EPK – Visitant – Rubidium (2025) (Exitus Stratagem Records)
Publicist – Jon Asher – exsr[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
Band: Visitant
Album Title: Rubidium
Label: Exitus Stratagem Records
Release Date: August 22, 2025
“We are hoping it is received positively. There are so many dynamic moments that grab you. We hope it resonates with people for years to come. We ultimately want this to take you on a journey. A story through sounds. If we can take people away from their woes through our music, we will consider it a success.” – Visitant
Tony: Imagine Dimmu and UADA being smashed together like action figures during recess.
Kilian: “This record, I think, threads the needle, blending a lot of different genres. But yes, imagine a bunch of metal bands as action figures in the best super smash bros type of way.”
Taylor: While the genre bending is ever present, the release as a whole works cohesively, every part making up a piece to the puzzle.
Chelsea: I really do think it’s genre-bending as well. I really didn’t actively approach it with that in mind, but I went for what I felt each part needed or made me feel. It was a freeing experience. I was hoping we could create something that was impactful. I think we did that. After you listen to the album from beginning to end, you feel like you were just on the biggest journey. It evokes all sorts of feels. Like damn.. I feel like I was audibly hit by a big ol bus. In a good way… if there was a good way!
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Spotify | Apple Music | Album pre-order – https://hypeddit.com/visitant/rubidium
Digital Single (Spotify) – https://hypeddit.com/visitant/fodder
“Visitant is here to utterly wreck your morning thanks to their brand new single “Fodder”, the first offering from their upcoming album Rubidium due out on August 23 via Exitus Stratagem Records. Visitant is vocalist Chelsea Marrow (Voraath, The Monster Factory, Doom Eternal, Hellblade 2, etc.), guitarist Taylor Tidwell, drummer Anthony Lusk-Simone (Abiotic, Lattermath & ex-Pathogenic), and bassist Kilian Duarte (Abiotic, Lattermath, Felix Martin & Scale The Summit). So a real powerhouse of a band that brings some savage energy to the metal world.” – Metal Injection
“Visitant introduce the song (Starless) with subdued classical strings and rippling piano keys which together create a sorrowful but entrancing mood. The gentle nature of that overture makes the sudden crash that follows it even more startling — a sudden attack of slashing and sizzling fretwork, gargantuan bass-moans, neck-cracking beats, savage roars, and scorching screams. The song continues to bring in classically influenced piano melodies coupled with vividly dancing guitars, creating an almost diabolical kind of elegance, but the song also ignites a blackened firestorm of blasting drums, delirious fretwork, and sweeping symphonics. The notes vibrantly dart and blaze as the rhythm section thunder, and the music both elevates to heights of daunting, haughty grandeur and sweeps like wildfire. The torrid and tormented vocals seem to hold nothing back, howling and screaming out on the bleeding edge of intensity, and as if the song couldn’t get any more extravagant, the band make room for a head-spinning guitar solo at the end, in the midst of lots of other equally head-spinning fretwork and rhythm-section spectacles.” – No Clean Singing
““Fodder“, presents different warps and wefts in its weave. Also presented through a video (this time we get to see the band perform), it was inspired by a very dark dream in which Chelsea attempted to bring a murdered friend back to life and lost her own life in the process, leaving the friend trapped in a hellish limbo, bound to a body over which their control had been lost to dark spirits. To be sure, this song is also musically extravagant. It features a lot of borderline deranged and technically demanding high-speed maneuvers (a tour de force that would make lots of tech-death bands jealous) but it’s also hallucinatory, and unhinged in many other respects. It further demonstrates that Chelsea Marrow can really sing, as well as howl like a wolf and scream like a goblin. It’s a highly theatrical experience, but also instrumentally kaleidoscopic and viscerally frightening, and the singing makes the song stand out as much as every other demented and dazzling aspect of it.” – No Clean Singing
“Emerging from the shadowy fringes of the metal scene, blackened death metal outfit Visitant has unleashed their riveting debut single, “Fodder.” Released as a precursor to their eagerly anticipated first full-length album, “Rubidium,” the track invites listeners into a deeply atmospheric yet punishing sonic landscape.” – See Rock Live Magazine
“Uniting seasoned musicians from the Extreme Metal underground scene with members known for their previous works in Abiotic, Scale the Summit, Unaligned and Voraath, Blackened Death Metal quartet Visitant have spent the better part of three years crafting a debut album. The promise is of something dark, beautiful, visceral and compelling with single “Fodder” an almost ritualistic journey that weaves ethereal elements into an unrelentingly aggressive soundscape. Turning personal experiences into ghost stories for the half an hour of power that is “Rubidium” caught the attention of Exitus Stratagem Records who will distribute the affair on 29th August.” – Metal Noise
“Visitant weaves ethereal elements into a soundscape that is as haunting as it is aggressive. Lyrically and musically, the band crafts immersive dreamscapes – ritualistic and unrelenting” DNA Entertainment
“Visitant by all accounts has an amazing lineup composing music for the project ” – Metal Purgatory
Band: Visitant
Album Title: Rubidium
Label: Exitus Stratagem Records
Release Date: August 22, 2025
Track Listing:
1. Unworldly – 4:48
2. Briars – 5:20
3. Starless – 5:07
4. Rubidium – 5:24
5. Fodder – 4:37
6. Envies Lament – 4:56
7. Moon Bathe – 2:38
Album Length: 32:50
Album Recording and Credits:
Taylor Tidwell, Anthony Lusk-Simone
All songs written by: Visitant
All songs performed by: Visitant
Producer: Anthony Lusk-Simone
Mixed By: Anthony Lusk-Simone
Mastered By: Jason Fisher
Album Art: Image by Chelsea Marrow with Maxwell Aston for layout and logo
Album Band Line Up:
Chelsea Marrow – Vocals
Kilian Duarte – Bass
Taylor Tidwell – Guitars
Anthony Lusk-Simone – Drums / Orchestration
Live Band Line Up:
Chelsea Marrow – Vocals
Taylor Tidwell – Guitar & Backing Vocals
Kilian Duarte or Anthony Wheeler – Bass
Sean Carpenter or Charles Webber – Drums
Thomas Weidick – Guitar
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About The Album Artwork:
The model was my friend, Aria. To me it resembles facing immortality. Something that haunts you throughout your time on this earth. As vivid as the red.
