Technical blackened death metal outfit Paindemonium is, after four years in the making and a ten-year hiatus, back with a new record, Latent, slated for release later this year.
Paindemonium was founded by Raafat "Raaf" Atasi (guitars/vocals), Mohamed Salama (guitars/vocals), and Haitham Aly (bass) in Egypt in 2007. The band started as a Dissection cover band before composing original material and, in 2010, released its first EP, Demonipathy. Soon after, the band disbanded due to political turmoil in the Middle East. In 2020, Raaf, who relocated to the Netherlands, and Salama revived it. In the same year, Yazan Ju joined the band as the new full-time bassist, and the band started working on the debut concept album Latent. A session drummer, Krzysztof Klingbein (live drummer of Vader, Hate and Belphegor), was hired to record drums for this release. In 2022 - and after recording a few songs - Salama got out of the band. However, Raaf and Yazan continued the recording process and, in June, released the first single/lyric video, "All Hail the Despot".
The album features seven guest musicians, including Tim "Ripper" Owens (KK's Priest, Ex-Judas Preist, Ex-Iced Earth), Stefan Nordström (Soliloquium, Ending Quest) and Inge Rijnja (Magoria), among others.
Latent is an epic journey that explores humanity - as a species and ideology. It depicts humans' deeply rooted proclivity towards atrocities throughout the ages and up until the present day. And it ends with a personal interpretation of the fate of humanity if the same patterns persist. Each song provides the thematic soundtrack for the chosen "scenes". Consequently, a mixture of different subgenres is incorporated within the album to create a soundscape that helps tell the story and gives it the proper dramatic texture. Last but not least, the magnificent artwork was designed by Aldo Yu Design. Link
Latent tracklist:
01. The Emanation (Intro)
02. Time Immemorial
03. Ostentatious Blood Spectacle
04. All Hail the Despot
05. Hypgnosis
06. Fragments of Humanity
07. Dazed by Equivocation
08. Cryogenized in Black
09. Disharmony of Spheres
10. Conflation
11. The Funeral of the Phoenix
12. Foul Obsessions
13. Derelict (Outro)
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"This time we're trying not to complicate things too much. We want to have a simple message, but that doesn't mean there will be fewer arrangements or less songwriting..." - Pedro Paixão
"All of us want to bring back analogue methods—doing everything by hand. AI is completely outside our creative universe. It's a system designed to make things easier and faster." - Andy Julia
"They wrote that we wanted to influence people's minds with our bagpipes so that they would be willing to attack the police." - Irdorath
"I'm quite obsessive, and when I work on music, I can overwork and get myself in trouble. I always had a breakdown when I finished an album, because I drove myself to the brink." - Mick Moss
