From Hole in the Sky to Beyond the Gates: My Time as a Norwegian Metal Fest Addict

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Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of September 22nd to September 28th, 2019. Release reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays. 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.

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Opeth -- In Cauda Venenum | Nuclear Blast | Progressive Rock/Metal | Sweden With their upcoming 13th studio album In Cauda Venenum (Latin for “Poison in the Tail”), Swedish progressive stalwarts Opeth continue to explore their blend of classic 1970s prog and early heavy metal that first emerged in 2011 with Heritage. The record will be Opeth’s first to be released in two versions: an English language version and a Swedish language version. Though 2019 marks the ten-year anniversary of the departure of death metal elements from Opeth’s sound, In Cauda Venenum presents some of the heaviest, most structurally complex material since the stylistic shift, with the group more successfully locating a healthy compromise between the two approaches.

-- Thomas Hinds

https://youtu.be/GF5FXYmBrc4

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Borknagar -- True North | Century Media | Black Metal | Norway From Jon Rosenthal's interview with Borknagar founder Øystein G. Brun:

Whether it is the past or the future which guides Brun, True North shows Borknagar remaining steadfast, true to the sound they pioneered almost 25 years ago. The balanced mixture of progressive rock, black metal, and folk metal is a recipe perfected early in their discography and has no need for any flashy updates or new ingredients.

https://youtu.be/NAKWe0DkBsE

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Car Bomb -- Mordial | Mathcore | United States (New York) From Thomas Hinds' extensive interview feature with Car Bomb founding guitarist Greg Kubacki:

In terms of translating Car Bomb’s manifold influences (musical and otherwise) into bespoke novelty, Mordial is a wild success. Above all else, it showcases the inexhaustible well of artistic experimentation that is the four-mind matrix behind its compositions — even after 20 years, it feels like Car Bomb are only just beginning to access some kind of untapped potential that hid dormant beneath the surface of their already-incredible material. The album is simultaneously melodious, voracious, intricate, psychedelic, and progressive — to a fault, even — and builds prudently upon elements from its predecessors but repeats nothing outright and makes no compromises in its unpredictability. Mordial is arguably the most “authentically Car Bomb” album, the most singular and faithful to their personally-paved path of musical invention.

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ShadowThrone -- Elements' Blackest Legacy | Non Serviam Records | Black Metal | Italy This second full-length from ShadowThrone represents everything I love about symphonics in black metal, plus the band adds a deft touch of thrash to boot. Elements' Blackest Legacy is heroic the way only synth-heavy black metal can be, and the band manages to remove a ton of the cheese inherent in being so epic by slicing through the mix with a raw, unabashed sense of rhythm and jam.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Hashshashin -- Badakhshan | Art As Catharsis | Progressive + Drone | Australia From Thomas Hinds' premiere of "Sarhadd":

With such a marked rejection of their old approach to songwriting, it is incredible how well Hashshashin’s brand of musical exploration has translated into their new material. Without abandoning the stylistic ingredients of their original recipe, they have combined essential concepts from drone, into something simultaneously traditional, naturalistic, and forward-thinking. With Badakhshan, this band has breathed the esoteric nature of their music into a figure of flesh and bone, a newly-formed hybrid between Earth and Aether.

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Bhleg -- Äril | Nordvis | Black Metal + Folk Metal | Sweden From Jon Rosenthal's premiere of "Från eld till aska":

Still rooted in their own take on folk metal, Bhleg leans more on the blackened end of the musical spectrum this time around. Stripped bare and exuding raw emotion, Bhleg’s own internal fires snap and pop, full of primal energy and charged with tales of old. Without the Sun, Bhleg becomes more ferocious in the dark, flickering light of their own making.

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Sempiternal Dusk -- Cenotaph of Defectuous Creation | Dark Descent Records | Death Metal | United States (Oregon) From Thomas Hinds' premiere of "Refracted Suffering Through the Windows of Hell":

At its contextually dialed-back length of six minutes, “Refracted” serves as a perfect hybrid of the two differing timbres presented across this record: deathly funeral doom of the longer tracks and the ravenous speed of its shorter pieces. With a sense of the occult, Cenotaph of Defectuous Creation is a statement of permanence and steadfast stoicism. Its esoteric sound seeks only to reflect the deepest inner contemplation and suffering. It carries an essential element of doom in its core, but wears the hideously gaudy garments of death metal’s rage and pummeling violence.

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Mosaic -- Cloven Fires | Eisenwald | Black Metal + Dark Metal | Germany A brief 7" vinyl EP of what's to come. Mosaic's harrowing, majestic pagan black metal positions itself at the precipice, both a pinnacle and a risk in itself. Also, please note the killer Twin Peaks reference in the eponymous track. (No public streams were available at the time of this post).

-- Jon Rosenthal

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DragonForce -- Extreme Power Metal | Metal Blade | Power Metal | United Kingdom Nope.

-- Andrew Rothmund

https://youtu.be/DDtaDWel5bs

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Mother's Tomb -- Absent Not Dead | Redefining Darkness | Death Metal | United States (Georgia) The first outing from Atlanta-based extreme metal outfit Mother’s Tomb, Absent Not Dead is four ripping tracks of death-tinged thrash metal unleashed with the sole intention of melting your face. The brainchild of Jason Schwartzwalder, ex-guitarist of Tampa-based outfit Brutality, the five piece outfit pumps out jagged, technically proficient death-thrash riffs at a breakneck pace, displaying a classic songwriting style filtered through a polished modern production. With a lyrical and thematic focus on the duality between hope and despair, the record strikes a grim, ghoulish, and compelling tone throughout its entirety.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Pyramido -- Fem | The Sign Records | Doom + Sludge | Sweden Swedish sludgy/doomy quintet Pyramido have found a jamming groove with Fem, their latest output. The album's spine is made of rock, through and through, but its appendages are fleshy and human. From its slow-build atmospherics to its mid-paced guitar crunch, Fem sinks in, deeply. The dash of post-metal that Pyramido build into their music is always a plus, too.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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The Neptune Power Federation -- Memoirs of a Rat Queen | Cruz Del Sur | Hard Rock + Heavy Metal | Australia From Thomas Hinds' premiere of the music video for "Watch Our Masters Bleed":

Regardless of the straightforward hard rock influence that is present in their material, the core essence of The Neptune Power Federation is rooted in the timeless attitude of heavy metal showmanship. Despite its simplicity, “Watch Our Masters Bleed” contains infectiously catchy grooves and motifs, leaning into the band’s campy aesthetics without being lost in utter cheesiness. What keeps this track and the record as a whole afloat is a strong bond between The Neptune Power Federation’s sense of restraint and the well-rounded panache of their production and sound engineering. Demonstrating a firm understanding of what they are and what they represent, this outfit’s goofy energy belies a cultivated atmosphere that balances attention-grabbing aesthetics with solid compositional abilities.

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Mortem -- Ravnsvart | Peaceville | Death Metal | Norway Thirty years after their Slow Death demo, Sverd-led Norwegian metal troupe shifts from the death metal of their youth to a crispy, keyboard-laden black metal album of a classic character. Ravnsvart, or "black raven," is as dark as the image to which its title eludes.

-- Jon Rosenthal

https://youtu.be/9MkoDnFN67M

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Renounced -- Beauty is a Destructive Angel | Holy Roar Records | Hardcore + Metalcore | United Kingdom I love it when the sometimes narrow gap between metalcore and one of its parents, hardcore, is narrowed even further. UK-based five-piece Renounced blur the lines between hardcore's energetic vitality and aggression and metalcore's more technical, riffy approach to crushing crowds for the fun of it. Beauty is a Destructive Angel riles and rouses just as much as it soothes with the smooth delivery of its groovy onslaught, plus it calls to mind metalcore's heyday from last decade without any copycatting.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Nex Carnis -- Black Eternity | Blood Harvest Records | Death Metal + Black Metal | Iran Formed in Tehran in 2012 and with only one album to their name, blackened death metal outfit Nex Carnis have partnered with Blood Harvest to finally present new material in the form of Black Eternity, the follow-up to their 2015 debut Obscure Visions of Dark. Championing quality over quantity in every aspect of their music. the EP is dark and disgusting, hammering and dizzying with a sonic cacophony that drags the listener down into labyrinth corridors of unspeakable horrors. Despite this vile aesthetic, Nex Carnis bring a certain kind of magic catchiness that elevates their craft even further. (No public streams were available at the time of this post).

-- Thomas Hinds

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Dorminn -- Dorminn | Antiq Records | Ambient | France Horrifying black ambiance -- shrieking and bellowing over acoustic instrumentation and sparse percussion. Memories of the more experimental side of a specific French legion of artists comes to mind. Features a rare, artist-approved Moëvöt cover.

-- Jon Rosenthal

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.gif from god -- approximation_of_a_human | Prosthetic | Grindcore + Mathcore | Virginia As purveyors of mentally stimulating (albeit taxing) grindy mathcore, .gif from god do not care whether the music they create invokes feelings of catharsis or anguish -- approximation_of_a_human is an uncompromising and obtuse arrangement of breakdowns and caustic screams which cuts acutely despite the abstraction the band's chaos involves.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Netherbird -- Into the Vast Uncharted | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Sweden Classic black metal with just enough of a modern touch, Into the Vast Uncharted is Netherbird's fifth album in over a decade. Expect huge choruses, tight verses, and plenty of tempo variance as the band tears apart the Swedish landscape with their signature panache and fury.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Fister -- Deacde of Depression | Listenable Records | (Cover Songs) | United States (Missouri) Fister is back at it, now with a set of cover songs and a re-recorded version of "The Failure." Artists covered include Darkthrone, Metallica, and Slayer, and Fister's "light touch" (lol) pays honest homage to all the legendary songs they apply their sound to. Maybe the Metallica cover is the best one of the bunch, but seriously, all these are lovely.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Horror God -- Cursed Seeds | Lavadome Productions | Death Metal | Russia Cursed Seeds is mid-paced technical death metal executed with aplomb: Horror God unleash plenty of discordance here without muddying things down at all. Definitely not a tech-death album, but definitely more technically minded than most other death metal, the band finds comfort in that sliver of the subgenre which doesn't owe anything to either sides. Cursed Seeds is brutal, and that's that.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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From The Grave (Remixes and Reissues)

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Cynic -- Traced in Air | Season of Mist | Progressive | United States (California) We generally don't cover reissues here, but this one seemed interesting enough to cover. As Cynic's first comeback album, Traced in Air picked up where Focus had left off: a mixture of smooth, colorful jazz fusion and classic, progressive Florida death metal. This "remix," however, completely excises the metallic (read as: harsh vocal) elements. What happened?

-- Jon Rosenthal

https://youtu.be/n1iRZTQzlew

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[caption id="attachment_66836" align="alignnone" width="630"] photo by Teddie Taylor[/caption]

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After debuting the intro track off their upcoming album Behold Sedition Plainsong (due 10/25 via Prosthetic), Liverpool folk/black metallers Dawn Ray’d have now released the album's first proper single, "To All, To All, To All!" "The title is the opening line of the final communique released by the Kronstadt rebellion in Russia in 1921, which was an anarchist uprising," singer/violinist Simon Barr told Kerrang. "The lyrics are about the tragedy of those who uphold and support capitalism, despite the misery, drudgery, depression that comes with living under the system. There’s something terrible about being bludgeoned by something whilst still believing it’s there to benefit you."

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https://youtu.be/Avqo5JtksIc

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Siccing the pitch-black shadows of night upon the archetypes of hardcore isn't a novel idea, but it's always a damn good one -- nothing deepens and extends punked-up fury like casting the resulting musical altercation into absolute darkness. And while black metal (for instance) and hardcore may comprise very different aesthetics and atmospherics, a delicate and angry set of hands and minds can wrangle the two into a special kind of abrasive cohesion. Chicago quintet Tides Cult has done just that with Your Memory Has Tarnished This Beautiful Place, their upcoming debut which finds synchrony between hardcore's straightforward gut-punch and the abstraction that blackened styles openly welcome. Check out an exclusive stream of the album's penultimate song "Athame" below.

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Tides Cult's potent and particular blend banks heavily on the feeling of movement, something which exists in all music but substantially so in the blackened hardcore realm. Both the ground and the air of the music, so to speak, must be in constant flux to sustain momentum -- "Athame" characterizes well both the tumultuous winds of the sky and the grounds they are slowly but unceasingly polishing flat. The difference here is that while erosion is excruciatingly slow and boring, Tides Cult is most certainly not. It's down to frequent tempo shifts, a dynamic guitar/bass interplay, and the vicious vocal performance which keep this band's blade extremely sharp but dangerously unpredictable. Abstraction, here, is a derivative of fear, itself exacerbated by aggression (of which there's plenty), all wrapped up under under a night-cloak not "spooky" but actually downright sinister. Halloween, please come sooner (and stay longer).

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Your Memory Has Tarnished This Beautiful Place releases October 31st. Pre-orders available now via Bandcamp.

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Slow and steady wins the race, or so the tortoise would have us believe. Clearly that’s true with doom metal, but it also applies to building a loyal and passionate fanbase. Massachusetts-based outfit Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean has so far excelled at both. Their crushing, monolithic brand of doom is a mammoth among gazelles, moving only when required and flattening everything in its path. Their first album, 2017’s Decay and Other Hopes Against Progress, found a receptive audience among the Bandcamp faithful, which has grown progressively since, and next month will now see their third release Tell Me What You See Vanishing and I Will Tell You Who You Are. The new album's closing track “Genesis of the Daffodil” -- streaming below -- is another slab of misery in the best way possible.

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By the band’s own admission, they are heavily inspired by the sound and aesthetics of Louisiana sludge titans Thou; even their name derives from one of Thou’s best songs. The comparisons are inevitable but shouldn’t be a focal point. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean are clearly not a cover band, though the covers they do choose to record have a less punky approach to songwriting than their bayou brethren. In any case, “Genesis of the Daffodil” begins with deliberate death march riffing, interspersed with brief respites of feedback while the drummer sounds like his sticks are made of granite. About halfway through the song, the bottom falls out while a lone, barely distorted guitar plucks out a quiet riff until the entire band crashes back to earth and turns said riff into a veritable mountain. And Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean end the song not with a bang, nor a whimper. It simply completes.

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Tell Me What You See Vanishing and I Will Tell You Who You Are releases October 25th. Pre-orders available now via Bandcamp.

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These days, black metal and stoner doom might have outer space (including things like alien takeovers of earth) on total lock as a theme or aesthetic, but technical death metal isn't fucking around either. In the case of Seattle-based quartet Xoth, technical death metal really, really isn't fucking around. Oh no, oh shit no, Xoth is not fucking around, and their upcoming second full-length Interdimensional Invocations holds zero back in its riffy testament to that which comes from the great void beyond to destroy us all. This album is an absolute trove of tech-death delights, the music blending effortlessly with the band's themology and approach. It's one of the juiciest fruits spawned by the genre this year. I've listened to it like 45 times already. I can't say enough, but enough's enough when it's enough, so here's a new song, the third track from the album:

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"Back to the Jungle" describes humanity's retreat to its most primal nature as society crumbles to dust and we're left with nothing but our dead intellects and thirst for survival even if it means drawing the blood of others. Extremely fitting, both as bespoke narrative but also sly criticism of the world's descent into dystopia as we approach another decade of a wretched new millennium. All that aside, though, what shines brightest from Xoth's radiant negative sun are the riffs, the fucking riffs which, for many of Xoth's tech-death peers, have been too genre-copypasta to really drive too much interest. But Xoth really rips anew, something decidedly fresh without feeling completely alien or experimental, beholden to tech-death's general sound but not its constriction on innovation. Interdimensional Invocations really bleeds when taken as a monolith rather than a set of individual songs -- something extremely rare and good in tech-death -- and "Back to the Jungle" is just a slice. That said, the song absolutely slaps, and trust me, just wait until you hear the whole shebang.

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Interdimensional Invocations releases October 18th. Pre-orders available now via Bandcamp.

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Psychedelic black metal masters Blut Aus Nord's new album Hallucinogen wasn't supposed to come out until October, but apparently someone leaked it, and their label Debemur Morti Productions is responding to that by just putting the whole album out today. They write:

Considering the album is spreading with no respect to its creators, we've decided to release the Blut Aus Nord album earlier than expected. We'll be shipping the CD/Cassette version to people who pre-ordered it next week. Vinyl isn't here yet, thanks for your patience. Our eternal thanks to those who respect our work.

