Hear Junius’ Crushing New Post-Metal Epic
In 2009, Boston-bred post-metal outfit Junius released its sophomore full-length, The Martyrdom of a Catastrophist, an album that led Rolling Stone to praise the band as “a perfect hybrid of Neurosis and the Smiths.” The album also kicked off a dense conceptual trilogy of LPs (plus a more loosely related EP) delving into near-death experiences, reincarnation and the ideas of philosopher Immanuel Velikovsky that now, eight years later, the group has finally completed. The third piece in the puzzle, Eternal Rituals for the Accretion of Light, is set for release on March 3rd, and it takes the band’s alternately soaring and crashing sound to even more diverse places, as can be heard on first single “The Queen’s Constellation.” Opening with a spiraling keyboard filigree, the song blends seismic riffs and singer-guitarist Joseph E. Martinez’s Chino Moreno–esque vocal melodies as it builds to a chugging, upward march of a breakdown.
“Eternal Rituals for the Accretion of Light follows the Initiate’s path to transcendence, and knowing love’s power is a crucial step in this journey. In keeping with the brooding spirit of Junius, I decided to write a kind of dark, obscure fairy tale about verboten love,” says Martinez, who wrote and performed the entire album himself, following the departure of longtime guitarist Mike Repasch-Nieves. “Eternal Rituals for the Accretion of Light contains some of the heaviest songs we’ve ever released and simultaneously some of the most delicate. ‘The Queen’s Constellation’ strikes a nice middle ground between both dynamics.”
Junius will mark the release of the album with a short headlining run in April, followed by an extensive North American tour in the fall.
Junius 2017 Tour Dates
April 17 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott
April 18 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery
April 19 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
April 20 – Kingston, NY @ BSP Lounge
April 21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Black Forge Coffee House
April 22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus