Have you ever ever questioned what it would sound like if Emma Ruth Rundle recorded a doom album? (OK, you could have these Mizmor and Thou collabs, however work with me right here.) The reply to that query could be A Birdsong, A Ghost, the brand new album from New Jersey funeral doom outfit Oldest Sea. Fashioned in 2017 as a solo venture by frontwoman Samantha Marandola, Oldest Sea initially carried out ethereal people music earlier than Marandola’s husband, Andrew, joined the band shortly after. As a duo, they started to write down heavier music, which cause them to the sound you hear on A Birdsong, A Ghost.

Oldest Sea cite a wide range of inspirations, the plain picks like Form of Despair and Mournful Congregation plus extra eclectic picks like Roy Orbison, Björk and soundtrack composers like John Carpenter. The final one is especially notable as a result of there’s a cinematic present that runs via A Birdsong. It’s instantly obvious on first tune “Sacred Destruction,” which opens with sparse, expansive chords and Samantha Marandola’s shimmering vocals. The album picks up velocity all through its almost 40-minute runtime earlier than concluding with equally crashing chords and angelic singing.

“Simply earlier than we completed writing the album, I got here throughout the final identified recording of a chicken native to Hawaii generally known as the Kauai O’o, who was declared extinct in 1989,” Samantha Marandola tells Decibel. “The audio was from 1987, and it was of a male calling out to a mate not understanding he was the final of his species. There was one thing so profoundly heartbreaking about listening to this in any other case prosaic birdsong.This album is expression of female rage, grief, loneliness, and transformation. But it surely’s additionally a howl into the vacancy: a birdsong.”

A Birdsong, A Ghost is out on December 1.