Ophis have released "The Astral Tomb", ten minutes long, from Encased In Deathlike Layers, through F.D.A. Records.
Ten minutes as a first single is a choice that tells you the band are not looking for anyone new. Death doom at this tempo needs the length: the riff has to be allowed to arrive, sit, and decay, and an edit that gets to the point is an edit that removes the point.
They have been doing it from Hamburg since 2001, through six albums, with the same patience each time. German death doom has always been the slower and more funereal end of the style compared with the British and Finnish schools, less concerned with melody and more with weight.
No date has been given for the album yet. F.D.A. Records, who put out the track with a video, have carried most of their catalogue, and the title suggests the band are not planning a change of subject.
Ten releases stand behind this one, six of them albums, which for a style that rewards patience over output is a substantial body of work.