Umbra Vitae Reveal 'Velvet Black' From Their Sophomore LP

Umbra Vitae, the powerhouse which features Jacob Bannon (Converge), Sean Martin (Twitching Tongues, ex-Hatebreed), Mike McKenzie (The Red Chord), Jon Rice (Uncle Acid, Tsjuder) and Greg Weeks (The Red Chord) will release their colossal sophomore album, Light Of Death on June 7, 2024.

Now, the album's darkly captivating second single "Velvet Black" arrives with a music video directed by John Bradburn.  Umbra Vitae vocalist/lyricst Jacob Bannon comments, "Lyrically this song is about pressure and how it forces actions that aren't in line with who we want to be. It breaks and changes people; making monsters and the meek. These cycles of dysfunction indiscriminately harm everything around us."  He continues, "Metaphorically I explore this in two interlinked ways. Firstly, the idea of growth coming from decay. Secondly, as an afterlife scenario where dead attempt to overrun golden gates. Not worthy of passing through due to their actions on the mortal plane, they retreat back into the 'velvet black' darkness which they came from."

Umbra Vitae's Sean Martin comments, "Jake had to convince me to use this one. It was hanging around within the realm of the demo folders forever and I wasn't 100% sure about it. That being said I'm glad we moved forward with it. Coupled with Jake's lyrics, vocals and vocal arrangements utilizing myself, Greg and Mike the song stands as an outlier on the record."  Guitarist Mike McKenzie continues, "This track grew quite a bit over time. I love the clean vocals that Jake, Sean and Greg sang in this one. I had no idea what they were actually recording until I heard all three voices and it's one of my favorites from the record."  Bassist Greg Weeks concludes, "This one is a departure from the rest of the record. The tune started out as a Sean riff that Jake really pushed to put on the record. I was not expecting to sing on this record but Jake heard something in his head with multiple vocalists. It turned into a gloomy clean sung song that adds a sadness and hopeful tone to the record. I also wanted a synth sounding section for the bass so I was given the chance to raid Kurt’s pedal collection. He suggested his God City Brutalist pedal and it was perfect!"

Recorded by Kurt Ballou and Zach Weeks at God City Studios and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, Light Of Death shows Umbra Vitae smashing and thrashing everything in sight.  This modern metal masterpiece will be out June 7 from Deathwish Inc. and is available for pre-order here.

Umbra Vitae will play select shows on the east coast in June with The Hope Conspiracy:

June 7  Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East
June 8  Brooklyn, NY @ The Meadows
June 9  Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church

Light Of Death, track listing:

1. Leave Of Absence
2. Belief Is Obsolete
3. Clear Cutter
4. Anti-Spirit Machine
5. Reality In Retrograde
6. Past Tense
7. Velvet Black
8. Twenty-Twenty Vision
9. Algorithm Of Fear
10. Empty Vessel
11. Cause & Effect
12. Deep End
13. Nature vs. Nurture
14. Fatal Flaw
15. Light Of Death

Photo credit: Hillarie Jason.