About the album as a whole (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):
Rubidium was sort of like shadow work for us. I feel like all of our albums will be like that. Embodying the bleakest parts of being human. Grief, loss, betrayal, vengeance, time lost, regret.
Track by Track (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):
1) Unworldly – Lyrically, this song expresses the overall theme of the album. We are haunted by the loss of time and the inescapable fact that everything is temporary. The visual I had while writing this song was that of a time-traveling man. Escaping the shell of what his old self used to be. He was trying to get to his younger self. His Time Machine had broken down. He was trapped in a limbo where he could see his old body in post-stroke form. And he could also see the young version. Almost like looking through aquarium glass. Stuck in a purgatory, watching a dream state for eternity. ** Musically it sounds like.. If Danny Elfman had a tea party with the Jackal from 13th Ghost. It was the first song we wrote for the album. We wanted to bring the bleakness with this track. Chelsea and Taylor had just split with their prior project and wanted this to come more into focus. We took what we thought were the best attributes of our first single and amped up as much as we could, adding a more progressive sound and speeding things up. Then Tony made the beautiful orchestrations that are throughout the track, and Killian laid down the base, which added all the beef
2) Briars – This one is a story of a man who doesn’t realize he’s died immediately. As he figures it out, he pleads that it wasn’t his time yet.. and as his pleads are not heard..he realizes that there is no god in the afterlife..no matter how big of a name you were.. or how much work you put into something, you’ll be forgotten in the end. I envisioned him being confined to a house.. his own home.. And the people.. even strangers coming and going in a time lapse as the house disintegrates around him. He just wants to be home. He’ll never have that again. Musically, this song was born very organically. The beginning of the composition came from a writing session between Taylor and Chelsea, from which the main riffs came. We wanted to make a very crushing and somber song with a bit of technicality, but overall, with an emphasis on the atmosphere. We wanted the song to have a lot of twists and turns and be as exciting as possible. We really wanted this one to grab you.
3) Starless: Starless lyrically is about self-preservation and protection, in a way. It embraces dark femininity. It’s about burying the darkest parts of you, letting them fester and unleashing it unto all who have hurt you while building walls shutting out the world. It evokes the embodiment of wrath and vengeance. It speaks from grief in the angry stage. It’s probably the darkest song on this album, I feel. Spiritually and musically. Starless was another song that was musically born in a very organic way. It was made during a writing session, and we pretty much wrote the bulk of the song at one time. This one we wanted it to be in your face and heavy, and compelling. The song was born naturally, and we think you can hear that in the song. This one, too, has a very bleak and somber atmosphere to it. We wanted to convey the pain.
4) Rubidium: Rubidium lyrically is about this deity or titan that lures humans to feed into the earth’s soil to keep forests alive. It must survive on human souls and tissue. In my mind, even the trees have human-like faces in their trunks. Almost organic enough to not notice, but so frequent in each tree that it’s hard not to. The people’s minds are washed of any humanistic qualities. All bow and lower to their knees to be absorbed by the sour soil. Musically speaking, the start of this song came from Taylor, who often times imagines animals or colors when writing music, decided he wanted to write a song that reminded him of a serpent. We wanted this song to slither into your ear and stay with you. This is one of the heavier tracks on the album and one of the more progressive songs.
5) Fodder: This song, lyrically, was written from a really dark dream. In the dream, I was wandering through the dark, I found a stone cottage with an altar in the center. It had a fireplace or hearth that was also stone and falling apart. Centuries old. I noticed a smell. Rot and decay. I look towards the hearth and I notice dripping. It was blood. I gather courage and peer into it. My friend, in the dream, had been murdered and his body had been shoved into the fireplace. A book appeared on the altar. Even though my ancestors warned me a thousand times over not to attempt to bring the dead back to life, I attempted anyway. Needless to say, the outcome was atrocious, and I lost my own life in the process. And my friend was stuck in this hellish limbo, existing in this body that no longer served him. The spirits from the darkest realms have taken over physicalities, as my friend was trapped to watch from the inside of the vessel with no control of his physical form.
