Debut album, “…And Whispering Trees”, out now!
Summoned from forgotten realms, FROM DISTANT HILLS is a new, ancient-minded project between multi-instrumentalist Ungod (Greece’s SAD, Necrohell, BLOODMOON ECLIPSE et. al.) and vocalist Throne (Hor, Horrorography, SAD live member). As presaged by their moniker, the duo’s aim with FROM DISTANT HILLS is to bewitch black metal that’s equal parts desolate, folkloric, melancholic, and emotive – in their estimation, in the vein of labelmates BERGRIZEN and the lat great Aaskereia.
With vocals that approximate the crying orc, FROM DISTANT HILLS promptly and poignantly build an evocative landscape with their first recording, the full-length …and Whispering Trees. Indeed, the album’s elliptic title conveys the psychic headspace one enters here. Movement is never busy but always patiently persistent, be it stoic march, swords-aloft surge, or bloodletting trudge. Guitars are ghostly yet all-enveloping, with the riffing remaining various shades of melodic every step of the way and leads often taking shape from such. And those vocals…truly, a classic scream from what once was.
Totaling eight songs in 50 minutes, FROM DISTANT HILLS’ debut album wastes not a second in its world-building majesty and misery. With stars above the northern sky and the veins of the mountains bleeding freely, go beyond the kingdom of ancestral winds with …and Whispering Trees.
