See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
New Releases 4/21-4/27
Darkthrone — It Beckons Us All…… | Peaceville Records | Black Metal + Heavy Metal | Norway
There’s not much to go on for Darkthrone’s 21st studio album aside from “Black Dawn Affiliation,” which implied a shift away from their recent doom metal projects in favor of classic heavy metal. The thing is, at this point in their careers, the duo seem to follow their noses, meaning there isn’t a ton of evidence one can pull from to decipher where It Beckons Us All…… will go.
–Colin Dempsey
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Inter Arma — New Heaven | Relapse Records | Sludge Metal + Post-Metal + Death Metal | United States (Richmond, Virginia)
From Luke Jackson’s interview:
Putting on an Inter Arma album has always felt like stepping into an extreme music Big Top Circus; above your head a spiraling blackened odyssey balances on the high wire, in the globe of death a prog metal mystery revs its engine, and sitting in the sawdust some vintage blues fretwork crawls to life.
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Amiensus — Reclamation: Part 1 | M-Theory Audio | Progressive Metal + Black Metal | United States
Amiensus plants one foot in progressive metal and hover the other foot above black metal. There are some vestiges of the latter on tracks like “Reverie,” but it’s a tad too clean and professional to feel like more than an influence. Incidentally, this works well for Reclamation: Part 1 by giving it some claws amidst its prettier passages and fantastical structures.
–Colin Dempsey
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Glassing — From the Other Side of the Mirror | Pelagic Records | Doom Metal + Post-Hardcore + Black Metal + Post-Metal | United States (Austin, Texas)
From Colin Dempsey’s premiere:
[Glassing’s] dynamic has never been as accessible as it is on From the Other Side of the Mirror, a more commanding effort than their previous record, 2021’s Twin Dream, with the first three tracks aiming to punch your teeth out. “Circle Down,” the album’s third single, dials down the muscle to writhe in the gaps between post-hardcore, screamo, and black metal, at least at the onset. Halfway through, Glassing can’t help but shovel more of their overpowering riffs into your mouth.
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Pulverised — Master’s Personae | Pulverised Records | Death Metal | Indonesia
You should handle Master’s Personae with gloves because it is scorching. Everything about the Indonesian death metal group’s fourth album is seemingly burning, perhaps because it’s so rough around the edges that it’s generating friction. Nothing on it is operating at less than 100% capacity, and given the end results, nothing should.
–Colin Dempsey
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Fluisteraars — Manifestaties van de Ontworteling | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Netherlands
This Dutch duo’s bracing experiments in black metal now extend to dropping the sub-genre altogether, with Bob Mollema and the splendidly-named Mink Koops pledging themselves here to an immersive arthouse ritual conjured in cahoots with analogue synth ace Simon Claessen. From a viscous sludge of bulging drones surface a surreal flotsam of ceremonial gong chimes, electro-charged bird chorus and wonky arpeggios issued from a hollowbody guitar, absurdly churning in dark ambient abstraction like some Lautréamont-sponsored sound-bath, a bizarro phantasmagoria swimming in freakish sharks.
–Spencer Grady
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Freeways — Dark Sky Sanctuary | Dying Victims Productions | Hard Rock | Canada
If you’re looking for ’70s worship, Freeways’ second record is for you. Like its predecessor (2020’s True Bearings), Dark Sky is throwback ay eff, all the way down to the humid production and boogie-woogie groove. It’s a lotta fun, too: tightly arranged proto-metal filled with catchy melodies and tasteful leadwork. The cover’s all you really need to evaluate—you can practically smell the cigarettes and stale beer. Indeed, Freeways just wanna have a good time, and they’re inviting you along. How perfectly Canadian.
–Steve Lampiris
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ACxDC — G.O.A.T. | Prosthetic Records | Grindcore | United States (Los Angeles, California)
In which the L.A.-based powerviolence/grindcore quartet unleashes another collection of feral rage bashed out with stunning urgency: 17 songs in 23 minutes. Themes from 2014’s self-titled debut—systemic racism in policing, misogyny, troll culture, self-righteousness among the far-left—return here because the problems weren’t fixed in the interim. Hence the seeming nihilism of the record (“I see that nothing’s changed / What could I have ever done / To change the end result?”). In reality, ACxDC are simply expressing the exasperation that these problems still exist. Listening to G.O.A.T. probably won’t solve any of them, but its anger is pretty fucking cathartic.
–Steve Lampiris
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Full of Hell — Coagulated Bliss | Closed Casket Activities | Grindcore + Noise + Death Metal | United States (Ocean City, Maryland)
The latest Full of Hell record has far more going for it than I can fit in a simple blurb, but it’s definitely their strongest record yet. From overlapping noise and experimental moments to heavy, catchy riffs, this is not an album to miss.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Deicide — Banished By Sin | Reigning Phoenix Music | Death Metal | United States (Tampa, Florida)
There has been a lot of hype around this record already, not all of it good. Many are annoyed by the AI art on the cover, but if you actually stop to listen to the music, this is a heavy record and a great summation of their career so far. Make sure not to skip this one if you’re a death metal fan.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Morgul Blade — Heavy Metal Wraiths | No Remorse Records | Heavy + Black Metal | United States (Philadelphia, PA)
What sets Morgul Blade apart is their indifference to genre allegiance — although they’ve dialed up the black metal elements on their latest album, Heavy Metal Wraiths is really just about meshing fantasy and metal together without compromise or pretense.
–Ted Nubel
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Black Tusk — The Way Forward | Season of Mist | Sludge Metal | United States (Savannah, GA)
If you like your sludge terminally infested with punk, Black Tusk is still the go-to outlet. Beyond their raging discontent, you’ll also find complex songwriting and some unusual sonic construction — personally, I love the huge yet boxy drums and the weird little synth bits in there.
–Ted Nubel
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Tombstoner — Rot Stink Rip | Redefining Darkness Records | Death Metal | United States (New York City)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Rot Stink Rip”:
The band’s sonic density — two guitars, two vocals, everything punchy as all hell — thrives in this rancid landscape of far-flung, gore-drenched scenarios and aggravated nihilism. It almost feels like a mathematical constraint: their cranked-up approach to death metal demands similarly exhilarating subject matter. That isn’t to say that this ventures into comedy or pure absurdity — the New York crew offer a hard-to-imitate mix of blood-spattered satire and dead-serious violence.
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]]>See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
New Releases 4/14-4/20
Haust — Negative Music | Fysisk Format | Black Metal + Punk | Norway
What an accurate name for Haust’s return album. Negative Music is devoid of any good feelings, instead creeping along the floorboards like a rodent and spewing filthy punk rock for those who only examine reality through worst-case scenarios.