Listen to the whole thing below:

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Like the cutting-edge material which its stalwarts introduced to the world, the character of the East Coast and Northeast mathcore scene around the turn of the century was volatile, sporadic, and ephemeral. As a proving grounds populated by artists with both incredible chops and musicianship, the movement spawned legendary bands like Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and The Number Twelve Looks Like You. The majority of the community, however, stayed confined to more localized underground levels of recognition, and by the end of the 2000s, the scene had all but dissolved into a spectre. But as mathcore began to lose its prevalence, one of its most enduring and defining outfits stepped into the spotlight: performing the discordant, angular riffs and rhythms of mathcore with the grinding speed and hyper-precise organization of progressive metal à la Meshuggah, Long Island quartet Car Bomb emerged in February 2007 with the release of their debut full-length Centralia. Founded in 2000 by bassist Jon Modell, Car Bomb methodically honed their craft for almost seven years before recording their debut release. Taking an unyieldingly independent approach from the onset, the band tracked and produced Centralia in a homemade studio, with drummer Elliot Hoffman even building his own microphone preamps and compressors. Though the group had signed with Relapse for the release of their first record (the label picked up the band after being impressed by their 2004 demo), it was their only record to be distributed by the label. Since then, Car Bomb has handled nearly all of the outfit’s management independently. Persisting to the present day with an unchanged lineup consisting of vocalist Michael Dafferner, guitarist Greg Kubacki, bassist Modell, and drummer Hoffman, the unconventional spirit at the core of their sound has survived and evolved along with its members. Though Car Bomb’s true commercial breakout came with the 2016 release of their third album Meta (on which they toured with acts such as Gojira, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Animals as Leaders), they have been mastering their bizarre craft for well over a decade, a journey that began in 2007 with the mind-bending Centralia.

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A fascinating late entry into the annals of first-wave mathcore, Centralia presented a bedlam of disparate elements: mathcore, deathgrind, experimental metal, and even a sprinkling of free jazz all appeared in its atonality and erratic motions. With this confrontational madness, Car Bomb established themselves as a purely distinct entity even within the avant-garde territory that overlaps all of metal. Perhaps the most pronounced strength of Centralia was in its ability to jar between suffocating guitar attacks and mechanistic bass/drum grooving. Centralia is disorienting and exhaustive, defying any sense of immediate tonal cohesion yet maintaining an overall consistency as a collective work under the Car Bomb brand-to-be. There's no doubt that Centralia introduced the maddening, white-knuckled aural rage which Car Bomb would mold over the coming years. With its breakdowns and schizophrenic, Mike Patton-esque vocals alternating between rasping screams and bizarre, filtered mumblings, Centralia juggles double-bass grinding and deathcore-shaming breakdowns with unrelenting fervor, almost joy. To this day, considering all of Car Bomb's output, Centralia stands as the band's rawest and most twisted album, and it was Centralia that laid vital groundwork for all the sounds to come in Car Bomb’s discography. I had the pleasure of talking to Kubacki in-depth about Car Bomb’s storied legacy -- I dug into the relationship between this foundational period of the band and the aesthetic ground on which they tread today, among so much else. This article is a purposefully synchronous testament to the mathematical nature of the band: Car Bomb's upcoming fourth full-length Mordial (out next Friday) comes three years after their last release, which came four years after their second, which came five years after their first. I began our conversation by inquiring about Car Bomb’s first era, the release of Centralia, and the stimuli behind their increasingly progressive endeavors.

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Car Bomb was originally formed in 2000; you’ve been going strong since then with no major breaks or hiatuses. You were around for a long time before you even released your debut album Centralia – what was that first era like, and how has your approach to being a band changed since then? It was weird because I didn’t join until 2002, and then Elliot and Mike didn’t join until a year or two afterwards. So I guess Jon was trying assemble the members first of all, then there was a lot of experimenting and trying to figure out what kind of band we wanted to be. Elliot and Jon on the one side came from Spooge which was a little more technical and progressive, whereas Mike and I were more from the hardcore metal scene, so those two worlds kinda collided and it didn’t really click at first, as far as the material goes. Plus, we all -- we still do -- worked for a living; we don’t do it as a full-time gig, so we were also starting our careers as well and thus working a little more on our jobs as opposed to the band. It was more of a weekend project. So now, it’s a little more serious: we still have jobs but every day we try to put some kind of effort into the band, whether it’s adding something to the recording, or doing some artwork or something like that. You mentioned that your influences were split down the middle genre-wise at the inception of Car Bomb. Who were some of your major inspirations closer to the beginning of your career, and which of those inspirations made a profound, lasting impression upon your material? That’s really easy to answer. It’s pretty obvious in our music, we’re all huge fans of Meshuggah, and we’re all huge fans of Deftones, and Metallica, Aphex Twin, and stuff like that. IDM -- which is “Intelligent Dance Music," it’s kind of a crappy name for people that would be on the Warp label, you know like Squarepusher, Boards of Canada – we were all hugely, heavily into that back in the early 1990s. We grew up on that stuff, so we all had that in common. You can tell especially in the newest stuff really where our influences are. We’re not afraid to just rip off Meshuggah riffs, not verbatim but you can tell “oh that’s the Meshuggah part,” or “oh that’s the Deftones part.” We love those bands so much we’re like yeah, let’s just throw it in. Those are the type of acts that have lasted from the beginning. Before Car Bomb was a thing, we jammed in a rehearsal space together as two separate bands, and Elliot gave me his copy of Destroy Erase Improve on tape when it came out. I still have it by the way, I have the exact copy [laughs]. As soon as I heard that, and ever since I heard Elliot play, I’ve wanted to keep playing with him forever. Speaking of forever, Car Bomb’s lineup has remained totally unchanged in the almost 20 years since your inception. Within these ongoing creative relationships, how do you continue to evolve and progress without letting your material becoming stale or repetitive? That was sort of our intent from the beginning, to always make music that is new to us -- maybe just something we haven’t tried before, or something that we feel is unique in the music circle in a certain way. Like I said before, we borrow from a lot of other bands, but we hope to make something that’s kind of us. I think between the way Mike sings, the way I do effects, the way that Elliot plays drums, and the way that Jon has his monstrous bass over everything, I like to think that we have our own thing going on to some extent. But we’re always looking for new things to listen to, always looking for new movies or shows to watch, new artwork to appreciate; looking for new things is just sort of in our DNA, so I think that has a lot to do with it.

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Though Centralia may be Car Bomb’s rawest and bloodiest slab of catharsis, it is by no means their most ferocious. That title is awarded to their second full-length record w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w, pronounced as “w click w” but referred to by some as “the waveform album.” Named after the rhythmic pattern of its first track “The Sentinel,” the record streamlines the bipolar hyperactivity of their first effort into a more well-defined frenzy of polyrhythmic, omnidirectional madness. Car Bomb’s list of personal influences came to light more noticeably with this release; with illusory cover art that quite literally looks like it's squirming around, w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w's sound is psychedelic in the most nightmarish sense, with moments of electronic noise and uncanny melodicism inserted between Car Bomb's trademark pummel. Injecting the fractal rhythmic precision of Meshuggah with an amphetamine-like high, modular synths bubble and swell between riffs in moments of dissonant computerized paranoia. The album’s groovier tracks such as “Lower the Blade” and “Spirit of Poison” both showcased a more cohesive, fully manifest presentation of the group’s seemingly disjointed sound -- they sketched out the blueprint for the juxtaposition of dreamy harmony and venomous barbed wire that would slowly become an archetypal recurrence in Car Bomb’s sound. While Centralia felt more like an outpouring of passion and frustration, w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w fully delivered the band’s oddball eccentricities. The unceasing intensity and frenetic impulses that defined Centralia had evolved into something with identifiable self-similitude and direction while sounding even less akin to music written by their peers at the beginning of the decade. In 2012, the once topical mathcore scene from which Car Bomb had emerged had all but dried up, with its more prolific constituents having progressed in various new stylistic directions. So it was on w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w where Car Bomb reinforced and sharpened their intensity, but it was Meta four year later that presented a more refined maturation of their sound. Astoundingly, after 16 years of existence, the band's material underwent a series of major innovations resulting in a revitalization of their identity. Taking cues from w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w’s paradoxical marriage of atmospheric melodicism and chaotic technicality, Meta utilized more clean vocals and unnerving lyrical sections, stretching the abstract tensions of their music even further. Few albus can reasonably claim this, but Meta quite literally abandons all notions of genre -- even progressive music, which by definition is limitless -- to pursue a sonic amalgam of a newly evolved species of music. Though still rooted in mathcore, Meta represents a marked shift from the hardcore and punk origins of the genre. Relentlessly chugged riffs were broken up into surprisingly well-organized patterns, and the rapidfire whispers and screams of Centralia were allowed ample space to grow into more thoughtful expressions. The rift between Car Bomb’s original musical scope and the extraterrestrial realms they now explore grows even wider with Mordial: voyaging deeper into the cerebrality of avant-garde music, Car Bomb's latest release is a set of biomechanical algorithmic sonic hammers. As an embellished continuation of Meta, Mordial boasts an even greater textural range and a hefty emphasis on its multitude of intersecting influences -- with passages of epic grandeur, the record evolves Car Bomb’s signature style with resounding success. Working from a now-proven formula of mad polyrhythmic free jazz destruction, Mordial explores a greater variety of tones while maintaining increased focus on cohesion, yielding a monster wildly eclectic in approach yet monolithic in stature. Before getting too far with Mordial, though, I first asked Kubacki to explain the process of Car Bomb’s collective shift away from mathcore and aggressive punk to a more experimental prog sound, and if that movement was an intentional one. I also inquired about his thoughts on the steady evolution of their sound, and whether time has allowed for a more thorough exploration of their wildly inventive capabilities.

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Car Bomb’s material can pretty safely be defined as mathcore if you’re to attempt to label it. But mathcore being a more hardcore-based genre, I feel you’ve continually moved away from it, and the progressive metal tendencies have emerged more so in your sound. Do you feel that you’ve intentionally made the move away from punk over time or have you always been more of a metal band? We always want to have that punk aesthetic, as far as how it feels to play a certain riff. Even if it’s a melodic part, we still want it to have this sort of not-polishedness to it, I guess is the best way to describe it. We try to keep it raw: we don’t try to add too much production or anything like that, we want to keep it pretty rough. I guess on Mordial in particular… in 2017 we toured with Gojira and did 30 days straight. Just to see how they took their energy and pocketed each riff into the perfect part of the song, we were really impressed by that and really tried to strive for that. Instead of making this random, longform piece we tried to go, “okay, we have some random riffs that are in different time signatures, but how can we take more bits and pieces and put them into later parts of the song, or how can we bring a riff and sort of slice it in half or invert it?" So you’re striving for longer phrases and longer incorporations rather than just a sequence of ideas. Yeah, and we tried to make each song really different from each other. It’s weird because “Dissect Yourself” is really the only song that sounds like that, that’s the most aggressive, mathy, Dillinger-y type song that we have that’s sort of all over the place. A lot of the other tunes are way more compact. There’s one song that even has this My Bloody Valentine thing going on for a minute -- we’re trying a lot of different things on this one. There’s still heavy stuff in there, and there’s definitely one song in particular -- the title track of the record -- that’s one of the heaviest songs we’ve ever written, but at the same time you can tell it’s not just a long sequence of randomized parts. It’s really trying to make songs that are each their own compositions. Mordial presents a considerable progression in Car Bomb’s identity as a group, both sonically and aesthetically. In your perspective, what aspects of the record most set it apart from Meta and your other previous works in terms of style and overall approach? Again, I think I have to go back to that whole Gojira experience, seeing how the crowd reacted to them and how honestly they create their music. We get to see them record and write their stuff since we share a studio together, and everything they do is 100% from the heart even though it’s kinda calculated at the same time. As their music gets more primal, they always track it more like something from Sepultura’s Roots era or the Chaos A.D. era of groove metal. We really don’t do that too much, but that was the real inspiration behind it, like, “how can we take all that we do in our music and make it compact in order to tell a better story? How can we surprise the crowd in spots but also bring it all back full circle?" We’re not really afraid to do that this time around, there are parts that are like “oh that part again!” Whereas with w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w it was just like an odd piece of random riff after random riff.

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[caption id="attachment_50843" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Car Bomb by Ben Stas (at Paradise Rock Club in 2016)[/caption]

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In terms of translating Car Bomb’s manifold influences (musical and otherwise) into bespoke novelty, Mordial is a wild success. Above all else, it showcases the inexhaustible well of artistic experimentation that is the four-mind matrix behind its compositions -- even after 20 years, it feels like Car Bomb are only just beginning to access some kind of untapped potential that hid dormant beneath the surface of their already-incredible material. The album is simultaneously melodious, voracious, intricate, psychedelic, and progressive -- to a fault, even -- and builds prudently upon elements from its predecessors but repeats nothing outright and makes no compromises in its unpredictability. Mordial is arguably the most "authentically Car Bomb” album, the most singular and faithful to their personally-paved path of musical invention. As the quartet presents their recursive structures and raw naturalism with surgical precision, they investigate the integration of man and machine, incorporating ideas never before attempted within their music in a sort of cyborgian transfusion. One of the most well-integrated innovations Mordial lies within its digital instrumentation -- the computational tendencies of Car Bomb's sound have been re-reared via hideously lush electronic elements that go far beyond what the band has done previously. “Start,” the album’s 44-second introductory track, begins the record in a shimmering orchestral landscape more typical of a film score than a metal album. As its layers continue to swell and expand, cloudy chords begin to decay into crackling distortion before the ensuing track “Fade Out” slams the listener with Car Bomb’s signature crunch. This theme of ambient illustration continues throughout the record with moments of wistful layered digital atmosphere contained in transitionary moments such as the outro of “Xoxoy” or the title track’s minimalist, almost tribal introduction. “Antipatterns” features a more extended example of this aural collage, with a hovering elegance that graces the track with a surprisingly peaceful ending. A more extreme example of the bizarre array of noises utilized on Mordial, the track “Dissect Yourself” begins with Car Bomb’s meaty chug colliding with a confrontational wall of laser noises ripped straight from a science fiction film and ends with unsettling digitally altered vocal samples reminiscent of Aphex Twin. I wanted to get some more details on the increased use of digital effects within Car Bomb’s music, so I asked Kubacki to explain the technology he uses to create these timbres and sudden noises, and how they had come into an expanded role on Mordial.

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[caption id="attachment_50840" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Car Bomb by Ben Stas (at Paradise Rock Club in 2016)[/caption]

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Going back to “Dissect Yourself,” which you mentioned as one of the heavier tracks from the record, I wanted to address the “laser noises” in that song: with the increased use of electronic effects in Car Bomb’s music, what is your approach to blending the organic shape of your riffs and the digital manipulation of such? Everything is mostly digital now; I use the Fractal AxeFX II and that’s pretty much all I use now because it’s so… it’s like the iPhone of guitar rigs. Especially when you’re touring on the road, it doesn’t make sense to have all these pedals, all these loose cables, and speakers that are really temperamental to the moisture in the air, it makes more sense to have everything inside one box. So you’ve fully evolved beyond the pedalboard? There’s one pedal that I still use, I use a Boss DD3 – setting number seven is this cascading pitch shifter, there’s nothing that sounds like that so I tend to use that everywhere, but everything else is the Axe-Fx. A lot of pitch shifting effects, remodulation effects, even the delay and reverb that I do, are mostly pre-any type of gain pedal or amplifications, because that way it sort of makes it part of the instrument. I think it’s amazing that you essentially have so many pedals that you don’t want to have any pedals. Exactly, right [laughs]? There’s always another ten pedals you wanna buy. It’s like EuroRack; the thing is, aside from Car Bomb stuff, my friend Rich sucked me into EuroRack. I don’t buy pedals but I buy all these little stupid electronic noise makers thingies and get lost in that stuff.

