metanoia

Schammasch promo pic 2016, by Ester Segarra

(Image credit: Ester Segarra)

If you have a vision as far reaching as Switzerland’s Schammasch, then you’re going to need a hefty dose of ambition to make it manifest. A band in search of spiritual awakening and sonic transcendance whose journey has taken them far beyond their roots in the black metal scene, they have, at the behest of founder C.S.R, created a fully-fledged world whose otherworldly aesthetic has been stamped throughout three mesmerising albums, each one reaching new levels of invention and artistic endeavour.

Having outdone 2014’s duality-themed double album Contradictions with the three-disc epic that was April’s Triangle opus, Schammasch have now taken up the challenge of upping the ante in the video stakes too, for the track Metanoia. Their previous promo for the Contradictions track, Golden Light, was a cinematic rite of penance, filmed amidst the French Pyrénées during a summer solstice; for their latest visual masterpiece they’ve travelled to one of the most spectacular landscapes on the earth, or what looks like the edge of it – the vast, Game Of Thrones and Noah-hosting, topographical mindfuck that is Iceland.

Unfolding over the course of eight, retina-drenching minutes, Metanoia cast its gaze over coastlines, waterfalls, cave interiors and breathakingly barren wastes measureless to man as an intrguingly bedecked C.S.R. and unnamed dancer offer ritualistic testimony to their spectacular surroundings. The song itself is a thing of splendour too, tuned to an edge-of-seat frequency that borders on the tantric, and we have an exclusive premiere right here. So prepare to part with all known mental and physical co-ordinates, take a deep breath and dilate your pupils to Metanoia below!

Schammasch will be playing Triangle in its 100-minute entirety on Friday April 21, 2017 at Roadburn Festival, which takes place at the O13 in Tilburg, Netherlands.

Schammasch are also touring next month with Rotting Christ, Inquisition and Mystifier at the dates below.

Nov 7 - Islington Assembly Hall, London

Nov 8 - Voodoo Lounge, Dublin

Nov 9 - Sound Control, Manchester

Ascend to Schammasch’s Facebook page here!

And order Triangle here!

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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.