PERTURBATOR SHARES MENACING NEW SINGLE 'MORS ULTIMA RATIO' FROM NEW ALBUM -AGE OF AQUARIUS

snaphappypixie
Sep 9
3 min read

PERTURBATOR – the Paris-based composer/producer/multi-instrumentalist James Kent - today released 'Mors Ultima Ratio', the fourth single previewing his new album Age of Aquarius due out on October 10th via Nuclear Blast Records. 'Mors Ultima Ratio' is a menacing, high-intensity instrumental that could serve as the soundtrack to a final boss battle (fitting, as PERTURBATOR’s work scoring the Hotline Miami video game is celebrated in Decibel Magazine’s October issue). The song’s moody introduction sets a tense tone and slowly builds to a beautiful synth crescendo. “This was inspired by industrial music and black metal. The title roughly translates to ‘Death is the final accounting,’” Kent explains.

'Mors Ultima Ratio' follows album singles 'The Swimming Pool,' 'Apocalypse Now,' featuring lead vocals by Norwegian metal titan Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver), and 'The Art of War,' which earned praise and support from Brooklyn Vegan, Metal Injection, Exclaim!, Metal Sucks, The PRP, New Noise, MXDWN, and more. Later this year, PERTURBATOR will embark on a headlining tour of the UK and Europe - which sees him playing his biggest venues to date - including London, UK’s 02 Forum Kentish Town and two nights at Paris’ La Bataclan; a full itinerary is listed below and tickets are on-sale HERE.

Age of Aquarius is available for pre-order HERE.

On Age of Aquarius, PERTURBATOR offers up a more propulsive spin on his moody early work, showcasing his most confident, plainly beautiful, and thematically refined music to date. Where his previous album, 2021’s Lustful Sacraments, was about bad habits and addiction, his sixth LP - mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Opeth) and also featuring Alcest, Author & Punisher and Greta Link - explores how individualism, conflict, and war are interrelated and dominant societal forces. Both brutal and sublime, Age of Aquarius feels like the musical equivalent of a scream into the existential void.

Kent intentionally chooses very evocative song titles since most of his tracks lack lyrics and primarily convey mood through instrumentals. “I like to think of every album as a movie,” he says. “The tracks are all scenes from that one big movie.” The most brutal scene, then, is 'The Art of War,' which ranks among Kent’s hardest-hitting songs; its vivid, forceful production attests to the two and a half years he spent tirelessly mastering and elevating his signature style (he wrote, recorded, performed, produced, and mixed the record himself, minus the guest vocals and lyrics). The track embodies the very sound of going into battle, and it could well be the album’s thesis. “It's more of war as an idea than a concrete event,” Kent says about the LP’s subject matter. It’s no surprise his distinct style of electronic body music (EBM) - built on a DNA of post-punk, goth, and techno influences - has widely appealed to fans of new wave, industrial, and metal alike (his recent collaborators and tourmates HEALTH are an apt comparison).