US-based Progressive Heavy Metal outfit High Council has shared a new track called “Routed in the Wood (By Eldlings and Brackenguard),” taken from the band’s forthcoming album “Cruel And Unusual,” whose release date is set on April 11, 2025.
Stream “Routed in the Wood (By Eldlings and Brackenguard)” on YouTube:
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/58ybdsu4
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/4ec95765
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/yn6nreyy
Pre-order “Cruel And Unusual” as CD and double-LP vinyl here: https://tinyurl.com/22n546y9
“Cruel And Unusual,” band’s second full-length album and seventh release overall, features eight tracks of glorious Epic Metal and represents the culmination of years the band has spent honing both its performance and songwriting skills. This collection of stone-cold bangers ferries the listener between moods and dynamics like the proverbial boatman across the River Styx, visiting straight-ahead Rockers like title-track and “To From Whence,” dynamic epics like “Routed in the Wood (By Eldlings and Brackenguard)” and “Plaguebringer 2025,” and the pits of bleakest despair on the powerful yet despondent “Jackal.” Though honed in the fires of traditional Heavy Metal, the new effort also betrays hints of progressive metal, progressive rock, classically-influenced guitar work, and even notes of Alternative Rock, while throughout, guitarist/vocalists Bob Saunders and Steve Donahue display trademark vocal and guitar harmonies that would bring even the most distant and uncaring pantheon of pagan deities to collective elation. From the soaring harmonies of opener “Cruel and Unusual” to the ecstatic synth leads of the closing instrumental, “Wildspace,” the album is destined to unite legions of metal maniacs under its banner forevermore.
Tracklist:
01. Cruel and Unusual
02. Routed in the Wood (By Eldlings and Brackenguard)
03. To From Whence
04. Schwarzschild Radius
05. Liberator
06. Jackal
07. Plaguebringer 2025
08. Wildspace
Lineup:
Bob Saunders / Guitars, Vocals
Steve Donahue / Guitars, Vocals
Lou DiDomenico / Bass, Keyboards
Greg “Wolfman Vegas” McKeever / Drums
