Album Premiere: Hallatar, No Stars Upon the Bridge (Members of Amorphis, Swallow the Sun, ex-H.I.M.)

Finnish black metal/doom trio Hallatar is comprised of Amorphis vocalist Tomi Joutsen, Trees of Eternity and Swallow The Sun guitarist Juha Raivio and ex-HIM drummer Gas Lipstick.

That said, Hallatar is significantly heavier than any of the bands from which its members come.

Imagine a funeral doom version of Swallow the Sun, and you’re close. On No Stars Upon the Bridge, the trio’s debut album, the music plods, creeps and crawls along with the weight of the world on its shoulders, like a grueling sisyphean task with only faint rays of hope occasionally shining through. The album is based on the lyrics and poems of the late Aleah Starbridge, a member of Trees Of Eternity and life partner of Raivio, who explains:

What we recorded was a raw moment in time honoring the memory, lyrics, and poems of Aleah Starbridge with all its pain, beauty and darkness. There are no stars left upon the bridge to light the way anymore, but the music will always be a dim light, even in the darkest of the night.

Stream the breaktaking new album in full below. No Stars Upon the Bridge comes out tomorrow, October 20th, via Svart Records; pre-order it here.