–Colin Dempsey
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Lord Spikeheart — The Adept | Haekalu Records | Industrial + Electronic + Grind | Uganda
One-half of the highly-rated Kenyan electro-grindcore duo Duma launches his Haekalu imprint with this apocalyptic debut solo full-length, a hypnagogic chaos swarm gushing noise, nightmares and post-dancehall dread. Accompanying the always-foreboding ministrations of Lord Spikeheart (Martin Kanja) on this African-futurist hellscape is an impressive coterie of equally radical outriders, among them militant rapper Backxwash and Senyawa chief shaman Rully Shabara, their fiendish invocations feeding the fear throughout The Adept’s frenetic bricolage of mangled cyber-terror synths, corrosive screams and armour-piercing beats.
–Spencer Grady
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Hekseblad — Kaer Mohren | Hypnotic Dirge Records | Black Metal | United States
I dove into The Witcher book series over the past few months and, before long, began searching for the metal that’d best suit their tone. Luckily, Hekseblad have delivered just that with their debut album. They draw from melodic and symphonic black metal to match the sweeping yet emotionally fragile work. Kaer Mohren is epic yet grim without overstepping its boundaries in either direction.
–Colin Dempsey
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Antichrist Siege Machine — Vengeance of Eternal Fire | Profound Lore Records | Black Metal + Death Metal | United States (Richmond, Virginia)
On their third full-length, Antichrist Siege Machine engage in a single-minded pursuit of fury and flames. There’s no sense of taste or subtlety, only war metal. That being said, the duo weaponizes pacing by increasing the tempo over the course of tracks like “Sisera.” The song is less than two-minutes long, but the structure becomes an instrument of destruction in its own right.
–Colin Dempsey
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Nuclear Tomb — Terror Labyrinthian | Everlasting Spew Records | Thrash Metal + Death Metal + Progressive Metal + Noise Rock | United States (Baltimore, Maryland)
An assortment of genres suggests there’s plenty going on that doesn’t mesh on paper, but it certainly does through a speaker. The main motor is death metal of the old-school variety but with a library card that spends all its free time jotting down notes.
–Colin Dempsey
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Engulfed — Unearthly Litanies of Despair | Dark Descent Records | Death Metal | Turkiye (Kadıköy)
The relentless, down-tuned riffs Engulfed drops are a sound for sore ears that have been spending too much time in the spring sun. This is the sort of death metal that makes you want to stay inside and brood with the cookie monster vocals and cartoonishly demonic vibe. Is it a tad overindulgent? Sure, but playing it cool would remove most of the fun.
–Colin Dempsey
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Melvins — Tarantula Heart | Ipecac Recordings | Sludge Metal | United States (Washington)
Always the most prolific band on the planet, Melvins are still at it, and this time, they decided to make sounds first and then turn them into songs. In short, this record was constructed the way an EDM producer writes music. There are moments when it works, and moments when it doesn’t, but overall, it’s a lot of fun to listen to, so give it a spin.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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My Dying Bride — A Mortal Binding | Nuclear Blast | Gothic Metal + Doom Metal | United Kingdom
This album proves that the band still have something to say, and with their refreshed lineup, you can tell they have a renewed energy on this one. Melancholic and melodic all the way through, this is a My Dying Bride album for the ages.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Ixion — Extinction | Finisterian Dead End | Atmospheric Doom Metal | France
From Ted Nubel’s full album premiere:
On Extinction, the melancholic chords and dismal growls of death/doom metal are not a constant, but instead a gut-punching eventuality that lurks within sweeping instrumental textures. The combination draws up an especially potent atmosphere where quiet, musing exploration often meets stark, uncomfortable truth in dramatic form. Alongside excellent pacing, Extinction outstrips much of its peers by daring to apply unusual, drastic vocal harmonies in combination with emphatic riffs.
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Bongripper — Empty | The Great Barrier Records | Doom Metal | United States (Chicago, IL)
Slow, loud, incredibly long, and the song titles run together into a gloomy phrase — yes, Bongripper is back, and just in time for 4/20 (obviously). It’s been six years since their last full-length, but Empty spews forth like it’s barely been a day, picking up where the band left off in delivering some of the mightiest riffs ever put to tape.
–Ted Nubel
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Dvne — Voidkind | Metal Blade Records | Progressive Sludge + Post-Metal | United Kingdom
Highly agile, Dvne switches between melodic fragility and metallic killing edge with stunning grace on this new album. The Dune-inspired progressive sludge group strikes out at the bleeding edge of the genre, but with a surprising amount of retro charm balancing out their progressive technicality.
–Ted Nubel
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High on Fire — Cometh the Storm | MNRK Heavy | Stoner + Sludge + Doom Metal | United States (Oakland, CA)
It’s the High on Fire you know and love — ripping heavy metal that feels like someone ran it through seventy-five fattener pedals. While not exploring all that new sonic territory, Cometh the Storm has done its homework in terms of figuring out how to beat your ass.
–Ted Nubel
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Red Mesa — Partial Distortions | Desert Records | Stoner Rock + Doom Metal | United States (New Mexico)
Don’t let the title fool you – I would label this as ‘full distortions,’ personally. More seriously, Red Mesa keeps things hazy and sun-bleached on their new record, weaving melodic threads that run between glacial, plodding riffs and hefty stomps. They’re not a band afraid to get a bit weird while keeping it heavy.
–Ted Nubel
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]]>Our photographer Kass Carmona was on the scene and captured a huge swath of the bands in detail to help those unable to attend get a sense of the festival’s scope and let lucky attendees revisit some of the highlights. Keep on scrolling for an enormous amount of photos from the fest across its four-day span! We’ve listed them alphabetically, by the way.
Tickets for Inferno Metal Festival 2025 are now on sale — see the official website for more information.
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See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
New Releases 4/7-4/13
Whores. — War | The Ghost is Clear Records | Sludge Metal | United States (Atlanta, Georgia)
The latest Whores. album boasts production by Ryan Boesch, who’s worked alongside Melvins and Helmet. He imbues War with a dry and crunchy feel that illuminates Whores.’s strengths and paints them as an uglier band than their songwriting entails.
–Colin Dempsey
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Mòr — Hear the Hour Nearing! | Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions | Atmospheric Black Metal | France (Rouen)
One of Mòr’s guitarists, B., has been playing live with Trespasser as of late, and you can hear the similarities between the acts on Hear the Hour Nearing!. Mòr draw from a similar explosive black metal well as Trespasser but place greater emphasis on their wall of sound.
–Colin Dempsey
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Karst — Eclipsed Beneath the Umbral Divide | Independent | Death Metal | United States (Los Angeles, California)
Dedicated to “victims to depression, anxiety, addiction, accidental overdose, and all those who have ever had thoughts of suicide,” Eclipsed Beneath the Umbral Divide is pissed-off death metal with a purpose. It reacts to mental illness in a manner that most sufferers wish they could, not just attempting to capture how depression warps the mind but airing the frustration of wrestling with it on a daily basis and the desire to beat the hell out of it.
–Colin Dempsey
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Unborn Generation — …and Lest We All Forget | Inverse Records | Grindcore | Finland (Jyväskylä)
Crusty, Finnish grindcore lays on Unborn Generation’s seventh full-length, …and Lest We All Forget, a greyed-out experience that communicates through genre trademarks. It’s not the fastest grindcore out there, which works to Unborn Generation’s strengths as they have more time to sink their teeth in.