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The grinding speed and technical mastery of Mordial are as potent as with any Car Bomb record but are now intertwined with layers of symphonic eloquence more typical of a progressive high-concept album. Its constant tempo shifts and brainiac metering splendidly fluidize the whiplash-inducing jolts of previous works, creating a headspace that is much less claustrophobic and self-dismantling even than Meta’s open-ended harmonic motifs could procure. Utilizing dense chords and tonalities hinting at ideas beyond standard brutality, Mordial touches the twisted terror of avant-garde classical composers such as Penderecki or Ligeti in its exasperating density -- and, with melodic passages interleaved more centrally than anything drawn from their previous material, Car Bomb tuck lyrical melodic vocal phrases embraced by ethereal chasms of delay between head-spinning brutality, as exemplified through the textural emulsion of “Blackened Battery” and “Antipatterns.” These tracks in particular feel almost like a mutated bastardization of jazz, but in the best way imaginable. Journeys of the psyche are Mordial’s most profound achievement, and they swell from Car Bomb’s breakdowns with vibrant flourish. “Scattered Sprites” and “Vague Skies” exhibit cascading, interstellar guitar solos which maintain their wicked technicality and asymmetrical contour despite any contrast. Both of these songs in particular demonstrate the album's central theme of uncanny duality between natural and artificial elements, as Car Bomb's more spacious harmonic shapes are matched by sinister, digitally manipulated passages. Almost every track on Mordial features at least one passage of clean vocals, often providing bizarre windows of hopeful illuminance to shine briefly upon a composition before dragging it back into the barbed-wire depths of their cavernous sizzle. This increased sense of integration on Mordial sees Car Bomb marrying their more delicate soundscapes with the stark brutality of their music more effectively than ever before: ideas once presented sequentially have now been fused into a singular timbre, and motifs once separate and disjointed now combine in grotesque yet functional chimeras. Now that the mathcore skeleton of their sound has been refined so thoroughly as to allow for unprecedented expansion into new sonic realms, I talked with Kubacki about the strategies Car Bomb use to achieve these levels of inhuman technicality and precision while simultaneously increasing the naturalist aspects of the record.

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[caption id="attachment_50841" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Car Bomb by Ben Stas (at Paradise Rock Club in 2016)[/caption]

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Regarding the complexity and the highly mathematical structure of your material, do you have any special techniques for writing and mastering your music? Do you have a background in music theory? Not really. None of us are really classically or technically trained. Actually I think the person who had the most lessons is Mike, he was an insane classical guitar player. He was a classical guitar music major at Nassau Community College for three years or something like that. We’re all inspired by modern composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, even Stravinsky, stuff like that. Philip Glass is a perfect example, because he always adds one element at a time, he’ll make a bar stretch from 7/8 to 4/4 to 9/8 -- and it's very natural, it’s not this jarring thing. It starts to not sound like a thing that you’re counting, it becomes this textile-like pattern that washes over you, and that’s what we kinda go for as well. If you can count us that’s cool, but if you can’t count us that’s cool too: hopefully you can kinda digest it even if you can’t bob your head to it. We actually tried to use a little more 4/4 on Mordial. Like "Scattered Sprites," a lot of that is in 4/4. There’s a couple other tracks that have 4/4 in them as well but we tried to break it up into patterns of five a bit so that the rhythms are symmetrical but the number of repetitions is uneven. We like to do a lot of stuff in 9/8 where we have a section of four 16th notes and then five 16th notes, so it feels like it’s speeding up and slowing down with each shift, it’s sort of an effect that makes it feel like the tempo is changing even though it’s in a different time signature. You’ve been talking about primal instincts and returning to a more raw expression of your sound; was it this concept that inspired the title of the record? Perhaps its name is a reference to the primordial nature of its sound? Yeah, it comes from that word. I don’t want to give away too much about exactly what it means, but if you look at primordial and the different terms that can be associated with it, it sort of stems from that. We just like the way that the word sounds: I don’t think there’s a lot of people that use it and we always try to come up with new and unique phrases. Is Mordial something that could be seen as more accessible overall, or is something that’s truly meant for the fans? What do you want the listener to take away from the record most of all? I think it’s something more refined as far as we go. We really liked how Meta made an impact on people, and that was something we spent way more time on writing: the riffs, the songs, crafting the sound, getting the right people involved in the production of it like Josh Wilbur. That was a huge part of the experience, as far as being able to rely on other people to make our music better. I think going off that natural progression, we tried to step a little further with this one by bringing in Nolly [Getgood] and Ermin [Hamidovic] for mixing and mastering. But as far as what people should take away, we just want people to dig it. There are so many records that I keep going back to that I either grew up on or still listen to in my 30s; any Meshuggah record, I can always go back to. Any Radiohead record, I always go back to. Every My Bloody Valentine record, every Aphex Twin release. Like 50% of my listening time is Aphex, I’m embarrassed to say it, that’s all I listen to. In my mind, I hope that some people would like to listen to us as a staple of their catalog, something they can go back to once a year, something that gives them that feeling that I get when I listen to OK Computer or Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 or so on.

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[caption id="attachment_50844" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Car Bomb by Ben Stas (at Paradise Rock Club in 2016)[/caption]

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Mordial represents progression and innovation for a group already more innovative than the vast majority of their peers, stepping into the truly avant-garde by actually aiming to redefine avant-garde altogether. As 21st Century music, Mordial is a major becoming for Car Bomb: their multitude of influences, coming together to transcend time and genre, are all represented with equal consideration, not simply as decoration. Ultimately, Car Bomb represents the blurring line between man and machine, between the authentic and the artificial, between simulacrum and truth. All music is art, but Mordial is very art. Exemplifying the fractal reality to which their music constantly pays tribute, Car Bomb now comes full circle by assuming the guise of unfiltered spontaneity that surrounded their first record, but this time equipped with an invaluable wealth of experience, self-reflection, and intimidating technological poise. The full range of influences informing Mordial’s sound is readily apparent in the music, and although the record is a strictly musical work, it pays homage to the multimedia spectrum of artwork by which it was inspired. As one of the most pleasantly surprising (and criminally underrated) bands in a postmodern paradigm, it's certain Car Bomb will eventually top Mortdial's already incredible scope, just as this one now tops Meta. The barest idea behind the band is now absolutely manifest, not as a gory experiment but as a natural expression of the tsunami of tones and textures that backgrounds one of the most fervently unique forces in heavy and forever-uncompromising music.

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Mordial releases next Friday. Preorder via Bandcamp.

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Minneapolis folk/black metal act Obsequiae are following 2015's much-loved Aria of Vernal Tombs with their third album, The Palms Of Sorrowed Kings, on November 22nd via 20 Buck Spin. Two tracks are streaming now: the folk-oriented intro track "L'autrier m’en aloie," and the longer, more black metal-leaning "Ceres in Emerald Streams." Both are pretty great, and already have our hopes high for this album. Listen below.

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https://youtu.be/KJ0VQ77XPGc

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Tracklist 1. L'autrier m'en aloie 2. Ceres In Emerald Streams 3. In The Garden Of Hyacinths 4. Palästinalied 5. The Palms Of Sorrowed Kings 6. Morrígan 7. Per tropo fede 8. Lone Isle 9. Asleep In The Bracken 10. Quant voi la flor novele 11. Emanations Before The Pythia 12. In hoc anni circulo

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[caption id="attachment_66780" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Cerebral Rot[/caption]

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It was the evening of Friday, September 13th when I headed toward Denver’s South Broadway neighborhood, a haven for punks, metalheads, and countercultural folks of all sorts. As a symbolic early herald of autumn, the twilight sky was decorated with an eerie harvest moon, marking the first Friday the 13th in almost two decades to do so. The setting was ideal for the night’s main event: up-and-coming Seattle death metal acts Cerebral Rot and Fetid, the masterminds behind two of this summer’s most blasphemously gore-splattered OSDM-style albums. The two bands were set to make an appearance at the Hi-Dive on this foreboding date -- as burgeoning champions of first-wave death metal, their studio material already impressed me profoundly, so I quickly leapt at the opportunity to witness their brutal assault in the flesh. Approaching the corner of Broadway and Ellsworth where the Hi-Dive is neatly tucked, I assumed by the surging crowd of metal-goers smoking and socializing outside the club that I had arrived between sets. To my pleasant surprise, though, I managed to stroll into the venue just before the start of Cerebral Rot’s set. Once inside, I was immediately drawn to the well-stocked merch table standing past the bar, toward the back of the venue. The spread hosted an unreal diorama of patches, tour shirts, long-sleeves, all bookmarked by the two headlining bands’ debut LPs -- Odious Descent into Decay and Steeping Corporeal Mess on either side. The records from two of the most prodigious recent signees to 20 Buck Spin’s formidable roster of OSDM revivalists stood side-to-side in a slime-ridden landscape of gore and tangled calligraphy. I soon made my way toward the front of the pit, spotting several eager fans already posted by the stage. By the esoteric, genre-specific selection of merchandise sported by those present (namely one individual’s nostalgic TimeGhoul shirt), I took pleasure in the fact that many amongst the crowd were of the crate-digging, music-nerd ilk.

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[caption id="attachment_66781" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Cerebral Rot[/caption]

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Cerebral Rot members Ian Schwab and Zach Nehl stood on the dimly lit stage and performed a meticulous soundcheck, carefully adjusting their tone as to achieve perfect contours of grime and crunch. Schwab, also known as the Purveyor of Destruction, requested green lights and a thick fog; though green lighting was achieved, there was no fog to be had this evening. Nevertheless, the band launched straight into material from Odious Descent -- immediately, their live presence soon reinforced my belief that their material had successfully tapped into the primordial core of vintage Neanderthal death metal, sans frills and adulterations. As the denim-clad quartet unleashed their barrage of hammering steamroller riffs -- all narrated by Schwab’s heartwarmingly monstrous vocal inflections -- I felt the lurking evil of the music boiling up through the surface of the stage and spilling out into the audience. The highlight of the group’s performance was in the serpentine and atonal solos conjured by Schwab throughout the set, which he would call up from the depths of hell to cast demise over the already lingering despair of Cerebral Rot's poisonous riffage. The most piercing of these came during their precisely executed presentation of Odious Descent’s plodding title track; with wailing dive bombs and wild tonalities writhing over guttural, oily death metal carnage, this band sealed their reputation as one of the more effective emulators of arcane old-school extreme metal energy. After Cerebral Rot's madness, Fetid began to load in their equipment, and I noted that the latter group’s demeanor was considerably more understated, bassist Chelsea Loh’s massive coffin-shaped bass case notwithstanding. Guitarist and vocalist Clyle Lindstrom also provides secondary guitars for Cerebral Rot, a role he has filled since 2018, but seemed remarkably calm and poised despite having just finished a 45-minute set of grueling material. After a brisk soundcheck, the trio humbly thanked the crowd for staying until the end of the show and proceeded seamlessly into their material. The shape of their sound was unimaginably massive, with destructive grooves seeping forth at a sludgy crawl suddenly exploding into double bass and tremolo; with long strands of sweat-soaked hair obscuring his face, Lindstrom traded demonic and guttural vocal lines with drummer Julian Rhea’s equally frightening yowl. As their set progressed, Fetid matched increasingly brutal downtempo onslaughts with blistering speed, constantly increasing in intensity only to break into soul-crushing, crowd-pleasing breakdowns. As I sank deeper and deeper into Fetid’s cathartic, bass-heavy presentation of death metal, their set took on a meditative, almost mesmerizing quality; the stoic and unfazed impassiveness of the band in unison with their demonically otherworldly material had entranced me into a state of undivided attention between my mind and their derelict, oozing aural display.

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[caption id="attachment_66777" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Fetid[/caption]

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As Lindstrom and Rhea split vocal duties, and a wall of sound stampede reduced to a more streamlined three-piece arrangement, Fetid presented a significantly different perspective on death metal than Cerebral Rot, despite the strikingly narrow niche that both groups occupy. Even with my lofty expectations going into the show, I found both groups incredibly satisfying, going above and beyond the standards set by their debut albums. Each presented an auditory and aesthetic angle on Seattle's rising OSDM scene that wholly contrasted with the other, and both infused their performance with a vital dose of feral, pulse-pounding fun. Looking back on the nonchalant semi-professionalism pervading the venue that night, there was a slightly tongue-in-cheek nature surrounding the whole event; perhaps death metallers have finally come full circle and are finally able to openly admit that we’re all just huge music nerds. It may have been the fateful alignment of the date and the moon that evoked this bizarre energy; then again, it may have simply been the the spirit of death metal.

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[caption id="attachment_66779" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Fetid[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_66788" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Lingua Ignota. Photo credit: Tashina Byrd[/caption]

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Everything went black. Opening act Void Vision had left the stage a while ago, their retro synth-pop already a distant memory. The venue suddenly was completely devoid of light save for some cantina fixtures over the Underground Arts bar. That’s when the screaming started.

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We still couldn’t see anything in the darkness. All we could hear were her tortured voice and a single piano. The cracking vocals of “Do You Doubt Me Traitor” came out from the lightless stage.

I don’t eat, I don’t sleep. I don’t eat, I don’t sleep. I don’t eat, I don’t sleep. I don’t eat, I don’t sleep. I don’t eat. I let it consume me.

And everyone was consumed along with her. And the show has yet to really begin. You wonder of the darkness will ever end. And then it does. Kind of. She’s not on the stage. Too easy. In the middle of the room, a haggard frock of clear plastic sheeting hangs from the exposed pipes in the ceiling. She is near that, off the stage, in the crowd. Then, like an apparition, she seems to float among the crowd.

How can you doubt me now? Satan, get beside me.

Decades of seeing bands live in concert does not prepare for this. One song in, she is yelping, gasping, questioning. “How do I break you?” I. Do. Not. Know.

When all this is ended As cruel as I am Remember how I loved you But that nothing, nothing can stand.

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[gallery ids="16383,16381,16382" galleryid="846:66787" galleryindex="0" enablefullscreen="yes" showthumbs="no" ]

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One song in, Lingua Ignota project mastermind Kristin Hayter (bonus: check out our interview from earlier this year) hasn’t even set foot on the stage and it’s possible she never will. There’s nothing up there, no band, nothing. The music is prerecorded. It doesn’t matter. She owns it. She owns it all. She actually does go on the stage, the front of it. She is flanked by audience members who just wound up there with nobody to stop them. She has her microphone in one hand and in the other, a clamp light, the industrial kind that might be used for auto repair, which she shines on herself and on the audience and onto the plastic. She leaves the stage, and proceeds to spend the entire time in front of it. She uses the frayed, hanging sheet as her anchor, twisting around in it, shining the light through it, while other industrial lights illuminate it from the floor. To test a theory, I jumped on the stage. No resistance. I'm standing among the bank of keyboards leftover from the support act. She resides on the other side of her makeshift curtain, behind it so I cannot see her, but it doesn't matter. I can hear her as she plaintively wails while piped-in piano plays.

Who will love you if I don't? Who will fuck you if I won't?

The crowd around her stares. I can't see her, but I can hear her and feel her presence and it's as real as the muted keys that accompany her. She would do this without an audience, I think. This ritual is personal. We're lucky to be allowed to watch as she purges everything and everything and everything. “If the poison won't take you, my dogs will.” On Caligula, Lingua Ignota's visceral latest album, this line from the song of the same title is sung angrily, a menacing growl that shows she means business, or at least needs to convince someone she does, and maybe it’s her that needs convincing. On the floor of Underground Arts, it’s different. It’s somber, resigned to whatever fate it's due. She sings how she wants to. Lines that were recorded to sound measured come off manic here, and sometimes screams become whispers. Your own Lingua Ignota show will be different. It has to be. “All I know is violence," Hayter exclaims.

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[gallery ids="66793,66792" galleryid="846:66787" galleryindex="1" enablefullscreen="yes" showthumbs="no"]

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She thrashed throughout the song, against the sheet, tangled within it, seemingly unable to escape. She screams, she screams, over and over. She throws the light to the floor and it crashes and then goes dark. Then she darkens every other light. She quickly escapes under the cover of her darkness. She whisked by me, far faster than she had any right to do so with the darkness and the monitors and the equipment on the stage I shouldn’t have been on. I felt her air, the breeze she made more than her actually, and before I could react she was gone. And it was over. Lingua Ignota is unlike any other artist performing in heavy music today; her show is unlike any other show I've seen before. It’s more performance art than musical performance, and all cathartic release. It’s way more Diamanda Galas than whatever definition of metal might be employed, but in these times, we can have her too. In these times, this can be metal, an artist shrieking to pre-recorded piano, a woman defiantly reclaiming herself from those who would try and take her. And she performs for the benefit of all of us, mouths agape, and it matters not what band shirt we wear or what patches we don as we bear slack-jawed witness to the raw power Lingua Ignota can unleash.

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The brainchild of guitarist and composer Erik Kråkenes, Norwegian experimental post-metal outfit Astrosaur was founded three years ago as an instrumental project consisting of himself, bassist Steinar Glas, and drummer Jonatan Eikum. Veteran participants of the Norwegian progressive scene, Kråkenes and his bandmates are decorated with the high honor of working as session musicians with artists such as Leprous and Ihsahn in addition to holding degrees from the prestigious Conservatory of Music in Kristiansand. Astrosaur’s first record Fade In // Space Out (2017) introduced the world to their sludgy stoner-prog approach and suggested an entity equally archaic and futuristic, primeval and eternal. In the two years since the release of their debut, the group have refined the individualism and veracity of talent in their material even further, honing in on the esoteric and innovative potential of their style with their sophomore album Obscuroscope. Complete with imagery fully embracing the hidden wisdom of the occult (the merkaba, Thelemic hexagram, and astrally projecting elephants, to name a few), Astrosaur’s second full-length serving of extraterrestrial soundscapes -- released last Friday via Pelagic Records -- serves as a portal into the mysteries of a primordial earth with a bold expansion on the group’s unique sonic amalgam. As a companion to the album’s fourth track “Elephant Island,” the group has now unveiled a video whose visuals are as cerebral and abstract as the textures of the song itself, which you can stream at the link below.

