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Empires of Ash

by HERON

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Full colour covers, insert, and traycard
    Printed CD label

    Includes unlimited streaming of Empires of Ash via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 5 HERON releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Empires of Ash, Time Immemorial, A Low Winter's Sun, Fire Twin, and EP. , and , .

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  • Cassette
    Cassette + Digital Album

    Limited cassette edition of 50 copies. Pressed on black and transparent purple shells with printed sides. Fully printed inner card housed in standard clear and transparent purple jewel cases. Finished off with full colour printed outer card.

    Pictures by Aaron Pickford

    Includes unlimited streaming of Empires of Ash via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
Rust and Rot 09:28
Across the sea Sights long forbidden to me Shape entropy Non euclidean Compounding dread Atop this mountain head I stare instead Through oblivion This serpent's path Crooked and onyx black Moves slow then fast Along meridians With these words an oath is sworn Grains of sand upon a shore Let me sleep With roots in temples deep Their secrets keep Veneration Existence placed Amid cold death's embrace No gods to save from Damnation I am I was Fragments of heart and home As long as there is death There's hope For us Left ossified I am I was A living fossil breathing stone As long as there is death There's hope For us Left ossified
2.
The first thing that I recall is darkness A papered over and fading memory For what that's worth We live We die The reasons why Unknown to all Who are to come and came to past Trees tops reach out Twisted tortured hands At long last we stare into And long for The middle distance Only ashes and embers remain For fallen paupers and kings Always the way of things The end comes we gaze into And focus on The middle distance The blood in time will lose its power Every waking and wasted hour Fragile seas falling towers The light fades we fall into And join with The middle distance Our end is built into Our beginning Shouting Crying Screaming
3.
Hauntology 08:15
The future Is something that should have started long ago My only hope is that it's different from today Separate saviours We are all strangers I don't even know myself Life is overwhelming If there's more to life than meets the eye Then what earthly use am I Life is overwhelming How could the void be worse Destined descending A favour at first In time a curse Your life is Such a horrible thing to choose to sleep through What if someday Truly never comes and this is all that there is What is the ocean If not a collection of drops Across seas of time To crash against rocks Voyaging through Strange aeons alone No one comes all The way back from Regret the past Hate the present It won't last Dread the future
4.
False lights fade into darkness Empty shadows Hungry ghosts Give a wolf your leg And they'll ask for your arm They feed for days Slaked swollen but starved Stone tombs decrepit Invectives long gone Their kingdoms behind us The world moves on Corpse striding Colossus Gigantic Ancient and voiceless A world that's given you everything And you will never forgive it Barren roads lead to Rotten churches called home An emptiness inside me I can never extinguish Time will destroy those Who are already dead As sure as the sun rises No need for demons With saints like these Guilt touches all and baptizes Barren roads lead to Rotten churches called home An emptiness inside me I can never extinguish Before Once More Spiral downwards My Fall Will matter Least of all Now
5.
Clouds menace the horizon Plotting against the day Dawn rains long since forgotten But their essence still remains Doomed orchids soft and pale Wretched where they lie Fire flies like flecks of blood Against a bruise coloured sky With dead eyes Brought back into focus These rotting hills proclaim Cryptic graveborn edicts Seething venom and disdain Blackened time worn towers Imposing where they sit When those hills call out for me I don't hear it I feel it A twisted tortured rictus Stretched across time and space With dead eyes This sunken hollow absence Skeletal in shape With dead eyes Pestilent wave rising Nothing in its' wake With dead eyes Infinity stretched before my eyes Yet I can't help but live in my head With dead eyes What good's a soul When there's no place to go

about

Empires of Ash offers an immersive experience into the eerie gloom. Bringing together a concoction of slow heavy chords, atmospheric percussion, and angst-ridden vocals, HERON attempt to make sense of a shared hollow experience.

"HERON is pleased to announce our third full length offering, Empires of Ash. Empires of Ash is an ode to impermanence and was created in the aftermath of the long, lonely hours of isolation. The album contains sweeping and melancholy post-metal sections intertwined with crushing doom and acidic sludge. Thank you for staring into the void with us."

Combining four veterans of the independent music scene and a back-breaking amount of gear, HERON mixes post-rock textures with suffocating guitar riffs, dread-inspiring percussion, and agonizing sludge-metal vocals. No stranger to the live stage, HERON tours extensively and has played with such giants as HIGH ON FIRE, CONAN, PALLBEARER, and PRIMITIVE MAN. Empires of Ash journeys through a dynamic array of soundscapes and moods across each track. It's a haunting production delving into some of the darkest emotions brought about through an expected series of events. "Rust and Rot" begins with a dramatic sludge-fuelled build-up of percussion and guitars before emerging into a dark and heavy onslaught. "The Middle Distance" unveils an unsuspecting serene calm of lighter guitar melodies, and cymbals. It's merely the calm before the storm and the immense guitars create an enveloping atmosphere of fuzz. An enthralling sense of vastness is presented in "Hauntology", while "Hungry Ghosts" delivers a fiery attack. HERON's bitter anguish exudes through "With Dead Eyes". The instrumentation transitions into a more minimal form initially, giving space to the commanding harsh vocals. As the track progresses the power intensifies.

HERON twist and turn through turbulent waters as they navigate a large scope of swirling emotions. Musically the band showcase a diverse range of styles which weave together in Empires of Ash into a harrowing narrative.

credits

released December 2, 2022

Jamie - Vocals
Ross- Guitar
Scott - Guitar
Bina - Drums

Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered in June 2022
at LRS Studios, New Westminster, BC
Sound Engineering: Michael Kraushaar
Noise and Ambient Sections: Jamie
Additional Vocals: Ross and Bina
Cover Art: @hellish.cav
Cassette Layout: Eeli Helin
CD Layout: Jamie

Dedicated to all those we have lost along the way.

"Death stands above me, whispering low
I know not what into my ear:
Of his strange language all I know
Is, there is not a word of fear."

- Walter Savage Landor

license

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HERON Vancouver, British Columbia

Life is overwhelming.
How could the void be worse?

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