- For the Season 2016 Mastery, see .
- For the Season 2018 Rune, see .
Lore
Grasp of the Undying |
No one shreds like the undead |
04-Aug-2017 |
We asked Pentakill how much to charge for the record but the only number they gave us was the beast's. |
The infernal prophecy of Pentakill: born of shadow, forged in flame, metal as hell.
Their last performance ended the band - and the lives of the audience. But Pentakill didn't stay dead for long and, now, no stage can escape the grasp of the undying.
Aftermath
When the sky in the far north of the Freljord grows dark and warriors gather around the hearthfire embers, they sometimes speak of a deathly night on the ice, of murderous rage unbound. It is a tale only spoken of in hushed, awed whispers. Some claim it is no more than a legend invented to frighten youngsters, others claim that even to speak of it is to invite the return of those metal warriors from their tour of the realms beyond. None lived to tell of this grim night but, sometimes, a reckless taleteller speaks of a berserk axeman reaping lives with his axe. They whisper that not even his brothers could restrain his fury. Only by bringing a mountain down upon the metal giant was his rampage halted.
Thus did Pentakill's last live performance end.
- South of Heaven
Accounts of Runeterra variously speak of her borne by a fiery comet that split the sky or straddling the girth of a glittering, serpentine . These are just two of the legends of how Kayle came to walk among mortals. Gleaming in jagged warplate, she was a golden warrior goddess from a strife-torn world in search of allies to fight an epic war against the diabolical hordes of her faithless . Planet Earth had failed to produced warriors of mettle, so she travelled to Runeterra in search of warriors of metal.
arrival inSo rarefied was divine speech that she could only communicate via grand, symphonic metal operas that told of her plight. The depthless sorrow of these operatic arias pierced the hearts of all who heard them and her listeners were frequently overcome with such overwhelming melancholy that they simply dropped dead at the end of her performance. But since each song was typically many hours long, they had time enough to put their affairs in order before death took them. Yet, for all the heart-rending emotion contained in her lyrics, none of her audiences could truly understand the depths of her woes, no one could hear the sorrow of her existence without immediately perishing.
No one except Karthus.
- Beneath the Remains
After the disastrous end to their last live performance, where Mordekaiser destroyed the entirety of the Freljordian crowd, gave the fateful order for Olaf to drum the 'Worldsplitter Rhythm' that sundered the land and brought down the icy realm's highest peak upon Mordekaiser. As the rock of the mountain cascaded down, the band fled to the far corners of Runeterra to escape the wrath of Freljordian battle queens and the raft of inevitable blood feuds.
Karthus pitched up in Bilgewater, earning a crust as a hooded reciter of funeral dirges. This had an unexpected health benefit to natives of Bilgewater, as people started looking after themselves rather than have to put their families through such an ordeal. So Karthus toured the most squalid and fetid dive bars to sing at the drunken wakes of murdered pirates, instead - what with grim dirges being a vast improvement on sea-shanties. A slow descent into madness and obscurity beckoned until the radiant form of Kayle arrived in Bilgewater.
She heard the depthless well of misery in his despairing lyrics and knew Karthus alone could understand her own sorrow. What followed was a drunken woe-off, a night of debauchery, gothic poetry, and operatic singing that saw the men and women of the Slaughter Docks hurl themselves into the monster-filled ocean rather than listen to their maudlin duets. In the aftermath, Karthus and Kayle pledged the Vocalist's Oath to return stronger than ever. After all, shared woe is better than solitary woe.
It would be the comeback tour to end all comeback tours.
- Among the Living
The hooded and hunched figure of headed south from the bloody carnage of the Freljord and did not stop until he reached the sun-bleached wastes of Shurima. Sunlight was something new to Yorick, something he avoided for fear of people recoiling from a face not even a mother could love. He helped excavate the tombs of long-dead emperors, which allowed him to spend a great deal of his time in the darkness underground - something his fellow diggers certainly appreciated.
His unique bass was the perfect tool to crush the soft rock of Shurima but often had the side effect of liquefying the sand to a degree where many of the workers excavating the tombs were buried alive. To many of these buried souls, this was preferable to enduring another moment of conversation with a man who could literally bore rock. After being forcibly ejected from dig sites all across Shurima and months spent deep underground with long-dead princes, Yorick decided that he too desired to be buried in the sands.