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https://youtu.be/FMaqPW0cMVg

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In a perfect synthesis of aesthetics, the video begins with negative, non-representational forms and bursts of flickering iridescence illustrating waves of effects-laden instrumental ambience, a complement to the bleak melancholy of the track’s introductory passage. As the hanging minimalism of the track’s preface drops into doomier, more hefty riffage, these soft images are replaced with rippling walls of static distortion that cascading through a void of sinister digital hues. Suddenly, “Elephant Island” tears itself out of its warbling post-metal aural soup with a savage, piercing barrage of sludge; as the timbre of the composition becomes more sleek and caustic, the video follows suit with lights undulating more erratically, yet interleaved with more coherent images of Astrosaur’s three members performing in a surreal, claustrophobic space. As Kråkenes launches into a punishingly chaotic solo, his virtuosic phrasings usher in visibly tangible silhouettes of the group playing in a tightly packed venue lit by aquatic green and blue shades, but the buzzing thrum of the track’s overdriven final riffs pierce through the grainy footage in the form of erratic blips and glitches on the screen. This whirlwind then subsides, and the track once again fades into lingering ambience, leaving us with scrolling images of icebergs that slowly grow more broken and disparate; only now does one realize that these melting pieces of ice are the abstract forms from the beginning of the video, bringing “Elephant Island’” around full circle, both visually and musically. Concerning the origin of the footage within the video, Kråkenes explained that “like the rest of Obscuroscope, ‘Elephant Island’ is inspired by curiosity and explorations. It was only fitting to include video from our own expeditions, so we used footage from concerts in Kristiansand, Berlin and Paris.” Despite the relatively commonplace concept “live performance” concept behind the video, its creator Ingrid Kristensen Bjornaali has endowed it with the same disorienting extraterrestrial demeanor that pervades Astrosaur’s sonic spectacle, creating visuals that faithfully communicate the group’s juxtaposition between experimentation and accessibility. Like all six tracks on Obscuroscope, the piece serves as a standalone showcase of Kråkenes’s ability to sweep through ranges of emotions and timbres with explosive riffs and solos. Within a single composition, his leads shift from progressive and mathematical to righteous and enrapturing -- “Elephant Island” portrays this ability to deceptively launch into a new texture mid-song as its atmospheric first movement spills over into a righteously jagged sludge onslaught halfway through. Astrosaur emulsifies these contrasting textures seamlessly as to merge all elements into a free-flowing unison, ultimately achieving something decidedly organic despite the heavy use of electronic manipulation throughout. The track also provides a prime example of Eikum’s driving percussion style that persists throughout the record, even in its more meditational and repetitive post-metal patterns; when combined with Glas’s agile, unconventional, jazzy basswork, the album’s rhythmic section is just as eccentric and indefinable as Kråkenes in their diverse approach to harmony. Astrosaur combines these contrasting textures so seamlessly that they merge all elements into a free-flowing unison, ultimately achieving something decidedly organic despite the heavy use of electronic manipulation.

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While “Elephant Island” -- and the record as a whole -- ultimately provides a considerably more polished interpretation of the group’s sound than their debut effort, it is by no means restrained or tediously sterile, and though the technicality and dexterity displayed here is impressive, Astrosaur never abandon their grizzled, brand of raw sludge. Traveling far beyond the paradigm of any one genre, Obscuroscope represents more than a simple stylistic crossover, but rather an authentic outpouring flavored by a multitude of genres but, ultimately, faithful to none.

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Obscuroscope released last Friday via Palegic Records.

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The post-metal, sludge, and doom intersection can be a wild and tumultuous one. Each three subgenres ask for substantial saturation and groove -- metal's "sheer heft" so to speak -- while also demanding idiosyncrasy and subtly complex song structures. There's a method to the madness, and somehow mastering all three madnesses must, naturally, take a mad set of minds. And so comprises London-based trio Torpor, a band steeped in the etherality of post-metal, the thick goop of sludge, and the dirge of doom, all at once. Does this sound like a recipe for sonic overload? Well, yes actually, but in the best way imaginable: the band's latest release Rhetoric of the Image hit shelves Friday, and it's an overwhelming behemoth of moving noise and noisy movement. We've got an early full stream for you right now below. This one is worth sitting down for.

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https://vimeo.com/358043964?fbclid=IwAR11mNL5uOz1fgqIJ7Z3H8N43J5aFaT-izK8tqtIR8bIX79-cCF6R-EqHlI

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The most striking thing about Rhetoric of the Image is not the primitive, harsh undertones of its execution, but the actually quite eloquent narrative Torpor weaves with tools of such brutality. The album's five songs melt together like butter, almost to the point that you'll lose track of which track you're on -- being "lost" in an album is something we're all familiar with, and Rhetoric of the Image hides nothing about its actual intention to do just that. Torpor wants you to sink into their music, not just ingest it, and perhaps it's only this way that the post-metal/sludge/doom crossover can actually work. The band's atmospherics are superb, to say the least, and range from crystal-clear piercings of your mind to the abstract jet-engine roar that blanks your brain. Under that spell, Torpor then crushes the earth to absolute fucking dust, and all you can do is sit back and hear it all unfold.

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Rhetoric of the Image releases Friday. Pre-orders available via the band's Bandcamp. Vinyl coming via Truthseeker Music (UK), Sludgelord Records (UK), Moment of Collapse Records (DE), Smiths Food Group (NL), and Medusa Crush Rcordings (CAN).

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Novembers Doom (still led by founding vocalist and only constant member Paul Kuhr) have been at it for over 25 years and they show no signs of slowing down. They'll release their 11th album, Nephilim Grove -- which was mixed and mastered by past collaborator Dan Swanö (of Edge of Sanity and lots of other projects) -- on November 1st via Prophecy. So far they've released two songs, the title track and "Petrichor," both of which fall more into proggy gothic doom than the death-doom they were best known for early on. You can check out the lyric video for the title track and a studio playthrough video for "Petrichor" below. The band's only upcoming date at the moment is Maryland Deathfest 2020.

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https://youtu.be/QabIdDVlnDM https://youtu.be/8x8u5rJnci8

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There’s more than meets the Eye Flys. That’s not just an attempt at clever wordplay; it’s a fact of life since the band is an underground supergroup of sorts. Eye Flys formed when Patrick Forrest, former drummer from Backslider ("pain rock" purveyors with a decade-long discography including two albums and a slew of EPs), saw that Spencer Hazard announced he was temporarily relocating to Philadelphia. “I knew Spencer from when Backslider played with [Full of Hell] a bunch of times. He posted [online] that he was looking to start up something when he was in town,” recalled the drummer over drinks in the back room of Gojjo, an Ethiopian restaurant not far from his West Philly residence. “I was like, 'Hey, we should jam sometime, but I don't really want to do a fast band because we already did fast music.’ He was like, ‘Neither do I. I'm thinking Melvins.’” That would be prophetic given the project would eventually take on the name of the Melvins song. It was especially prescient since Forrest had already been working on material by himself long before he and Hazard jammed for the first time. “We kind of were real serious off the bat. We knew what we wanted to do, and it just kind of gelled.” They recruited bassist Jake Smith from Backslider. “I said no first,” he laughed as he squeezed lime into his drink. “Too much going on; I was like this will be a bad idea from the start.” Forrest made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: “I was like, the catch is you've got to sing, because neither of us is going to sing, and we really want to keep it a trio,” he laughed. “It took a little convincing, but he was down.”

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Eventually the band decided not to keep it a trio when Smith got the itch to ditch his bass. “I really wanted to play guitar,” he said. “I consider myself a guitar player first. I hadn't played guitar in a band seriously in a handful of years and I feel like that's the shit I want to do.” They brought in Kevin Bernsten of Philly noisemakers Triac to handle the bass duties, feeling he would fit right in. “I feel like Triac was the perfect mix of Unsane and grind,” said Forrest, “and I just kind of went off with that.” Eye Flys takes more than just their name from a seminal 1990s noise-rock band. The band’s debut Context EP, released just today via Thrill Jockey Records, is one explosive overture after another of abrasive, menacing, mid-tempo homages to the days when cranky indie rockers recorded for Amphetamine Reptile and Touch and Go. The drummer nodded, “Even at the end of Backslider, you can feel on Motherfucker, the influences there; I was definitely getting more and more into Unsane, Cherubs, The Jesus Lizard, all of that. After a while, playing in punk and hardcore and grind bands, just playing so fast all the time… it was just kind of relaxing for me.” Despite outward appearances, noise rock was not a homogenous movement, even during that specific era. On the Context EP, Eye Flys tempers impulses for the chaotic with controlled song structures. “Stems” is dirgy Melvins worship, “Crushing the Human Spirit” is raw rock aggression akin to the lost and lamented Surgery, whereas “Weaponize” -- the first song the band reworked from Forrest’s demos he worked on before ever forming the band -- reminds of the poppiest band from that scene, Helmet. The final tally resides in a sweet spot drawing from both extremes. “That's pretty much what we're going for,” Forrest enthused. “You don't want it to be a total fucked up thing. We want there to be songs.” Smith elaborated, “We're a great contrast for each other because I think we push each other a little bit in the opposite directions. In my adult life I've played in punk rock bands so there's a space there for me where I'm like, I want it to be catchy, I want a verse-chorus situation. But you don't know how many times I've heard Pat say, ‘I want things to be real fucked up.’ I'm into that, but sometimes he's got to push me into that space.’ With three-quarters of the band in concurrent projects, and Full of Hell in particular having many touring and recording commitments, when will Eye Flys be able to tour and add to the dozen regional shows they have done to date? “We don't exactly know,” conceded Smith. “We hugely rely on Spencer, and we have a lot of other shit going on. Matt's got a briefing of all of our schedules for the year. But we are eager to get out and tour as much as we can. “We're doing something really cool next spring that folks will hear about soon -- we're going to track a [full-length] record that's going to come out next spring; we're going to do a tour that's going to be really fun after that. We're working through Heavy Talent so they're trying to help us get some stuff that fits with our schedule. You'll see us out on the road for sure.”

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The Context EP released today via Thrill Jockey.

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One-man experimental blackened tech-grind outfit Estuarine has now returned following last year's hour-plus magnum opus Sic Erat Scriptum (which was so damn good I had to include it in my year-end list). This time, project mastermind has put together an EP of songs whose ethos echoes that of Sic Erat Scriptum but whose execution and structure diverge creatively from that road toward a newer, more mature sound. Back is Hydrus's signature style of groovy grind laden with heavily layered blackened tech-death, but now with greater focus on individual ideas versus the more kaleidoscopic approach of the prior album. Both directions see Estuarine topping the notches on extremity, speed, and technicality, but the Wisdom of Silenus EP shows us a Hydrus even more composed and agile than ever. We've got an exclusive premiere of a song from the new EP (in guitar playthrough format to boot, using the album-recorded audio) below -- "The Pain Never Dulls" is the EP's briefest song, but potentially its most hard-hitting. So while each song on the Wisdom of Silenus EP holds its own special death-grind magic, with extra underground flavor due to Hydrus's dedicated DIY approach, it's perhaps this track which helps put them all into context with one another. In short, it rips, it moves, it grooves, and it grinds, and that's sometimes all I want from any sort of hyper-technical metal. Most tech-death bands could take positive note from Hydrus's raw and honest creativity, and the added benefit is that despite its idiosyncrasies, Estuarine's music still makes sense within genre frameworks we're already familiar with. To get an update since I last spoke to Hydrus, I corresponded with him again about the Wisdom of Silenus EP -- what's new, what's to come, and what's been going on with the project as well as Hydrus's other musical activities.

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https://youtu.be/JFXv6AajP4o

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Your prior album Sic Erat Scriptum seemed to resonate well with several metal publications. How did that make you feel with respect to writing new material? For example, it may have challenged you to take your music to the next level, or maybe it gave you anxiety about releasing a follow-up, or something entirely different? Luckily I haven’t really stopped for long enough to feel the pressure or anxiety. The truth is that all of the guitar, drums, and bass on this EP were tracked by the time that was released so I had the luxury of already having a follow-up that’s completely untarnished by any kind of outside expectations. All I had to do was stay focused and keep the ship on course. The response was really unexpected though and, I won't lie, I had to learn how to block it out to an extent. I have never liked attention. I write music because it’s therapeutic. Before I started playing music I was a disaster and I regularly question if releasing music to the public was a good thing to do for my state of mind. I’ve wrestled with those feelings every time I’ve put something out. Despite all that though the unexpected attention brought me more excitement than stress and ultimately motivated me to take the project more seriously. This album might still be unfinished without that extra push to continue. What's new this time around with the Wisdom of Silenus EP? Have you improved your songwriting, technicality, or maybe you've taken a different approach altogether? This is a different approach for sure. Every time I record a new release I see it as a piece of the discography more so than just a “this is me now” kind of thing, so every [release] needs to have its own character. The most obvious difference this time around is that it’s an EP instead of a full-length. EPs are a whole different beast, especially in metal. With such a short runtime every second has to count and the intensity needs to stay high with no room for breathers. I also think EPs are the perfect place to experiment with new ideas, and I took that opportunity to try a more groove-oriented approach to some songs. I’d say that this material has a lot more punk, sludge, and blues influences mixed in with my usual blackened tech-grind experimentation. With Sic Erat Scriptum I was really trying to put as many different ideas into every song as possible with the main focus put into how I could make different parts work well with each other. With Wisdom of Silenus I put more focus on building up each individual section to be as memorable as possible and letting each song build its own identity. Both approaches have their own merit but completely different outcomes and I will continue to use both in the future. After three years of working on Sic Erat Scriptum though, the last thing I wanted to do was more of the same so I went in the complete opposite direction with this one. What's special about "The Pain Never Dulls," the song we're premiering today? How does it fit within the structure of the EP, and does it have any special and/or personal meaning for you? This song is the shortest on the album and the main guitar, bass, and vocal tracks were all recorded in full takes; as was the case with most of this EP. It’s just a high energy song that goes through a lot of changes and sums up the vibe of the album as well as any single track could. Lyrically, the EP is about how we’ve changed our ways of living so much through advancements in technology and medicine that it’s slowly become a detriment and each track represents a different step in that process. This track is about the pharmaceutical industry and is unfortunately inspired by certain people I’ve been close to who’ve completely ruined their lives on prescription drugs. Before beginning work on this EP, I had been out of Tampa for two years and when I got back home it was a complete shock to see how bad some of my friends and family had gotten. It was heartbreaking. Making this song helped me get through that initial shock but unfortunately most of those people are still struggling. Thus the title, “The Pain Never Dulls." What drives you to create your music? Any particular reason that your brand of technical, thrashy/grindy death metal makes sense for what you're looking to achieve musically? Like I said earlier, making music is therapeutic for me. I got my first guitar when I was eight years old but really started taking it seriously at around 15 and haven’t looked back since. It’s just something that I have to do to feel complete. As far as why my music is the way it is, I really couldn’t tell you. I don’t even feel like I’m the one writing it sometimes. All I can say is that the speed, technicality, and chaos in the music feels right to me. I’m a chaotic person by nature so it wouldn’t make sense for me to sit around writing ballads and pop songs. I have way too much pent up energy to not write this way. What's been on your playlist recently? Not to say that any particular band/album influenced your new EP, but maybe there were some albums which put you in the right mood to create Wisdom of Silenus? I’ve been too broke to buy as much new music as I’d like to lately but there’s some really good up and coming bands out there that I can totally connect with, many of which are independent. These include Torched Ebony Skies, NYN, Isa, Alptraum, Atlas Entity, Nakhiel, Sectorial, Arbalest, Imperial Conquest, Ulcer, Lost in Eternal Sleep, and Alpdruck who I was lucky enough to collaborate with earlier this year. A lot of these bands are locals that I grew up watching live during my formative years in Tampa, and I’ll take those influences everywhere I go. We’ve had an amazing scene that really deserves more attention from the outside. As far as signed bands that people should know by now I could go on and on, but here’s some of my favorites: Deathspell Omega, Cattle Decapitation, Krallice, Sigh, Cephalic Carnage, Dødheimsgard, diSEMBOWELMENT, Thergothon, Solefald, Spawn of Possession, Necrophagist, Funeral Mist, Progenie Terrestre Pura, Skinny Puppy, and of course all of the classics from Florida and Norway in the early 1990s. You know the ones. Describe your experience so far self-releasing music and being a (mostly?) DIY musician in a topsy-turvy heavy metal scene. Is your goal to one day transform Estuarine into a live/stage band, or will it remain a personal one-man project? Do you feel any resistance against your progress toward a goal you may have for your music down the road, say one or two years from now? I really don’t know that I’d be able to do what I’m doing with this project if I wasn’t DIY. If I’m being completely honest, this band is the one thing in this world that I actually have full control over and it would be really hard for me to relinquish that to a label or something. I could have better promotion and a way bigger audience, sure, but at the end of the day what’s the point? I know I suck on social media and promoting myself but if that’s who I am then fuck it, I’d rather people not listen to me for who I am than have a bunch of random fans that latch on to some kind of promotional image of me that I don’t even connect with. Plus it’s just a great feeling knowing that I can do whatever I feel like with my music because I still own it. For example, the physical release of Wisdom of Silenus is going to include the entire instrumental version of Sic Erat Scriptum because the fans have been wanting those instrumentals. A label would never let me do that when they could make more money splitting them up into separate releases. I literally give away my music for free on Bandcamp, I can do whatever I want. It’s awesome. So to answer the question, no, I have absolutely no resistance keeping me from my goals. Within the next year or two I plan to have out my next full length as well as remixed and mastered versions of my first two albums. It’s not like I lock myself in a room all day not talking to anyone either though. I consider my recording engineer, Jamie Amos, a second band member in a lot of ways and he’s been here since the beginning. He makes the songs sound so much better than I ever could on my own and helps me get everything sounding the way it does in my head. If I needed a label to keep me from sounding like trash then maybe I’d be more open to signing a deal but I’m totally happy with what I have. As far as playing live, I’m totally open to it but the right line up would have to find me because I don’t care enough to look for members. I know a ton of musicians who could do an amazing job but most good musicians want to write their own music and I can’t even be mad at that because I’m the same way. Plus I have a band called Led by Serpents with a full line-up that plays live so I still get my live fix. I have contemplated doing a couple one man shows with a drum machine à la Insidious Decrepancy or Putrid Pile but I don’t know if it’ll ever happen because I always wind up just working on new music instead. Long story short, I’m not trying to force anything. Playing these songs would be amazing though, so if anyone around central Florida wants to jam, hit me up!

