White Stones announce new album ‘Dancing Into Oblivion’

June 20, 2021 James Weaver

WHITE STONES have announced a new album!

Titled Dancing Into Oblivion, the upcoming album from the death metal project of Martín Mendez, bassist of the ubiquitous OPETH, is the follow-up to 2020’s Kuarahy and is scheduled to be released in August this year, via Nuclear Blast Records.

WHITE STONES once again recorded at Farm Of Sounds Studios in Barcelona, owned by singer Eloi Boucherie. They were satisfied with the sound of Kuarahy and the experience of the recording of that album and the comfort of making everything with their own tools made it all easier. The final mix and mastering of this second album was done by Jaime Gómez Arellano at Orgone Studios in the UK because the band were more than satisfied with the work he did on Kuarahy and they wanted to repeat that great experience.

After the release of Kuarahy concurred with the blast of the worldwide pandemic and all the consequences it has generated. The topics covered on this second album draw on the feelings that Martín himself affirms he has lived through during the lockdown imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. “I started it very calmed in March when Kuarahy was released and the lockdown started. I wrote the new record and it just flowed so well. It’s my point of view, of the feelings I had during the lockdown period, in this weird year. I took advantage of the moment and I feel excited about it,” he explains.

“It’s a mix of feelings during the lockdown, feelings that go from fear to uncertainty as well as going through the confusion when you don’t know about the future and you feel almost as if time has stopped. Musicians might be the last who will be back to work and we don’t have any signs of a sooner return, which makes for a huge uncertainty. I have a family and I have to take care of them. This situation creates a feeling of discomfort which you can feel on the album. Otherwise it’s been nice having so much time at home with the family and those small and peaceful moments are also in the music. I’ve chosen to include some interludes between the songs so there is a higher contrast and it makes it easier to appreciate the different feelings throughout.”

Alongside the announcement of the new album, the band have released a new music video for the first song lifted from the upcoming album; Chain Of Command. Speaking about the new song, and the writing process for the record as a whole, Méndez says, “the first one I wrote was Chain Of Command, where I had the idea of writing more daring songs than on the previous record where I restricted myself and didn’t want to play anything too technical, I just wanted to create something that was easier on the ear. In this one I wanted to do something slightly more elaborate and technical, musically, to add some colour.

The first influence I had for Chain Of Command was from a JOHN COLTRANE & WILBUR HARDEN album, while in New Age Of Dark the influence came listening to DEICIDE, so the influences are really quite varied across this record.”

Watch the official music video for Chain Of Command here: