Kostnatění streaming new track, "Rukojmí empatie (Hostage of Empathy)"

Death-obsessed black metal band KOSTNATĚNÍ has released a new song off its second full-length album, Úpal.

KOSTNATĚN mastermind D.L. offers an in-depth analysis of the track, titled “Rukojmí empatie (Hostage of Empathy)”

“Růkojmí empatie” (“Hostage of Empathy”) is perhaps the most conventionally structured song on the new album: relatively short and consonant, with a direct and percussive guitar performance predominantly in a minor key. The performance is meant to feel free-flowing, technical, and acrobatic. For example, the intro riff was directly inspired by American primitivist folk guitarists like John Fahey and Robbie Basho with its string-skipping licks and long-winded, rambling melody.

The lyrics are a lamentation on the connectedness of the modern developed world: there is now not only the option, but arguably also an expectation to have perfect and instantaneous information on global affairs, more situations than the human brain was built to comprehend, and certainly far more than just the ones that affect our day-to-day lives. We interface with the world through technology that makes our worlds exponentially larger, and through this, we are exposed to crises around the world that demand our attention even though we often have no way to directly intervene. Many people rage into the void of social media to try to shake off the discomfort inflicted by this feeling of helplessness in the face of tragedy, becoming “hostages of their empathy” per the song title.”

The premiere of “Rukojmí empatie (Hostage of Empathy)” comes via VeilOfSound.com. Stream it now at this location.

Úpal will be out on CD, gatefold vinyl and digital formats on May 26. Pre-order the album at kostnateni.bandcamp.com

Úpal (“heatstroke”) is a story of the human condition as a function of heat. The rise of consciousness in warm-blooded creatures has given rise to impossibly dense, illogical webs of thought that can completely divorce our lived experience from the physical world around us.

Anxiety, fixations, and hallucinations can appear without material basis, setting our overactive neurons on fire. To bring this vivid scene to life, KOSTNATĚNÍ has become both more meditative and more chaotic, introducing influences from sources as varied as African folk and noise rock into its technical black metal basis. Evoking both the searing rays of the desert sun and the melting of one’s sanity, Úpal walks the fine line between burning up and burning out.

Tracklist (titles in Czech and English)

1. Řemen (The Belt)

2. Hořím navždy (I Burn Forever)

3. Rukojmí empatie (Hostage of Empathy)

4. Opál (Opal)

5. Skrýt se před Bohem (Hide from God)

6. Nevolnost je vše, čím jsem (Nausea Is All I Am)

7. Slunce svázáno s krvácející Zemí (Sun Bound to the Bleeding Earth)

Úpal was written and recorded from October 2020 to October 2021. Vocals were recorded in late 2021-early 2022. The drums were mixed and recorded in the fall of 2022 at The Weeb Dungeon by Andrew Lee. The album was mastered by Jacob Buczarski.