Pedestal for Leviathan return this Halloween, Friday October 31st, with the full-length “Enter: Vampyric Manifestation”. The project comes from Denver, Colorado, founded by vocalist/guitarist Kendrick Lemke in 2024 as a way to weld brutal death metal riffing into the symphonic, extreme blackened atmosphere of Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir.
A corporeal lineup manifested in 2025, bringing the material to the stage with Lemke joined by guitarist Mathew Meyer, bassist Noah Fithen, and drummer Corbin Echtermeyer.
The new album was written, recorded, and mixed by Lemke, with guitar reamping and mastering handled by Meyer at 140 Audio. Artwork comes by Alexander Kemp, while the logo again arrives through Daniel Hermosilla at Nox Fragor Artworks.
Gurgling Gore Records will be doing cassettes and Personal Records will be doing CDs, both releasing December 12th. CD pre-orders are live right now and tape pre-orders will be live November 14th.
This follows last year’s independently released EP “Festering Apparition,” which hit on October 25th, 2024 and saw a limited cassette run via Third Impact Records.
That release was written, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Lemke, and surrounded by artwork and framing from Thaumaturge Artworks. It drew unusual praise from small but focused corners of extreme music media.
“Top EP of the Year. I’ve never heard anything quite like Festering Apparition, and that rules,” wrote Kep from Noob Heavy, calling the hybrid of “symphonic ‘purple castle’ black metal and brutal death” strangely effective. Spencer Hotz at Last Rites landed it at “#2 EP of the Year,” describing it as “cheeseball keys that would fit on an early Cradle of Filth album” before the brutality kicks in, comparing the energy to Fleshgod Apocalypse filtered through New Standard Elite. Sleeping Village Reviews noted the “muscular heft” and “atmospheric patina layered thickly,” pointing out how “Nightshade Familiar” hits as a bruiser. Westword included it in their “Best New Music by Colorado Musicians in October.”
The roots of the project reach back to Lemke hearing Cradle of Filth’s “Lord Abortion” more than a decade ago. “I thought it sounded psychotic,” he says, especially the mid-song break with violins and manic vocals. Albums like “Midian,” “V Empire,” “Damnation and a Day,” and “Nymphetamine” stuck. He had already heard Dimmu Borgir and Zonaria, but this style hit differently, creating the seed for something heavier. Around 2021, he began experimenting with strings, organ, and choirs “in the Cradle of Filth fashion,” but pushed into heavier death metal territory. While his background sits deeper in death metal, recent years sent him further into black metal through friends Noah, Aaron (Hysteresis), and Tony (Niveous), with Immortal and Emperor factoring into the project’s DNA.
He keeps a foot in death metal first. “I really enjoy when the black metal is on the riffier side like Immortal, Tsjuder, and 1349.” War metal, melodic variants, blackened hybrids, and adjacent projects stay in rotation, with recent listening including Carpathian Forest, Hulder, Silent Millenia, Sacramentum (“RIP Nisse”), Stormkeep (shoutout Colorado), Ninkharsag, Uada, Suffering Hour, Proscription, and Runemagick. He assumes traditionalists may pass on the project. “My goal is just to make very heavy music that incorporates the symphonic blackened atmosphere of bands like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth.” He sees the core leaning into death metal riffing and vocals. Whether future releases bend further blackened is undecided.
On the death metal side, he leans into the brutal spectrum. Devourment’s “Obscene Majesty” stands as one of his favorites. Malignancy, Cattle Decapitation, Dying Fetus, Skinless, Deicide, Nithing, and Defeated Sanity all factor into his taste. Newer bands he follows include Tribal Gaze, Vomit Forth, Undeath, 200 Stab Wounds, Our Place of Worship is Silence, Sanguisugabogg, and Malignant Altar.
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Horror cinema and vampire mythology seep directly into the songs. “Lycanthropichrist” draws heavily from Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Most of the Underworld films sit among his favorites. He first saw Rise of the Lycans as a teenager and immediately watched the earlier entries. He admits the franchise fell off after the third, but thinks Blood Wars was “okay.” He cites Bram Stoker’s Dracula as an all-time favorite, though bassist Noah will “kill” him for owning the book without reading it yet. The recent Nosferatu hit for him, with parallels to From Dusk Till Dawn felt through the movie Sinners. Queen of the Damned sits in the pile of classics.
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Body-horror auteurs feed the broader artistic atmosphere. David Cronenberg stands as a personal favorite. “The Fly, Videodrome, Naked Lunch, Crash, eXistenZ, Crimes of the Future, Scanners, The Brood… the list just goes on,” he says, crediting friend Nick for the introduction. He calls Cronenberg a genius and “maybe the best overall ‘body horror’ director.” He follows his son Brandon Cronenberg’s films too, pointing toward Possessor, Antiviral, and Infinity Pool. David Lynch factors into his taste as well. Twin Peaks drew him in, with Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Lost Highway sitting as standouts. Inland Empire still needs another watch or two. While these directors do not directly shape the songs, he says they influence him as an artist and recharge his inspiration.
The project’s aesthetic also draws from medieval-tinged video games and Lovecraft-adjacent worlds. Hexen: Beyond Heretic became a long-running favorite, originally played through an N64 version in split-screen with his wife. A remaster on Steam recently pulled him back. “Hexen is like the first couple Doom games but medieval-themed and more puzzle-oriented.” FromSoft titles play a role too. Bloodborne lands as a major influence, praised for its gothic, steampunk, werewolf-heavy, Lovecraft energy. He came to the genre through the Demon’s Souls remaster, then moved to Bloodborne, and now waits on The Duskbloods. While writing “Karmic Recollection Mirror,” he pictured the new Doom trilogy, channeling imagery of a mirror in hell and “becoming demon.”
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Colorado’s underground ecosystem helps push everything forward. “The Colorado scene is lucky to be home to the legendaries Primitive Man and Blood Incantation,” Lemke says, noting how members also branch into Spectral Voice, Vermin Womb, Black Curse, and Stormkeep. He points toward DIY spaces like D3 Arts and Seventh Circle Music Collective, with younger bands such as Vitriolic Withering and Consanguinity gaining traction. Their bassist Noah, along with Owen from Spear of Cassius / behindcoloredglass, run shows as @DoubleFeatureDenver, supporting younger talent and bringing touring bands into the fold.
Meyer contributes heavily to local recording culture through @140Audio, which helps younger bands secure legitimate sessions and learn along the way. He reamped guitars and mastered “Enter: Vampyric Manifestation.” He adds, “I love Denver hardcore and screamo. The kids ride for everything. Shout out spoilthemoment shout out moyrustang shout out Scorplings (rip) shoutout Ukkos Hammer shout out Victim of Fire.” He reflects on now playing packed rooms after growing up performing to almost no one, saying it makes him emotional when younger players say they look up to him, then adds they “should look up to Kurt Ballou” instead.
Under a pale Colorado moon, this project stays dedicated to pushing death metal into symphonic blackened shadows, borrowing atmosphere from gothic castles, medieval dread, and cinematic vampyr lore. Lemke keeps the future loose: “Might toe the line more for the next release, might not, we’ll see what happens.”
