Rift - 'To Quench the Thirst of Wolves' album announcement

Seance Records, spellbound by crepuscular full moon misanthropy will release the first full length album from Australia’s RIFT entitled, ‘To Quench the Thirst of Wolves’ to be released on December 3rd 2021. This work of somber yet savage lycanthropy springs from the dark mind of Balam, best known for Pestilential Shadows.

RIFT first tentatively bayed at the moon in 2006 with the EP, ‘Eyes of the Basilisk’. Soon after in 2007, ‘To Quench the Thirst of Wolves’ was recorded but RIFT lay like the beast, sleeping in the shadows – waiting for the lunar call to awaken in 2021 and finally be completed with the addition of vocals by A.S (Order of Orias).

Now a duo, RIFT is a beast that bares its jaws to the night sky with a sublime, seductive splendor; a howling madrigal of supremely epic and atmospheric, melodic Black Metal that ebbs and flows with a brooding menace while the vocals of A.S unleash a wolven savagery that simmers with a primal urge for blood. All framed by a somber tenebrous dusk, so evocative of the night, which blooms with magnificent full moon splendor as choral passages swell and soar, while atmospheric interludes beckon the darkest spectres and most unholy lusts that linger in the night.

Balam originally began RIFT as an avenue to explore different themes to those found in Pestilential Shadows. Thematically RIFT delves into the supernatural world, predominately lycanthropy and the legend of the werewolf. Inspired by traditional folk lore RIFT seeks to restore some mysticism from a forgotten time when human’s co-existed with a rich world of spirits, witches and otherworldly creatures including the werewolf.

By exploring transitions and the transformation from man to beast the werewolf represents the fine line between beast and man – the repressed violence and primal savagery that simmers just below the surface of human-kind. The beast in man is also intricately intertwined with nature, while we live apart from nature in industrialized comfort the blackness of the forest looms, always on the horizon reminding us that we are but beasts of nature, reliant on the cycle of seasons and only a breath away from returning to our true beast nature.

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Image Credits

'A werewolf devouring a woman', 19th century engraving, Mansell Collection, London.

Dark Forest, Getty Images