–Colin Dempsey
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Tårfödd — Mörker | Independent | Atmospheric Black Metal | Sweden
What strikes most immediately when listening to Tårfödd is their earnestness. Their atmospheric black metal is not a veil nor a metaphor for emotion but a genuine artifact, a drop of blood from their heart as much as it is a collection of tracks. There’s nothing obscuring them on their debut Mörker. It’s hard to pin down sincerity in a subgenre that heralds overblown emotion, but the pained vocals and modest track times condense every emotion into their most salient points.
–Colin Dempsey
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Heavy Temple — Garden of Heathens | Magnetic Eye Records | Doom Metal | United States (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
This new doom masterpiece is heavy, as the name implies, but also psychedelic and introspective. At a time when doom is having a quiet moment compared to some of its sister genres, Heavy Temple still manage to make things catchy enough to hook any listeners.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Necrot — Lifeless Birth | Tankcrimes | Death Metal | United States (Oakland, California)
The Oakland gore-obsessed pessimists return with their third and most engaging record. This time, their pessimism has (fully?) metastasized—e.g., “Human mind in regression,” “The future is shit.” Given all that’s happened since 2020’s Mortal, can ya blame them? Anyhow, Lifeless Birth finds the trio continuing with their less-is-more OSDM, featuring sneakily catchy riffage and satisfying soloing, natch. Indeed, some of these songs threaten to get stuck in your head. Ain’t broke ’n all that.
–Steve Lampiris
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Replicant — Infinite Mortality | Transcending Obscurity | Technical Death Metal | United States (New Brunswick, New Jersey)
The weirdo tech-death outfit from Jersey returns with their most deranged album to date. Their penchant for left-brained riffing creates a handful of the neatest guitar figures I’ve heard this year. The most arresting part of Infinite Mortality, though, is the unhinged vocals, a pure distillation of tortured, feral insanity. Makes ya wonder if they caught an exorcism on tape, and then wrote a record around it.
–Steve Lampiris
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Týr — Battle Ballads | Metal Blade Records | Viking Metal + Folk Metal | Faroe Islands
Viking metal is not everyone’s cup of tea and we know it, but if you are going to do it, there are a couple of ways to skin that cat. Týr manage to keep things somewhat contemporary and ripping instead of just relying on tired tropes. Even if you don’t normally go for this kind of thing, anyone who loves straightforward, classic metal should give this at least one spin.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Tarot — Glimpse of the Dawn | Cruz del Sur Music | Hard Rock | Australia
These Aussie hard-rockers crank up the time machine again on this belated follow-up to 2016 debut full-length Reflections, hightailing it back to a halcyon 70s stadium-land, a suede-fringed idyll where lighters remain perpetually held aloft in tandem to the sound of flamboyant Hammond-boosted riffage and gloriously indulgent 12-string acoustic guitar intros. With swirling, psychedelic melodies freighting fantastically-themed odes, Glimpse of the Dawn pops like prime Deep Purple or Uriah Heep. It’s all as if punk never happened.
–Spencer Grady
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Sarcasm — Morninghoul | Hammerheart Records | Blackened Death Metal | Sweden (Uppsala)
For all intents and purposes, Sarcasm play death metal. You can hear it in the knotty riffs and the pinched harmonics. Where the blackened bits enter is what elevates their death metal. The vocals are rasps that are too shrill to be death growls but too unpolished to be hollow, while the bridges are black metal constructs that clear the air for Sarcasm to return to their base. It’s all packaged with an old-school aesthetic that removes all the clutter and just delivers the damn music, which is a wise choice if you’re going to proclaim, like Sarcasm has, that your music is for “sophisticated Death Metal freaks!”
–Colin Dempsey
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Castle Rat — Into the Realm | King Volume Records | Doom + Heavy Metal | United States (New York City)
From Tom Campagna’s track premiere of “Fresh Fur”:
If you are a big fan of heavy, riffing doom with a penchant for costumed debauchery, you will find yourself right at home here.
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Friends of Hell — God Damned You to Hell | Rise Above Records | Doom Metal | International
From Tom Campagna’s track premiere of “Bringer of Evil”:
Out are vocalist Albert Witchfinder and guitarist Jondix, leaving drummer Tas Danazoglou and bassist Taneli Jarva to find new members. Luckily, replacing them are metal lifers Nifelheim frontman Hellbutcher, Mirror guitarist Sprits Moutafis, and Brazilian guitarist Beelzeebubth. […] These dudes know how to doom better than most.
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Mother of All — Global Parasitic Leviathan | Independent | Melodic Death Metal | Denmark
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Pillars”:
Mixing melodic death metal with progressive death and thrash metal, the Danish group takes sardonic aim at corporate greed and systemic oppression through a mix of metaphors and satirical venom. It feels like more of a focused concept than their debut offering Age of the Solipsist, but the musical foundations laid there have proved to be stable ground. Melodic hooks offer respite from snarling, incensed vocals while the band’s exceptionally tight rhythm section keeps everything together with ear-catching groove.
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Vulture — Sentinels | Metal Blade Records | Speed + Thrash Metal | Germany
The more deranged the speed/thrash is, the better, and Vulture is pushing 11 on the dial here. Luxurious tones across the board — everything from the bass to the drums just feels fun — and frantic songwriting with an ear for catchy choruses make Sentinels something to get hooked on.
–Ted Nubel
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]]>See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
New Releases 3/31-4/6
Trocar — Extremities | Selfmadegod Records | Grindcore | United States
These cybergrind freaks, boasting two-thirds of Mortician-worshipping sickos Fluids, live up to their moniker with sharp and surgical focus, slicing and dicing their stomach-churning meat rations like an old Upton Sinclair muck-rake. Grim industrial beats, depraved sample snippets, guest appearances and gargled, pitch-shifted vocal pile-ups add to the prevailing sense of salaciousness on an express-paced full-length debut revelling in its eclectic strains of swivel-eyed, slaughterhouse lunacy, even brokering some rarely-plumbed hybrids pitched equidistant between Men’s Recovery Project and Agoraphobic Nosebleed.
–Spencer Grady
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Korpiklaani — Rankarumpu | Nuclear Blast | Folk Metal | Finland
Korpiklaani has been my personal Shen Yun in 2024. I went from never thinking about them to seeing them everywhere: in my inbox, on concert flyers, on Spotify playlists, in between the cracks of my hardwood floor; you name it, Korpiklaani were there, haunting me with the promise of a jovial time and beer and camp. I don’t think they need to invade your privacy to get your attention as within a few seconds you’ll know whether or not you dig their latest record Rankarumpu. The point is, sometimes overexposure works, as it seems to have turned me onto Korpiklaani, if ever slightly.
