It’s been five years since Face of Oblivion brutalized their way into the scene with debut The Embers of Man. So for their follow-up, Cataclysmic Desolation, the Minnesota quintet have blunted their death metal instruments and increased the bloodshed.
But, while listening to this exclusive stream of “Aokigahara,” you may begin to hallucinate the sound of a child’s voice. Don’t worry — that is not the expired Percocet kicking in. New singer Jesse Watson explains:
“I had heard about a place in Japan where mass amounts of people would go to commit suicide. So I was intrigued and decided to research the subject. Lyrically the entire CD is based off of actual events and locations to some degree. ‘Aokigahara’ known as the Suicide Forest or Sea of Trees is about an actual place at the base of mount Fuji where hundreds of people go to commit suicide. Its just fascinating really, businessmen will walk into the forest and overdose on pills and just lay down and die. Throughout the walking paths there are signs saying ‘Please Reconsider’ urging people not to kill themselves. So I thought it would be cool to have this eerie child’s voice in the song doing just that. I think the whole concept and approach for the song really worked out well.”
And yeah, by “worked out well” he means it will creep the shit out of you.
Cataclysmic Devastation is out on Comatose Music Oct. 21st, but you can preorder it here.
