Gold Vinyl. Portland progressive sludge masters Lord Dying transform tragedy into triumph. A pair of albums powered by skull-crushing riffs and confrontational howls introduced the doom dogs to the world. In 2019, they delivered Mysterium Tremendum, a record Kerrang! Declared a "prog-metal masterpiece."

The heady and adventurous existential meditation on death kicked off a trilogy. That story continues in 2023 with an increasingly ambitious follow-up, the aptly named Clandestine Transcendence.

"Ultimately, the album is about self-discovery and becoming what you want to become in the face of adversity, no matter how the cards are stacked against you," Olson says. "I'm not really a spiritual person. But a lyric on the album talks about the transformation of energy, how matter cannot be created or destroyed. It's from a scientific standpoint." He laughs. "But maybe the science is spiritual."