–Colin Dempsey
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Austere — Beneath the Threshold | Prophecy Productions | Depressive Black Metal + Shoegaze | Australia (New South Wales)
Last year, Austere re-awakened from the 13-year slumber with Corrosion of Hearts, an album that began where they left off. It’s a little funny then that they’ve developed much more in a single year than they did in over a decade as their newest album, Beneath the Threshold, is closer to gothic rock or shoegaze than it is depressive black metal. Clean vocals are in vogue, the mood is more digestible than overwhelming, and harmonies and melodies preside over all.
–Colin Dempsey
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Acid Mammoth — Supersonic Megafauna Collision | Heavy Psych Sounds | Doom Metal + Stoner Metal | Greece (Athens)
Song titles on Acid Mammoth’s latest full-length include, “Fuzzorgasm (Keep On Screaming),” “Atomic Shaman,” and “Tusko’s Last Trip,” each of which conveys their distortion and riff fetishism better than words ever could.
–Colin Dempsey
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Diabolic Oath — Oracular Hexations | Sentient Ruin | Black Metal + Death Metal | United States (Portland, Oregon)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Serpent Coils Suffocating the Mortal Wound”:
Diabolic Oath’s new album is massive — it takes up space both sonically and mentally. Hell, even the song titles are excessive. It’s an exercise in overexposure, saturating the listener with black and death metal dialed up to abhorrent (but in a good way) extremes, and behind that extremity is a ton of solid riffs and fascinating songwriting. There’s something almost ritualistic in how it all comes together, actually — if there were a way to summon old deities and terrible, unknown forces, I imagine it would be through something like this rather than some wimpy candles and Latin chants.
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Ingested — The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams | Metal Blade Records | Brutal Death Metal + Deathcore | United Kingdom (Manchester)
The latest from Ingested proves that the Manchester, U.K. band still have it and that deathcore is alive and well in this year of our lord 2024. The cover art is sick and the songs absolutely rip, but also take a lot of risks and prove the band aren’t just playing cookie-cutter songs.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Locrian — End Terrain | Profound Lore Records | Noise Rock + Post-Metal | United States (Chicago, Illinois)
Based on the singles preceding End Terrain‘s official release, Locrian may finally be releasing music that can be enjoyed rather than immersed in. There are tangible track structures and clean vocals, both of which contribute to an overall lighter mood. That being said, Locrian retains their experimental inclinations, so tracks often dissolve into their patented noise and drone explorations, albeit in a more digestible format than their previous albums.
–Colin Dempsey
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Witch Vomit — Funeral Santcum | 20 Buck Spin | Death Metal | United States (Portland, Oregon)
We’re used to Witch Vomit ruling over the realms of doomy and blackened death metal, but on this new album, they’re also not afraid to get melodic and take a lot more risks. We can’t wait to hear what’s next for the band.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Attic — Return of the Witchfinder | Ván Records | Heavy Metal | Germany
There’s a reason that Attic’s occult-oriented heavy metal is heavily, heavily linked back to King Diamond, and you’ll hear that on this new album too. I wouldn’t treat them as a substitute, though, as they tie together a lot of classic metal influences into a glitzy, riff-packed celebration of how camp and over-the-top atmosphere will always have a place in heavy metal.
–Ted Nubel
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Furze — Caw Entrance | Devoted Art Propaganda | Psychedelic Black Metal | Norway
From Ted Nubel’s full album premiere:
Billed as ‘black psych metal,’ there’s a certain thread of humor throughout the album — from song titles like “Post Mortem Trippin'” to Reaper’s darkly entertaining spoken-word vocals on “You Shall Prevail” — that dovetails with the potent instrumentals to only reinforce a surreal state of being, At times, it can slip the listener into a half-dreaming, subconscious state, only to tear apart that suspension with a bracing, meaty riff.
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Horndal — Head Hammer Man | Prosthetic Records | Sludge Metal + Hardcore | Sweden
Melodic and unpredictable, Horndal’s newest album somehow explores even more niche topics than their previous works, but with the same burning drive to expose their homeland’s rich history and highlight how we’re facing the same challenges today, over a century later.
–Ted Nubel
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]]>–Alex Chan
Cryptivore – Celestial Extinction
March 21, 2022
I recently stumbled across this ripper of an old-school death metal album by Aussie band Cryptivore, but it took me an embarrassingly long time before I found out that it was all the work of one man. Celestial Extinction pays loving homage to ‘90’s death metal legends with 10 tracks of good ‘ol fashioned chainsaw carnage. Tracks like “Vault of Obscurity” and “Clandestine Ruination” employ a whole blood-spattered arsenal of snarling guitars, guttural growls, and huge, bone-crunching tempo changes that are equally satisfying for newcomers to the genre or gorehounds who can’t get enough of that old-school sound.
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March 3, 2023
Well, with a name like that, Sea of Shit certainly aren’t interested in playing nice, and their self-titled album revels in its own ugliness. As with any good powerviolence record, each short-but-sweet track is worth more than its weight in blood, sweat, and spittle. Crusty surges of d-beats and ragged shouts slam straight into walls of glacial, chugging doom laced with guitar feedback. Go fast, go slow, go to hell.
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Choir – Songs for a Tarnished World
March 26, 2023 (originally released November 21, 2021)
Get lost in Choir’s tempestuous, roiling pandemonium with the rerelease of their debut album Songs for a Tarnished World. Out here, there is no hope to be found. Seas of swirling, down-tuned riffs churn beneath peals of percussive thunder, and ghastly howls of the drowned and the damned echo from the depths. Just when it seems like you’ve regained control, the waves–or what lurks beneath them–inevitably claim your ship, dragging you down to join the other cursed souls whose hubris sentenced them to a watery grave.
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June 29, 2023
Kaikkivaltias’ debut EP is a brief-yet-epic black metal adventure that transports listeners to medieval Finland, where they join a lone warrior in his battle against the forces of darkness. Rich imagery woven by the soaring leads and poignant lyrics depicts rolling hills of green, misty marshes, sunkissed shorelines, and frigid mountain fortresses while rapid palm muted riffs mimic the gallop of the hero’s steed and invoke the epic antiquity of 90s Hellenic black metal (Kaikkivaltias even covered “Non Serviam” and lovingly translated its lyrics into Finnish). From front to back, Astu is an exhilarating ride, and in hindsight, I regret not placing it among my top 20 releases of 2023.
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July 20, 2023
Big ups to my buddy Peter for sending this one my way! True to their name, The Night Eternal’s goth-infused heavy metal sets theatrical baritone vocals against fist-pumping riffs for a throwback sound that would feel just as home amidst arena pyrotechnics as it would in the backroom of a sweaty dive bar. Fatale is packed with dangerously catchy melodies that will leave you transfixed–That is, before they send you speeding off into the night, heart aflame with dark purpose.
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]]>See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
New Releases 3/17-3/23
Apparation — Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State | Profound Lore Records | Death Metal | United States (Los Angeles, California)
The atmosphere is dense and the riffs are like chair shots to your back on Apparition’s second LP, Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State. While heaviness is front-and-center, the synths on “Imminent Expanse of Silence and Not (or Not)” imply tragedy lurks below, revealing that there’s more to sink your teeth into here.
