The final days of 2024 deserve something special and spectacularly heavy; a last tribute to a year stacked with incredible releases (stay tuned for Heavy Blog’s favorites next month). Fortunately, Swedish conceptual post-metal project Novarupta have chosen to reveal a new song from their upcoming album, Astral Sands.
Arriving on February 14, 2025 via Suicide Records, Astral Sands is the fourth and final installment in Novarupta’s epic exploration of the elements. Led by Alex Stjernfeld (Child, The Moth Gatherer, Grand Cadaver, Let Them Hang), Novarupta is a collaborative project that partners with different guest vocalists for each track, creating a further sense of enormity and collective energy in this massive 6 year journey. As the final chapter of the elemental series draws to a close, Novarupta contemplates the beginning of the end with their latest song.
“The Clay Keeps” is a fitting tribute to the unique nature of Astral Sands, evoking the fiery finishing that hardens clay as well as Novarupta’s debut, Disillusioned Fire. Like firing clay in a kiln, ‘The Clay Keeps’ represents the end of the creative process, a sense of finality as malleable earth is transformed into a static object. According to Stjernfeld, the song was the gate to completing Astral Sands:
“‘The Clay Keeps’ was the first song finished on the final version of Astral Sands. The album went through seemingly endless variants, but when I wrote ‘The Clay Keeps’ everything fell into place. In a way, this song acted as a lighthouse in a stormy sea for the rest of the album. I immediately knew that I wanted Mark Wilson-Pepper on vocals, having previously worked with him on a song with The Moth Gatherer. I am a huge fan of his voice and I had a feeling that he would capture the essence of the song and elevate it. Which he did! ‘The Clay Keeps’ is the beginning of the end."
A soft prelude played on the piano opens “The Clay Keeps” on a mournful note, emphasized by Wilson-Pepper’s evocative vocals. In contrast to the iciness that marked Marine Snow or the fury of Disillusioned Fire, Astral Sands leans into the warmer side of post-metal. Piano and violin touches glimmer throughout the album, bringing a sense of formality and grandeur. As much as “The Clay Keeps” celebrates achieving the final stage of Novarupta’s tetralogy, it also represents the end of an epic and unique project.
“The Clay Keeps” basks in haunted haze, reverb-drenched guitars echoing across definitive drums. The juxtaposition of the reluctant, lingering notes versus the march of persistent percussion underlines the central tension of Astral Sands: an unwillingness to reach the end of the journey but knowing that it must come. Wilson-Pepper’s vocals emphasize the complex emotions perfectly, reverberating with barely-constrained grief. The restrained delivery only increases the emotional power of “The Clay Keeps” as we join Novarupta for the final testament of an awe-inspiring effort.
Astral Sands will be released on February 14, 2025 via Suicide Records. Pre-order the album on Bandcamp and follow Novarupta on Facebook.
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