Hexvessel have released a new single, “Closing Circles”, from their forthcoming All Tree album, to celebrate the Winter Solstice. All Tree will be released on February 15th.

Mat McNerney says:  "Another solar year begins. Death and rebirth, both physical and metaphorical. As we celebrate Winter Solstice, we offer this symbolic sacrifice for you to partake. Two songs which carry great weight and meaning for us. The first of which is the closing ritual from our new album All Tree, called Closing Circles. The sun’s course reaches it’s lowest noon altitude and we mark the end and the beginning of another year of light. Closing Circles bids fare well to those we have lost. Light illuminates the darkness and we are purged and renewed once more, to shine onwards. […] May you have a blessed winter solstice and hold those you love dearly close. The blacker the sun, the darker the dawn."

You can watch a beautiful live version of the song, filmed at the mental institution in Pitkäniemi, Nokia, below:

All Tree is out on February 15th, and is available to pre-order now as Ltd. CD Digipak, Ltd. Gatefold LP & LP-Booklet, Digital Album, along with merch bundles here.

Mat McNernery comments on All Tree, the successor to the band’s highly acclaimed album “When We Are Death” (2016):

“All Tree is not just about going back to the heart of Hexvessel, with a slight return to our forest folk roots, it’s about drawing fresh inspiration from my own heritage too. The English pastoral folk influences are infused with Celtic mythology from my Anglo-Irish blood, with Finnish nature as our backdrop.

"From the Canterbury folk scene and early prog bands that sound tracked my youth in England, to the ghost stories I was told as a child on my uncle’s farm in Ireland, this album is a spiritual journey where the old myths are doorways to enlightenment. The dawn light across boggy fields, the wind blowing through the keyhole, the branches dragging their breath inwards as the seasons ignite a magic sense of mystery about the wilderness. That’s what we tried to bring out into the songs on this album. By bowing old dead tree branches with violin bows, by summoning the sounds of the fire and the birds in the field outside, we gave the music a life which, like the liminal spirits of Samhain drifts in and out of this world. That's what folk means. It's the countryside singing out from within me. It’s their story we sing. And no matter where I go or where I end up staying, it's that folk countryside which is the seed from which I sprang. All Tree."

“Old Tree”: