Godfathers of Finnish metal, Sarcofagus, are just about to release their final album with the original line-up entitled Back From The Valley Of The Kings. Frontman / founder Kimmo Kuusniemi has issued a statement regarding the end of the band:

"We had great fun with the original Sarcofagus line-up during the reunion. The first album, Cycle Of Life, told a story that ended with the song 'Cycle Closes'. And this is what has happened to the original Sarcofagus; it is time close the past and move forward. This is going to be the last album featuring the original line-up.

Back in the '90s, I started to ponder whether it would be a cool idea to re-make the two first Sarcofagus albums, Cycle Of Life and Envoy Of Death. These albums were recorded 36 years ago, so the studio technology was fairly primitive. I have always thought that the songs themselves were good and worthy of an update.

The Back From The Valley Of The Kings album was recorded during ONE day studio session in 2010. Before this session, Sarcofagus had only played four times together (one rehearsal and three gigs) since reuniting. The idea was to achieve a fresh live and original '80s feel on the recording to both do justice to the songs and stay true to the originals. 

Although it was recorded in one day, this album proved to be the hardest I ever had to mix and master in my 40 year music producing career. The problem was to get the sounds right, as during the studio session there was no time to fiddle with individual instrument sounds. Also, the drums bled the other instruments and the Hammond Leslie speaker broke down in the middle of the recording. 

I'm very happy about the end result so this is an appropriate way to end this chapter of the original Sarcofagus; all done, all good, good bye."

Back From The Valley Of The Kings is now available for streaming in full here. A few tracks can be heard below.

Sarcofagus were founded an eye-rotatingly 38 years ago, way back in 1978. The band originally broke up in 1980 after three albums (Cycle Of Life - 1980, Envoy Of Death - also 1980, and Moottorilinnut - 1981). In 2010, the original line-up reconvened for a reunion tour of Finland and this unique album was the result.

The tracklist for Back From The Valley Of The Kings is as follows:

"Subconsious Penetrating"
"Astral Flyer"
"Here I Am"
"Eternal Silence"
"Stolen Salvation"
"Insane Rebels"
"Wheels Of Destruction"
"Back To Black"
"2nd Coming"
"Talo"
"Metallinen Sateenkaari"
"1000 Megawatin Totuus"
"Go To Hell"
"Envoy Of Death"
"Deadly Game"
"Die To Win"

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