Thirty years ago, in 1990, a New York based trio by the name of Winter released «Intro Darkness», thus creating one of the highest points in the history of death doom metal. The band disbanded soon after, reunited for some shows in the 2010s, there was some talk of new material, but the closest we got then was Winter’s guitarist Stephen Flam joining the post-Unearthly Trance collective Serpentine Path and contribute to their second album «Emanations» in 2014, with nothing else happening in that camp as Unearthly Trance resumed activities in 2015. Now, thirty years after «Into Darkness» we are getting a “spiritual successor to Winter” in the form of Göden, whose aptly titled first record «Beyond Darkness» is getting released at the end of the week.

The album comes presented as “a conceptual deep dive into wildly unexplored and unknown sonic territory. The story has three characters, each with different symbols: Stephen Flam as “Spacewinds”, the time and space in which these characters dwell; Vas Kallas as “NXYTA (Goddess of Night)”, lead vocalist and the darkness: Tony Pinnisi as “The Prophet of Göden”, who speaks in the name of Göden and is the light, plays keyboards.”

Below, watch the video for «Twilight», the album’s third song, whose filming, concept, and artwork are due to Eva Petrič (who also did the record’s artwork), while editing and animation were done by Daniel Blafford. According to Flam and Pinnisi, «Twilight» “can be interpreted as an evocation of the fading light of reason progressing to a darker stage–the gloom of ignorance– after which can only follow a return to enlightenment… perhaps now inadvertently symbolic of the situation the world currently faces–and will inevitably overcome…”

As for the Göden’s history, Flam, who writes, records, and produces the music, explains that the album’s opener, «Glowing Red Sun», which you can hear below, “was a part of music I wrote for Winter that was recorded and completed in 2003,” further adding that Winter had “started to work on songs during rehearsals for the reunion shows in 2011 with intentions of using these songs for the follow up to ‘Into Darkness’. “Glowing Red Sun”, “Night”, “Dark Nebula” and various riffs from the 2003 demo as well as new music I had.”

«Beyond Darkness» is set for release on May 8 through Svart on cd, digital, and vinyl formats. It can be pre-ordered here (cd and vinyl) and here (digital). Ahead of Friday’s release, a full stream can be found at this location, courtesy of Decibel.