SERMON

SERMON are:
Harun Altun – vocals
Cem Barut – rhythm guitars
Durmuş Kalın – lead guitars, keyboards, effects
Mustafa Sır – bass
Serhan Tombul – drums

track-list:
Posthumous
Sliver/Splinter
Flawless Entropy
Requitement
Cerulean
Destined To Decline
Gnostic Dissensus
The Jupiterian Effect

‘Till Birth Do Us Part’ credits:
recorded at Studio DK (Izmir) by Durmuş Kalın
vocals for tracks 1, 4, 5 & 6 recorded at Studio Deep (Ankara)
vocals for tracks 2, 3, 7 & 8 recorded at Studio Negatif (Izmir)
artwork by Marcus Ganahl
illustration by Durmuş Kalın
digipack artwork by Slim Rödriguez

discography:
1997 Cosmic Prisoner Demo
1999 Sea of Meanings Demo
2004 Insanity Demo
2022 Sermon Single
2023 Till Birth Do Us Part Full-length

Turkey’s Doom Death Metal band Sermon, whose roots date back to ‘Moon’ band (founded in 1993), was founded in Izmir in 1997.
The band recorded its first demo, consisting of 2 songs, ‘Cosmic Prisoner’ in the same year it was founded.
After the first demo, the band recorded its second demo ‘Sea of Meanings’ in 1999 and released it via ‘YÜCEL Music’ label.
After this demo, Sermon received positive feedback from the audience and press of Turkey and other countries.
The success of this demo made it easier for the band to be recognized and Sermon became a well-known band in the metal community in Turkey.
The ‘Sea of Meanings’ demo, which attracted attention outside Turkey, was distributed in many countries and reached listeners in other countries.
Following this success, Sermon was invited to the program called ‘Rock Market’ broadcast on TRT, Turkey’s government television, and played their songs in the program.
After the other band members parted ways with Sermon wanted to continue their lives in different paths other than music, the band continued on its way with different musicians and recorded many songs until 2004.
However, these songs were not released by the band.
Towards the end of 2004, the band ended its musical activities and Sermon re-established the band in early 2021 with the only remaining member of the original lineup, guitarist Cem and lead guitarist Durmuş (Death Kiss, Ayasophia), who joined the band.
After Sermon was re-established, Cem and Durmuş started composing songs for the first Sermon album they wanted to release, adhering to the basics of the genre’s style without rushing anything.
The search for a vocalist during the recording process of the first full-length Sermon ‘Till Birth Do Us Part’ album ended with Harun Altun (Forgotten, Bayt Gadol), with his productive and excellent vocal style, taking over the vocal duties.
Harun’s excellent vocal performance in the songs and Durmuş’s excellent talent and creativity in guitars, keyboards, drums and compositions, as well as the incredible energy and extremely intense melodic yet dark atmosphere emanating from each song, Sermon opened a new page in the band’s overall sound.
While the recording of the album’s songs was continuing, the band released 3 songs (Posthumous – Requitement – Destined to Decline) selected from the upcoming album and completed the vocal recordings as singles in 2022 for promotional purposes.
This 3-song single received rave reviews from all over of the world, and this single was sent to record labels for the full-length album deal that the band wanted to make.
The single songs sent to Earache Records were liked a lot by Digby Pearson, the founder of Earache Records, and he invited Sermon to the Earache Records Digital Distribution platform to release Sermon’s songs on the platform.
Sermon was honored by the offer from Digby Pearson, the founder of the world-famous Earache Records, and accepted the invitation and released the songs as a single via Earache Records Digital Distribution.
After the recording of the album was completed, Sermon signed with French label Bitume Prods. to release their first full-length album ‘Till Birth Do Us Part’.
The band’s album ‘Till Birth Do Us Part’ was physically released in Digipack by Bitume Prods in February 2023, and the album was released on digital platforms by Earache Records Digital Distribution.
Sermon adopted a different perspective by expanding the style of music they have made in the past, adding new dynamics and changes to traditional Doom Death Metal to reflect their own style, but keeping it at the same level, with a wide energy impact and extremely intense atmosphere.
With ‘Till Birth Do Us Part’, the band has managed to reflect directly its versatility in its journey from its past to the present by the songs in the album.
The album ‘Till Birth Do Us Part’ received great positive reactions from the press all over the world after its release.
Interviews were held in magazines all over the world, reviews of the album were published in magazines, and the band was hosted on radio stations, and the band’s songs were played on various radio stations.
This album, which received praise beyond expectations, proved that Sermon’s productive inner potential, which comes from the depths of its musical essence by writing good music, is on a visible rise.
And this success of the album began to provide Sermon an ever-expanding fan base from all over the world.
The band proved that their musical success was not a coincidence, by selling out all copies in the label’s market, even though the French label did not have a distribution network.
The physical album is now just limited with the copies that remain with the band.
After the album, with the joining of Mustafa SIR – Bass (Çalar Saat) and Serhan TOMBUL – Drums (Leviathan and In Spite) who have proven their talents and experience in the well-established bands they played in, Sermon gained strength musically and constituted an ideal lineup to achieve its goals.
Sermon will continue to push you deeper into the dark abyss by stabbing its claws into your hearts with its wider and shape-shifting approach to music, that will inspire admiration without losing its atmosphere, and with its stronger & more intense melodies on the way, it will move forward…