Seattle-based trio Hexecutioner have premiered the official video for "Shapeshifter", the opening track and first single from their forthcoming third album Ascension Rock, scheduled for release on 23 October 2026. The announcement arrived on 25 September via Doomed Nation and Progressive Rock Journal, with the single hitting streaming platforms the same day.

At nearly six minutes, "Shapeshifter" sets the tone for an album the band describes as a "sound frequency ritual" navigating energies of darkness and light, old and new, through wormholes and altered dimensions. Vocalist and guitarist Erin Gravina's lyrics depict an encounter with glowing, form-shifting entities that bend time and reality — a theme of "high strangeness" that runs through the six-track record. Musically, the single delivers the crushing, hypnotic grooves Hexecutioner established on their 2025 album Tornit, now augmented by the addition of bassist Daniel McManus, who joins Gravina and drummer Bryce Hebner to flesh out the low end.

The album was self-produced by the band, recorded, mixed and mastered by Dylan Wall at 7Hills Studio in Seattle. Gravina also created the cover artwork. Physical pre-orders include a first-edition lime green vinyl with yellow and blue splatter, a three-panel CD jacket, and a lime green cassette edition, all available through the band's Bandcamp page.

Hexecutioner's blend of stoner rock, psych doom and traditional heavy metal continues to draw comparisons to Acid King, YOB and Om, but the expanded lineup and more epic songwriting on Ascension Rock suggest a band pushing further into the "psychedelic darkness" they've been mapping since their 2024 debut Pagan Ground.