CLOAK – introduce Above, Below, & Through with ‘Nigredo – Initium’ video

Written by EOS Editorial Team

November 13, 2026

CLOAK’s video for lead single ‘Nigredo – Initium’ introduces the first song written by the band’s new lineup. The track opens Above, Below, & Through, their fourth full-length and first album for Metal Blade Records, scheduled for February 12, 2027.

The Atlanta black metal quartet pairs founding vocalist/guitarist Scott Taysom and guitarist Max Brigham with bassist Rafay Nabeel and drummer Matt Morris. The announcement describes a period of change, hibernation and inspiration behind the album, with the new lineup’s initial composition providing its point of entry.

“A tale of being marked from the beginning,” the band says of the single. “‘Nigredo – Initium’ was the first song we started working on as a new lineup, which is very fitting considering the translated title. It is the initial door that opens to the world that is Above, Below, & Through, and the start of a new dark age.”

Taysom’s lyrics grew directly from the sound and inspiration of the music. The supplied lyric excerpt reads: “It flows within, but moves without. This timeless curse that binds us now.”

Across the album, CLOAK deliberately developed themes of liminality and duality. Taysom explains: “The main concepts of the songs were dealing with pathways between life and death, realms between dream and consciousness, shifts between beast and man, and the juxtaposition of shadow and light as spiritual guides.”

“The album title’s meaning became clear, as something both all-encompassing and complete, but also something liminal and transitional,” he continues. “This is represented in both the songs and the band itself at the time of writing the album.”

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, since forming in 2013, CLOAK connect the new material to their previous LP, Black Flame Eternal, while describing it as a separate work. “Above, Below, & Through takes everything that was great about our last LP, Black Flame Eternal, and amplifies it completely, while still standing as an album of its own,” the band says.

The announcement describes a fuller production than on previous CLOAK records, emphasizing large drums without a processed sound, rumbling bass and guitar tones with attack and focus. Recording involved producer Alex Parra and drum engineer John Douglass. Jordan Barlow created the cover artwork; the supplied press photograph is credited to Geoff Mitchell.

Preorders are available for CD, digital and vinyl editions. US vinyl variants are Electric Smoke and Metallic Marble. EU editions include 100g Black, Ivory Black Brown ‘Ripple’ and Mustard Sea Blue ‘Melt’; the latter two are each limited to 250 copies.