Maestus Deliquesce
Maestus emerged from the Pacific Northwest with its forlorn blackdoom in 2013 under the hand of Stephen Parker (Pillorian, ex-Arkhum). With the help of a collective of Oregon collaborators, Kenneth Parker (Grst, Batrakos), Sarah Beaulieu (ex-Ninth Level), Cordell Cline (ex-Dimensionless), and Nathanael Kelley (Banewreaker, Grst), Maestus released its debut full-length, Voir Dire, two years later. In the spring of 2018, the band got signed with code666/Aural Music and reconvened to record their sophomore album Deliquesce in Eugene, Oregon, and gave form to four crushing paeans to hopelessness. Mixed and mastered by Markus Stock (Empyrium, Sun of the Sleepless) at his Klangschmiede Studio E, with artwork by Matthias Roth and design by John Haughm. In the original Latin, Maestus makes reference to a state of mourning, a theme that finds voice in lyrics which explore the threads between despondency and bitterness. Maestus reflects the principle of misery as it moves through the world in life, death, and memory, and of the ceaseless decay which both precedes and follows it.