Bay Area progressive metal act IN VIRTUE have revealed the cover artwork and tracklisting for their upcoming apocalyptic concept album, Embrace The Horror, due out January 1st, 2012.

Pre-sale orders are also now available here and include two immediate track downloads and bonus pictures.

Embrace The Horror tracklisting:

'Suspense Of Disbelief'

'Twin Species: The Virtuous And The Vengeful'

'Witch Hunt'

'In Service To His Madness'

'Alea Lacta Est'

'The Essence Of Unreason'

'Foresworn II – Parabola'

'Cataclysmic Shock'

'Dead Black Eyes'

'Afterture (Requiem For Planet Earth)'

The album artwork can be seen below:

Guitarist/vocalist/composer Trey Xavier says of the album: "It's been a lot of hard work for us as an independent band to create the kind of huge, sprawling epic sound we wanted without a huge label budget, but in the end it allowed us to make the exact album we wanted, and we are beholden to nobody. It has the scope and grandeur we were trying to capture on our first EP but with the refinements of time and experience. We really nailed the sound we were going for this time, with a lot of really interesting and freaky twists. The music is terrifying, in both lyrical concept and performance. Each song is a different possible apocalypse scenario - a biblical sized flood, the earth exploding from the core, a zombie pandemic, etc."

In regards to the cover: "It's a picture of the first person to look up and see that the world is about to come to an end. Everyone else is going about their business, but he is stopped dead in the middle of the street, bottom falling out of all he knows."

The band is currently seeking distribution, and the album will be released independently.