Dumal will release The Trials of Existence on 2 October, on CD through Alte Seelen and on vinyl, cassette and digitally elsewhere. It is their third album and the first without keyboards.
Taking that layer out is the whole design. The melodies now come straight off the guitars, which are interwoven rather than stacked, and the record moves between caustic aggression and something closer to austere beauty without losing weight in either direction.
The trio have been going in Ambler, Pennsylvania since 2013, and what they play pulls three black metal traditions together: the violence of nineties Scandinavia, the melancholy associated with Eastern Europe and the physical force of the American scene. The Lesser God in 2017 and The Confessor came before this one.