He dug deep into the bedrock to craft his own shadowed mausoleum and, there, he interred himself within a lightless tomb, intending to pass the eons in splendid isolation. And so, Yorick slept beneath the desert until Karthus and Kayle pried open his tomb. The two singers did nothing to disabuse Yorick of the idea that eons had passed and that all who desired him dead were, themselves, now dead.
The mortal realm was, they told him, once again ready for Pentakill.
- Let There be Rock
The entombment of Mordekaiser beneath the mountain of Freljord had inspired and, while the other members of the band split to the far corners of Runeterra in despair, she was consumed with the desire to craft soaring, symphonic rock operas. She toured the grandest temples of the world (and beyond) but none of the acoustics were powerful enough to satisfy Sona's need for the most cosmically resonant sounds. The great glacier temples of the Freljord were now denied her so Sona took ship with the doomed crew of the Serpent's Feast to a series of volcanic islands in uncharted waters east of Bilgewater.
The dread crew swiftly departed as Sona set up her keyboards and began to sculpt the island with sonic brutality. She played the very notes of creation and dragged volcanic islands from the depths as they rained lava to form titanic organ pipes to further magnify Sona's playing. So powerful were her notes that they travelled between worlds and sank entire continents (a planned gig in Atlantis had to be cancelled). Encircled by mighty volcanoes, Sona set the sky ablaze with hellfire dragged from the heart of the planet. Yet, as awesome as it was, her playing needed more. It needed the demonic wailing of unearthly guitars and the quaking thunder of drums and bass.
And that's when the burning ferry bearing Karthus, Yorick, and Kayle ran aground on Sona's basalt ring of fire.
- Destroyer
Though it went against every instinct he possessed, did not stay and die under the mountain with Mordekaiser. With Yorick heading south, Olaf's favorite drinking partner was gone. So, to mourn his survival of what he always believed was to be his final performance, he sought to drink himself to death with the deadliest booze of Runeterra. He found a fellow named and ended up in the depths of Zaun with him, drinking potent sump cocktails, bragging of his glory days, and daring chem-jacked thugs to take him on.
He readily found ways in which to ply his trade as a professional hitter of things and soon found himself embroiled in underground golem fight-clubs. Up against chem-powered golems, Olaf found his natural talent for pounding drums was also good for pounding mechanical giants to pieces. He sought out the most dangerous opponents in fight after fight, eventually falling under the metal hammer of Drago, one of
most lethal creations. Just as his foe was about to deliver the deathblow, a piercing wail shattered the crystalline globe containing the golem's transplanted brain. Bellowing in rage at this denial of death, Olaf surged to his feet, ready to pound again. He found himself face to skull with his old lead singer.Olaf would live. And he would drum again.
- Rust in Peace
When the mountain fell on , he took it as a sign from the Gods of Metal that his demonically-ordained task to bring metal to the masses was done, that he had achieved full Metal. His power chords had so shredded the very fabric of the world that the universe smote him with a mountain. A fitting end to the high priest of metal.
But Mordekaiser knew he would be reborn, rising from the molten ruins of the fallen peak as the once and future king of metal. But as time passed, his wait became a slumber. The crushing mountain was shunned by those who lived in its dark shadow, an evil peak of black metal and cursed rock. Upon its highest summit, the gleaming, obsidian haft of a snarling axe protruded from the rock. Legends grew around this cursed place, legends telling that whosoever drew the axe from the mountain would be the one to reunite the heralds of a new age of metal.
When the mountain finally shuddered and fell, a brazen god of rock was revealed. As Mordekaiser rose to meet the giant who had drawn the axe from the rock, he saw his old bandmates accompanied by a fiery, hellion-valkyrie from beyond. Karthus held out his axe, its razor strings shivering with anticipation.
"The band's back together", said the Deathsinger.
