BELOW THE SUN joined forces in a forest in their home town to perform at an intimate festival, where they created a one off funeral doom piece, which ignited something in the members which set them off on a much longer creative path together. With influences and inspirations - musical and otherwise - so diverse that they’re near impossible to pigeonhole, BELOW THE SUN return time and time again to what they consider to the the canvas for their creation: sludge. And from there they build layer upon layer of the diversity that influences and informs them musically; there are clear overtones of black metal in the bleak soundscapes and swirling, atmospheric metal.

The band hail from little known Krasnoyarsk, deep in Russia’s vast and evocative landscapes, and the music created somehow suits its geographical surroundings perfectly. With plans to tour first in their home country, and then later throughout Europe, BELOW THE SUN have big plans for 2015.

The Siberian five piece will release ‘Envoy’ via Temple of Torturous Records in February 2015. The six track album has its roots in sludge and funeral doom, but with progressive aspects very much reaching upwards to an ethereal, otherworldly plane. The album received finishing touches courtesy of mastering engineer, Mell Dettmer, who counts Sunn o))), Fyrnask and Earth among her previous clients.

The band explained the concept of the album as follows: "The album's narrative is told from the perspective of a personified version of Voyager-1 - humankind's first step in fulfilling our destiny - transcending the Solar System and paving our way to the stars."

The band chooses to remain anonymous in photographs and during live performances; whilst this is not unusual in the metal world, it is far from being a gimmick. They believe it to bring them even closer to their audience, by removing the focus from them as individuals, leaving just the music to speak on its own merit.

Envoy will be released on February 24th 2015 via Temple of Torturous Records.