Montreal progressive extreme metal band Meridian Veil have announced their debut album, Forgotten Sun, out 22 January 2027 on Season of Mist. The band is Cryptopsy vocalist Matt McGachy, former Agonist guitarist Danny Marino, Seven Spires drummer Dylan Gowan and cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne, who tours with Leprous. The first single, The Watcher, is out now with a video.
Forgotten Sun is a concept album told from the point of view of an artificial superintelligence programmed to do good. The Watcher opens the record with the AI’s arrival in the world. “As the album unfolds, the A.I. stops being benevolent and starts to become controlling,” Marino says. “It steps in to fix our mistakes, only to end up with disastrous results.”
Marino and McGachy met in the early 2000s, when both were growing up in Montreal, and first talked about the band then. Touring with The Agonist and Cryptopsy kept it on hold until 2024, when the two got together at Marino’s home for what became the first writing and recording session for the album.
“From the beginning, more than 20 years ago, I wanted Meridian Veil to be deeply emotional,” Marino says. “Even though Forgotten Sun gets heavy, there’s a deep longing that runs through the cautionary tale at the album’s core.”
McGachy, who sang both harsh and clean vocals in 3 Mile Scream and The Era Of before this, uses both here. “I remember going home and feeling super excited,” he says of that first session. “Forgotten Sun is an interesting, exciting and very melodic album. Singing on it was freeing for me. I’m happy to show that side of myself.”
Marino knew Gowan’s playing from shows The Agonist played and from his online drumming videos. Bringing in a cellist where a second guitarist would normally go came later, after he saw Weinroth-Browne open for Leprous.
“Upon hearing the demos for Forgotten Sun, I was struck by the quality of the songwriting,” Weinroth-Browne says. “There was a lot of room for me to contribute leads, melodies, lush harmonies and heavily distorted sounds. I believe the album captures the best aspects of 2000’s death and prog metal with a distinctly modern approach.”
Gowan describes the result as “progressive metal with a very dark atmosphere and thought-provoking lyrics,” and puts that down to the mix of backgrounds: “When you have a band that involves writers from different styles, you get something really unique.”
Marino says the album’s subject is the gap between people and the technology they have built. “The central tension of the album is the friction between machine logic and human biology,” he says. “We’ve never had more, and yet everybody is depressed. Technology is evolving far faster than the actual evolution of our species. It’s going so fast that soon we’ll be at the point where we are completely disconnected from it.”
Christian Donaldson produced and engineered the vocals, guitars and drums, and mixed and mastered the album at The Grid. Darren Mcgill produced and engineered the cello at Union Sound Studio, and additional guitars were recorded at PHG Studios. The cover art is by Sean Mundy. The eight tracks run 45 minutes and 47 seconds. No live dates have been announced.
Forgotten Sun tracklist
- The Watcher
- Orpheus Before the Light
- Ashen Genesis
- False Shepherd
- Only Perfection
- Downfall
- Children of Betrayal
- The Last Garden
Photos – Sean Mundy
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