Long-running American metallers Pharaoh will return with their first studio album in nine years. Dubbed The Powers That Be, it will be released on June 18th, 2021 via Cruz Del Sur Music.




"I'd say the real push to get this done started in 2018 or so when Chris started tracking his drums," says Johnsen. "He did a couple of tunes at a time, so it took a while to finish them all. And then I had to record all the guitars, and I procrastinated that task for the better part of 2019. But I eventually got to work and I finished everything in early 2020. When Tim came to sing, it felt like we were on a roll and would be done quickly, but then of course the pandemic happened?"

The Powers That Be marked a change in the way Pharaoh recorded. Instead of tracking at MCR Studios in Virginia with longtime producer Matt Crooks, Black recorded drums on his own. Johnsen tracked everything else at his home studio, with Crooks re-amping all the guitars and bass. Being that the members of Pharaoh are spread out across the United States, finding time to get together has always been difficult. The global pandemic only amplified the situation.

"The first vocal session was completed a week or so before the lockdown happened," says Johnsen. "We waited for months to even consider starting up again, but we really had no choice, so Tim would ride the train out east and live here for a week at a time, and eventually, we got it all done. All things considered, the pandemic didn't make the process harder, because, for us, the process is always hard."

Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	Pharaoh