Onsetcold returns with “The Gates of Hell Are in Heaven,” a new single and video that pushes the project’s uncompromising approach to extreme metal into new territory. Out now via Wormholedeath, the nearly eight-minute track reworks ideas from the 2020 Death Blast project into a distinct sonic identity, connecting the project’s earlier work with the world of Apocalyptic Sleep (2025).
Watch the official video:
Set 3,000 years in the past, “The Gates of Hell Are in Heaven” explores the human condition's demonic resonance. Conceived as a prelude to Apocalyptic Sleep, the track takes Onsetcold’s earlier material in a new direction, building a sound that reflects the project’s restless, experimental nature.
The production is central to that approach. In several sections, a MIDI keyboard converted to audio replaces guitars, creating unconventional playing patterns that would be difficult to reproduce naturally on other instruments. The result is a track shaped by deliberate sonic choices rather than conventional genre boundaries.
Onsetcold continues to operate on its own terms, treating extreme metal as a space for experimentation, disorientation, and constant reinvention. “The Gates of Hell Are in Heaven” offers another glimpse into that process, bridging the project’s past and present while opening a new chapter in its evolving sound.
The single features vocals by Shaq and Seiza. Shaq handled the recording, instrumentation, mixing, and mastering. The cover artwork is an oil painting titled The Death of Art, by Shaq.
About Onsetcold
Onsetcold is a post-apocalyptic extreme metal project built around heaviness, unpredictability and sonic experimentation. Moving between black metal, death metal, symphonic grandeur and avant-garde disruption, the project resists fixed genre boundaries in favour of a sound that is constantly shifting.
Across Art Destroyer, Death Blast (2020) and Noam Chomsky (2023), Onsetcold has approached each release as a different experiment in breaking musical conventions. The 2025 album Apocalyptic Sleep pushed that approach further across ten movements, combining black-metal atmosphere, death-metal aggression, symphonic scale and unexpected electronic influences into a single, unstable structure.
With “The Gates of Hell Are in Heaven,” Onsetcold revisits its earlier work to create something that stands on its own while remaining connected to the project's wider vision.
ONLINE
LINEUP
Shaq - Music/Vocals
Seiza Friedrich - Vocals
BIOGRAPHY/LOGO
Onsetcold is an avant-garde death metal band from Northwich, Cheshire, England, formed in 2003. Known for their unconventional approach to extreme metal, the band combines death metal aggression with experimental arrangements, atmospheric keyboards, black metal influences, and apocalyptic themes.
During their early years, Onsetcold developed their sound through a series of EPs, including *Sadness* (2004), *Pig* (2005), and *Like I Care* (2005), followed by a self-titled demo in 2006. Their self-titled debut full-length album arrived in 2008 through WormHoleDeath, introducing a bleak musical vision built around destruction, human darkness, and the aftermath of a dying world.
Following a period of inactivity beginning in 2010, Onsetcold returned in 2013 with founding member Shaq taking responsibility for vocals and instrumentation. The project continued to evolve, resulting in *Arte Destroyer* (2020), the *Death Blast* EP (2020), and *Noam Chomsky* (2023). These releases further explored the band's experimental tendencies and willingness to move beyond conventional death metal structures.
In 2025, Onsetcold released *Apocalyptic Sleep* through WormHoleDeath. Featuring ten tracks, the album combines death metal, symphonic black metal, electronic elements, and avant-garde experimentation. The recording features Shaq handling the music and vocals alongside vocalist Seiza Friedrich, with mixing and mastering by Dan Mullins of My Dying Bride.
With an unpredictable sound and a fascination with apocalypse, collapse, and human suffering, Onsetcold continues to pursue an uncompromising and distinctly experimental interpretation of extreme metal.
DISCOGRAPHY
Demos:
Onsetcold - 2006
Full-length albums:
Onsetcold - 2008
Arte Destroyer - 2020
Noam Chomsky - 2023
Apocalyptic Sleep - 2025
EPs:
Sadness - 2004
Pig - 2005
Like I Care - 2005
Death Blast - 2020
GENRE/COUNTRY
Avant-garde Death Metal
United Kingdom