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The Wisdom of Silenus EP releases November 28th. Follow Estuarine on Bandcamp.

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[gallery ids="eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==,eyJ1cmwiOmZhbHNlLCJ0aXRsZSI6bnVsbCwiY2FwdGlvbiI6ZmFsc2UsImFsdCI6IiIsImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjpudWxsfQ==" enablefullscreen="yes" galleryid="838:443496" galleryindex="0" showthumbs="no"] Please excuse the cheesy pun, but Slayer's headlining set at Riot Fest on Saturday (9/14) was fucking lit. And by that I mean Slayer melted our faces, destroyed our ear drums, and left us screaming our lungs out, but I also mean they had a killer stage show that used pyro in just about every single song. I've seen Slayer before, but I don't think I've ever seen them or any other band use that much fire on stage through the entirety of a show. Combined with the relentless force of the band's performance, it made for a night that I don't think anyone will be forgetting anytime soon. The set was billed as Slayer's final Chicago/Milwaukee show, and it comes about a month and a half ahead of "The Final Campaign," Slayer's North American farewell tour with Primus, Ministry, and Philip H. Anselmo & the Illegals (playing Pantera). I can understand why Slayer -- whose only remaining original members are Tom Araya and Kerry King (rest in peace Jeff Hanneman) -- would want to call it quits at this point, but I don't see how they can leave us for good when their current live show is still this powerful. If they stick to their word and the upcoming tour really is the very last time to see them in North America, I can't recommend catching this tour enough. They're going out on a much higher note than you'd expect from a band who feels the need to throw in the towel. Considering Riot Fest was billed as the band's last area appearance, I assume a lot of people bought Saturday passes just to see them, and Riot did a great job catering the main stage lineup to anyone who wanted to camp out there all day for Slayer. The stage's all-metal lineup opened with viral Mongolian folk metal band The Hu, who were genuinely great, and then GWAR did their thing, and then more legendary thrash came from Testament and Anthrax. The stage had killer music all day, and it felt like the lineup had the perfect, gradual rise, with each set ever so slightly topping the last. And while Testament and Anthrax are obviously likeminded peers of Slayer, those bands were smiling, upbeat, and fun, which of course amped up the crowd, but Slayer were pure fucking evil. Seeing them back to back with Anthrax and Testament really reminds you how dark every Slayer song is, and those dark songs mixed with the band's dead-serious demeanor and constant pryo really made you feel like you were transported straight to hell. I know it's a cliché to use all the Satan metaphors, but Slayer truly possessed our souls. Slayer have had their current lineup since 2013, but if you're still unsure about seeing this iteration of the band, I'd say you have nothing to worry about. Araya and King are joined by '90s-era Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph and Exodus guitarist Gary Holt, and though Dave Lombardo and the late Jeff Hanneman are irreplaceable, Bostaph and Holt do a fine job of filling their shoes. As Slayer ran through a setlist that included classics like "Raining Blood," "Angel of Death," "Postmortem," "South of Heaven," "Mandatory Suicide," "War Ensemble," "Seasons in the Abyss," "Chemical Warfare," "Hell Awaits," "Black Magic," "Evil Has No Boundaries," and more, they sounded just as in-your-face and precise as you'd want them to sound. The level of musicianship on stage was out of this world, and all the shredding guitar solos and bone-rattling drumming were matched by unrelenting energy both on and off stage. Even when they played newer, less beloved songs, the set was a total adrenaline rush. There was never a dull moment. Slayer packed 20 songs into their hour-and-a-half set time -- not bad for a festival set -- but I think most people in attendance would agree the only downside was that the set ended too soon. When they finished "Angel of Death" and made it clear that there'd be no encore, most of the crowd still wouldn't budge, and just stayed put cheering and throwing up devil horns and yelling "FUCKIN' SLAYERRRR." It's hard to believe they won't ever be back, but if it really is true, I don't think you could have asked for a better way for Slayer to say goodbye. Slayer's farewell tour hits NYC's Madison Square Garden on 11/9, two shows at The Forum in LA, and more. All remaining tickets for all dates here. Review of the rest of Riot Fest day two here. Riot Fest day one pictures and review here. Here are more pictures of day two, including shots of Anthrax, Testament, GWAR, and The Hu: [gallery galleryid="838:443504" showhumbs="no" enablefullscreen="yes" carbonlayout="" gallerytitle=""] https://youtu.be/VMHzGkRt4aQ https://www.instagram.com/p/B2atmh6lpUy/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B2ay-6mAibg/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B2atH3FFQ55/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B2a0NIQgYN5/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B2a05FTp8lb/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B2ayQTEJsXN/ Slayer - Riot Fest 2019 Setlist (via) Repentless Evil Has No Boundaries World Painted Blood Postmortem Hate Worldwide War Ensemble Gemini Disciple Mandatory Suicide Chemical Warfare Payback Temptation Born of Fire Seasons in the Abyss Hell Awaits South of Heaven Raining Blood Black Magic Dead Skin Mask Angel of Death -- photos by James Richards IV

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Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of September 15th to September 21st, 2019. Release reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays. 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.

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No One Knows What the Dead Think -- No One Knows What the Dead Think | Willowtip | Grindcore | United States (New Jersey) From Jon Rosenthal's premiere of "Cinder":

Musically, this is a beautiful continuation of what the world missed after The Inalienable Dreamless. Marton’s dizzying, staccato guitar weaving melody in with the incredible momentum set forth by the album up to this point. It is atypical, strange, and emotive music, especially when heralded by Chang’s own alien screaming. Two minutes and 40 seconds seems like nothing, at first. Blink and you miss it, but travel with this trio and find yourself in the stratosphere, or even further. Don’t fall.

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Cult of Luna -- A Dawn to Fear | Metal Blade | Post-Metal | Sweden Presenting their first new material since 2016, Swedish post-metal pioneers Cult of Luna return with A Dawn to Fear, their ninth studio album. Filled to the brim with the group’s signature blend of crushingly nuanced soundscapes and sprawling song structures, the record guides the listener into a raw, heart-wrenching wall of postmodern artistry. With characteristically immense riffs and primal vocal incantations, this album sees Cult of Luna taking a heavier approach than ever before heard in their discography, both musically and emotionally.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Engulf -- Transcend EP | Everlasting Spew | Death Metal | United States (New Jersey) The third in a series of EPs from this Jersey death metal outfit, the Transcend EP feels like a completion of Engulf's ultra-modern sound. Last year's Gold and Rust EP was a sure sign that this band would arc their way toward underground death metal primacy, and now this newest EP is their golden-gun shot into the cosmos. The Transcend EP comprises four tracks of primitive weight but complex structure and atmospherics -- in short, it slaps, it whips, it whatevers. It's top-notch death metal.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Monolord -- No Comfort | Relapse | Doom Metal | Sweden Stoner doom power trio Monolord make their Relapse Records debut this week with No Comfort, their expectedly massive fourth album. Channeling the crushing essentials of their sludge-laden, righteously stoned sound into six cohesive and catchy tracks, the record showcases Monolord’s inventiveness through towering riffs, pulsing percussion, and a groovy bass attack that will test the mettle of even the most seasoned doom ears. As they continue to bolster their already well-founded reputation, No Comfort sees Monolord further solidifying their role as a true heavyweight within the realm of all things low and slow.

-- Thomas Hinds

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White Ward -- Love Exchange Failure | Debemur Morti | Black Metal | Ukraine From Andrew Rothmund's premiere of Love Exchange Failure:

The “Love Exchange Machine” has failed, the antithesis to the real machinery of the now and the future, the loser in the battle for humanity’s future. White Ward titled their sophomore release appropriately: the black metal it comprises is aggressively somber, angry and bleak but aware of its own helplessness. It is ceaseless in movement but static in mood, ever-shifting but permanently destined toward a drowning death. It is the black metal of now, but also the black metal of the future, because right now the two are one of the same as we converge on an era of conflict and death like none other before it.

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Torpor -- Rhetoric of the Image | Sludgelord Records | Post-Metal | United Kingdom Now this is post-metal. It has exacting edge, it has grit, it's thick and nasty just like our postmodern future. I fucking raved about another post-metal band LLNN last year (the projects are unrelated, I'm just making a stylistic comparison), and much of what I said there also applies to Torpor's Rhetoric of the Image. It eschews some of LLNN's deathcore-like weight but adds a fuckton of abrasion and doom, plus it's downright moody, and I dig that. Stay tuned later this week for more.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Murder Made God -- Endless Return | Unique Leader | Death Metal | Greece The third full-length album from technical/brutal death metal outfit Murder Made God, Endless Return consists of ten tracks of razor-sharp complexity fused with unforgiving slams and breakdowns. Though the album presents some of this year’s heaviest and most obscene content, its meticulous virtuosity and machine-like precision are never compromised, even in its most brutal moments. Rarely are technical death metal and brutal death metal combined so effectively as on Endless Return.

-- Thomas Hinds

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And Hell Followed With -- Chimerical Reality EP | Hollowed Records | Death Metal | United States (Michigan) What goddamn year is it? And Hell Followed With isn't a name I've seen since my late-2000s deathcore/metalcore days, but I'm actually glad to see it back. The Chimerical Reality EP does harken back to the sounds of yore -- much more on the deathcore side than metalcore though -- but still feels right at home with any deathcore album that doesn't suck.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Coffins -- Beyond the Circular Demise | Relapse | Death Metal + Doom Metal | Japan Do you want your skeleton crushed into dust? Do you want your skin flambeed? Do you want your eyes quite literally vaporized? Beyond the Circular Demise does those things, and many more, as a true-to-word gritty death-doom album. It's the first full-length from the Japanese quartet in six years and perfectly tops off the band's 20+ year history of tearing faces apart. Anyway, just wait until later this week, as we're so pleased to bring you a special Coffins treat.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Arctos -- Beyond the Grasp of Mortal Hands | Northern Silence Productions | Black Metal | Canada Inspired by the frigid wastelands of Northern Alberta as well as the jagged monoliths of the Canadian Rockies, Edmonton-based epic black metal outfit Arctos infuse the naturalistic themes and soundscapes of the atmospheric Cascadian sound into the triumphant gallop of classic second-wave black metal with their new release Beyond the Grasp of Mortal Hands. Rife with gothic atmosphere and gripping melody, their first full-length album expands upon the sprawling and folkloric material of their 2017 A Spire Silent EP, taking their sound to even loftier and more heart-wrenching space than anything previously explored by the group.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Pangaea -- Vespr | Progressive Death Metal | United States (Wisconsin) In a bizarre combination of pre-2010 progressive djent rhythms and symphonic tech-death soundscapes, Wisconsin’s Pangaea have crafted a vast and modern concept album with their debut full-length Vespr. Intimidating and gobsmacking, the record weaves together disparate elements such as metalcore breakdowns, ambient acoustic passages, and digital synthesizers into one towering monolith. Giving a proper continuation to the prog/core movement that seemingly died in the last decade, Pangaea evoke the best moments of groups like Periphery and Ever Forthright but with a grander, more fantastical vision.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Exhorder -- Mourn the Southern Skies | Nuclear Blast | Thrash Metal | United States (Louisiana) Returning with their first studio album in 27 years, the newly resurrected New Orleans-based old-school thrash outfit Exhorder introduce a marked change to their classic groove-thrash sound with Mourn the Southern Skies. Approaching the genre with a more technical and melodic power metal-influenced edge, vocalist Kyle Thomas has replaced his signature snarl with soaring clean intonations, and the more frantic pace of their 1990s material has diversified into a wider range of tempos. Despite its differences, the record retains much of the identifiably sludgy aggression of the NOLA sound that imbues all of Exhorder’s material with a lasting sense of individuality.

-- Thomas Hinds

https://youtu.be/yUdzQ3pxaiM

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Belenos -- Argoat | Northern Silence Productions | Black Metal | France Furious and lush, Belenos's eighth full-length since the project's inception more than two decades ago hits all the right spots for anyone seeking old-school black metal with refreshed, revitalized vibes. Nature comprises the thematic backgrounding for Argoat, specifically earth (versus water, which was the theme of Belenos's prior release) and the forests it contains. While this may seem typical nowadays for black metal, remember that only a few who attempt to capture nature's rapture end up succeeding. Argoat has what it takes.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Bones -- Diseased | Transcending Obscurity | Death Metal + Crust | United States (Illinois) Bones. Diseased. Death metal. Crust. Complete with: guitar solos, blast beats, hell-screaming, and enough sandpapering devastation to polish mountains into optical-grade glass. Sinister. Not cheerful in any way. Mean as fuck. Uncompromising. Good.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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We've been anticipating Blut Aus Nord's upcoming album Hallucinogen ever since it was announced, but no song from it was released until today. Your first taste of the album is the eight-and-a-half minute "Nomos Nebuleam." As you might expect from the album title and artwork, Blut Aus Nord are getting very trippy with this one, and though it's got clear elements of black metal, it's almost more accurate to just file this one under psychedelic rock. Listen at Metal Hammer.

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Abigail Williams, whose metalcore and symphonic black metal roots are very much in the rearview, have announced a followup to 2015's The Accuser, Walk Beyond The Dark, due November 15th via Blood Music. The first single is the eight-plus minute "I Will Depart," which is a little less evil and a little more melodic than The Accuser, but still pretty menacing and a very promising taste of this new LP. Ken Sorceron & co are also planning a fall North American tour with Enisferum, Kalmah and Aenimus, dates for which are still TBA. Stay tuned. Song stream and tracklist below. Album artwork, designed by Mariusz Lewandowski (Bell Witch, Mizmor, False, Fuming Mouth, etc), above.

