The system is failing, the clock is running down. Our proud empire crumbles as we vacate our throne and slip quietly into the dark spaces behind the walls. We are ghosts in our own machines…unneeded, unwanted, unnecessary. We run with the rats amidst the rusting pipes - tired, ineffectual viruses on a gradual, inevitable path to extinction. The world is waking from our fading dream and there is no place for us in this brave new existence of our own creation. Time has moved on and we will soon be forgotten.

In late 2025 Harrison McKenzie of New Zealand's prime purveyors of atmospheric black metal, Olde Throne, turned his attention to a personal exploration of experimental, blackened death metal, inspired by societal decline and humanity's self-propelled descent into absolute obsolescence. This project became Immiserator, a potent force combining vicious riffs and desolate atmosphere, a cold, mechanistic soul and deeply affecting emotion. Having signed with Apocalyptic Witchcraft, committed champions of challenging, boundary smashing, extreme musical art, McKenzie is now ready to unveil Immiserator's devastating debut album - Blight Of Subsistence.

The album opens with the bleak, martial advance of 'Engine Of Collapse' which erupts into an overwhelming swarm of blackened death metal madness as its fuse is lit. Once unleashed this track seems to pursue you with a relentless tenacity and like running before an avalanche, the outcome of the chase is inevitable. Excoriating screams and haunting chants speak of our ultimate downfall as an atmospheric mist of fear and despair rises up between the enmeshing teeth of cascading, dissonant riffs. From this decimating beginning Blight Of Subsistence just becomes heavier and darker in every aspect, its grip on your consciousness tighter and increasingly inescapable; from the serrated, saw blade riffs and imperious gravitas of 'Consigned To The Furnace', to 'Age Of Consumption', a haunting, disorientating, grief-ridden lament for humanity - a stuttering, broken heartbeat drowning in sorrow beneath the towering walls of the suffocating machine. Even 'A Brief Suspension Between Use And Obsolescence', which isolates and exposes the atmosphere that pervades the secret places of the other songs, creating a quiet meditation on the inevitability of the end, is crushing in its portentous weight. The penultimate 'Inevitable Destiny' encapsulates the essence of Blight Of Subsistence, its melody lines imbued with a profound sadness and an aura of resignation that is chilling. And it all leads to the album's title track, 'Blight Of Subsistence', a roiling, turbulent storm cloud of riffs and rhythms. At its heart the presence of a mournful saxophone is a masterstroke that bleeds into a remarkable guitar solo, the intensity building, climbing towards oblivion…which, when it comes is disarmingly peaceful…as the fear, the panic, the dread, the anticipation of agony all dissipate into silent darkness.

Written, performed and recorded by Harrison McKenzie, Blight Of Subsistence is a monumental work of enthralling extremity. With its uncompromising vision and emotive, all-encompassing atmosphere, this album is essential listening for those who tirelessly search the outlying territories of music for truly individual, deeply impactful, thought-provoking albums with unfathomable depths to explore. Apocalyptic Witchcraft will release Blight Of Subsistence on August 28th, on limited edition digipak CD, cassette and digital formats. The Immiserator story has begun.

PRE-ORDER released August 28th