–Colin Dempsey
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Dödsrit — Nocturnal Will | Wolves of Hades | Black Metal | Sweden (Borlänge)
Dödsrit’s method of grafting crust punk and black metal onto an epic heavy metal exoskeleton is beautiful. Their tracks are punchy and victorious while retaining enough bite to ensure the victory feels earned. This is to say that the journeys on Nocturnal Will make you feel like an involved character rather than an audience member.
–Colin Dempsey
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Mastiff — Deprecipice | MNRK Heavy | Doom Metal + Sludge Metal + Hardcore Punk | United Kingom (Kingston Upon Hull, England)
Hardcore punk and loss are the driving forces behind Mastiff’s fourth album, Deprecipice. Jim Hodge and James Andrew Lee, the group’s respective vocalist and guitarist, were both grieving familial losses while writing the record, pushing them to embrace a more direct approach. Resultingly, it’s blunt and pessimistic but powered by a primal energy that can only come from hardcore punk.
–Colin Dempsey
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Daevar — Amber Eyes | The Lasting Dose Records | Doom Metal | Germany (Cologne)
Daevar’s doom metal is actually closer to grunge than it is metal, strange as that is to say. Fuzzy riffs and languid tempos are present, but the atmosphere is laidback and, at least on “Amber Eyes,” inviting.
–Colin Dempsey
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Funeral Oration — Antropomorte | Avantgarde Music | Black Metal | Italy
Funeral Oration have only released two albums before Antropomorte, Sursum Luna in 1996 and Eliphas Love in 2019. In a sense, they sound as if they’re still playing in 1996. The vocals, riffs, and texture have seemingly been thawed from frozen states to retain their freshness, but the keyboards steal the show. They overtake tracks like “Plenus Larvarum” by shoving the lead guitars out of the spotlight or injecting gothic overtones. The entire package is gloriously vintage and off-kilter.
–Colin Dempsey
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Brodequin — Harbringer of Woe | Season of Mist | Brutal Death Metal | United States (Knoxville, Tennessee)
The new masterpiece from this heavy, slammy powerhouse has a slightly different vibe than their previous releases. It was released by Season of Mist and has a classy, almost refined quality while still being insanely dense and aggressive. This is one of those rare records that might unite death metal fans who aren’t snobby about deathcore, slam, and adjacent genres and others who need more nuance and intentionality. In other words, this is a gem.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Hamferð — Men Guðs hond er sterk | Metal Blade Records | Doom Metal | Faroe Islands
This album is a concept death/doom record from a very mysterious part of Europe, the Faroe Islands, about a tragic shipwreck and wailing accident. It’s weird, dark, punishing, and oddly kind of cozy with its lore-recounting vibes. The record is best enjoyed as a whole piece and is more focused on telling a story than churning out bangers, but it’s insanely solid.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Altar of Betelgeuze — Echoes | Independent | Doom + Death + Stoner Metal | Finland
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Echoes”:
In the skilled hands of Altar of Betelgeuze, doom metal is but simple putty to be shaped and transformed. Although the Finnish band deserve praise for how they meld multiple doom subgenres into a coherent approach, what stands out the most is how they create dynamics and motion while staying true to their two core tenets: being heavy, and being slow. Without resorting to disjointed tropes or throwing in oddball songs, their new album Echoes is a consistently enjoyable jam that blends inventive, iconic riffs with a passion for slow, overbearing doom metal.
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New Releases 3/24-3/30
Coffin Storm — Arcana Rising | Peaceville Records | Heavy Metal | Norway (Kolbotn)
Coffin Storm is less of a supergroup and more of a reunion between members of Darkthrone, Aura Noir, and Infernö, all of whom came from the small Norwegian town of Kolbotn. It retains the sound and feel of the practice sessions between Apollyon and Bestial Tormentor during COVID, which were marked by admiration for epic doom metal bands and a looser mindset. Fenriz provides vocals, wailing with the candor of a drunken cover band singer, an approach that perfectly matches the music. We have a full interview with Apollyon coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
–Colin Dempsey
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Coffins — Sinister Oah | Relapse Records | Death Metal + Doom Metal | Japan (Tokyo)
The Japanese quartet have clung to a doom-y style of OSDM for the better part of thirty years like a child clings to their favorite stuffed animal. The only real change for their sixth record is that the cavernous production of 2019’s Beyond the Circular Demise seems to have been turned up a bit, probably because it was the only way they were gonna get any heavier.
–Steve Lampiris
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Vorga — Beyond the Palest Star | Transcending Obscurity | Black Metal | Germany (Black Metal)
Sophomore LP from the German melodic black metal quartet finds them leaning into the proggier elements of 2022’s Striving Toward Oblivion—which is to say: ’70s keyboards and more soaring leadwork. Whatever you wanna call what Vorga do (Black-prog? Arena black metal?), it’s pretty great.
–Steve Lampiris
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Septage — Septic Worship (Intolerant Spree of Infesting Forms) | Me Saco un Ojo | Grindcore + Death Metal | Denmark (Copenhagen)
There’s nothing sweet or puffy about these Danishes. Balanced midway on the Carcass-o-meter between cavernous death metal and putrescent gore-grind, this crushing debut album is as grisly and grotesque as an all-you-can-eat at the local charnel house. Pass the barf bag!
–Spencer Grady
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Above Aurora — Myriad Woes | War Anthem Records | Black Metal + Doom Metal | Poland (Poznań)
Above Aurora draw from a similar creative well as their countrymen Behemoth with their dense and beefed-up metal that pays homage to black metal without fully embracing it. Not that that’s a bad thing, but Myriad Woes is best absorbed as a melting pot of death metal, black metal, and doom rather than a beacon for any of them.
–Colin Dempsey
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Cantique Lépreux — Le bannissement | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Canada (Quebec)
Returning six years after their previous LP, Cantique Lépreux continue crafting exciting black metal. Their palette contains traces of the genre’s atmospheric, melodic, and triumphant subdivisions and congeals them with dexterous brushstrokes.
–Colin Dempsey
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Verwoed — The Mother | Argento Records | Black Metal | Netherlands (Utrecht)
As Colin Williams wrote about last year, Utrecht is one of the most forward-thinking cities on the planet when it comes to black metal. It’s not always bizzaro incantations; sometimes, much like Verwoed’s latest album, The Mother, the city produces black metal that’s more in touch with its sensitive side and flaunts it by tapping into doom metal. At least, that’s one part of it, because elsewhere, Verwoed sound as if they’re battling for their sanity, and on “The Madman’s Dance,” they’re not winning.
–Colin Dempsey
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Givre — Le cloître | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Canada (Quebec)
Givre have been improving their production over their last few albums, evolving from Le Pressoir Mystique‘s raw offerings until reaching Le cloître, and they’ve never sounded better. Their concepts have always been intriguing, but the production formerly bottlenecked their musicianship. Fortunately, Le cloître corrects that. The dismal tones take the spotlight, and fittingly so, as the album recounts six tales of saint women suffering through their commitment to the Lord.