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https://youtu.be/fe9bsZuW2Wk

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Tracklist 1. I Will Depart 2. Sun and Moon 3. Ever So Bold 3. Black Waves 5. Into the Sleep 6. Born of Nothing 7. The Final Failure

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Formed in Tokyo in 1996, Coffins require no lengthy introduction; having achieved legendary status as one of Japan’s earliest and most enduring death metal entities, they continue to reign internationally as one of the genre’s most sinister names. Their discography contains over thirty distinct releases, featuring splits with a diverse and impressive roster of bands including Hooded Menace, Noothgrush, Ilsa, and so many more. Despite their storied history and vast range of collaborators, though, Coffins’ signature sound has remained anchored in the same classic blend of old-school extreme metal for over two decades. Stitching together the frenzied snarl of gory early 1990s OSDM and eerily plodding doom intonations, Coffins find no shame in continuing to perfect the vile, derelict strain of dungeon-crawling death-doom for which they are revered. Though Coffins are known for constantly conjuring up new material, the release of a full-length album by the group is comparatively rare and infrequent, with multi-year gaps between each of their records. This year will stand as a hallowed year, then, for diehard fans of the group, as we see Friday's release of their fifth full-length Beyond the Circular Demise on the horizon. As their second proper release under Relapse Records, the album will also be the first by the group to feature vocalist Jun Tokita and bassist Masafumi Atake, who joined in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Tenderizing those two slabs of fresh meat across six splits, two EPs, and a live album, Coffins have thoroughly revitalized and re-seasoned themselves in preparation for this savage new record. It is our pleasure to bring it to you in full below before Friday's release.

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https://youtu.be/ds3gRp8IZ8c

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Leaping back into volatile action, Beyond the Circular Demise sees Coffins picking up precisely where they left off in 2013 with yet another serving of their thorny, instantly recognizable mid-tempo death metal stew. Though the familiarity of the group’s musical approach is apparent in each of the album's eight tracks, the work as a whole represents a subtle evolution in their music's overall texture -- this is evidenced by a more streamlined, holistically grimy iteration of their already subterranean sound. Also throughout Beyond the Circular Demise, Coffins emphasize the deepest, most unfiltered expressions of the lo-fi blasphemy created by their stylistic predecessors: tumultuous song structures and an erratic performance styles that reverentially nod to the jagged, thrash-soaked qualities of foundational old-school groups such as Possessed and early Death. Like a torrent of cadavers, the album's gnarled crunch assails the listener with incredible heft and physicality, but rarely claustrophobia. Unlike the meditative, astral portals rent asunder by more atmospheric death metal -- even by transcendental groups popular within the OSDM revival we're seeing today -- Coffins aim to defile flesh and bone, not ravage the mind. Eternally faithful to their well-tested recipe (consisting of a thick death metal broth with doom garnishes added for flavor), Beyond the Circular Demise bears witness to Coffins merging the two genres with tireless aplomb. By balancing this emulsion as to equip each track with a well-rounded fullness, the group allow a cohesive and perpetual flow across the record, with one composition flowing into the next seamlessly without ever repeating musical concepts outright. Two distinct compositional techniques are utilized on the record: the first consists of a death metal structure that slowly descends into more derelict, doomy territory, as evidenced by tracks such as “Forgotten Cemetery” and “Hour of Extinction." These tracks in particular brutalize the listener with a brisk and animalistic death metal assault that dismantles itself into slower and more ominous doom breakdowns. The second technique inverts this strategy by beginning with a death-doom premise that whips itself into a radically unhinged death metal frenzy before settling back into more doom-tinged patterns, as with “Impuritous Minds” and “The Tranquil End” -- these monsters stomp along at a mid-tempo haul bolstered by the grooves of doomed sludge before incorporating their death metal decorations. Despite this effective stylistic crossover, the vast majority of the record ultimately consists of what we're comfortably just calling death metal. The only track that could be considered an even split between death and doom is the record’s nine-minute finale “Gateways to Dystopia,” a meandering, graven piece that enters into a more spiraling breakneck pace only toward its final moments. However, the combination of death metal’s gnawing tone and the slow breakdowning of doom utilized on Beyond the Circular Demise call to mind yet another class of metal: the slimy and groove-laden textures pure NOLA sludge infected with a decidedly inhuman growl. With their violent potency, the album’s raunchy, white-knuckled sludge rundowns are doubtlessly one of the record’s greatest strengths. This provides the listener with righteous, anthemic riffs, i.e. delicious payoff for the album's more dizzying passages.

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In terms of production, Beyond the Circular Demise operates by the now-widespread paradox of the nouveaux vintage sound popularized by first-wave death metal revivalism. Though its sound calls to mind the dingy crepuscular world of Tampa in 1991, it has awareness of 21st Century audiophilic refinement, coming across as the delightfully cavernous soundscape that those 1990s bands perhaps wished they could sound like, had the technology and/or money been in line at the time. Whatever the case, the increased presence of vocals and bass in the mix -- and guitars/percussion that sound like chainsaws only because they are meant to -- the effect is almost like a modern remastering of something dug up from an old mid-1990s demo. The recent revival of OSDM by newly formed groups has only reinforced the timeless value of Coffins’ approach, and Beyond the Circular Demise shows that they were wise to never stray from the primal, essential roots of the genre. Because the band never ventured into more postmodern/experimental territory, its OSDM approach never made concessions to today's modern sound. Now venturing back even further back into their own origins, Beyond the Circular Demise's bare-bones approach is staunchly straightforward and has a timeless, immortal potency. The band's unswaying commitment to the same sound is incredible; it's something which often goes unlauded or even criticized in some cases, but here, it nothing short of pure glory. True, bands strictly unwilling to change become stale. That said, Beyond the Circular Demise is hardly repetitive or tedious, even for the most seasoned death metal historian. The cohesiveness of the album demonstrates moments of ingeniously economical yet thoughtful variations on the thrashing death metal structure. Though the album's tone is messy and gory, the individual performances are never sloppy, but then again not surgically exact either -- and, in this way, they are indeed perfect. Coffins isn’t trying to change anything about themselves or, at it seems, the direction of metal at large; above that, they aren’t even throwing back to anything because they actually came from then. This is just what Coffins sounds like, and nobody else can be Coffins. The plain fact of Beyond the Circular Demise's infectious enjoyability is a testament to both Coffins' songwriting ability and the timelessness of classic, always-unadulterated death metal.

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Beyond the Circular Demise releases Friday via Relapse.

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Welcome to the future, where self-image trumps all other considerations, winning is everything, and truth is just whatever. Tune in: social media platforms are algorithmic money-making machines whose exhaust is human hatred. Tune out: society's atmosphere has become stained with the tars of fear and repulsion, the smog of willful ignorance, and the pollution of carelessness. Tune anywhere: it doesn't matter, wherever you look, whichever esoteric crevice of society you decide to investigate, there are tornadoes of conflict and torrents of hate and cyclones of vile vitriol. It's not like we purposefully extinguished love; rather, we mechanically dissected its vital organs alive as it screamed in absolute fucking horror while nobody could do anything about it but watch, eyes stinted open. The "Love Exchange Machine" has failed, the antithesis to the real machinery of the now and the future, the loser in the battle for humanity's future. White Ward titled their sophomore release appropriately: the black metal it comprises is aggressively somber, angry and bleak but aware of its own helplessness. It is ceaseless in movement but static in mood, ever-shifting but permanently destined toward a drowning death. It is the black metal of now, but also the black metal of the future, because right now the two are one of the same as we converge on an era of conflict and death like none other before it. If we're going down -- if this is really the dystopian beginning of a dystopian end-- then "Love Exchange Failure" is what I want blasting at full goddamn volume as the void swallows eternity whole. Here's a full stream before the album's official release.

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Beyond the black metal, so to speak, White Ward's infusion of saxophone imbues their music with the type of sad beauty only something like brass can produce. Then, the structuring of "Love Exchange Failure" -- with various interludes and moments of pause and ambiance -- keeps the album dynamic, but does nothing to page-break the storyline. In fact, "Love Exchange Failure" almost makes no sense deconstructed; it must be consumed whole and at once. For such an ephemeral world we live in, possessing an album which thoroughly requires listening is like having a chalice of healing. Within that chalice, of course, is love itself, the impulse to give rather than take, to create rather than destroy, and to hope rather than fear. Maybe the best parts of "Love Exchange Failure" are its slowest, as jazzy beats undergird gentle saxophone playing at gentle tempos. These moments are relaxing, actually, or numbing if you really think about it. They're like a warm death blanket; the blasting black metal is the hammering of nails into our collective coffin. The saxophone kisses us goodbye with the moist finality of authenticity as all that is real dies and all that is fake takes over. White Ward teaches us that mechanized hate leads only to untruth; expression, i.e. all artwork, is the only weapon we have. If disarmed, then this music becomes mere catharsis. I'll still take it a hundred times over.

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Love Exchange Failure releases September 20th via Debemur Morti. [caption id="attachment_66690" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Photo credit: Alinele Grotesque Photography[/caption]

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It is difficult to measure grindcore in time, mostly due to the genre’s significant lack of it. Looking at neo-stalwarts No One Knows What the Dead Think, it is impossible to measure their debut and sole eponymous release in standard time. At only 19 minutes in length, time is not enough. In Chicago and Los Angeles, time is used to measure distance (mostly due to traffic), but that type of philosophy can be healthy when describing the immensity of former Discordance Axis members Jon Chang and Rob Marton’s new project and final chapter. Take, for example, “Cinder,” which can be streamed exclusively below. At a paltry two minutes and 40 seconds in length, this is both a short song, but also the lengthiest on the album itself. Therein lies the duality of grindcore’s time as distance and distance as time existence. How far can one go in this short duration? At walking speed? Maybe a few blocks, but at the warp speed performed by this trio? It’s hard to say — maybe it hasn’t even been mapped yet.

Jon wrote the above about No One Knows What The Dead Think's anticipated debut album (and its single "Cinder") back in July, and now the album is set to come out next week Friday via Willowtip -- it's streaming its entirety one week early over at MetalSucks. It's a real ripper, and it's worth all the buzz it's been getting. Listen here.

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Within the metal paradigm, it is not unwise to be dubious of a celebrated musician parting ways with their original creative vehicle to pursue a potentially less-inspired side project or a dreaded solo album. It is especially rare to see the first offering from such a project gain widespread renown on the merit of its own strengths rather than the fame of its creator; in the case of Wintersun, though, the now iconoclastic solo endeavor of Finnish multi-instrumentalist Jari Mäenpää, what began as a journey into authentic self-expression quickly became the entity for which he would be internationally celebrated. While Mäenpää first established himself professionally as the guitarist and lead vocalist of folk metal outfit Ensiferum, it was Wintersun’s self-titled debut that allowed the world to glimpse his utter mastery over heavy metal craft. Looking back 15 years through the immense wake of its legacy, Wintersun was far more than a humble starting point for Mäenpää’s solo career but rather the bedrock upon which his cosmic brainchild now bases its universal acclaim and legendary status, the genius prototype from which his legacy has evolved. The well-rounded solidity of Wintersun is no accident nor stroke of luck, but rather the perfectly ripened fruit of eight years of rumination and personal evolution. Mäenpää had begun to cultivate the project’s first seeds as early as 1995, a full year before he joined Ensiferum as the outfit’s vocalist and second guitarist. Finding considerable success with the group following the 2001 release of their own self-titled album, Mäenpää originally intended to simultaneously continue performing with Ensiferum while slowly increasing attention toward manifesting the ideas that would become Wintersun.

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https://youtu.be/W0M3HAMus7g

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By 2003, he had completed the eight tracks that would become his debut release and recruited session drummer Kai Hahto to track the album’s percussion; having a wealth of experience in recording by way of multi-tracking over himself, Mäenpää held no reservations about completing the entirety of Wintersun’s vocal and instrumental duties single handedly. In January 2004, however, in a twist of auspicious fate, Mäenpää was formally asked to part ways with Ensiferum when scheduling conflicts between the latter’s tour and Wintersun’s time in the studio arose with no foreseeable resolution. Though this divergence initially seemed less than ideal, it soon proved to be a major boon to Mäenpää’s personal endeavors; Ensiferum’s rapidly expanding reputation only helped to boost his now-active solo project into the international limelight, with the outfit’s initial three-track demo earning the upcoming record a contract for release by explosively prolific label Nuclear Blast. Mäenpää’s departure from Ensiferum allowed him to shift his focus toward manifesting his most complex ideas. With hyper-meticulous commitment to virtuosic precision, he crafted his first major opus with uninterrupted creative freedom. The love and determination poured into the creation of Wintersun would become the outfit’s modus operandi, as evidenced by a staggering eight-year gap between the record and its successor Time I. Despite the chronological sparsity of his output, Wintersun’s discography is inexhaustible; each track they've released to date was crafted with masterful depth. The group’s expectation-shattering debut saw Mäenpää stepping beyond the role of composer into the role of both auteur and performer, curating a carefully selected team of engineers and producers to fine tune the album to achieve the deepest, most authentic manifestation of his inner vision. Wintersun's first track “Beyond the Dark Sun” begins with a gallop as an icy blaze of speedy riffs outlined by Mäenpää’s melodeath-style soloing charges forth with full intensity. Nimble arpeggios that evoke scenes of valiant triumph in a bleak and frost-encrusted landscape cascade from alpine peaks as the earth is scorched by animalistic yowls -- as the group’s name quite literally suggests, Mäenpää’s sonic explorations are founded on the dualistic turmoil between light, hope, the veneration of life, and death, despair, and inner darkness. While the stylistic approach taken on Wintersun bears significant resemblance to Ensiferum’s early material (especially on its first four tracks), the unlimited creative freedom of Mäenpää in his sole sovereignty over the project allowed for a much wider exploration of tones and timbres within expansive and malleable song structures. The brusque straightforwardness of Ensiferum’s folk metal assault is abandoned here for whimsical capriciousness and a full investment in a wider range of emotional dynamics created by much slower tempos, operatic vocals, or countless layers of starry-eyed orchestral effects. Though many of the record’s songs are composed around blackened folk and melodic death metal skeletons, they venture out into unfamiliar territory to reveal unprecedented stylistic combinations. With anthemic choruses and synthesized orchestral grandeur, tracks such as “Winter Madness” and “Sleeping Stars” take on a more upbeat and harmonic demeanor, not unlike a more blackened strain of late 1990s power metal. Without straying from the nuanced ambiance of magickal wintry adventure, many of the tracks indulge in a more gothic, doom-influenced interpretation of Mäenpää’s esoteric mixture of Scandinavian extreme metal. Through a kaleidoscope of Mäenpää’s diverse influences, the one unifying factor providing the cohesion between compositions is Mäenpää’s signature inflection, that of heroic majesty and boundlessness. Perhaps the most important moments of the album occur as Mäenpää elevates these instances of heroism to a level that transcends mere folklore, like on the thrilling “Beautiful Death” and the five-part “Starchild,” two tracks that dive headfirst into the epic narrative prog upon which Wintersun would later base their sound. Wintersun's most progressive moments contain passages that grip the center of the soul as though a direct channel were formed between the listener and Mäenpää himself. In these moments, a mesmerizing and almost psychedelic effect is achieved, suggesting yet another duality: that between the archaic, organic texture of the folk-inspired music in which Wintersun is rooted and the interstellar spiritual voyage on which Mäenpää has dared to embark. The overarching result of this all-inclusive melting pot of concepts and motifs is a work whose thematic message functions on a multitude of levels… not all of them musical. Integral to the thematic core of Wintersun are its lyrics, which display a dualism between tangible experience and fantastical occult themes by direct yet subtle methods. Drawing parallels between imaginative fantasy and the fragility of human mortality, Mäenpää wrote the lyrics to “Beautiful Death” and “Battle Against Time” to allegorically convey the harrowing struggle with tuberculosis that he had overcome five years prior, during which underwent surgery to remove one of his lungs. Though each of Wintersun’s tracks clearly communicates scenes of high fantasy and arcane legend, they also conceal a message of inward reflection imbued into the auditory landscape by Mäenpää’s own personal experience. Conveying this vast range of felt experience, Mäenpää’s vocal execution alternates between a scathing black metal fry and gorgeous operatic vibrato, a melodic element less prevalent in the material of Ensiferum. Though a similar blending of dexterous melodeath-style fretwork and tonalities with the warlike chants and raucous agitation of Finnish folk metal had already been successfully put forward by predecessors Ensiferum and Amorphis, Wintersun expanded far beyond this compelling but ultimately limited combination by way of Mäenpää’s deeply eclectic taste and complete mastery over his instrument. One especially apparent influence shining in Mäenpää’s style is the neoclassical guitarwork of Yngwie Malmsteen, from whose example the blistering solos in “Beyond the Dark Sun” and “Battle Against Time” take heavy inspiration. Like the neoclassical shapes established in the work of Malmsteen, Wintersun's sound carries with it a stoic essence faithful to the sacred heart of classic heavy metal. Unlike the somewhat stiff methodology of neoclassical exhibitionism, Wintersun is informed by and consists of elements from a wide selection of subgenres, many of which had just begun to take shape at the time of its release, including genres that Mäenpää himself had helped to pioneer. By this method, Wintersun lets one eye gaze backward into the past with humility and respect for those who laid the path and uses the other to look toward a misty future, one whose unknown mysteries infuse it with a boundless sense of wonder. In this way, Wintersun is like an auditory ouroboros, an entity with no beginning and no end that communicates a universal message of the eternal return. Blending together countless styles of metal into a sound that somehow transcends each of its constituent parts, Mäenpää provided the world with an individualistic interpretation of his various influences rather than choosing to simply imitate them. Wintersun’s effect on manifold subgenres since the turn of the century has carried on not just influentially, but inspirationally in its idiosyncratic singularity. In 15 years, its impact has lost no potency; like an artifact unbound by time, the eclecticism and sheer musical authenticity of Wintersun are mystical and unforgettable.