In real time, this friend of mine killed himself years ago. I often wonder if it was just my mind processing it in a different way. How could he take his own life. It must have been someone else…
Musically, this song is so powerful. I feel like this captures our abilities so well, which is why we chose this as our first single. It’s just hard-hitting from the get-go, but still so melodic and feral. Musically, Fodder is a song that comes out swinging from the gate, heavy, punchy, dissonant, and groove-driven driven all the while retaining melody and a hook.
6) Envies Lament: Lyrically, this song touches base on sleep paralysis dreams, loss, and wanting life to end. When I first moved back to Pensacola, I was staying in my grandparents’ house. My grandfather passed away in this house. I began having those sorts of dreams a lot. I couldn’t see the figure, but in the dream, of course, I couldn’t move, but I felt the presence of a hand in mine. Another night of these dreams, the hand was that of a child’s. It just got weirder and weirder. I absolutely believe there was something attempting to get my attention there. The song delves into more personal experiences I’d like to keep to myself. I just didn’t want to be on this planet. It was a form of goodbye. I don’t feel that way so much these days.. I really hold on to life so intently. I know it is short. And I am so grateful to be here and with my bandmates. Musically, this track musically feels like you’re overcoming sorrow. It starts out big and sorrowful, and quickly picks up the pace with more thrash, driven parts, and hence back-and-forth at the sadness throughout, but ultimately it feels triumphant.
7) Moonbathe: This one doesn’t have lyrics. Just ambient, powerful vocals, and crushing yet epic guitar/bass parts and orchestrations. It takes you on a journey that is quite different than the rest of the album. It feels like it’s a resolution. The feeling that’s there after experiencing stages of grief. The journey continues even still. *Rides off into the sunset.” Our drummer/engineer, Anthony Lusk-Simone, said it sounds like.. “If Opeth got lost in the desert,” musically, this song was intended to be an intro or an interlude, but we liked it so much we turned it into a full song. We wanted the end to have this big, beautiful, sprawling soundscape to it.
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Fun Facts – Story Angles:
1) Half of us live in Massachusetts, and the other half live in Pensacola. It’s been a revisited question of how we are able to make it work. I fly to MA as often as I can to record and hang out with Tony and Kilian. In the future, Taylor and I both plan to fly to MA to write. As far as live performances, we have stand-ins if any of us is unable to make it.
2) Overall concept of the band, we “create a haunting dreamscape, wrought for the embodiment of restless and vengeful spirits”
“Deep is the heart.. Forged in the mire”
3) We recorded layers of vocals throughout the album on a Disney Princess mic. It created really cool lo-fi tones. Gritty as hell with harsh vocals
4) Our drummer, Tony, engineers and creates orchestrations for our music. He and I have also tag-teamed the videography so far. We brainstorm video concepts and visuals together.
5) Kilian our bass player when he first heard the music and concepts “ oh thank god . we have fucking choruses” or something to that extent. Emphasising the lack of hooks, melodies, and return to ideas in a lot of metal music. We like the idea of creating something that not just musicians can appreciate.. Something that is relatable to all. Something that can bring you to a different world, mentally, while retaining interest throughout. It’s a story. Told from beyond. At least we envision it that way.
Visitant is a Blackened Death Metal band that weaves ethereal elements into a soundscape that is as haunting as it is aggressive. Lyrically and musically, the band crafts immersive dreamscapes—ritualistic and unrelenting—that channel the essence of restless, vengeful spirits.
For fans of Gojira, Opeth, Naglfar, and Between the Buried and Me, Visitant offers a visceral experience that transcends genre boundaries.
The band features a lineup of seasoned musicians:
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Anthony Lusk-Simone (drums) – Abiotic, Lattermath, formerly Pathogenic
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Kilian Duarte (bass) – Abiotic, Lattermath, Felix Martin, Scale the Summit
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Taylor Tidwell (guitar) – Unaligned, Withered Throne
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Chelsea Marrow (vocals) – Voraath, The Monster Factory
Formed in February 2022 by founding members Taylor Tidwell and Chelsea Marrow, the band builds on a strong collaborative history. Chelsea’s vocal work can also be heard in acclaimed video games such as DOOM ETERNAL and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.
Visitant is signed to Exitus Stratagem Records and will release their debut album, Rubidium, on August 22, 2025.
Album Band Line Up:
Chelsea Marrow – Vocals
Kilian Duarte – Bass
Taylor Tidwell – Guitars
Anthony Lusk-Simone – Drums / Orchestration
Live Band Line Up:
Chelsea Marrow – Vocals
Taylor Tidwell – Guitar & Backing Vocals
Kilian Duarte or Anthony Wheeler – Bass
Sean Carpenter or Charles Webber – Drums
Thomas Weidick – Guitar
Discography:
2025 (August) – Rubidum – Album
2022 – Dematerialization – Single
Artists Endorsements: CAD AUDIO, KIESEL, DARKGLASS ELECTRONICS, VOLTA INNOVATION, GHS, ARACHNID CABINETS
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