East Coast metal guitarist and composer Manuel Barbará is excited to announce his upcoming EP “Whisper in a Storm” set to release on September 13, 2024. The EP blends the aggression and technical mastery of Heavy Metal with the formal and harmonic concepts learned from the great composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The first single off this EP is “Dead Hand”, which features Jody Miller, a renowned violinist in the video game music scene.
Barbará comments on the single:
“The first song that came together for this project, Dead Hand is 6 minutes of unapologetic Monuments worship featuring an incredible violin solo and some creepy textures that I couldn’t have done better myself (I told Jody to play weird stuff, and boy did it work out)”
Musically, “Dead Hand” features a big heavy riff that keeps returning with slightly different feels and that Barbará says gives him an image of a big snake that you definitely don’t want to get in the way of. That riff gives way to all kinds of spacey ambiance and twisty strangeness, ending with a riff that he explains is one of the heaviest and weirdest things he’s ever written, and the scary violin textures tie the whole experience together.
As a Berklee College of Music Graduate (2020, Guitar and Composition), Barbará brings his love of modern “Classical” music to the Progressive Rock that has always inspired him. All songs are written and performed by Manuel Barbará and self-published with distribution via Distrokid. The EP promises a Heavy, slamming journey to four distinct musical places, showcasing some of Barbará’s best work to date. It is recommended for fans of Monuments, Tesseract and Periphery.
Purchase and Stream the single on Bandcamp:
Pre-Order the EP on bandcamp: https://8stringalchemy.bandcamp.com/album/whisper-in-a-storm
Tracklist:
1. Dead Hand (feat. Jody Miller) – 5:43
2. A Different Horizon (feat. Jake Howsam Lowe) – 5:49
3. Aphelion (feat. Michael Nystrom Bala) – 4:13
4. Whisper in a Storm (feat. Thalia Tymowski & Millisa Henderson) – 4:51
5. Whisper in a Storm (instrumental) – 4:51
