Kardashev unleashes 'Seed of the Night' video / single • GRIMM Gent

“Seed Of The Night” is the latest single from progressive deathgaze alchemists, KARDASHEV. The emotional new track comes off the band’s Alunea full-length, set for release on April 25th on Metal Blade Records.

Alunea is a direct sequel to the events of The Almanac and picks up right where the song “Beyond Sun And Moon” leaves off. Vocalist Mark Garrett comments,

“The first releases in The KARDASHEV Mythos were broad and conceptual, but they’ve morphed into something more granular and specific. Alunea tells the story of the main character from The Almanac album meeting a being created in the song ‘Continuum’ from the Excipio album. Their meeting is a philosophical examination of where responsibility and duty intersect. We don’t try to answer those questions, but we do examine them deeply in this album.”

Garrett further elaborates on their latest single,

“‘Seed Of The Night” involves Sky-Brother telling the being of their destiny. He explains they were created to bring life to a planet that humanity could never be able to reach, and to continue mankind’s legacy. The being feels burdened by the responsibility and takes on the name ‘Atlas’ to represent the weight of their perceived destiny.

“Musically, this song was written as a progressive exploration in composition as it sees what the band refers to as ‘the funk-down’ when the traditional composition of a deathcore-style breakdown is enhanced into a melody throughout the rhythm section as opposed to the often-overused simplicity of ‘Chug Chug Chug.’“

Adds guitarist Nico Mirolla,

“We (collectively) can find ourselves depending too much on the most powerful moments of music going so far as to make it into an entire composition of ‘that moment’ when in reality that approach can devalue the once powerful moment of something like an open chord breakdown. This song was an opportunity to break that mold, and hopefully people feel that.”

Watch KARDASHEV‘s “Seed Of The Night” video HERE.

Stream KARDASHEV‘s previously released single, “Reunion,” HERE.

Alunea, which includes guest appearances by vocalist Erin from the band Genital Shame on “Speak Silence” and Pawel JJ Przybysz who played duduk, an Armenian woodwind instrument, on “We Could Fold The Stars,” and artwork by Karl E., was mixed and mastered by Zack Ohren engineer (Entheos, Machine Head, Demon King, Fallujah).

Alunea will be released on CD and digital formats as well as vinyl in the following color variants:

White Black Dust (US)
White Black Marbled (EU – Ltd. 300)
Gold Black Dust (EU – Ltd. 300)

Find pre-orders at: metalblade.com/kardashev

The eight sonically and lyrically immersive songs on Alunea have set yet another high-water mark for KARDASHEV. Known as the progenitors of the “deathgaze” genre, that descriptor is evolving as the band continually explores and pushes boundaries. “Words you could use to describe our music are ‘atmospheric, progressive, emotional, dynamic, and contrast,” explains drummer Sean Lang. “Our music attempts to sonically portray the emotions of anger and sorrow which creates a palpable but natural dynamic contrast.”

“Alunea has much more experimentation when compared to previous releases,” adds Garrett. “It’s a very proggy album.”

Music has always been a universal language, but KARDASHEV creates their own lyrical language, adding depth and meaning. “I’ve loved tinkering with languages since I was a little kid,” says Garrett. “I’m not an expert when it comes to constructed languages, often referred to as ‘conlangs,’ but I find language to be a really interesting aspect of humanity.”

“I was dabbling in the beginnings of the language of Alunea years before we added it to our record The Almanac,” he continues. “I would sit at my desk at work – a call center at the time – and make up interesting grammatical rules to pass the time. One of my favorites was having the length of a vowel add plurality to a word. I didn’t create that concept, but it was fun to play with. Years later when Nico and our previous bassist suggested I bring my interest in conlangs to our music, the vowel length concept was what I started with. It all grew from there.”

The new album and band also seek to forge a worldwide connection, as Mirolla explains, “Alunea to me serves this idea of culture that we often see as ‘us and them’ perspectives; it’s a fictitious language, from a fictitious story somewhere in the super future, and I give it the time to hear it, learn it, understand why it works the way it does. I’d just hope that others take a similar perspective when hearing real languages and learning about real cultures that are all around us, and full of depth, history, and meaning. I hope that people slow down and try to understand the depth we’ve put into Alunea and then project their experience into the world around them.”