Tracks
From Fire, Reborn | |
Born of shadow, forged in flame. Power runs in all our veins. Born of shadow, forged in flame. | |
01:10 | 20-Jul-2017 |
The Cull | |
Cut down one by one, Are you with me? In time, all of us are forgotten: And, as long before, This time, I will not be forgotten, And, as long before, and won't be called upon. | |
05:15 | 03-Aug-2017 |
Mortal Reminder | |
Blinded by hate brought by the fall I will punish and destroy All that I had, taken away. As the masses came like a shadow through this land, I am the chosen: Now, I seek the blood of those I'll banish and rejoice. All that I had, laid to the waste. As the masses came like a shadow through this land, I am the chosen: | |
04:04 | 03-Aug-2017 |
Tear of the Goddess | |
The unknown terror that stood alone Inside this world, And so, keepers of old: The unknown terror that lives below Inside this world, And so, keepers of old: | |
04:00 | 21-Jul-2017 |
Infinity Edge | |
Beyond the lands of lost dreams, Under the desert sun is my calling: I'm living and dying a thousand lives So far from home, I'm reeling: I will not cease to be, Seeking the way that leads me to the power of the Edge. I'm living and dying a thousand lives I'm living and dying a thousand lives my destiny... | |
04:00 | 03-Aug-2017 |
Dead Man's Plate | |
Is there a reason, in this life, we call our own? May the storms gather,
our world apart. When the walls came down, we were left abandoned here. Will we ever get the chance? Will we ever get the chance to show them? You drank deep and you paid the price our world apart... | |
04:49 | 03-Aug-2017 |
The Hex Core mk-2 | |
Is that all you've got to say? Is that all you've got to say? There's no one left you can blame. Is that all you've got to say? | |
03:26 | 03-Aug-2017 |
The Bloodthirster | |
Cast down the weak, another day will come. Crawling on your knees right to the end, As you descended on them, Sever... sever your demons deep within: Cast down the weak, another day will come. Torment so easily dispensed, As you descended on them, Cast down the weak, Cast down the weak, I see them: | |
04:47 | 21-Jul-2017 |
Frozen Heart | |
Up here on the roof of the world... Long have we sought to ascend this place, Upon the roof of this world, Long have we fought for these lands Up here on the roof of the world... Long have we fought to protect this place. Upon the roof of this world, Long have we fought for these lands Here on the roof of the world, (here on the roof of the world... Up here on the roof of the world... | |
05:00 | 03-Aug-2017 |
Rapid Firecannon | |
A forgotten place inside the lonely tower: Beneath the marshlands, calling forth the night. Light up Light up! Out with the old, in with the new world order. Find a shadow to hide me and I wait. With this blade, Beneath the marshlands, calling forth the night. Light up Light up! Burn! | |
04:13 | 03-Aug-2017 |
Dates |
Vernal Equinox / Noxus |
The Immortal Bastion Lounge |
Support |
Noxtoraa, Quadrakill |
Midwinter Solstice / Stonehenge |
Sarsen Circle Pit |
Support |
Tufnel's Folly, Living Rock, Merlin's Bane |
Red Snows Day / Freljord |
Howling Abyss Arena |
Support |
Frostguard | ,
Festival of Carnea / Mount Olympus |
Acropolis of Zeus |
Support |
Heaven and Hades, Titanomachy, Greek Tragedy |
Ruination Day / Shadow Isles |
Vaults of Arcana |
Support |
Moonbane, |
Harrowing / Bilgewater |
Butcher's Bridge Slaughter Docks |
Support |
, Rigger-mortis, |
14th of Piltember / Zaun |
The Sumptown Bowl |
Support |
Howlin' Doom, Bad Moon Rising |
2017 / New Wasteland |
Bandle City Coliseum |
Support |
Video of Pentakill's 'live musical carnage' in Bandle City, performing Mortal Reminder from the new album, Grasp of the Undying, recorded in the catacombs of the Shadow Isles. |
Credits |
Alex 'Scherzo' Temple |
production on | and orchestration on
Bob 'robesman' DeBelina |
production coordinator |
Christian 'Praeco' Linke |
executive producer, engineer |
Danny Lohner aka Renholdër |
production, mixing, and vocals on |
Dzijan Emin |
orchestration on |
Eugene 'kyugene' Kang |
bass guitars |
Jason 'chupacobbler' Willey aka ProtoShredanoid |
lead guitars |
Joe 'Keytar Dragon' Atlan |
keyboards, piano |
Jørn Lande |
vocals on , , , , and |
F.A.M.E.'S. Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra and Choir |
orchestra and choir on | and strings on
Mike 'PitmanDrums' Pitman |
producer, drums, rhythm guitars, lead guitars, acoustic guitars, and synths |
Noora Louhimo |
vocals on and |
Per Johansson |
vocals on and |
Richard 'RickyTee' Thomson |
drums, rhythm guitars, acoustic guitars, lead guitars, and lead synths |
Scott Kirkland |
production and mixing on | , Synths on
Smiley Sean |
drum recording and engineering |
Tommy Lee |
drums on |
Viranda 'Viranimal' Tantula |
creative director, producer |
All music and lyrics written by Pentakill |
Engineered and produced by Riot Games in Los Angeles, CA, and London, UK |
Mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen |
Pentakilled
by [1]
, , , andThis week is for headbanging.
