Inter Arma is a sludge/black metal band formed in 2006 in Richmond, Virginia, United States.Their music resists generalization and categorization, but one thing that's consistently true, is that the VA quintet possesses an unparalleled sense of scope. Few artists convey the complexity that INTER ARMA (Latin for "in times of war") does. The band creates terrible and often hauntingly beautiful portraits of humanity through music that is deeply organic yet still mystical and modern. After having released a few demos and a 7" split with Battlemaster, they released their debut album Sundown in May 2010 on Forcefield Records. The Destroyer EP followed in 2012, and their second full-length Sky Burial was released in May 2013 on Relapse Records. A second EP entitled The Cavern, consisting of a single forty-six minute track, was released on Relapse in 2014. Inter Arma have announced their latest album, Paradise Gallows. The follow-up to 2013's Sky Burial LP and 2014's The Cavern EP is out July 8 via Relapse.
After already having taken forward-thinking extreme music to unprecedented heights over the course of their short but propulsive career, Richmond's INTER ARMA are back with another opus of epic proportions. Like the band's previous works, the new album 'Paradise Gallows' is direct and foreboding while maintaining a nuanced, artful perspective. INTER ARMA's signature palette of dissonant high-end and abyssal low-end has been augmented with swathes of thick, impressionistic melody that lend 'Paradise Gallows 'a truly biblical sense of scale, both lyrically and in terms of the album's sonic content. Harsh and acoustic passages (including the band's first-ever foray into clean vocals) spar with complex rhythmic structures across nine sweeping tracks over 71 minutes of expansive, progressive heaviness. Dense, funereal, and richly evocative, 'Paradise Gallows' is a vibrant blend of doom, post-metal, sludge, avant-garde, black and death metal, and is a singular and powerful new addition to the band's already monumental discography.