London-based prog metal collective Dawnwalker took to Twitter today to announce the release of their new album House of Sand. The collective is led by songwriter Mark Norgate, their music blending heavy rock and metal with an experimental edge. Not a band to repeat themselves, Dawnwalker features a rotating group of musicians to produce something dark, cryptic and atmospheric. Click here to purchase House of Sand.

Our new album ‘House of Sand’ is out now!

“Beautifully foreboding”
“Dreamy, luscious but with a dark undercurrent”
“There is no band that sound like Dawnwalker ”

Check it out now!https://t.co/RVzEi1bUrN

DW x#postmetal #prog #postrock #metal

— (@dawnwalkeruk) August 19, 2022

Addressing the mercurial nature of their process, the band said in the press release for the album: “House of Sand marks a significant change away from the post and folk metal influences of Dawnwalker’s last LP Ages for something darker and more difficult to pin down”. Watch the video for the first track off the album, “R.I.P“, below.

Addressing the pastoral album cover, they continued: ”As pictured on Mitchell Nolte’s cover painting, the album is set against a backdrop of idyllic suburbs and the darkness that may be lurking beneath”. References to the darker side of the human psyche and of human nature run throughout the album. Talking about, “Demon of Noontide”, the second song of the album, they say once it is “contracted gradually destroys all in its path”.

Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and Mansun’s 1998 prog opera “Six” are just a few examples of musical touchstones from the British indie and progressive rock canon, yet these influences are combined with a contemporary heavy sensibility to create a distinctive sound all of its own. The band saying, “It might be thought of as something akin to the lovechild of Opeth and Kate Bush”.

Coming in with a run time of 43 minutes, this is their shortest album by a long way, but that doesn’t mean that each of the thirteen songs isn’t packed with the band’s usual flair for inventiveness.

Talking about the sound they wanted for the new album, the band revealed in the statement: “Together with Joe Clayton of No Studio, they wanted to get away from the overproduced sound of modern metal and computer-generated artifice. As such, no click tracks or synthesized instruments were used at all on the album. Instead, an ensemble of eight musicians wielding acoustic guitars, piano, violins and four vocalist performed whole takes live in the room, choosing to make a feature of their imperfections rather than airbrush them away. The end result is Dawnwalker’s darkest but most human and affecting album to date”.

Metal Injection gave the album 8.5 stars saying: “House of Sand is a mesmerizing journey brimming with countryside chaos and literary meditations…There’s a classiness and scholarliness to it all that keeps you coming back for more, allowing the group to sustain their place amongst the top acts in their field”.

Dawnwalker are:
Chris J. Allan – Drums
Matteo Bianciotto – Guitars, Vocals
Dane Cross – Vocals
Mina Jackson – Piano
Robin Melinda Koob – Violin
Mark Norgate – Vocals, Guitars
Roisin O’Toole – Vocals
and featuring Alastair Mitchell as “The Master”