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I, Voidhanger's unquestionable presence in extreme metal continues unabated with Weeping Sores's debut record False Confession. The album is admittedly much less avant-garde than the rest of the fair from the label this year, a far cry from the primitivist folk of Onkos or the abstract psych-prog black metal of Esoctrilihum. That said, Weeping Sores earn their place among the incredible output of groups like Epectase and An Isolated Mind not by avant-garde tendency but a fine attention to craft, turning in a death-doom record that simultaneously eschews the more cartoonish stereotypes of the genre while also deeply embracing certain necessary fundamental components of its two primary compositional spaces. Take, for instance, the presence of death metal on the record. The group does not arrive at death-doom on this album merely via deep growled vocals and occasional nasty guitar tone; instead, primary instrumentalist Doug Moore makes sure to include certain rhythmic passages, a tighter, almost thrashy chug at times, in combination with an absolutely filthy guitar tone to solidify the connection to death metal. Likewise, the doom isn't the overly-polished post-epic doom direction that a great deal of the unnamed-but-cartoonish and overbearing death-doom and gothic doom bands deploy. Instead, Weeping Sores crafts something closer to classic Paradise Lost or early Anathema, clearly developing from a post-Autopsy/Morbid Angel sense of increasing the potency of the death metal via atmospheric touches and sense of pacing rather than a purely speed-based sense of aggression.

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The choice of violin for the record may not be quite a bizarre one in 2019, when avant-garde electronic soundscapes, industrial flourishes, flutes, saxophones, and more have found a common and recurrent home in extreme music, but it nonetheless still provides the ambiance needed for a record like False Confession. The cover of the album is rich and full of color, a choice that reflects well the contents of the record and one that the violin contributes well toward. They are used sparingly but frequently, not occuring over every inch of the record but having moments and harmonies on nearly every song, much the way that solo sections of techy instrumental passages might be used by other bands. Violinist Gina Eigenhuysen is tasteful in her deployment and keen in her timbral choices, leaning away from the cliche of whining melodramatic weepy strings in favor of the broad and patient stroke that brings out the breathe and woodiness of the instrument. Her use of the instrument achieves the sorrowful and tremendously doomed affect necessary for this kind of metal not be melodramatic leaning directly on it but by trusting that the sense of air a keen and patient melody played well on a good violin can bring. This sense of compositional trust and development is mirrored in Pyrrhon, the avant-garde/progressive death metal band that drummer Stephen Schwegler and bassist/guitarist/vocalist Doug Moore are also in. In both instances, the groups in question arrive at their final sound not by choosing a final destination and making compositional choices that lead them there, a path which is fine aesthetically for beginner composers but ultimately gives work a tired sense of pastiche and playing to cliche. Instead, you can hear the small choices and influences add up, a 1980s Metallica rhythmic flourish on the guitar here, a breathe-filled bellow pulled from Autopsy there, the 1970s prog-influenced song structures of peak My Dying Bride everywhere. As a result, the final form feels both more organic and more authentic, a form arrived at not by conscientious decision but the natural synthesis of elements. It makes sense, then, that a genre as unfortunately stale as death-doom would have a record appear on I, Voidhanger, a label more known for adventurous and experimental offerings; Weeping Sores have gone out of their way on this debut album to make sure that the music is of sound and progressive quality before something as banal as achieving the genre form. "The Leech Called Shame" almost feels closer to the post-metal infused avant-garde death metal of Ulcerate than something by Novembers Doom, a broad and satisfying approach to the material that is maintained over the course of the record. The only strong criticism that can be leveled at the record is there is little in the way of a clear standout track, some undeniable song that can be foisted on unbelievers to convert them. If the group continues, however, those tracks will come; as an album-experience, False Confession is a fine record, one that exemplifies why these players are so valued. And, hey, a progressive death-doom metal record that earns its lavish and colorful cover and doesn't feel cheesy? That's a victory.

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False Confession releases tomorrow via I, Voidhanger.

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It is difficult to write a work that transcends typical critical bounds, one where objective analysis and even mapping of its subjective contours feels utterly inadequate and totally wasteful. A typical record, the ones that never get written about, follow a structure so easily digested as to be a waste of time to engage with; others, the ones often written about, have something inside that demands some amount of critical work to parse and make legible for others. But it is another realm entirely to make a work where these kinds of approaches don't seem to capture the whole of the emotional timbre and force of the record. Within this class of records there are certain obvious ones, e.g. Rumours and The Dark Side of the Moon and Born to Run, for which discussing each track and what makes them tick is interesting but fails to capture that undeniable spirit that suffuses the songs on their own, especially when conjoined in proper sequence. Not all records of this class are necessarily of that caliber, of course, but all of them at least have that component in common: a spiritual effervescence that cascades beyond describing how many verses there are or how hooky the material is or how memorable the lyrical phrases. Mizmor, prior to Cairn, had been circling this space. The early work by sole member ALN was promising, deeply so, but scattered, feeling almost like Blakean sketches of some outer madness lingering on the rim of consciousness. Those songs were, notably, composed while ALN still possessed his faith, albeit in an increasingly complex and fraught place. Those tortured moments as his faith lay dying were documented powerfully, and the sophomore record of the group Yodh was rightly lauded as one of the best of the year on its release due to the emotional heft ALN was able to put behind stories of his desperation. Cairn is not about the dying of faith, however; that period ALN bore in silence, one that anyone who was once devout and found themselves on the other side of spirituality will understand and, sadly, no one else. It is a unique pain, the loss of faith, one not incomparable to the death of a parent or a partner or a child. For the nonreligious, it is easy to view this as hyperbole, but: it is your God, your lodestar, your beacon in darkness, loved as truly and devoutly as anything you possibly could love, and the death of that love upon which you quite literally believe is staked the immortality of your soul after the dying of your body is a heartbreak beyond earthly compare.

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The album is difficult to write about in typical format because I have experienced what ALN chronicled in my own faith, a beacon in my own darkness and the wilderness of traumatic youth, and found myself healed by the same force that permeates this record, the absolute stellar darkness of a nihilism beyond nihilisms, that nothing has meaning nor can assemble meaning for there is no ground upon which to build. Only spirit, only being, only presence. In the darkness of the world without God, we are alone, but alone together; we are bereft of meaning, drawn to suicide, but a suicide which seems less like escape the more we ponder it. After all, where would we escape to? There is no directionality in this place; there is no motion; there is freedom from these conditions. Only existence and non-existence. ALN captures this sense of desolation with such profound beauty. Cairn is one of the greatest funeral doom records of all time, vaulting both Mizmor's prior work and that of almost all of their peers, sitting side-by-side with Bell Witch's Four Phantoms as one of the greatest statements in the genre and a masterful example of the artistic and aesthetic value of heavy metal. The songs are separate but feel impossible to separate; the first track chronicles the psychic awakening of the atheist in the forlorn and desolate reality without God, the second and third tracks concerning the mind turning over the succor of either God (here a metaphor; any higher purpose or grand design will do) or suicide as means to save us from this tremendous weight; the fourth is an acceptance of not the joy but the burden of responsibility of a life where we cannot pin our actions on the designs of a God but must instead fully own them as true extensions of ourselves. There is of course a sublime joy to this, but ALN is wise in his compositions, displaying joy here the same as he did in previous work, alchemically joined to sorrow via sublimation. In the sublime, both joy and sorrow can sit peacefully with one another in ways they cannot in the mere happy or sad. Cairn treats these moments with the same deliberation and consideration that Mizmor records previously treated questions of God. This base nihilism that bleeds into absurdity is not a cartoonish or uncomplicated sentiment but instead a sensation that places a burden back upon us that once we had relinquished to God. This burden is mirrored in the music, which is in turn delicate and heavy… heavy not in the crass sense, but as if were imbued with tremendous weight. It feels like weighted stones are laid across your back, pressing you into the earth. You are to sit and meditate and do so seriously, sternly, with an open heart. Importantly, Cairn achieves this without feeling goofy or melodramatic, no mean feat for music that demands an air of seriousness for such extended periods as this. The most important part: Cairn is what the first steps in a world without faith feel like, an accurate portrait of the tortuous thoughts of the first act of accepting that you will never again have a certitude of action in your life the way you did with God, as heavy as the sinner's contemplation of life caught in the tension state of existential vertigo forever.

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Cairn released September 6th via Gilead Media.

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Eternal Storm are a potent reminder of melodic death metal’s capacity for eloquence and emotional acuity. Emerging with an EP in 2013 and following it up the next year as part of a four-band split, Eternal Storm recently issued an exceptional full-length debut Come the Tide. The record is a dynamic and richly produced marriage of triumph and melancholy, its charging strides tinged with tangible strains of mourning. This forlorn union the band manipulate so intuitively is on full display throughout the album’s third song, “Detachment” — watch now as Eternal Storm bring it to life in our exclusive premiere of their official music video.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivSZOFzXMoE

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Much of the band’s expressive power comes from the diversity of guitar tones used in the meticulously layered arrangements. A midpoint solo, gentle and warm, gives way to a fragile and arid break, while the final movement centers on multiple leads that converge in majestic lamentations cresting over a heaving rolling-kick tumult. All these timbres and textures give the songs a wealth of voices with which the band weave the album’s overall narrative. Eternal Storm haven’t shied away from reaching outside their own collective wheelhouse in the pursuit of their vision for Come the Tide. “Detachment” features guest vocals from Ben C. Read of Bridge Burner, whose excellent album Null Apostle we featured over a year ago with its own music video premiere. Read’s contribution, as well as those of the album’s many other collaborators, is integrated into the band’s sound at a native level. Eternal Storm are a big-picture band, steering their music with a measured hand, channeling each moment towards the grander statement.

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Come the Tide released August 23rd via Transcending Obscurity. Listen to the whole thing below.

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[caption id="attachment_66667" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Crypt Sermon. Photo credit: Tashina Byrd[/caption]

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Everything was perfect: Crypt Sermon would celebrate the release of their latest album The Ruins of Fading Light in a repurposed mausoleum -- a literal sermon from a crypt! -- in front of a sold out hometown crowd. There was electricity in the air as the local opener Plague Dogs were a few songs into their set when they interrupted their crusty NWOBHM to announce that the cops were shutting down the show. In the subsequent odd silence, most of the early arrivers felt they were joking. Unfortunately they were not. Allegedly a woman who lives in an apartment across from the venue complained. Despite the PhilaMOCA hosting countless bands over the past several years, the room was quickly cleared by law enforcement.

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Confusion reigned as metalheads, punks, and other show attendees encamped outside the venue. Everyone seemed bewildered but oddly enough nobody was angry. When it was clear that the show was definitely not going to continue there, Jacqui Powell, singer of locals Witching and slinger of suds at a West Philly watering hole Century Bar, made some calls. She managed to get the bar opened and soon a caravan of fans and musicians hauling whatever amps, cabinets, and drums could be moved with no notice and law enforcement being anything but helpful snaked its way to the corner bar with half the capacity. This was further proof that although you can’t kill metal, it can definitely be inconvenienced.

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This review was going to praise Crypt Sermon for putting together such a strong bill on what was their special evening. The events of the day changed the lede, but the not the ability of Sanhedrin to bring the house down even when the original house was literally brought down.

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Playing on whatever gear managed to be cobbled together from the PhilaMOCA, the New Yorkers still put on a solid show. The vocals, both Erica Stoltz’s powerful voice and even the backing harmonies, all rang true even from the corner of a bar that was supposed to be closed. When one of Nathan Honor’s cymbals fell over, someone in the crowd leapt to it and fixed it, indicative of the sense of community everyone felt. Sanhedrin’s rousing material is always triumphant but under the circumstances seemed even more so. Crypt Sermon put themselves on the doom landscape with their Out of the Garden debut. It took four years for the follow-up so a few extra hours and palpable uncertainty before being able to reveal it didn’t seem to phase the band at all. As is typical for record release shows, the band endeavored to play the new album in its entirety. Unfortunately since there was little typical about this show, concessions were made; the last song was cut. Though they were forced to blow through the epic material from the album, it elicited banging from both heads and fists alike. “The Ninth Templar (Black Candle Flame)” that leads off the album is a little speedier than Crypt Sermon is known for, more trad metal than doom, with Brooks Wilson’s emotive pipes repeating the chorus enough times to implant it into the heads of the now-packed corner venue. “Key of Solomon,” had a sneaky, shifting rhythm that seemed exotic. “Christ is Dead,” probably the best song the band has penned to date, sees guitarists Steve Jansson and James Lipczynski combining to approximate Tony Iommi at his most iconic.

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The band closed with “Beneath the Torchfire Glare,” easily the most conventionally doomy track performed and probably on the entire album. Comparisons to classic Candlemass will be made and they will be accurate. The band’s rhythm section -- bassist Frank Chin and Enrique Sagarnaga on drums -- gave the song the feeling of a dark funeral procession. It was obvious even in truncated form that The Ruins of Fading Light is a masterful album. It was a pleasure to see the band unveil it for a crowd that was even more appreciative than normal. It’s pretty cool to get as tenured a band as Eternal Champion to close your record release show. It helps that EC drummer Arthur Rizk has produced both of their albums (though to be fair it seems easier to name albums he hasn’t produced); regardless, the band’s ability to churn out metal that is simultaneously reverent and relevant was on display.

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It was past midnight when they hit the floor (there was no stage) and the room temperature had heated up to triple digits through the bodies packed against one another. Despite this, a pit formed. After all the bands and crowd went through, such a response was perfectly acceptable.

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[caption id="attachment_66629" align="alignnone" width="630"] photo by Orion Landau[/caption]

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Exhumed's anticipated new album Horror pays homage to VHS-era horror flicks, and so does the new video for new single "Naked, Screaming, and Covered In Blood." The video depicts the title very literally, so as you may expect, this is really not something you should be watching at work. So if you're in the right environment, give it a whirl below.

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https://youtu.be/66PrEXFV0I8

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https://youtu.be/yIh76XMva6s

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Cloak have shared the second single off their anticipated sophomore album The Burning Dawn (due October 25th via Season of Mist), and like lead single "Tempter's Call," the new "Into the Storm" is a killer blend of classic rock and black metal that Tribulation fans should not sleep on, It comes with a an eerie, black-and-white video with performance footage that was shot and directed by members of Cloak, and you can check it out above.

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Cloud Rat were pollinators long before Pollinator, the band’s new album that comes out on Friday. With their formation nearly a decade ago, the Michigan band used grindcore as the medium to spread a message espousing personal and sociopolitical issues important to them. They spread their message without regard for scene politics -- the band would play basement shows with crust punks in-between corporate Live Nation venues with the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room and Sabbath Assembly. With the release of their fourth full-length, alongside a ton of past splits and EPs, Cloud Rat continues this pattern of resolutely clinging to their beliefs while employing completely unorthodox ways to express them. Pollinator comes out on Artoffact Records, a Canadian label better known for industrial music and EBM and the tour on the cusp of its release is with Icelandic synth-punk labelmates Kælan Mikla. For a band as prolific as Cloud Rat, merely saving up the songs for an album rather than divvying them up with friends for split singles and EPs can be a chore. “That's a truly mystifying question,” laughed guitarist Rorik Brooks. He and the rest of the trio -- vocalist Madison Marshall and Brandon Hill who drums and adds electronics -- got into Philadelphia late after a long drive from Boston, pushing the interview to after their intense Kung Fu Necktie show. “Rorik is constantly writing. There's not a lot to do in a small town,” Marshall explained. “Every time I come to practice, he's like, ‘Hey, I've got, like, seven songs!’” The seeds of Pollinator came about after the band concluded the Friendship Tour alongside Thou, Moloch, and False in 2017. Brooks recalled, “We laid low for a while after that because we had already recorded all the split material and we were trying to get it out. But that next year, in January, I hurt my back and then I got Ableton [the recording software]. I was laid up for three months, I started writing right then because I was losing my fucking mind and having panic attacks on top of not being able to walk for a month.” At that point, Marshall would add what might have been the most personalized lyrics in the band’s history. “I think all of Cloud Rat is personal,” she said. “When I write lyrics, they literally are seven sheets on the back of napkins. They are little scraps of paper that are like this, this little square in hidden inside books. They are the back of my hand. Somehow I magically always am able to do it before I have material to sing over.”

