Aurorae - Triptykon

Triptykon is a Swiss extreme metal band from Zürich, formed in 2008 by Thomas Gabriel Fischer, founding member of the pioneering heavy metal bands Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Apollyon Sun.
‘Melana Chasmata’ (which roughly translates as “black, deep depressions/valleys”) comes a full four years after Triptykon’s incredible debut ‘Eparistera Daimones’, an oppressively dark record that was deemed to be Terrorizer’s Album Of The Year back in 2010. Once again, Warrior and Triptykon guitarist V. Santura handled production duties for the new record, ensuring that ‘Melana Chasmata’ sounds just as jaw-droppingly heavy as its predecessor.
Just like its ‘Eparistera Daimones’ (and Celtic Frost’s all-time classic ‘To Mega Therion’), the album also boasts the artwork of legendary Swiss surrealist HR Giger, specifically the piece ‘Mordor VII’. Following ‘Eparistera Daimones’, the group began to make arrangements for an entirely different cover for the second album. Completely unexpectedly, HR Giger approached Tom Gabriel Warrior in October of 2011 to express his appreciation of how Triptykon had used his art on the first album and to propose a continuation of the artistic collaboration. This development thus marks the first time any musical artist has worked with HR Giger on three albums, and it commemorates a collaboration that had lasted for 30+ years.
Warrior himself has given this statement about the new album:
“We have been working on ’Melana Chasmata’ for some three years, in various shapes and forms. It’s not an easy album by any means, and to me personally it reflects an extremely complex gestation period, musically, spiritually, and, due to certain circumstances in my life, emotionally. At the same time, the album unquestionably reflects the continuity I was longing for so much during Celtic Frost’s period of self-destruction and demise. Hearing Triptykon creating such utter darkness again and exploring the potential of these new songs has been incredibly invigorating and inspiring.”
The ‘Aurorae’ video was directed by Philipp Hirsch (who previously collaborated with Triptykon for the group’s highly acclaimed ‘Shatter’ video clip), and filmed in Leipzig, Germany, earlier. As was the case with ‘Shatter’, the ‘Aurorae’ clip is based on concepts by Hirsch and Triptykon singer/guitarist Tom Gabriel Warrior.