–Colin Dempsey
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Child — Shitegeist | Suicide Records | Grindcore | Sweden
From Colin Dempsey’s premiere:
Admittedly, “Shitegeist” is closer to punk rock than it is outright grind, which is to say that you can understand what Child are playing on first listen rather than succumb to the breakneck tempos. Those are reserved for later tracks on Shitegeist. In all honesty, “Shitegeist” is simple, but the pieces at work here–Lindström’s performance, the crunchy texture, and Albin Sköld’s performance behind the drumkit in which he operates at a few clicks faster than the rest of the troupe–shine because of it.
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Kólga — Black Tides | Otitis Media Records | Black Metal + Surf Rock | United States (Dallas, Texas)
There’s a video on YouTube with over 2 million views titled “Black Metal Without Distortion Is Just Surf Rock.” Its arguments are convincing, if not a bit exaggerated. However, one year ago, @mckeithenmccormick9642, either not recognizing his clairvoyance or simply manifesting his will into the universe, commented, “now I want to hear surf rock with distortion and metal vocals….” 35,000 people liked that comment. Kólga must’ve read that comment as they are looking to feed those 35,000 hungry mouths with Black Tides. The album is best summarized by @mckeithenmccormick9642’s YouTube comment. It’s surf rock but with black metal synths, tremolo picking, and screams (when required). As much as it is a gimmick and a thought experiment, it’s also endearing. It could’ve been much more ridiculous, yet thankfully, Kólga reigned themselves in when necessary, resulting in captivating tracks like “Squall of Cthulu.” Avoiding Black Tides makes sense if you believe in secularity between black metal and fun, but it’s worth checking out just to hear Kólga’s thought process in action.
–Colin Dempsey
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]]>See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
Udåd — Udåd | Peaceville Records | Raw Black Metal | Norway (Halden)
Udåd is the latest project from Thomas Eriksen, better known as Mork, a devotee of black metal’s necro roots. Mork’s past two albums, Dypet and Katedralen, kept those roots alive, but it seems they weren’t grim enough for him. On Udåd, Eriksen delivers what many consider quintessential black metal, meaning it’s repetitive, raw, and lo-fi as hell. His desire for painful music separates the project from Mork’s recent ventures into denser atmospheres.
–Colin Dempsey
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Kilter, Andromeda Anarchia, Growlers Choir, and SEVEN)SUNS — La Suspendida | Silent Pendulum Records | Avant-Garde Metal + Jazz | United States
How many of you will listen to this? I don’t know, and I don’t care, but as long as n>0, I’ll be happy. To keep it short, this is a metal-jazz opera about a relationship that continues into the afterlife. Imperial Triumphant’s Kenny Grohowski was one of the lead composers alongside Ed Rosenberg III and Laurent David. An entire armada of metal vocalists, collectively called the Growler’s Choir, is on tap. All of this reveals what you’re already assuming, La Suspendida is out there. Fortunately, it’s not avant-garde to the point that it’s pure theory. There are stakes, climaxes, bass riffs, Grohowski’s fearsome drumming, and moments that incite peril. It also demonstrates how metal doesn’t need to be traditionally “heavy” to be emotionally affecting, albeit in the least conventional way possible. You won’t hear anything like La Suspendida this month or even this year.
–Colin Dempsey
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Defect Designer — Chitin | Transcending Obscurity Records | Death Metal | Norway (Oslo)
One of the weirdest and goofiest bands in death metal offers its third and strangest album to date. Defect Designer have spent their whole career taking seriously not taking anything seriously. Here, the Norway-based duo borrow Fleshgod Apocalypse drummer Eugene Ryabchenko for a wild ride of exploring and expanding their sound using the prog, grind, and post-punk influences that have been creeping in from the periphery since the beginning. Chitin, then, is roughly two-thirds weirdo death metal and one-third anything-goes-experimentalism.
–Steve Lampiris
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Hadit — Metaphysical Engines Approaching The Event Horizon | I, Voidhanger Records | Death Metal + Black Metal | Italy (Varese)
Many death metal and black metal hybrids are punished by over-compressed production, so it’s refreshing that Gabriele Gramaglia produced Metaphysical Engines Approaching The Event Horizon. Gramaglia is a member of Vertebra Atlantis, a group who have sported some of the best mixing in death and black metal over the past few years. Hadit’s second LP reaps similar benefits. Metaphysical Engines Approaching The Event Horizon‘s cavernous, exploratory, and big style sounds good and defined when heard like this.
–Colin Dempsey
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Aardvark — Tough Love | Dying Victims Productions | Heavy Metal | Australia
This fun debut from the Australian quartet is throwback ay eff. Aardvark do an earnest and gleeful take on trad-metal, pretending with all their hearts that the last four decades of evolution in heavy metal didn’t happen. Featuring tight songwriting with smart arrangements, as well as an extremely performative vocalist (Ed Vaark, no joke) with a bitchin’ pornstache, Tough Love is an excellent choice to blast outta your ’81 Trans Am.
–Steve Lampiris
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Aborted — Vault of Horrors | Nuclear Blast | Death Metal | Belgium (Beveren)
This album is solid as hell musically, like all offerings from Aborted, but also like many of their releases, it’s a bit uninspired. Once again they prove they can play circles around pretty much everyone else when it comes to technique, but the horror tribute concepts present here have already been fleshed out time and again by bands like Mortician, and with more finesse when it comes to the references. Still, if technically and heavy is what you’re looking for, this won’t disappoint.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Armagh — Exclamation Po!nt | Dying Victims Productions | Heavy Metal + Black Metal | Poland (Warsaw)
With its scuzzy production and maniacally zestful amalgams of Manilla Road, NWOBHM and proto-black metal, the third full-length from these Warsaw city reprobates hits like a gas-guzzling, grease-spattered hog ride through the labyrinths of Count Orlok’s Carpathian retreat. The vocals of founding frontman/guitarist Galin Soulreaper recall a reedier Rob Tyner, or less psych-addled Duane Warr, while the buzzsaw rip of Maiden-meets-Hellhammer assaults such as “Aftermath” and “Rapid Str!de”, powered by Al Atom Smasher’s ferocious double-kick drums, freight incantatory Gaelic harmonies entirely worthy of the band’s clandestine Ulidian muse.
–Spencer Grady
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Stress Angel — Punished by Nemesis | Stygian Black Hand | Thrash Metal | United States (Brooklyn, New York)
Thrash metal used to be metal’s most dangerous offspring, but much has happened in the 40 years since then, including many major label breakthroughs. Stress Angel’s Punished by Nemesis returns thrash to its former infamy while also indulging its curious side, which sadly doesn’t receive enough love from today’s thrash metal. It’s as gritty as it is flashy, all without stepping too far into proto-death metal territory.
