Los Angeles extreme metal shapeshifters Ashen Horde will be unleashing their long‑awaited fifth album, “The Harvest,” on May 1st, 2026. Before the album officially releases, they have teamed up with Metal Addicts for its full stream premiere.
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Expanding their genre‑defying approach with their most dynamic and thematically unified work to date, “The Harvest” marks the band’s first full‑length with vocalist Karl Chamberlain, whose wide‑ranging performance pushes the group into new melodic and emotional territory.
The album arrives following a trio of singles that showcased the record’s breadth and intensity. The first single, “Entropy and Ecstasy,” arrived with a music video and introduced fans to the album’s overarching theme of endings, a thread woven throughout the record’s eight tracks. The second single, “Voids in the Ash,” delivered a haunting, grunge‑tinged descent into the final days of Pompeii. Most recently, the band unleashed “Apparition,” the album’s heaviest and most harrowing track, told from the perspective of a ghost condemned to witness humanity’s worst impulses.
Recorded entirely remotely, “The Harvest” represents the full evolution of Ashen Horde from a one‑man endeavor into a fully realized extreme‑metal force. While the band’s earlier albums centered on singular narratives, this record takes a different direction. As guitarist and founder Trevor Portz notes, it isn’t a traditional concept album, but its songs are tied together by a unifying theme: endings. Those endings appear in many forms: societal collapse, mythic destruction, personal downfall, and the natural cycle of decay, expressed through a sound that moves fluidly between black‑metal intensity, death‑metal weight, progressive twists, grunge‑tinged harmonies, and melodic introspection.
Across its eight tracks, the album moves from the slow‑rising, Pagan‑inspired “Autumnal” into the chaotic “Entropy and Ecstasy,” the genre‑blending critique of “Backward Momentum,” and the moody Pompeii narrative of “Voids in the Ash.” “Remnant” delivers a storm‑bound tragedy, while “A Place in the Rot” reflects on mortality through a Swamp Thing lens. “The Apparition” stands as the album’s heaviest and most harrowing moment before the record closes with “The Harvest,” a finale shaped by Iceland’s surreal landscapes and the album’s striking red‑skeleton artwork.
For over 10 years, Ashen Horde has crafted extreme metal that defies easy categorization. Rooted in black and death metal but unafraid to incorporate progressive, melodic, and alternative influences, the band appeals to fans of Opeth, Enslaved, Amorphis, Ihsahn, and other genre‑bending heavyweights.
Album pre-order (release date May 1, 2026) available on limited splatter vinyl and CD (along with t-shirt bundles) on Bandcamp, as well as everywhere digitally – https://ashenhorde.bandcamp.com/album/the-harvest
Add to your Spotify playlist – https://open.spotify.com/artist/6X2Yg7WkfOx0NCuX98FnTb
Music Video – Ecstasy and Entropy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zud62AXzvsw
Music Video – Voids in the Ash – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-tcwbsxNHg
Visualizer – Apparition – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4Doe6X8bZs
Tour Dates:
May 14 – Montclair, NJ – The Meatlocker
May 15 – Wallingford, CT – Cherry Street Station
May 16 – Brattleboro, VT – Midnight’s
Track Listing:
1. Autumnal (6:12)
2. Entropy and Ecstasy (5:47)
3. Backward Momentum (5:21)
4. Voids in the Ash (5:41)
5. Remnant (4:37)
6. A Place in the Rot (4:38)
7. Apparition (4:57)
8. The Harvest (5:46)
Album Length: 43:03
Credits:
Mixed by Ricardo Borges and mastered by Tony Lindgren at Fascination Street Studios
Artwork by Venus Kohana (venuskohana.com)
Lineup:
Trevor Portz: Guitar, Bass, Harmony Vocals
Karl Chamberlain: Vocals
Robin Stone: Drums
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