FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

PREMIERE: Burn the Bones of Dead Empire with Ilsa's "Cult of the Throne"

The DC death/doom collective is back with a stunningly heavy new split with Japanese doom lords Coffins.

The first thing you'll notice about "Cult of the Throne" is the guitar tone. It's pure 90s Swedish death metal HM-2 buzzsaw, as fuzzy as your tongue after a night of swilling gutrot whiskey. The openly queer, DC-slash-Brooklyn collective behind Ilsa has long been sworn to that reverb-drenched stomp (it served them well on splits with Hooded Menace and Seven Sisters of Sleep, as well as on their own full-lengths) but on this latest effort, a split with Japanese doom lords Coffins, they really let loose.

I've always thought that Ilsa should be way bigger than they are, and hopefully their semi-recent signing to kingmakers Relapse Records will finally give them that needed push. This marks their first release for the venerable Philly-based label, and comes ahead of two big gigs for the band (as well as a sadly aborted date with Coffins, who ran into issues at the US border and were sent home to Tokyo).

Advertisement

Check out their side of the split below (the Coffins side rips, too), and keep an eye out for the etched vinyl version, now available for preorder from Relapse.

Also, catch them live if you can—they're a force to be reckoned with!

Mar 5 Baltimore, MD The Sidebar w/ Come to Grief and DOC

Apr 8 Richmond, VA Strange Matter w/ Tau Cross and Occultist

Kim Kelly is fuzzy on Twitter.