Metal horror band, From Hell, returns in 2020 with a new album called Rats & Ravens. Staying true to the vision that each release is a concept album, Aleister Sinn (the live persona of George Anderson, creator/writer of From Hell), releases an album both dark and sinister. New single and video, "The Witch", is streaming below:

"The story is about a witch who desires children of her own and steals them from the villages nearby. When she kills them, she traps the ravens who come for their souls. She keeps the children on this earth, reanimates their corpses with rats and calls them Lilium." - Aleister Sinn

Mid 13th Century… somewhere in eastern Europe: “A father disturbs an evil in the east. A witch comes to steal his son and the children of the village to make them her own. She sacrifices them and reanimates the dead with the blessings from the god of vermin. With rats, she brings them back to life and calls them Lilium.”

Rats & Ravens is out now; order on iTunes and other digital retailers here.

Rats & Ravens features Aleister Sinn on vocals and guitar, Wes Anderson on drums, Stephen Paul Goodwin on bass and Steve Smyth on lead guitar. As the band rehearsed the songs with Sinn, the richness of what Wes, Steve, and Stephen brought to the material from their varied backgrounds of musical experience added a depth to each song that was later realized in the final recordings.

From Hell recorded the album with Greg Wilkinson (High on Fire, Necrot, Autopsy) at Earhammer Studio in Oakland, CA. Sinn says, “When we returned from tour in Russia 2017, we recorded two new songs with Greg and we really liked working with Greg and what we heard. He records bands in a more natural way than many metal engineers and producers and doesn’t rely on sound replacement, but captures great tones to start with and the final mixes of our album came out very natural sounding, heavy and produced, but not over-produced. I personally am pleased.”

Mastering was handled by Maor Appelbaum (Faith No More, Annhilator, Cynic) at MaorAppelbaum Mastering in Los Angeles.

George Anderson (aka Aleister Sinn) has played guitar and vocals for the SF Bay area bands Down Factor and Grandma, a tribute to King Diamond. Wes Anderson has played drums for Les Claypool, Idiot Flesh, Blind Illusion, Young Lions (Noah of Neurosis), SOSA, and Kehoe Nation. Steve Smyth has played guitar for Testament, Nevermore, Dragonlord, Forbidden, Vicious Rumors and One Machine. Stephen Paul Goodwin on bass has played for Vicious Rumors, Diablo Dukes, Journey Unauthorized and has played or recorded with Brad Gillis, Mick Mestec, Eric Peterson, Will Carroll, Phil Bennett, Sticks Hooper, Eric Barnett and Salar Nader.

Rats & Ravens is the follow up to the first From Hell album Ascent From Hell, which is as heavy as it is epic. The album tells a horror story about a corpse that wakes up in Hell only to find he must go back to earth, recover his soul that still lives inside another body and drag it back to Hell. Ascent From Hell featured metal icons Paul Bostaph, Steve Smyth, and Damien Sisson.

"Lilium" lyric video: