Belgium-based Antique Doom goldsmiths Wyatt E. conjure the spellbinding power of Iranian vocalist Nina Saeidi (Lowen) on their collaborative debut album “Armour of Surrender,” set for release on January 29th through Heavy Psych Sounds Records.
Stream “The Branch That Yields Peace Has Been Cut For The Oil Of Its Fruit” via the YouTube player below:
“The Branch That Yields Peace Has Been Cut For The Oil Of Its Fruit is a song of mourning over the destruction of innocence and nature at the hands of warmongers and despots. The ash that is armour against the living is surrender to death, and escape from ethnic and cultural classification.” – Nina Saeidi
Three years in the making, the album “Armour of Surrender” brings together ancient doom band Wyatt E. and Nina Saeidi, Iranian vocalist of the British band Lowen. Born from their first collaboration on the song “The Diviner’s Prayer to the Gods of the Night” — featured on the album “zamāru ultu qereb ziqquratu Part 1” — the project continues their shared exploration of ritual music, ancient poetic traditions, and the meeting points between spirituality, mythology and the human condition.
Through four compositions sung in English, Farsi and Akkadian, “Armour of Surrender” reflects on grief, disappearance, memory and surrender. The lyrics draw from different periods and traditions, bringing contemporary writing into conversation with Persian mystical poetry and the mythology of ancient Mesopotamia. Alongside these original compositions are two adaptations of ancient texts: a ghazal by the Persian Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attâr and a passage from Ishtar’s Descent to the Netherworld, the Mesopotamian tale of a goddess who journeys into the realm of the dead, gradually stripped of the symbols of her power.
Across languages and centuries, the four songs share recurring themes of grief, memory, loss and surrender. The sea becomes a place where sorrow is swallowed, while symbols of peace bear the marks of violence. Elsewhere, disappearance and the stripping away of identity suggest transformations whose outcomes remain uncertain. Drawing on stories thousands of years old and questions that remain just as relevant today, “Armour of Surrender” follows different forms of letting go, where vulnerability can become strength and surrender does not necessarily mean defeat.
Wyatt E. & Nina Saeidi “Armour of Surrender” — Out January 29th on Heavy Psych Sounds
In 2015, Wyatt E‘s debut EP “Mount Sinai/Aswan” caught the eye of Shalosh Cult, a Jerusalem-based label that released their critically acclaimed debut album “Exile to Beyn Neharot” in 2017. Their second full-length “āl bēlūti dārû” (“The Eternal City” in Akkadian language) marked the rise of Wyatt E. as a force to be reckoned within the Doom scene. Mixed by Billy Anderson (Sleep, Om, Melvins), this massive-sounding and otherworldly instrumental journey led them to a 95-concert tour across Europe and the Middle East. The band subsequently wrote for the motion picture soundtrack “Bowling Saturne” and released a Roadburn-commissioned collaboration with UK band Five The Hierophant and singer Tomer Damsky under the name Atonia.
In 2025, Wyatt E. signed to European powerhouse Heavy Psych Sounds for the release of their critically acclaimed album “zamāru ultu qereb ziqquratu Part 1.” They played at notable events such as Roadburn, Mystic Festival, Desertfest, ArcTanGent, Duna Jam, Stoned From The Underground, Red Smoke Festival, A Colossal Weekend, Rock In Bourlon, Dour Festival, Fusion Festival, Stick & Stone, Astral Festival Bristol, Black Earth Festival and many more.