–Colin Dempsey
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Brat — Social Grace | Prosthetic Records | Grindcore + Death Metal | United States (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Barbiecore and bimbocore at its finest, this is not a release to sleep on if you like fast, heavy grind. Each song is a blast fest just like on their EPs, but there’s a little more time and care put into the production, so the instruments and vocals shine through. Definitely a solid first album from this emerging group of badasses, and we can’t wait to hear more.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Vltimas — Epic | Season of Mist | Black Metal + Death Metal | Portugal + United States + Canada
Blasphemer best described Vltimas, his project that includes Flo Mounier and David Vincent, five years ago when he said, “When you create, it needs to be as free as possible, and I wouldn’t like to pigeonhole anything. I don’t even know what to call this at this stage.” The trio’s second album Epic exists in the murky abyss between death, black, and thrash metal. Songwriting isn’t the main focus, and as such, the album escapes easy classification. However, that’s not a negative aspect because each member is in top form, pooling their energy into performing rather than writing.
–Colin Dempsey
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Shock Withdrawal — The Dismal Advance | Brutal Panda Records | Grind + Crust | United States (Los Angeles, CA)
From Tom Campagna’s track premiere of “No Closure”:
The album, which is just over 20 minutes, flies by at lightning speeds with nary a second to catch your breath—that is until the album closer, appropriately titled “No Closure.” The track here is more evocative of a slow, sludgy crawl […]
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DragonForce — Warp Speed Warriors | Napalm Records | Power Metal | United Kingdom (London)
If you’re into power metal that constantly stays one hair’s breadth away from sheer absurdity, you probably don’t need any further convincing to hit this.
–Ted Nubel
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]]>The band’s third LP, …And as We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye, marked a major turning point for Chapel of Disease, with its touches of bluesy guitars, Knopfler-esque twang, and prog-scale ambition coalescing into an underground-lauded progressive death metal gem. This record solidified that Chapel of Disease thrive in the face of change, and between 2018 and now, things sure have changed for the band in more ways than one.
Between the five-plus years since their last release and the 2023 announcement that the band would be retiring their initial lineup, both Chapel of Disease and the world surrounding them have changed drastically. As the long-awaited follow-up to …And as We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye, a record renowned in its own right for its novel deviation from the band’s prior output, Echoes of Light embodies that same adventurous spirit, arguably exceeding it at points thanks to a wider scope of influences and a more seasoned understanding of how to meld said elements into a work that ignores extreme metal genre labels in an effort to remain true to the band’s core artistic vision.
With the added emphasis on its retro rock-inspired flavorings, and half of its tracklist featuring significant portions of clean vocals, it’s hard to classify Echoes of Light as a death metal record. What is absolutely undisputable, however, is the fact that Echoes of Light is a Chapel of Disease record, through and through, capturing the essence behind what makes this project so damn compelling in the first place. Change is daunting, but as Chapel of Disease asserts on the opening track’s chorus, it’s a challenge that powers the band on not just this latest release, but into the uncharted waters of the band’s future.
We had the opportunity to chat with Laurent Teubl–Chapel of Disease’s vocalist, guitarist, and sole currently active founding member–about the new album, the long road in its leadup, the creative process behind it, and what it means to be unafraid in constantly challenging oneself to pursuit the purest form of one’s artistic vision, outside expectations be damned.
–Evan Mester
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I remember first coming across Chapel of Disease back when I had a metal radio show in college. I heard the first track on …As We Have Seen The Storm, We Have Embraced The Eye, became immediately hooked, and have eagerly awaited a follow-up for over five years. What feelings, anxieties, and expectations did you have about announcing Echoes of Light and, by relation, the return of a band that so many people have been waiting over half a decade to hear something new from?
Interestingly, I had to read your last line twice, since I tend to forget that it has been around half a decade between our last two albums. A lot has happened since we released …As We Have Seen The Storm, We Have Embraced The Eye, and quite some time went by between actually finishing the production of this new record and then announcing it. We finished recording the album in January last year. Then, shortly after, our lineup decided to part ways, leading to the rollout of Echoes of Light getting postponed until we had new members onboard to play live shows.
These circumstances sort of overshadowed my personal expectations when the announcement of a new record came closer. After sitting on a finished yet unreleased album for such a long time, you sort of lose track of what feelings to have, especially when taking into account a major lineup shift. Yet when we did announce everything, it was a very pleasant surprise that people were generally digging the news, since that is not always the case after big lineup changes, which I was aware of.
So I’m very thankful for that. And now, after some time and the first singles being out there, I have to say that it has been quite different going from The Mysterious Ways Of Repetitive Art to …As We Have Seen The Storm…, simply because the band has gathered a lot more attention since the previous record. I am noticing that expectations are high and that the new record has been awaited much more than anything we’ve released so far.
The announcement of Echoes of Light was one of two significant events regarding Chapel of Disease that transpired in 2023, the other being the announcement of the band’s initial lineup parting ways with you continuing the project as its sole remaining founding member. In what ways did this major change for the band impact this latest record? Is it something closer to a clean slate or a send-off for the previous era of the band?
The lineup change didn’t really affect the music on this album at all, since that came about after finishing production and recording. So, while we probably confused a bunch of people with the news of the “split” from last year, it kinda worked in our favor, since you can’t really call it a clean slate (having a new album with a past, non-existing lineup) and neither a send-off (since continuing the band itself under the same name). So I’d have to say it’s something in between here: keeping the band going since we’ve all decided on that and since this record is a Chapel of Disease record and also accepting and working with the cut that was made. However, I don’t see the music itself as disconnected from anything the band has done before, rather more the opposite. It’s our continuation of what we have started to work on with our previous releases, and it’s everything this band stands for.
Something about the following phrase used to describe the album struck a chord with me, as Ván Records described Echoes of Light as “a journey to chase light, only to ultimately destroy it…”. I’d love to hear more about this core conceit of the album, lyrically and thematically, and how it relates to Chapel of Disease as a whole.
The album is quite self-reflective, and, at times, it does talk about itself. How it was made, how it wants to be heard, how it hears itself. The quote you referenced plays with the title track’s chorus (“I’m chasing light, just to destroy it”). These lyrics reference how I approach making music: Always reaching for something obscure in the beginning, something that has to be chased and does not have a concrete form, and at times, it may not even seem to be reachable at all.
And in the event where it seems to have finally manifested, when you think you’ve achieved bringing form into the obscure, the whole process starts off again, taking you back to where you started since you ultimately destroy what you’ve been longing for. This is pretty much how Chapel of Disease approaches each of our albums: after finishing a record, we’re always thinking about what could be done next that doesn’t repeat ourselves but still manages to capture the defining sound and atmosphere of the band. It’s quite a manic process, but it is what keeps the drive of the band going and it is the main motivation.
What was the writing and recording process like for the making of Echoes of Light? Any specific milestones or challenges you want to highlight?
It was tough, to be honest. It took a while to distance ourselves from …As We Have Seen The Storm, which was received very well, and we were very pleased with it in our own right. I remember beginning to write the title track of the new album around the time that things got going (we were playing around with “Selenophile” before a bit, as far as I remember) for Echoes of Light. Once we had the core of that song, we knew we were on to something, and things started coming along, and a general idea took shape of what the record could be.
