Umbra Vitae Share 'Anti-Spirit Machine'

Umbra Vitae, 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) are gearing up for the release of their colossal sophomore album, Light Of Death on June 7.

They've released another album track today— the hook-laden, thrashy D-beat banger titled "Anti-Spirit Machine"— which is "...one of the first of Sean's demos that we jammed together at his house and it didn't change much in the studio other than the fact that we got to rip fun solos in it. The modulation in the middle where we trade solos is a ton of fun to play," says McKenzie.

Greg Weeks continues, "This song reminds of traveling to Connecticut every Sunday for a couple of months to Sean's house to work on this record. It was two hours each way and sometimes it was the full band or sometimes just the two of us. We spent the days reviewing riffs, eating bad food and immersing ourselves in discussions about musicians we love, instruments we wanted and tunes we were currently listening to at the time. When I hear this song I also get a vision of Jake leaving the upstairs vocal booth at God City covered in sweat and panting as if he just ran a marathon. In between watching horror VHS movies this dude would head into a room that was blocked off from the world, holler with insane intensity and then pop out as if nothing had happened and ask 'do you wanna hear it?'”

Bannon concludes, "This started as another incredible Sean Martin demo. Aside from a few tweaks by the band, the song is near identical to the original version. It is a traditional Thrash ripper that has us going through a gauntlet of infectious riffs. It also has some of my favorite solos by Mike and Sean on the record. Lyrically it reads as an open letter. The phrase 'Anti-Spirit Machine' refers to social processes that devalue and derail the independent spirit in all of us."

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