Photo courtesy of Relapse Records

The long awaited follow-up to Horseback’s 2009 epic, The Invisible Mountain, has finally been announced. Half Blood will be released by the big-fish metal label Relapse Records (which re-released TIM in 2010) on May 8.

Horseback has explored plenty of divergent directions on the spate of limited releases and collaborations recorded and issued since TIM. And Horseback’s figurehead Jenks Miller said in a press release, Half Blood is “the band’s most ambitious record to date that represents a synthesis of the approaches we’ve explored in the past.” Still, early glimpses of Half Blood (see below) suggest a return to the blackened-twang and smoky doom that earned TIM its acclaim.

“Ahriman,” the album’s second of seven tracks, is streaming below. The album’s cover art — by Denis Forkas Kostromitin — and tracklist appear below that. —Bryan C. Reed

1. Mithras
2. Ahriman
3. Inheritance (The Changeling)
4. Arjuna
5. Hallucigenia I:  Hermetic Gifts
6. Hallucigenia II:  Spiritual Junk
7. Hallucigenia III: The Emerald Tablet