“One gate to hell is in the desert. Another one in the oceans”.
With this statement, Balmog continue his pilgrimage following in the footsteps of one of the most acclaimed works of its career, Pillars of Salt.
Therefore, Covenants of Salt has been conceived as a continuation from the musical, artistic and conceptual approach of the Mlp released in 2020.
Everything that surrounds this new work has been meticulously crafted to once again, bring the listener to the atmosphere that emanates from Pillars of Salt, its majesty, ferocity and ethereal soul.
With this purpose, the band has worked to exhaustion in the production, sound and concept so that the feeling of continuity between both works is complete.
Music wise Covenants of Salt combines, once again, the most violent energy of Black Metal’s most violent energy with other elements related to psychedelia or progressive rock, always looking for a balance between aggressiveness and ominousness, achieved thanks to the use of different sound textures, clean voices that once again features Fiar (Jade, Foscor, Graveyard), passages close to psychedelia and a dense, powerful but at the same time delicate production by Javi Félez’s Moontower Studios(Destroyer 666, Teitanblood, Graveyard, etc.) and mastered by Jaime Gómez Arellano (Hexvessel, Paradise Lost, Grave Miasma, Primordial or Ulver).
From a conceptual point of view, Covenants of Salt follows the path of Pillars of Salt, diving into religious passages from Judeo-Christianity and Islam and the relationship between the human condition and its confrontation with divine creation.
Pillars of Salt was about how mankind walks towards the abyss through fiery deserts despite knowing his tragic end; Covenants of Salt is about how humanity seek knowledge denied by divinity and how we are capable of drowning in the vastness of the ocean for a single drop of knowledge.
Released by:
War Anthem Records (GERMANY), 2023.