For those not in the know, metal horror band From Hell returns in 2020 with a new album called Rats & Ravens (available worldwide on May 22nd, 2020 via Scourge Records).

Staying true to the vision that each release is a concept album, Aleister Sinn (the live persona of George Anderson, creator/writer of From Hell), releases an album both dark and sinister for their legions of fans and devoted followers.

This mid-13th Century opus, born somewhere in eastern Europe, recants the tale of how a father disturbs an evil in the east, but not before a wicked witch comes to steal his son and the children of the village to make them her own.

She sacrifices them and reanimates the dead with the blessings from the god of vermin for with rats, she brings them back to life and calls them Lilium.

1. 'Dark Heart'
2. 'They Come at Night'
3. 'Lilium'
4. 'The Witch'
5. 'Don't Cry for Help'
6. 'Three and Nine'
7. 'Forest of the Screaming Trees'
8. 'Room for One'
9. 'Body Rats'
10. 'Am I Dead?'

Featuring Sinn on vocals and guitar, Wes Anderson on drums, Stephen Paul Goodwin on bass and Steve Smyth on lead guitar, it's been told that as the band rehearsed the songs with Sinn, the richness of what Wes, Steve, and Stephen brought to the material from their varied backgrounds of musical experience instantly added a depth to each song; that was later realized in these final recordings.

The follow up to the debut From Hell album, Ascent From Hell, which is as heavy as it is epic, this sophomore album kicks off with the atmospheric opening of 'Dark Heart, before backing that up with the frenetic, drum-led 'They Come at Night' and then the thunderous, guitar magnificence of 'Lilium.'

Next we get the passionately pulsating, tempered ebb and flow of 'The Witch,' which is followed by the melodic, drum-led backbone pairing of both 'Don't Cry for Help' and 'Three and Nine.'

They are then backed by one of my own personal favorites on this demonstratively excellent album, the ethereal, at-times choir-lifted beauty of 'Forest of the Screaming Trees.'

The album the rounds out with the guitar tour de force of 'Room for One,' the bouts of skittish playfulness combined with dominant guitar on 'Body Rats,' with the surging power of 'Am I Dead?' bringing the storytelling opus to a vibrant close.

Official Digital Purchase Link

www.FromHell.com