ATROCITY Working On 'Okkult' Album Trilogy

Vocalist Alexander Krull of long-running German metallers ATROCITY has released the following statement regarding the band's new album trilogy, "Okkult":

"With 'Okkult' we want to start a very special album trilogy.

"We began to work on the 'Okkult' trilogy a long time ago.

"Most recently with the 'Die Gottlosen Jahre (The Godless Years)' DVD, a splendid film documentary was released commemorating our longer-than-25-year career, which even now is to run at film festivals. Reason enough now to usher in a new era of ATROCITY!

"Musically, no prisoners will be taken. The 'Okkult' series is also brutal, bombastic and dark. These will not only be the heaviest and most brutal albums of ATROCITY since years, but also the darkest works of our band's history. Lovers of our harder material like 'Hallucinations', 'Todessehnsucht', 'Blut' or 'Atlantis' will surely be delighted with the 'Okkult' series at their expense, although the 'Okkult' songs have their own trademarks, of course.

"The orchestral parts will be recorded in September by the Lingua Mortis Orchestra under the direction of Victor Smolski (RAGE) in Minsk, Belarus.

"In keeping with the dark atmosphere of 'Okkult', we got the Canadian sound designer Katie Halliday on board. She worked for movies like 'Saw V', 'Saw VI', 'Saw 3D (VII)', 'The Devil's Carnival' and 'Todd And The Book Of Pure Evil', and already could reap some awards for her work.

"The lyrical concept is anything but one-dimensional. For 'Okkult', we have no desire to go only in a certain direction. So the whole thing will be broadly based: From occult magic, occult places to conspiracy theories and mysteries that are still unsolved.

"For our fans, we've come up with something very special: There will be no conventional bonus tracks on the 'Okkult' albums! In return, all fans can actively engage in a kind of treasure hunt. For the respective 'Okkult' albums, we will hide one song on an 'occult site,' which is the 'missing track' to each album. For the first 'Okkult' record, that certain place will be in Europe. For the following albums, the places will be on other continents, perhaps in America and Asia. l will be the only one that knows these locations.

"All original recording tracks and mixes of these songs will be destroyed by our own hands. That also means we as a band will also not be able to listen to these songs until they are found. They are in the truest sense of the word unique. If someone finds these songs, and wants to keep them for himself, then we will have have no way to listen to these songs ever again in their original form.

"Internally, we have already had some serious discussions on what song is supposed to be hidden for the first 'Okkult'. We will ennoble this 'treasure' to something like 'The Golden iPod.' We will spare no expense or effort. More info on how it will look exactly and how you can participate in the treasure hunt will be announced a later date.

"In times when more and more music seems to lose its value, we want to make a statement. These hidden songs will definitely have an great added value, especially when they will dig them out in 200 years. That will probably not be the case.

"On 21/12/2012, we will release something exclusive in advance. We want to provide the right soundtrack for the apocalypse, and actually that was our preferred date for the first release of the 'Okkult' series. Unfortunately, this release date is not possible, therefore the first 'Okkult' album will be released in spring 2013, in case the world downfall didn't happen."