What is the common language in Runeterra? | |
Power chords are understood in every language. | |
If | can have his cigar, can Karthus have his face back? Why is Karthus not a skeleton?|
Oh, look, another amateur necromancer uneducated in the difference between a lich and a skeleton. Look upon my glorious undeath - tell me, do you see a bag of rattling bones? Or a Deathsinger cloaked in necrotic sorcery?
No autograph for you. | |
Why is there a skin but no Lumberjack Olaf? Because there are now two trees ( , ). I mean, it's only fair. | |
There already is a Lumberjack Olaf skin. it's called Pentakill Olaf because I crush trees and rocks and drums and skulls. I don't discriminate. | |
There are champs like and Sona, who don't require much skill. And then there are champs like and , who are practically impossible to play. What do you plan to do to bridge the imbalance gap between these champs? | |
「 .-- .... .- - / - .... . / ..-. ..- -.-. -.- / -.. .. -.. / -.-- --- ..- / .--- ..- ... - / ..-. ..- -.-. -.- .. -. --. / ... .- -.-- / .- -... --- ..- - / -- . --..-- / -.-- --- ..- / .-.. .. - - .-.. . / - . . -. -.-- / -... --- .--. .--. . .-. ..--.. / .. .-.. .-.. / .... .- ...- . / -.-- --- ..- / -.- -. --- .-- / .. / .--. .-.. .- -.-- / .- - / - .... . / - --- .--. / - .. . .-. ... / .. -. / ... --- .-.. --- / --.- ..- . ..- . --..-- / .- -. -.. / .. ...- . / -... . . -. / .. -. ...- --- .-.. ...- . -.. / .. -. / -. ..- -- . .-. --- ..- ... / ... --- .-.. -.. / --- ..- - / ... .... --- .-- ... / ..-. --- .-. / .--. . -. - .- -.- .. .-.. .-.. --..-- / .- -. -.. / .. / .... .- ...- . / --- ...- . .-. / ...-- ----- ----- / -.-. --- -. ..-. .. .-. -- . -.. / .- ... ... .. ... - ... .-.-.- / .. / .- -- / - .-. .- .. -. . -.. / .. -. / . - .-- .- .... .-.. / .-- .- .-. ..-. .- .-. . / .- -. -.. / .. -- / - .... . / - --- .--. / ... ..- .--. .--. --- .-. - / .. -. / - .... . / . -. - .. .-. . / .-.. . .- --. ..- . / --- ..-. / .-.. . --. . -. -.. ... .-.-.- / -.-- --- ..- / .- .-. . / -. --- - .... .. -. --. / - --- / -- . / -... ..- - / .--- ..- ... - / .- -. --- - .... . .-. / .- ... ... .. ... - .-.-.- 」「 What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little teeny bopper? I'll have you know I play at the top tiers in Solo Queue, and I've been involved in numerous sold-out shows for Pentakill, and I have over 300 confirmed assists. I am trained in etwahl warfare and I'm the top support in the entire League of Legends. You are nothing to me but just another assist. 」 | |
Will we ever get a more dark and scary themed champion? Like a demon/reaper/ghost one who strikes a bit more fear into summoners? Cause the scariest one now is and he is, well, not so much - but could be fun with a more dark approach. | |
Really? is more terrifying than my songs of eternal despair and death? That thick-skulled bass player couldn't scare a shiver out of a wet cat. | |
Do you plan to show Karthus some love and give him an update or two to make him fit into the current meta better? | |
I'm sorry, is there a meta where a Pentakill doesn't fit? We're a metal band but that doesn't mean you should ask us bronze questions. This interview is over. |
Trivia
- This volume was named after the rune .
- All of the tracks in this volume were named after items.
- The first track was named after (stylized as The Cull).
- The second track was named after .
- The third track was named after .
- The fourth track was named after .
- The fifth track was named after .
- The sixth track was named after V9.19). (the item's name before patch
- The seventh was named after V9.19). (the item's name before patch
- The eighth was named after .
- The ninth track was named after .
- The tenth track was named after .
- All of the tracks in this volume were named after items.