New Release Information uu March

CELLAR DARLING Release Date Pre-Order Start The Spell uu 22/03/2019 uu 18/01/2019

uu Digibook includes bonus CD uu digital Singles: 02.11. “Insomnia”, 18.01. “The Spell”, 15.02. “Death” uu 15.03. digital Single: Winner Fan-Voting uu advertising in many important music magazines FEB/MAR 2019 uu album reviews, interviews in all important Metal magazines in Eu- rope’s FEB/MAR 2019 issues Price Code: CD01 uu song placements in European magazine compilations NB 4532-0 CD-Digibook incl. bonus CD uu spotify playlists in all European territories uu instore decoration: flyers uu Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+ organic promotion uu Facebook ads and promoted posts + Google ads in both the search and display networks, bing ads and gmail ads uu Banner advertising on more than 60 most important Metal & Rock websites all over Europe uu additional booked ads on Metal Hammer Germany and UK, and in the Fixion network (mainly Blabbermouth) uu video and pre-roll ads on You tube uu ad campaigns on iPhones for iTunes and Google Play for Androids uu banners, featured items at the shop, header images on nuclearblast.de and nuclearblast.com uu features and banners in newsletters, as well as special mailings to targeted audiences in support of the release Price Code: LP17 NB 4532-1 2LP FEED US WITH MORE black in gatefold EPIC & PROGRESSIVE STORYS! CELLAR DARLING’s second full-length »The Spell« weaves a dark fairytale for the modern era, told through Territory: World heavy yet intricate, progressive folk rock, enchanting visual art and utterly immersive storytelling. The band began in 2016 after (vocals, hurdy-gurdy), Merlin Sutter (drums) and Ivo Henzi (guitars and uu Tracklists: bass) left Swiss folk metallers , which they had all played in for over a decade. But they weren’t ready Album-CD: to end their musical journey together yet, and embarked on a new and different path. 01. Pain 02. Death 03. Love 04. The Spell “We’re happy that ELUVEITIE fans have joined us, but we didn’t want to do the same thing with CELLAR 05. Burn 06. Hang DARLING: we want to do our own thing,” explains Merlin. “With CELLAR DARLING, we deliberately didn’t set 07. Sleep 08. Insomnia ourselves any limits – and that really enabled us to find the type of music that we wanted to play.” 09. Freeze 10. Fall 11. Drown 12. Love Pt. II Anna originally used the name CELLAR DARLING for her own solo album in 2013, but it also perfectly encap- 13. Death Pt. II sulated their vision for this new adventure. “Our music stems from ideas that were kept hidden away in a type Bonus-CD (Audiobook): of creative cellar, and are now ready to see the light,” Anna explains. “It also visualises our music: the darkness 01. Pain 02. Death is the cellar, and ‘darling’ represents something light and beautiful.” 03. Love 04. The Spell 05. Burn 06. Hang The three-piece introduced these spellbinding sounds to the world with their debut album »This Is The Sound« 07. Sleep 08. Insomnia in 2017. But for »The Spell«, they decided to take their musical ideas and creativity one step further, and to 09. Freeze 10. Fall make a concept album, after the initial idea for »The Spell« came to Anna randomly while she was out hiking 11. Drown with her father. It tells the tale of an unnamed girl who is birthed into a world that is full of pain, damaged 12. Love Pt. II 13. Death Pt. II and debilitated by the human beings that inhabit it. We follow her as she searches for meaning in life, when suddenly she meets and falls in love with death – concluding with an ambiguous ending that leaves the listener 2LP (33 RPM): Side A wondering. Though Anna set out to create abstract rather than autobiographical lyrics, »The Spell« became a 01. Pain 02. Death personal journey for her. 03. Love Side B 01. The Spell 02. Burn “Even if you write completely abstract lyrics, it is based on your life and personality somehow,” she says. “It 03. Hang Side C was strange, because even though it was a dark concept, when I created it I was feeling happy. But then, as we 01. Sleep 02. Insomnia were working on the album, my mental health got really bad – worse than ever before. It was as if the creative 03. Freeze 04. Fall part of my brain was realising what state I was in before I became fully conscious of it.” But focusing on the Side D album helped Anna to work through these demons: “The music is always my outlet,” she says. “Without it, I 01. Drown 02. Love Pt. II probably wouldn’t be here anymore.” 03. Death Pt. II www.cellardarling.com · www.facebook.com/cellardarlingofficial · www.twitter.com/cellar_darling www.instagram.com/cellardarlingofficial/ · www.vk.com/cellardarling Style: Rock NUCLEAR BLAST GmbH · OESCHSTRASSE 40 · D-73072 DONZDORF · GERMANY · PHONE +49-7162-9280-13 / -20 / -25 · FAX +49-7162-24554 uu www.facebook.com/nuclearblasteurope · www.twitter.com/nuclearblasteu uu LINKS: uu Nuclear Blast Video Clips · Nuclear Blast Bands on Tour · Nuclear Blast albums in the Charts · New Songs on Spotify uu www.nuclearblast.de New Release Information uu March