The next song we wrote was “A Death Through No Loss. ” Then, the pandemic came along and halted the writing process significantly. I can’t claim that it gave us the opportunity to focus more on the creative sides of a band, since I myself didn’t feel all too creative at the time. So there was some time where we were stuck with three songs until the following three came together. Around this time, we also had our longtime bass player and friend depart the band and move away. So, taken altogether, the making of Echoes of Light was a considerably more difficult process compared to that of our previous records. However, the challenge it put forth pushed us as a band, making our songwriting all the more focused, honed, and fully realized. As a result, I like to believe we got better at bringing out the most of each individual track and weaving each piece into one cohesive whole.
Arguably one of the most fascinating characteristics of Chapel of Disease is the band’s progression over the years from a familiar old-school death metal sound to the unabashedly unique harmony of progressive death metal, hard rock, and blues as it exists today. Could you tell me the story of how Chapel of Disease ended up embracing this distinct stylistic identity over the years?
It’s really about us wanting to include all the different styles of music we have an affinity for. It is just a very natural evolution that happened step by step if you take a look at our discography. We would not be around anymore if we had stuck to the OSDM formula out of principle since that is just not how we understand being fans of music and musicians in general. And really, that is the whole thrill about it all: How can we incorporate whatever we want into this music without it losing its identity and unique sound?
Of course, “whatever we want” is all in the realm of rock, blues, proto-metal, heavy metal, and extreme music, as you’ve said. They’re all entangled or in some way esoterically connected, and that’s why I never doubted that these different stylistic influences would be able to become an organic whole. Honestly, I never really thought about it all that much. So, really, to us it was never something that was all planned out or that we had a clear vision of, but we just started absorbing what we were into and gaining our own ideas and sounds from whatever that may have been.
I always liked the idea of this evolution being a very natural thing to us, which never needed all too many words or was ever planned out, since I like to believe this authentic progression is reflected in the music itself. You don’t have the feeling it is desperately trying to sound a certain way by choosing this or that recipe- it simply sounds the way it does.
What impressed me the most about Echoes of Light was just how refreshing and stuffed full of surprises the record was, even with the novelty of …As We Have Seen The Storm, We Have Embraced The Eye having been living rent-free in my head for the past five plus years. With Echoes of Light, in what ways did Chapel of Disease seek out to build atop the ideas and concepts of the previous record as a foundation? What were some of the rewarding ideas and aspects you tinker with?
There is no doubt that …As We Have Seen The Storm… changed a lot for us. I think I can speak for the rest of the band as well when I say it was the first release we were truly satisfied with. By the time we completed it, we realized it has its own thing to it (which didn’t really occur to us while being so focused during the album’s righting process). It opened a bunch of doors, since we realized we could incorporate all these different moods and styles without losing touch with what we had in mind as a general atmosphere of the music. So yes, while there would not have been that record without The Mysterious Ways Of Repetitive Art, it really did lay a foundation for the band to go even further and pick up on the play with light and shade.
The decision to incorporate clean vocals was just the next logical step we took to challenge and push ourselves creatively, and especially so knowing that some tracks like “Shallow Nights” and “An Ode To The Conqueror” demanded them. It’s once again a different and new layer to play with for the band, trying to achieve another color to be used for the music. The moodier passages you’ll hear on Echoes of Light go hand in hand with the use of clean vocals.
I was aware that the very prominent guitar work does have to be taken back at times to give the vocals space to work. There’s less noodling but much more chord-based and reverb-soaked sounds to let these particular tracks breathe a bit more. This is quite a different record from the previous LP, where that one was pretty much all-in at all times, which can be great, but in the case of Echoes of Light, applying occasional restraint on these passages elevated the overall project. Then again, to make up for those passages, other solo sections are even more extended and prominent than they were ever before. Being a huge guitar nerd, I think this is just something I could never get rid off while making music. Guitar leads to me are almost like a vocal line, they are there to create hooks and truly express something and not just to be a solo where it’s a hundred notes in 10 seconds.
I get asked about our genre a lot, and I have to say, I don’t really have an answer and never think about it all too much. To be fair though, I doubt you can really call this a death metal record. It is still part of extreme metal, yet it’s also very straight rock-oriented by now. But I really don’t know what to call it; maybe others can do better here.
I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not but the opening tracks on Chapel of Disease records always tend to be highlights for me, and with Echoes of Light, that trend once again continues. What was it like to make this one in particular, and why was this one you decided to use to kick off the record?
This one really was where it kicked off songwriting-wise. I remember writing it quite distinctive and I used to be hooked quite early on in the process of doing so. You need that starting point when beginning to write an album and that was all there. Since the song takes you through so many different moods but also starts off with quite a big sounding and catchy intro, we knew after finishing it that it would most likely be the opener for the record.
It still seems obvious to me that it is, just because of how it builds up. It is one of my favorite songs we’ve ever written as a whole, since it is somewhat different and probably—concerning the structure of it—one of the most proggy songs we’ve written so far. It is very thought through in its build up and that was the hard thing about it. When you listen to it, that is pretty much how it works in general: It’s a constant build up – with an interruption, being the moody middle section—from the very start, just to really unfold itself at the end.
In addition to the title track, what are some other personal favorite songs from the album? What makes them standouts and/or so significant to you?
I really enjoy “A Death Through No Loss” since I connect a lot of personal memories with this one. “Gold / Dust” I think has a great atmosphere playing with the very laid-back vocals but quite straightforward and heavy conjunction of guitars and drums. Those three instantly come to mind at this point. But then again, it’s almost impossible to choose individual songs from a new album, since they are all still sticking onto you in their own way.
And now an expected question with a twist. What artists and bands can you cite as stylistic influences for Chapel of Disease while writing and recording Echoes of Light? One caveat: non-metal bands only!
Good one… Rory Gallagher instantly comes to mind (fuel to the fire!). I listened to him a lot after the recordings of the previous record and can safely say that he’s a favorite of mine when it comes to guitar players, as he is to so many others. Unique phrasing and yet ever so catchy with his lead work. Winterhawk with the Revival record is always a huge inspiration since I think it simply is one of the best albums ever recorded, and they’re a band that is criminally overlooked (how could this ever have happened?). Rush became an influence during the making of the …As We Have Seen The Storm… record and has stayed so ever since.
Be it 2112, Hemispheres, or the obvious – Moving Pictures – they are just an amazing band in every regard. The same goes for Wishbone Ash, especially their 1976 Live At Rockpalast record (one of my favorite recorded delays concerning the lead guitar sound- is that an echoplex?). Other than that, I grew up listening to The Police a lot, and these last years have been doing so again and realized why I admired them so much. Stewart Copeland is one of my all-time favorite drummers. Without him, it would’ve been a completely different band. And one more, which you probably won’t be able to hear while listening to the record but which was constantly with me: Colter Wall with his self-titled album. Probably one of the records I listened to the most during these last months and years. What a voice and what an atmosphere!
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Echoes of Light released February 9th via Ván Records.
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