Photo by Gen Pintel
Everything Is Noise is currently streaming the self-titled debut full-length from black metal project, ENCASEMENT. The premiere comes in advance of the record’s official release on September 4th through a joint venture between Hypaethral Records and I, Voidhanger Records.
ENCASEMENT is the solo project of James Thompson, formed in 2024 through what began as a simple creative exercise and evolved into something far more personal. The venture found direction with the opening passage of “Exodus,” a moment that revealed not only a distinct musical voice, but also an unexpected connection to a collection of poems written years earlier. What followed was an intense and instinctive writing process. Songs arrived in bursts and gradually assembled into a record rooted in grief, reflection, and emotional release.
Elaborates Thompson, “In essence, Encasement is an album about perfectionism. It’s about letting go of self-criticism that no longer serves you and instead accepting yourself and reality. I have had a long-standing tendency to never forgive myself for mistakes, effectively segmenting my life into a timeline of errors. Over the last ten years or so, I’ve gradually come to understand how unhelpful and damaging this mindset can be – how it stifles growth, strains relationships, and causes a ton of unnecessary stress. I came to see this as a result of unrealistic expectations, and as a form of intellectual dishonesty rooted in an inability to afford myself empathy. It has taken a lot of work to internalize this, and to avoid viewing my time spent thinking this way as another mistake to dwell on.
“Making the album became an exercise in practicing this very thing. I tried to allow myself to create it freely and honestly without unhelpful self-judgement. I didn’t begin writing with any specific intention to adhere to this theme. In fact, I don’t think I really understood what it was about until it was done. It came out as the most natural and honest expression of something I’d been repressing for a long time, and I think this is reflected in the sound as much as the words.”
Adds Everything Is Noise, “ENCASEMENT is the project of James Thompson from Toronto, a guy capable of making himself sound like six or seven guys at once. The drumming, the angular and dissonant guitar work, the creeping bass, the haunting synths, and the ferocious chorus of vocals are top tier, especially in the one-man black metal band category…. Encasement crafts movements around mind-warping guitar work and familiar extreme metal tropes which, along with the morbid minor keys, creates a sensation of unease and unresolved tensions. Besides the brief intro track, every song feels like a precisely orchestrated exercise of intensity…”
Meet the Twisted Black Metal of Encasement With Their Selftitled Full Album Stream
Stream Encasement HERE.
Musically, ENCASEMENT is grounded in black metal but stretches beyond its traditional boundaries incorporating elements from both death metal and more progressive and experimental sources. Dense, angular, and mournful, the project draws from the intensity of artists such as Liturgy, Deafheaven, Thantifaxath, and Gorguts, while later stages of writing turned toward the orchestral drama of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Ravel.
Created almost entirely through instinct rather than formal production knowledge, ENCASEMENT embraces raw performances, unconventional production choices, and compositions pushed to the edge of Thompson’s own technical limits. The result is a debut that feels immediate, exposed, and singular.
Encasement was recorded, mixed, and mastered by James Thompson. The record will be released on LP (100 on Blood Red Vinyl) through Hypaethral Records and on CD (200, 6-panel digipack) through I, Voidhanger Records.
Find LP preorders at the Hypaethral webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE. Find CD preorders at I, Voidhanger’s EU shop HERE, US shop HERE, and Bandcamp HERE.
Encasement Track Listing:
- Inertia
- Exodus
- Apparitions
- The Pillory
- Absolution
- Fragmentation
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The post ENCASEMENT: Everything Is Noise Premieres Self-Titled Debut From Black Metal Solo Project; Record To See Release On September 4th Through Hypaethral Records And I, Voidhanger Records first appeared on Earsplit Compound.