Though it was Anna who conceived the concept of the album, CELLAR DARLING is very much a collaborative effort. “A song that is written by only Ivo or myself would not sound like Cellar Darling,” says Anna firmly. “That is what makes this band special.” “It was something new for me,” adds Ivo on the experience of writing music around a concept for the first time. “It was challenging, but after 12 years of making music, it was really good for my musical experience. It gave us something to focus on.” “I think the lyrical concept definitely helped in making the album a coherent whole,” Merlin adds.

On »The Spell«, CELLAR DARLING have cemented their sound. Juxtaposing darkness and light, the album soars with melody, pum- mels with heavy passages and is peppered throughout with progressive flourishes, folky interludes and classical elements, as well as their use of hurdy gurdy and . “I think prog fits us best,” says Merlin. “Prog isn’t just about guitar solos, long songs or technical ability: for me, it’s pushing the limits of genre. We don’t want to set any boundaries for ourselves, and to me, that is the definition of progressive music.” His enthusiasm for grandiose rock and prog bands like QUEEN and DREAM THEATER shines through in »The Spell«, and it comes as no surprise that Anna is the child of two professional opera singers, as her stunning vocals glide majestically throughout this ambitious album.

But the ambition of »The Spell« doesn’t stop with the music and lyrics: CELLAR DARLING have created an audiobook that’s narrated by Anna to help complement the album’s story, and they enlisted Romanian graphic designer, Costin Chioreanu (OPETH, ULVER, WARDRUNA and more) to create vivid illustrations and animated videos for every track.

“He’s the artwork rock star in the metal scene!” laughs Anna. “I was a huge fan of his – I actually have a sleeve tattoo with artwork that he did for ULVER. So I got in touch with him about that and kept in touch ever since. He’s an amazing artist: we just sent him the music and lyrics, and he delivered.”

For CELLAR DARLING, the intricate artwork is central to the album. “Even now when I am listening to an album, I like to be able to look through the artwork,” Merlin says. “To hold the sleeve in your hand while you listen. It’s very much a part of the album experi- ence, in my opinion: I grew up with my dad’s record collection, he had something like 10,000 vinyl! It was a more deliberate way of listening to music. It’s amazing that now WE have something like this, that you can actually spend some time looking at while listening to the music. So I think it’s amazing that we are able to make the artwork available digitally as well, in the form of animated videos for each and every track, and on our website, too.”

“It gives more importance to the concept,” Anna concludes. “Having something like a bonus track would have been great, but it wouldn’t have completed what we started. With the audiobook and the fitting artwork, it closes the circle.”

LINE UP: Anna Murphy - vocals, hurdy gurdy, multi-instrumentalist Ivo Henzi - guitar, bass Merlin Sutter - drums

ALSO AVAILABLE: (World)

Price Code: CD03 Price Code: LP17 Price Code: CD01 NB 3947-2 CD NB 3947-1 2LP NB 3947-0 CD-Digi

This Is The Sound This Is The Sound BLACK VINYL This Is The Sound DIGIBOOK

TOUR 21.03. UK Sheffield...... Studio 31.03. UK London...... The Jazz Café Camden 22.03. UK Pwllheli...... Hammerfest 02.04. NL Utrecht...... De Helling 23.03. UK Cardiff...... The Globe 07.04. I Retorbido (PV)...... Dagda Live Club 24.03. UK Birmingham...... Hare & Hounds 09.04. I Rome...... Traffic Live 26.03. UK Norwich...... The Waterfront Studio 27.04. F Bruguières...... Le Bascala 27.03. UK Hull...... The Welly 2 28.03. UK Glasgow...... Audio 02.05. CH ...... Salzhaus 29.03. IRL ...... On The Rox 04.05. CH Solothurn...... Kulturfabrik Kofmehl 30.03. UK Manchester...... Academy 3 13. - 15.06. CH Interlaken...... Greenfield Festival www.cellardarling.com · www.facebook.com/cellardarlingofficial · www.twitter.com/cellar_darling www.instagram.com/cellardarlingofficial/ · www.vk.com/cellardarling Style: Rock NUCLEAR BLAST GmbH · OESCHSTRASSE 40 · D-73072 DONZDORF · GERMANY · PHONE +49-7162-9280-13 / -20 / -25 · FAX +49-7162-24554 uu www.facebook.com/nuclearblasteurope · www.twitter.com/nuclearblasteu uu LINKS: uu Nuclear Blast Video Clips · Nuclear Blast Bands on Tour · Nuclear Blast albums in the Charts · New Songs on Spotify uu www.nuclearblast.de