There are metal albums you casually throw on in the background while you answer emails.
And then there are albums that consume the entire room.
Albums that feel alive.
Albums that stalk through your speakers like some ancient cursed spirit carrying centuries of grief, rage, memory, and ruin in its wake.
By the sound of things, Soothsayer’s upcoming second album The Unbinding belongs firmly in that second category. 🤘
Hailing from Cork — Ireland’s legendary “rebel county” — Soothsayer have spent the last decade building a reputation as one of the most emotionally devastating and atmospherically immersive bands in the underground metal scene. Their music doesn’t simply aim to crush skulls with heaviness.
It wants to haunt you.
And judging by everything we’re hearing about The Unbinding, they’ve created something truly monstrous this time around.
Proper “sit in the dark staring at the ceiling questioning existence” music, mun. 😅
FROM CORK’S UNDERGROUND TO INTERNATIONAL RESPECT ⚔️
Since forming back in 2013, Soothsayer have steadily grown into one of Ireland’s most respected extreme metal exports.
And honestly? It’s not hard to understand why.
From the very beginning, the band approached heaviness differently. While plenty of extreme metal bands focus purely on brutality, Soothsayer have always understood something equally important:
Atmosphere matters.
Emotion matters.
Silence matters.
The space between the riffs matters.
Their early releases — The Soothsayer and At This Great Depth — immediately introduced listeners to a sound drenched in doom, sludge, post-metal textures, and death metal intensity, all wrapped inside a suffocating emotional atmosphere that felt uniquely theirs.
Then came:
- A split release with fellow Irish heavyweights Partolón
- The crushing live release Soothsayer Live In Malta MMXIX
- Years of slowly building a loyal following within underground heavy music circles
But it was 2021’s debut full-length album…
ECHOES OF THE EARTH 🌍💀
…that truly announced Soothsayer as a serious force.
The album received strong praise across the metal world for its ability to blend:
- Doom metal weight
- Sludge aggression
- Atmospheric melancholy
- Death metal darkness
- Emotional storytelling
Distorted Sound Magazine famously described the album as:
“Well worth the eight-year wait.”
And now, four years later, Soothsayer are preparing to unleash its successor.
Not just a follow-up.
But what sounds like a full-scale descent into darkness.
THE UNBINDING — A JOURNEY THROUGH RUIN, MEMORY & MADNESS 🌘
Some albums are collections of songs.
Others feel more like experiences.
Everything about The Unbinding suggests this record belongs to the latter category.
The album reportedly unfolds like a living entity — shifting constantly between violence, sorrow, beauty, despair, and crushing heaviness. There’s a cinematic quality to the descriptions surrounding it, almost like each song forms part of a larger emotional collapse.
This isn’t music written for playlists.
This is music written for immersion.
The kind of album you put on late at night with headphones, lights off, rain smashing against the windows while you dramatically contemplate life like you’re the main character in a Scandinavian arthouse horror film. 😅
And the journey begins with…
ERODING THE SKY — THE SOUND OF THE STORM ARRIVING ⚡🌧️
Opening track Eroding The Sky apparently wastes absolutely no time introducing listeners to the darkness ahead.
Described as a shock of “venom and velocity,” the song immediately launches into Soothsayer’s most aggressive and compelling material to date.
But aggression alone isn’t what makes this band stand out.
It’s the emotional undercurrent beneath the heaviness.
Even in their most violent moments, there’s sadness lurking underneath the riffs — a feeling that everything is slowly collapsing under unbearable weight.
That combination of beauty and brutality is where Soothsayer truly thrive.
SOONER ACCEPTANCE — MALICE IN MOTION 🖤🔥
The second track, Sooner Acceptance, reportedly dives deeper into the album’s atmosphere of unease and emotional instability.
Descriptions of the track speak of:
- unpredictable structures
- pulsing menace
- dark emotional currents
- overwhelming tension
This sounds like the kind of song that crawls under your skin slowly before detonating into full emotional devastation.
You can already imagine this absolutely flattening a packed underground venue somewhere at midnight while the crowd collectively loses their minds in slow motion.
ENDLESS SHESHA — A FUNERAL PROCESSION THROUGH SHADOW 🕯️
Then comes Endless Shesha, which sounds utterly bleak in the best possible way.
The track reportedly unfolds like a sombre procession, driven by shifting movements and a “dark heartbeat” pulsing beneath the entire piece.
This is where Soothsayer’s doom influences likely come fully alive.
