Metal Blade Records has issued the following:

MIDDIAN – featuring Mike Scheidt, former band leader of YOB – are about to release their debut album, Age Eternal on March 23rd (G/A/S), March 26th (Europe).

Middian is: Mike S (guitar and vox), Will Lindsay (bass and vocals), Scott Headrick (drums).

Mike Scheidt about the end of YOB: “After YOB got back home from our last tour in 2005, it became very obvious that our individual goals in the band had changed. Travis Foster and Isamu Sato both left the band after we explored options for keeping YOB together. Neither of them had the stomach for touring anymore, and I knew I wanted to keep touring and moving forward. After about 8 months of thought as whether to continue with what would be YOB’s 5th line-up after Isamu and Travis left, and after trying out some fine musicians, I decided to let YOB go.”

Mike Scheidt about Middian: “So I decided to start a new band: very much in the vein of YOB, but more angry and mid-paced on average, but still with roots in slow DOOM and the cosmic vibe that was a part of YOB. Middian is that band. In my mind I was already thinking about who I was going to approach for a rhythm section: My friends Will Lindsay on bass and Scott Headrick on drums. They are both very experienced musicians who, while having roots in extreme music, neither had played DOOM influenced music before. I wanted a fresh take on the riffs I was writing. Luckily they were both into it, and we have been having a blast ever since.”

Mike Scheidt about Age Eternal: “Age Eternal is our first album together, and we are very happy with it overall. It is a solid first album for us and is setting the blueprint for what we do: DOOM and stoner influenced HEAVY music without it being either. It has lots of lurching faster riffs and chord melody not unlike YOB, but yet it is different. It is more urgent, straight-forward, and punk influenced in many ways, and our bassist Will shares vocal duties with me. The band is extremely collaborative even though I write the tunes thus far. We all have strong ideas and opinions that mesh very well and it culminated in Age Eternal. Plus there is guest vocals from Ben Ward of ORANGE GOBLIN on the last song 'Sink To The Center' and noise samples from THE MONSTERS OF POT from Minneapolis, Minnesota. We are very proud to have our first album released by Metal Blade Records.”

Tracklisting for Age Eternal: 'Dreamless Eye', 'The Blood Of Icons', 'Age Eternal', 'The Celebrant', 'Sink To The Center'.

Check out Middian on the net and listen to 'The Celebrant' at http://www.myspace.com/middiandoom .