Track Premiere: Seraphic Entombment – “Quivering Majesty”
A slick of sweat forms on your brow as you lie in bed, feverish and shivering. As far as sickness goes, this bout seems innocuous enough; probably a rhinovirus, that most mundane of maladies. But within—on the scale of cells—a cataclysm rages. Your immune system, honed over hundreds of thousands of years of similar conflicts, is helpless before its adversary: an unknown pathogen that flouts the rules of earthbound biology.
There are few mentions of Seraphic Entombment in the scientific literature, but we know this much: the disease likely spilled over from an unknown reservoir species in 2019, and the infection progresses through 5 distinct phases, the last being the colloquial “Quivering Majesty”; by this stage, the prognosis is almost always death/doom. The first symptom to surface is an elevated heart rate as sludgy trem riffs and fluid, technical drumming spread through the bloodstream. (In some cases, tachycardia may be accompanied by involuntary muscle spasms in the neck, leading to the tell-tale “windmill” motion). After the acute onset, Seraphic Entombment enters a latent state, slowing down as it enters the stomach.
Similar to cases of Nightfell and Vastum, dispassionate clean vocals emanate from the body cavity alongside rasping death growls. Deep grooves then appear along the intestinal lining, announcing a return to a more virulent form of death metal. In the final stage of sickness, motor control of the legs erodes, and victims are left marching to a rhythm they alone can feel. The infected end their wandering in all manner of locations, but the pathogen seems to prefer areas where melodic birdsong can be heard. (This tendency is not well understood, but is currently the focus of several medical studies.)
Rooted in place, the vessel appears entirely frozen but for the faintest breathing. Here stands the so-called “Quivering Majesty”: Earth’s apex predator brought to heel by an organism outside our understanding. Did it leak from the primordial vents of the deep sea? Did it enter the atmosphere encased in a ball of ice and metal? Whatever its origin, Seraphic Entombment provides a fascinating (and terrifying) look into the unknown.
Sickness Particles Gleam releases on October 13th through Everlasting Spew Records.
