Sumac (Isis, Botch, etc.) announce new album

Official press release: Expressionistic metal ensemble SUMAC have announced their new album, May You Be Held, out September 18th. Picking up where the band left off with 2018's critically acclaimed Love in Shadow, the trio of Aaron Turner (ISIS, Old Man Gloom), Brian Cook (Russian Circles), and Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) push further into the extreme polarity of their sound with their latest collection of long-form composition and free-form exploration. Meticulously detailed and complex one moment, rudimentary and repetitive the next, and completely untethered and unscripted at seemingly random intervals—May You Be Held is an album that fluctuates between extreme discipline and control on one end and an almost feral energy on the other. "As an artist in this time of significant upheaval, society seemingly having reached the end of its current iteration, it's of critical importance to absorb and interpret this process of dissolution - and of the transformation that hopefully follows it" says Turner. "While I don't believe we're on the brink of collective destruction precisely now, this is clearly a pivotal stage in the story of humankind - and there is something that feels right about this music at this exact and very uncertain moment." SUMAC's work has always been about transition between different states of being. Our sense of normal, and indeed our sense of life, is now being shaken. We don't know what is coming next. We are looking for pointers towards the future, as well as things to hold onto in the moment. This is a fundamental aspect of May You Be Held's larger theme. Musically, it's about continual unification and divergence, and is imbued with the uncertainty inherent in that cycle. In that uncertainty there is also hope, frustration, madness, and a desire for connection. All this too is part of this moment in our history—everything happening at once, the simultaneous emergence of humanity's best and worst characteristics. Lyrically, May You Be Held follows the humanistic themes explored on Love in Shadow, partially informed by Turner's navigation of fatherhood and family life. "It's clear humans have figured out many ways over the centuries to acclimate to adverse circumstances, and even to thrive in them," Turner says. "My hope for our family, humanity and future generations, is that we find our way by doing what we have always done—invent, adapt, band together, and ideally, hold each other up through love and kindness." May You Be Held was recorded throughout 2017, 2018 and 2019 by Kurt Ballou at Robert Lang Studios, Matt Bayles at The Unknown, and at House of Low Culture. May You Be Held track listing: 1. A Prayer for Your Path 2. May You Be Held 3. The Iron Chair 4. Consumed 5. Laughter and Silence