Infestissumam

The title is an archaic spelling of the Latin infestissimam, a feminine superlative meaning most hostile, and it points at the Antichrist. This is the band's second album, released on 10 April 2013 and in North America on the 16th through Loma Vista Recordings in partnership with Republic Records, which made it their major label debut. Every song except "Ghuleh" had been written and demoed by the end of the summer of 2011. The plan was to record after a North American tour with Enslaved and Alcest; the band had to pull out of that tour, and they and Rise Above Records agreed the album should go out on a different label. On signing to a major, the band have said the deciding factor was Tom Whalley's interest -- he was starting his own imprint under Universal -- and that having an advocate inside an organisation that size felt like the closest thing to being independent without actually being independent. Recording began in Nashville, Tennessee in October 2012 with Nick Raskulinecz producing. The frame of the first album survives, but the layers of choir and keyboard are thicker and more of the songs, "Year Zero" and "Monstrance Clock" among them, are built to be sung back. Several magazines put it among the year's best heavy metal records and it won the 2014 Grammis for best hard rock or metal album. A special edition, Infestissumam Redux, followed late in 2013.