Slow-burning tension.
Massive atmosphere.
Riffs that don’t just hit you physically — they emotionally suffocate you.
There’s something deeply Irish about this sort of emotional heaviness too. The melancholy. The sense of history. The feeling of loss hanging in the air like fog rolling across old stone ruins.
Soothsayer don’t sound like they’re imitating anyone else.
They sound rooted in something real.
THE VINE — COLD WIND, RAIN & ABSOLUTE DESPAIR 🌧️⚔️
If the descriptions are anything to go by, The Vine might become one of the album’s standout moments.
The song reportedly marches through:
- wind
- rain
- shadow
- sadness
- wickedness
Which honestly sounds less like a song description and more like the weather forecast for Wales most weekends. 😅
But beneath the humour, there’s something fascinating about how cinematic Soothsayer’s songwriting appears to be.
You don’t simply hear their music.
You see it.
You can visualise ruined coastlines, collapsing skies, forests shrouded in mist, and lonely figures wandering through darkness carrying generations of grief on their backs.
That’s rare.
Very few bands can create imagery this vivid through sound alone.
A BAND FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS 🎸🥁🔥
One thing repeatedly emphasised about The Unbinding is the sheer quality of the performances across the album.
Every member of Soothsayer sounds completely locked into the emotional core of the record.
🥁 The Drumming
Described as magnificent throughout, the drums apparently provide both power and movement — thunderous when necessary, subtle and hypnotic when the atmosphere demands it.
🔊 The Bass
The bass reportedly delivers colossal underpinning weight, giving the album its enormous sense of depth and physical heaviness.
🎸 The Guitars
The guitars sound multifaceted and constantly shifting:
- fury
- majesty
- bleakness
- beauty
- crushing force
- fragile melancholy
That balance between devastation and atmosphere is what elevates doom metal beyond simple heaviness.
🎤 The Vocals
And then there’s the vocals.
Descriptions mention performances “wrought with raging emotion and touched by madness.”
Honestly?
That’s exactly what this style of music needs.
Clean production means nothing if the emotion feels fake.
Soothsayer sound like they’re bleeding into these songs.
A VAGUE SHIMMER — THE CROWNING GLORY? 🌑🖤
The final track, A Vague Shimmer, is already being described as potentially the album’s defining moment.
And from the sound of it… this one could absolutely destroy people emotionally.
The track reportedly:
- captures the essence of Soothsayer
- connects deeply with Irish homeland and history
- explores the passing of an age
- engulfs listeners in “momentous melancholy”
That phrase alone deserves framing on a wall somewhere in a doom metal museum.
Momentous melancholy.
Absolute poetry, mun. 😅
If this closing track lands properly, it could become one of those legendary album endings that fans talk about for years.
The kind of finale that leaves silence hanging in the room after the music stops.
RECORDED AT LAST LIGHT RECORDINGS IN DUBLIN 🎚️
The album was recorded at Last Light Recordings in Dublin, a studio associated with:
- Coscradh
- Diocletian
- Dread Sovereign
So yes…
This thing is almost certainly going to sound HUGE.
Descriptions of the production suggest an album filled with resonance, atmosphere, ghosts, memory, and emotional depth rather than sterile overproduction.
That’s important.
Extreme metal lives and dies by atmosphere.
And Soothsayer clearly understand that better than most.
RELEASE DETAILS 💿🔥
SOOTHSAYER – THE UNBINDING
📅 Release Date: July 3rd
🏴☠️ Label: Apocalyptic Witchcraft
Available on:
- Limited Edition Vinyl
- Digipak CD
- Cassette
- Digital Formats
And honestly?
This feels like one of those albums vinyl collectors are going to absolutely obsess over.
This sort of music belongs on wax.
Preferably while candles are burning and the weather outside looks deeply concerning. 🌧️😅
THE RIFF REPORT VERDICT 🤘🔥
There’s a reason bands like Soothsayer matter.
In a world overflowing with disposable content, algorithm-chasing singles, and copy-and-paste metalcore clones, bands like this remind us that heavy music can still feel meaningful.
Still feel dangerous.
Still feel emotional.
Still feel human.
The Unbinding sounds like a colossal piece of work — bleak, immersive, emotionally crushing, and dripping with atmosphere from beginning to end.
Cork’s finest are clearly not interested in taking the easy route.
They’re dragging listeners straight into the abyss instead.
And honestly?
We can’t wait to get lost in it. 🖤🌑🤘
