Sicilian doom metal foursome HAUNTED have signed to Ripple Music for the release of their third studio album “Stare At Nothing” on April 19th, with a compelling first video streaming exclusively via Doomed & Stoned website!
The conceptual gestation of this new album has deep roots. The seeds are study, listening and experience. HAUNTED have tried to tell their journey of self-awareness, reunion, pacification, ideological freedom, and recognition of the Self and its complete destruction. They didn’t want to create nothing – and so they just stared at it. Lyrically, the band deals with “the Man who chooses, sees and accepts himself, and doesn’t come to terms with the Universe, with a God, with the Infinite, but only with himself – through a reverse mystical journey.”
With Kim Crowley on guitar and Luca Strano on drums, they lowered themselves headlong, sinking into the dark cavities of the ground. Their music then had to be vibrant, magnetic, deep, dark and powerful. They relied on the darker shades of heavy rock and the furious poetry of grunge, composing sharp rhythms on evocative metrics. As stated by US website Doomed & Stoned, “dank, surly low-end from bassist Frank Tudisco and bluesy doom riffage from guitarist Kim Crowley join thundering drums from Luca Strano, that seems to conjure the ebb and flow of the sea. This contrasts powerfully with Cristina Chimirri’s sublime vocals on the new spin, which is a monument to the exquisite emotional expressiveness and statuesque might of doom metal.”
“Stare At Nothing” was recorded & mixed by Carlo Longo at NuevArte Studio, Catania, and mastered by Esben Willems at Studio Berserk, Gothenburg. The artwork was designed by Kristina Lerner.
HAUNTED “Stare At Nothing”
Out April 19th on Ripple Music (vinyl/CD/digital)
International preorder – US preorder
Formed in the gray and dreary fall of 2015, HAUNTED conjure up sub-sabbathian spells from the dark sources of Etna, in Catania, Sicily. Long and painful dirges drive the candidate through murky hells of penance and distortion winding through the steep tunnels of Evil and Death.
Since the beginning engaged by Twin Earth Records (USA), they have so far released two epitaphs. The eponymous full-length “Haunted”, has been acclaimed as one of the best stoner-doom albums of the year in 2016, which together with the attitude shown so far have allowed the band to participate in various live performances, hitting the stage as a guest for the Candlemass, Hooded Menace and Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, as well as in prestigious festivals such as Into The Void and Eindhoven Metal Meeting in 2017.
The long-awaited sophomore album “Dayburner”, released in 2018, received great interest from industry critics and thanks to the entry of DHU Records (NL), specialized in vinyl pressing, benefited from greater support and visibility. In the winter of 2020, they brought their ghostly sound to almost all of Europe and the UK with the “Rise from the Grave Tour”, an unsurpassed experience and an impressive wave of acclaim from promoters and listeners.
At the end of 2023, HAUNTED joined Ripple Music, entrusting the release of their third invocation “Stare at Nothing” – a “sinuous as a snake and solvent as acid” album – for the first half of 2024.
