Matt
Fabulous, remarkable post-black/cinematics. Spectral and inviting, there are also very catchy riffs sprinkled throughout. Great piece of work.
Favorite track: The Patron Saint of Whalewatching.
Dave Hodges
The album is a poignant musical portrait of profound isolation, albeit punctuated with a few glimmers of candlelight at the end of a thousand-mile tunnel. The riffs are hollow and distant, the vocals are despondent and disconsolate, and yet the compositions walk along an intricate path in a barren tundra that straddles the terror of cosmic solitude and the abject wonder of universal beauty. Every track is a journey in itself, and the catharsis after finishing the album is palpable and sublime.
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I remember years ago
As if I were there
A fleeting glimpse of a maiden in white
Standing near an open sea
Weathered like the rocks
She sat on one, overlooking the blue
Untouched by the deluge around her
She had been gifted with tears
A frenzy wrought on her face
The rain parted for the evening and I
Saw from the tops of the mountains
Fog descend like steam from a locomotive
A quiet family on the beach hid behind the cliffs
Powered by winds and their immovable faith
A whale greeted us at the shoreline
The sky opened up to me
Years of storms carved your name into the cliffside
You can see a lot on St Laurent
Sunday mass ends a little early while I watch
Veiled women cross the street into their homes
The ale is bitter but I remember when it was harsher
You could taste the blood from the fields just before
I'll swear to you, I once thought I'd die in pain
The slow death of heartbreak taught me one thing
To forgive the cursed and the spurned
The pariahs of the modern world
Is to die for the ideal
Eternal life won't wait for you
I see wisps of the forgotten circling around me
The fire calls us together
Virginia tobacco rises with the woodsmoke
My pain leaves the churchwarden
And melts into the open ocean
Will I atone for my sins on Earth
Even if I know I will sin again
Will the eternal turn of the wheel
Cease in eternity
Will I still hear my father's word
If, out of rage and apathy
I chose not to follow it
In hopes of becoming my own man
Will my ancestors turn their backs
Like I've done to so many before?
Only the immaculate will decide
For the triumph of their hearts will bring us everlasting life
I'll take another knife to the throat
And many sleepless nights
If I can guarantee that in my wake
I'll see the morning sun again
With friends like these...
about
Triumphant / Heroic / Inspiring / Euphoric
Immaculate Hearts Will Triumph is the third full length by Atmospheric/Post-Black Metal band Great Cold Emptiness. It is also the final part in "The Becoming of a Man" trilogy.
This is an album about forgiveness and companionship among friends. An album about understanding the self, and its place in the modern world, as well as the reminder that you are never truly alone. It is an album about the triumph of the heart and overcoming the most difficult stages in a man's life: him finally leaving home.
The music on this album is a lot less atmospheric, and as a result, I focused much of my time towards the songwriting craft, as well as the flow of the entire unit as a whole. It is the lightest thing I've done. A stark contrast to the sonic heaviness of "Death Gifted a Bouquet." and the spacey dirges on the debut.
"Immaculate Hearts Will Triumph" is also a dedication to the "Our Lady of Fatima" miracle in Portugal, 1917. While not a 1:1 retelling of the beautiful event, it acts as a framework for the album, tied with a very personal and spiritual event that happened to me last year.
In October of 2020, a couple friends and I took a pilgrimage to Gaspésie, Quebec. My ancestors landed here first, before moving down to Aroostook County, Maine, eventually settling into my direct lineage.
One day, while staying in a yurt far from civilization in a sleepy little town called Cap-Chat, I roamed the beaches nearby, where it had been raining the entire day. I stood on an open rock, under massive cliffs weathered by the ocean, and watched a massive Minke Whale breach about 20 feet in front of me, for about an hour. Sleepy villages in the distant hills hid in the fog, as it cascaded from the mountain tops like smoke from a train. It was here, where I felt the presence of God, and my ancestors. I really cannot describe it. Those who know me know that I have a deep passion and respect for psychedelics, especially LSD. But this "trip" (pun intended) was under the influence of a high dose of psilocybin mushrooms, and it was here, in Cap-Chat, Québec, where I felt, through the divine power of the fungus, connected to my ancestors. I am nothing but their collective memories. I am not an individual.
If "Miles Before I Sleep" is the aimless journey of a man in search of wisdom, and "Death Gifted a Bouquet" is the unveiling of such wisdom, then "Immaculate Hearts Will Triumph" is the application of that wisdom. The wisdom being that of forgiveness and companionship. You are never alone.
"Miles Before I Sleep" is an album written in a period of my life where I felt aimless. Headfirst into political extremism and without any goal other than self destruction, that album, looking back, no matter how muddy the production is or how lackluster the songwriting sounds today, is pivotal. Because it was the first step I took in documenting my journey into becoming a man.
"Death Gifted a Bouquet" was written in a significant period in my life where I lost everything sacred to me. That album was a test for me to overcome, once again. And I passed. That entire album was written during that period of anguish I had endured. And yet, I overcame it. I overcame the need to involve myself in political extremism, finding meaning in art itself. For that is the true savior of the soul.
And now, on "Immaculate Hearts Will Triumph", an album which marks the end of a trilogy, I finally became my own man. Not hindered by the false premises of dying in a futuristic war, as I so dreamt of. But instead, it was built on hope. And companionship among friends. And the future looks bright. I will always look back on this album, even as more of life's tests are thrown at me, with such pure fondness.
Thank you so much for listening and being here. I hope you enjoy.
- Nathan Gabriel Thomas Guerrette dit Latulippe
Recorded in Montreal, Quebec between October 2020 and October 2021
To Die for the Ideal main melody written in early 2016. Inspired by a plethora of trance songs and old midi files I had stored on my old computer.
Caleb Hennessey - Guest solo on "She Sang of Hyperborea"
Elijah Cirricione - Guest additional lead guitar on "She Sang of Hyperborea"
Deha - Producer
~
Cover art taken by my best friend Miguel in October 2020. I am standing on the edge of Cap Mont Joli in Perce, Quebec
Great Cold Emptiness supports fair trade, homesteading and empowering local communities. We directly oppose all forms of political oppression, Fascism and the consumerist lifestyle.
supported by 17 fans who also own “Immaculate Hearts Will Triumph”
On ne frappe pas un homme à terre : c'est ce que dit la règle mais NONE a déjà prouvé qu'il ne les suivait pas et si son album éponyme retirait toute perspective de béatitude spirituelle, Life has gone on long enough, son deuxième opus, nous interdit l'accès au bonheur terrestre. La vie n'a aucune substance et la production plus distante le confirme. Le DSBM s'empare de textures sonores blues, mettant en relief une dépression urbaine. Les cris partent en fumées : ne restent que les pleurs... Jordan Vauvert