Stormruler have put out Chapter I: The Sword, The Scepter and The Seal, which is the second song they have released from Morning Nautical Twilight and the first chapter of it.
Releasing them out of order is the point. Chapter II introduced present day Aurelia and the people in it; this one goes back to the fictional year 1142 F.A., two thousand one hundred and fifty years earlier, to the early ages of Umbria and the forging of the sceptre in the embers of the Lunar Pyre.
The band describe the song as folk, power, black and death metal at once, carried by leads and long melodies rather than by speed. That combination is unusual to hold together over a full album, and this record runs to a prologue, twelve chapters and an epilogue.
Two people from St. Louis made it. Distortion Music Group, through Reigning Phoenix, release it on 4 December.