The UK/Spain gothic/doom metal band Opia shares their new song "The Fade", taken from their debut album, I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep, which will be released on 25 April via the Dutch label Hammerheart Records. "The Fade is the second revealed single from the upcoming album. The first one was "On Death's Door Part I"; you can check it out over HERE.
The band comments: "We are beyond excited to finally share with you all 'The Fade' the second single from our upcoming debut album, I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep. This track is particularly close to our hearts, as it is inspired by the lived experience of one of our members who experienced the heartbreaking journey of a loved one suffering from vascular dementia. We dedicate this song to all who've lost family or friends to memory related conditions. Writing this song was a deeply personal and cathartic experience. It explores the complexity of grief—specifically, the kind of grief that arrives long before death itself. When someone you love is gradually lost to these conditions, it's as if the essence of who they were starts to slip away little by little. The pain is not only in their absence but in seeing them "fade", sometimes beyond recognition. The hardest part, in many ways, is that by the time death finally comes, it often feels like it is only the final punctuation mark on a long process of loss. For some, there's the blessing of a final, fleeting moment of recognition, but unfortunately, many are not that fortunate. This theme of loss and the inevitability of death runs deep throughout our upcoming album I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep. While "The Fade" addresses it with raw, visceral honesty, it is by no means the only track to delve into this subject. We feel this album captures the weight of mortality in ways that are both intimate and universal. It's our hope that those who listen will find something they can relate to, whether through personal experience or the reflections it sparks. On a compositional level, 'The Fade' stands out as the one song on the album that solely features clean vocals. It was a purposeful choice to strip back the instrumentation and let the emotion of the lyrics shine through in the purest form possible. It's a departure from some of our heavier work, but we felt it was the best way to convey the deep vulnerability at the heart of the song. We are so thrilled for you to hear this track, and we can't wait to share more of what's to come." Link

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"I think it's basically a mutation of a lot of different things — like a hybrid creature nobody quite knows how to categorise. A heretic, I guess." - Håvard Ellefsen (Mortiis)
"We were kind of exploring dark subject matters and darker sounds. I really like that, and this is the direction we are going right now." - Larissa Vale
"It's a dark album. According to me, it's the darkest yet in our discography. It's also very suggestive, very introverted, less direct, and might be less friendly..." - Daniel Moilanen
