“Teach Me To Live That I Dread The Grave As Little As My Bed”, the debut full-length from dark ambient blackened doom duo Locusts And Honey, is currently streaming in its forlorn entirety. The stream comes on the eve of the record’s official release on May 24th through Toronto, Ontario-based Hypaethral Records.
Rising from the boggy marshes of the United Kingdom, Locusts And Honey conjures a sonic maelstrom that traverses the realms of darkness and despair. The music, created entirely by Tomás Robertson, is rooted in the fertile soil of early ’90s doom (Corrupted, Winter, Esoteric), infused with the raw essence of black metal (Strid, Darkthrone), and bathed in the ethereal embrace of cinematic soundscapes (William Basinski, Henryk Górecki, Coil). Lyricist/vocalist Stephen Murray’s anguished growls, which invoke memories of Lee Dorian, are intertwined with the melancholic melodies of multi-instrumentalist Tomás Robertson to cast a spell of sorrow and fury upon all who dare to listen.
Locusts And Honey’s debut album “Teach Me To Live That I Dread The Grave As Little As My Bed” is a meditation on death and living well, inspired by the bog bodies of Ireland and Denmark – people of the Iron Age who were sacrificially hanged and found extremely well-preserved in peat. Crafted with meticulous care, this opus of dejection comprises one, sprawling twenty-eight-minute odyssey broken up into six movements.
“Teach Me To Live That I Dread The Grave As Little As My Bed” was mastered at BWC Studios by Greg Dawson, renowned for his work with luminaries such as Thantifaxath, Panzerfaust, and Olde.
“Teach Me To Live That I Dread The Grave As Little As My Bed” will be available on Hypaethral Records digitally and on limited edition vinyl (100 Peaty Bog and 100 Black), via the label webshop and Bandcamp.
Since their inception in the Autumn of 2023, Locusts And Honey has transported listeners into a realm where shadows reign supreme, where each haunting note is a dagger to the heart and each mournful chord a lament for the lost. Prepare to be enveloped by their harrowing embrace as they unleash their debut LP upon the world, casting a pall of darkness that lingers long after the final note has faded into the void.
Founded in 2012, Hypaethral Records stands as one of the preeminent labels in the realms of doom and blackened metal. As part of its roster, Locusts And Honey stands alongside releases by atmospheric doomsayers Qaalm, suffocating drone from Gates, and the raw blackened crust of Ramlord.
“Boasting dense pummeling chords and piercing leads, deeply reverberating bass tones, and horrendously atrocious (in the best of ways as it suits the music) vocals, you’re left feeling as if you’ve been sucked into a vacuum of nothing but harsh noise”,
Everything Is Noise on “Leathern Cord”
Locusts And Honey:
Tomás Robertson – all music
Stephen Murray – vocals, lyrics
Photo by Tomás Robertson
