{"id":22173,"date":"2026-08-28T05:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=22173"},"modified":"2026-08-28T05:17:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:17:23","slug":"dissonant-black-metal-project-agonanist-releases-new-album-the-spirit-of-gravity-out-now-via-transylvanian-recordings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=22173","title":{"rendered":"Dissonant Black Metal Project AGONANIST Releases New Album ‘The Spirit of Gravity’ \u2014 Out Now via Transylvanian Recordings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today, AGONANIST<\/strong>, the experimental black metal project spearheaded by Tyler Henthorn<\/strong>, proudly releases it’s sophomore album, ‘The Spirit of Gravity,’<\/em><\/strong> out now via Transylvanian Recordings<\/strong>. Marking the album’s release, the project also shares the new single “Cry of Cages,”<\/strong> alongside a video, available below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the meaning behind “Cry of Cages,” Henthorn<\/strong> explains, “humanity is trapped by its obsession with assigning meaning to a random, indifferent mess.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AGONANIST<\/strong> is the experimental music project of multidisciplinary artist Tyler Henthorn<\/strong>, based in San Francisco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debut album, ‘The Cynicism of Solitude,’<\/strong> was released by Transylvanian Recordings<\/strong> in 2020. It was written and recorded while Henthorn<\/strong> was living nomadically between London and Ho Chi Minh City, and features microtonal guitars that were hand-fretted by Henthorn<\/strong> using a jeweler’s saw. He also built an improvised zither using fencing wire and piano tuning pegs, played with a bow. Field recordings captured in Vietnam are present on the album. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project’s second album, ‘The Spirit of Gravity,’<\/em><\/strong> is out now on Transylvanian Recordings<\/strong>. It was produced in Ho Chi Minh City and the entire album features guest work by Andrew Lee<\/strong> (Ripped to Shreds<\/strong>), Colin Marston<\/strong> (Krallice<\/strong>, Gorguts<\/strong>, Behold the Arctopus<\/strong>), and Kevin Paradis<\/strong> (Benighted<\/strong>, Svart Crown<\/strong>). Microtonal guitars, bass, and keys are used throughout the album, with side A being a mix of 17ET and 12ET, and side B of 22ET. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henthorn<\/strong> comments about the album:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“<\/em>‘The Spirit of Gravity’ <\/em><\/strong>represents inevitability, our experience of time being an illusion, causality being a continuous web that spans the entire universe where everything exists at once in a splatter of liquid.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name AGONANIST<\/strong> is taken from an English translation of a short story by the Polish science-fiction writer Stanis?aw Lem<\/strong>, wherein a civilization has engineered itself beyond recognition and robots have created a monastic religion which promises nothing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lyrically, AGONANIST<\/strong> explores existential themes, drawing on ideas from literature such as the writing of Nietzsche<\/strong>, Pessoa<\/strong>, Cioran<\/strong>, and Camus<\/strong>. Sonically, the project sits adjacent to dissonant black metal in the vein of Deathspell Omega<\/strong>, Blut aus Nord<\/strong>, Xasthur<\/strong>, and Krallice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out Now via Transylvanian Recordings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Order <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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