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Cloud Rat has constantly evolved their sound, drawing from different genres of extreme music with such fervor. Pollinator is no different. “Webspinner,” with Hill’s drums alternating between familiar blast beats and rolling fills as the tempo lurches wildly, might be the quintessential Cloud Rat song – at least for this moment in time. Brooks agreed, “I was thinking about that song in particular, because if you show that song to somebody who didn't listen to grindcore, and they hear a strummed slow riff with a drum that's going very quick [with] 16th note blast beats, it might sound like nothing! We're all fucking seasoned dorks. What does it sound like to a person who doesn't listen to heavy, really extreme, fast music? It's slow and fast together!” Such dichotomies beg the question: are Cloud Rat still a grindcore band challenging the limits of what it means to be a grindcore band, or have they reached a point where they are transcending the genre entirely? “I think grindcore already has evolved,” said the vocalist matter-of-factly. “You have bands that literally sing about boogers and pizza and you have bands that literally sing about the fate of existence and what it is to just be alive here. You have bands that will blast as fast as possible and then you'll have mince bands [that] are just chugging the entire time, using voice pitch shifters. “I think any genre is allowed to evolve. I feel it's a lot like the blanket term of punk. Punk has all the subgenres within it, and I feel like grindcore is the same to me because a lot of the grind bands I like don’t necessarily at all sound the same.” Even more divergent would be “Luminescent Cellar.” The longest track of the album by far is a funeral dirge and not just by the band’s breakneck standards; slowly and just as convincingly as any doom merchants around, it slowly builds up the intensity. Touring with Thou might have inspired it, and it’s one of Marshall’s finest moments. “I don't want to say it's like super emotional. That song is about something that's super real that a lot of people deal with. It’s their identity, how they present themselves and how they want to be their true form and completely 100% authentic to themselves.” Fascinatingly, the song could be a completely different animal if the band made minor changes. It lends itself to an impactful acoustic track if Cloud Rat ever wanted to do an Unplugged session, or by adding electronics, it could become a brooding darkwave number. Despite how interesting those remixes might sound, the band already explores those same ideas in depth with Do Not Let Me Off the Cliff. “Jacek [Kozlowski] from Artoffact was like, it might be kind of cool to do some bonus material,” recalled Marshall. “Brandon was really busy at the time, and I was going through some really harsh shit back at my home, so I wanted to be away from my home. I was just driving up to Rorik's house to just be there with [who] I consider my family. “So basically, Rorik got Ableton and a bunch of synths. He's always dicking around and writing music, like we said earlier. So, he had some ideas for some songs, and he was like, we want to do this bonus material, but maybe we should do it however we wanted. So I went up there two weekends and we recorded that and that's exactly what came out.” The EP, which Invisible Oranges is proud to present below streaming in its entirety, is a bonus that comes in the limited two-CD digipack and is also available digitally.

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“We made it specifically to be bonus material. We didn't make it to be like an album or anything like that. We literally just recorded it, we went with it, we stayed up all night, being silly with each other and having fun,” said Marshall. “You know, it's funny, because after I showed it to Andy [Gibbs] from Thou, he was like, ‘Why is this not a record? This is the bonus material? This is ridiculous as bonus material!’" Although there are songs where she sings in Cloud Rat’s discography, she has never crooned for several songs in a row. Despite being an accomplished singer, cutting out her patented screams so thoroughly was a daunting challenge. “Yes, absolutely,” she affirmed. “I sing in my other bands; I play drums and sing in my other bands and I've been singing since I was little. But for some reason, when it comes to singing in Cloud Rat, I tend to hold back. I just get nervous and anxious about it. “I remember after it was made, I was like, ‘I fucking hate this! I don't like this at all, I sound terrible.’ I would go back and forth. Literally I'm like, ‘Okay, I like it… No, I fucking hate it… I like it; it's okay… We can't put this out, I sound terrible!’” Most of the bonus material fits into sonic niches occupied by shoegazing guitars, lush Gothic synthesizers, and atmospheric pop. Two songs, “Share” and “Pity Sex,” are more restrained. Layers of reverb top folk acoustic guitar and Marshall adds lilting, ethereal melodies with nearly whispered vocals.

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"In true Cloud Rat fashion, whenever we record something devastating usually happens,” she sighed. “That’s just me and my guitar in the middle of winter, being really upset." “‘Share’ became the complete opposite,” she continued. “I was in a very happy almost euphoric moment in my life for a split second and [Rorik] pressed ‘record’ and he played that guitar track and I closed my eyes and I just sang it. We added the other stuff and it just kind of became this weird little sweet ditty.” Hill smiled, “The ‘Cloud Rat Unplugged’ comment is particularly funny to me. If you hear Rorik writing the songs on acoustic guitar, you can actually hear the riffs. Like ‘'Webspinner,’ if you hear it as an acoustic song, you're actually like, oh, that would work like that! But then it’s covered with distortion and blast beats and it becomes this other thing. In a weird alternate universe, certain riffs definitely have a nucleus as that.” It would be exceedingly difficult to have the band slide in anything from Do Not Let Me Off the Cliff into a standard live set. Especially when Marshall conceded that the thought of performing anything from the EP is “fucking terrifying; the idea of me singing those songs live to people scares the shit out of me.” Hill was more diplomatic. “I think because of the way it was constructed in an almost improvisational, two friends hanging out and jamming method -- and the nature of the electronics and multi tracking -- you have to approach it very differently, probably with additional members and a different route of practice than our normal format allows. But under special circumstances, perhaps it would happen.” Even if it doesn’t, three albums, countless splits and EPs, and especially Pollinator guarantee that Cloud Rat could play for as long as they wanted, under any circumstance, with anyone else on the bill.

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Pollinator is available for pre-order via Artoffact Records on vinyl, CD digipak, and digital. It will be released Friday.

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Nupta Cadavera -- the marriage of the living and the dead. Though this could be taken literally, the idea of nupta cadavera is more metaphysical, the two halves of existence -- life and death -- create the most powerful dichotomy known to humankind. Everything kneels to nupta cadavera, none are safe from its icy grip. Everything lives, everything dies. The Danish black metal unit of the same name (a new member of the Korpsånd circle, which anyone interested in black metal should investigate) embodies this duality, as well as duality as a whole, in their new EP, which can be streamed below.

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Dark and shimmering, raw and pummeling, Nupta Cadavera's debut EP encapsulates black metal's own halved existence. There is new-school dissonance to be found, but also a greater sense of harmonic atmosphere, largely thanks to the overhanging keyboards whose constant presence fill the proverbial cracks like a sharp ooze. In these two songs, Nupta Cadavera's own pride is apparent -- a stomping, haughty sort of ambient arrogance which imbues the music itself with a great deal of power. Power in atmosphere, concordance in dissonance, darkness and light. Nupta Cadavera is duality incarnate.

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Nupta Cadavera releases September 15th via Nuclear War Now! Productions.

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Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of September 8th to September 14th, 2019. Release reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays. 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.

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Upcoming Releases

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Dold Vorde Ens Navn -- Gjengangere i hjertets mørke | Soulseller Records | Black Metal | Norway This supergroup is no joke. Featuring members from acts like Dødheimsgard, Ved Buens Ende, Nidingr, and the like, Dold Vorde ens Navn's power is already immeasurable, but it is the return of Håvard Jørgensen of the Ulver Trilogie fame which truly leaves its mark. Finding itself in the middle-ground between the avant-bizarre leanings of the majority of this band's lineup as well as Jørgensen's more classic, melodic, blistering riffage a la Nattens Madrigal, the dualistic Gjengangere i hjertets mørke presents itself as black metal's past and future. Keep an eye out for a special interview with Jørgensen in the coming weeks.

-- Jon Rosenthal

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Weeping Sores -- False Confession | I, Voidhanger/Riff Merchant | Death Metal + Doom Metal | United States (New York) Featuring current, former, and live members of a variety of acts (Pyrrhon, Seputus, Tchornobog, Hell, and so on), Weeping Sores magically sounds like… none of those bands. Instead, we are given a harrowing listen of emotive, melodic death/doom metal, not super distant from the Peaceville 3 sound, but injected with enough of that deathy-power (thanks in part to IO alumni Doug Moore's gut-thrown voice) to set it in a league all its own.

-- Jon Rosenthal

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Haunter -- Sacramental Death Qualia | I, Voidhanger | Blackened Death Metal | United States (Texas) From Andrew Rothmund's premiere of Dispossessed Phrenic Antiquity and interview with band members Enrique Bonilla and Bradley Tiffin:

Black metal succeeds when it feels composed and summoned, not necessarily spewn forth or thrown together with even creative haphazard. Owning to the genre’s penchant for atmospherics and abstraction — two things which bleed some bands dry compositionally — writing coherent but still extreme black metal actually doubles the difficulty. Some of this feels like a balancing game (e.g. ensuring ranges of slow to fast tempos and vocals which aren’t monolithic), and one band in particular that pretty much nails the fulcrum is Texas-based project Haunter. They’re an underground pressure-cooker of creativity, and their most multifaceted diamond is about to form: their upcoming second full-length Sacramental Death Qualia.

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Nightfell -- A Sanity Deranged | 20 Buck Spin | Blackened Death Metal | United States (Oregon) Returning after four years of silence following their previous release Darkness Evermore, the all-consuming tempest that is blackened death metal duo Nightfell’s third album A Sanity Deranged is unleashed upon a world in fractured turmoil. A dour, doom-influenced dirge of insanity, vitriol and contempt, the album sees Nightfell at their most spitefully deliberate, evoking their most dense and dynamic material to date. It's an annihilating omen for the end times upon us, as topical and relevant as it is grim and foreboding.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Eschaton -- Death Obsession | Unique Leader | Technical Death Metal | United States (Connecticut + Massachusetts + Florida) Nice. Technical death metal via Unique Leader which isn't overloaded with deathcore influences. Nothing wrong with deathcore in tech-death (in fact, tech-death-infused deathcore is usually king), but it's definitely a stylistic choice. Eschaton went with "technical or die" approach, meaning each second of Death Obsession is a trove of riffy delight. Songwriting, too, this band has no problem writing interesting yet brutal movements in an otherwise stale subgenre.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Void King -- Barren Dominion | Off the Record Label | Sludge + Doom Metal | United States (Indiana) Born at the crossroads of America, Indianapolis stoner doom act Void King have returned after three years with their second full-length offering Barren Dominion. With their massive, gradually unfolding compositions, Void King construct towers of crushing fuzz and sinister sludge outlined by gargantuan riffs and soaring, near-operatic melodies from vocalist Jason Kindred. With their marriage of funereal doom instrumentals and heartbreaking harmonic melancholy, the group’s sound showcases impressive levels of collaborative musicianship working towards a timelessly cohesive sound.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Wigrid -- Entfremdungsmoment | Bleeding Heart Nihilist Productions | "Depressive" Black Metal | Germany It's been 14 years since we last heard from Wigrid, the German master of bleak, depressing black metal. Lost somewhere between classic, droning minimalism and an anti-Romantic, melodic style all his own, lone wolf "Ulfhednir"'s return is marked in harrowing tones and anti-human/anti-life sentiment. Music like this is difficult, but there is beauty deep beneath the horrifying shrieking and harsh buzz which defines it. The master has returned.

-- Jon Rosenthal

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Ram -- The Throne Within | Metal Blade | Heavy Metal | Sweden Originally formed in 1999, Gothenburg traditional-metallers Ram will commemorate their 20th anniversary with The Throne Within, their sixth full-length album to date. Laden with galloping 1980s riffs and melodic Priest/Maiden style vocals, this new release sees Ram staying true to their epic and vibrant strain of classic heavy metal with more potency and creative edge than ever before.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Visceral Disgorge -- Slithering Evisceration | Agonia Records | Death Metal | United States (Maryland) Fucking non-stop death metal brutality which leans toward the "slam your skull into the ground" type of heaviness. Paired with a pretty damn fine production, Slithering Evisceration is a premiere all-out death metal record for maximum mental stimulation. Visceral Disgorge master both the slower and faster methods of ripping out the metal heart from death's rotting chest.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Black Fucking Cancer + Gloam -- Boundless Archane Invokations | Sentient Ruin Laboratories | Black Metal + Total Chaos | United States (California) After years of development hell and of adverse fate, two of America's most uncompromising underground extreme metal acts -- San Jose’s Black Fucking Cancer and Santa Cruz’s Gloam -- come together to finally unleash the long-awaited Boundless Arcane Invokations split, a collaborative aural conspiracy of unyielding hellish black metal and aural misery. Written together in the same studio, their respective contributions bear the same title, concept, and recording quality, and are joined together by gapless atmospheric segues as to create a looped bout of endless destruction. With no conventional track sequence, and no defined sides, the split functions as a double-headed beast created to assault the listener with immediate viscerality.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Eternity -- To Become the Great Beast | Soulseller Records | Black Metal | Norway Here's a supergroup of sorts, featuring Blasphemer (Aura Noir, ex-Mayhem) and members of Nocturnal Breed, plus a guest appearance by Brynjard Tristan (ex-Dimmu Borgir). To Become the Great Beast has that level of professional quality that you'd expect from artists of that stature, but that doesn't preclude Eternity's second-full length (first in more than a decade) from feeling downright authentic and hellborn. This is black metal for ripping brains to shreds, but with a bit of style to boot. Expect plenty of second-wave influence but with enough modern twist to keep things aggressively modern.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Apparatus -- Yonder Yawns the Universe | Seed of Doom Records | Blackened Death Metal | Denmark Apparatus write extremely bleak visions through mid-paced blackened death metal which powers forward like a locomotive. And indeed, Yonder Yawns the Universe is just that: a gargantuan train heading downhill with no brakes into an infinitely deep chasm. Kafkaesque in its claustrophobia, but expansive in its dynamics, Yonder Yawns the Universe is wonderfully extreme music for the discerning and pained soul.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Endseeker -- The Harvest | Metal Blade | Death Metal + Thrash Metal | Germany Presenting yet another offering of punk-oriented, thrashing death metal in the Swedish proto-metalcore style, Hamburg-based outfit Endseeker have teamed up with Metal Blade for the release of their sophomore record The Harvest. With breakneck tempos and jarring timbres, the record sees Endseeker streamlining their sound into a despairingly raw yet well-polished assault of the highest caliber; the result is ten ceaselessly compelling tracks of modern death metal paying faithful homage to its 1990s roots.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Cloud Rat -- Pollinator + Do Not Let Me Off the Cliff EP | Artoffact Records | Grindcore + Black Metal | United States (Michigan) Stay tuned for tomorrow, we have a special Cloud Rat treat in store. In the meantime, check out Pollinator, the continuation of the band's primal, grindy, blackened goodness, as well as bonus EP Do Not Let Me Off the Cliff which showcases Cloud Rat's moodier, more emotive side. This twin release of sorts is a major step forward for the band, increasing their capability and the breadth of their sound without sacrificing any intensity or pure aggression.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Crypt Sermon -- The Ruins of Fading Light | Dark Descent Records | Doom Metal | United States (Colorado) Stay tuned for some Crypt Sermon live report action -- this band already sounds utterly brilliant on record, so the quality of the live performance will make/break Crypt Sermon's success. Suffice it to say, though, that The Ruins of Fading Light is 110% metal, hell maybe even 120% metal, and gives no shits about laying down stylish crowd-pleasers as well as more nuanced dynamics for discerning headphone listens. Technicall, I think this album falls under the doom metal tag, but honestly, this is just metal. Heavy fucking metal. Stream the full album now via Decibel.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Eye Flys -- Context | Thrill Jockey | Hardcore + Death Metal + Progressive | United States (Pennsylvania) Eye Flys was conceived between Full of Hell guitarist Spencer Hazard and ex-Backslider drummer Patrick Forrest, so Context's pedigree should go without saying. What should go with saying is this: Eye Flys fucking slaps with their mixture of hardcore beats, death metal distortion, and progressive/experimental arrangements. Context twists and turns at every chance it gets, leaving your mind disoriented but in the best way possible. Stay tuned later this week for some special coverage of this band and album.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Kostnatění -- Hrůza zvítězí | Black Metal | United States Sensationally lush, powerful, and eviscerating black metal courtesy of the mysterious Kostnatění. This is the project's debut full-length, and it's one sinister motherfucker. I won't say too much more about it, mostly because I think you should almost certainly give this a listen, but let's leave it at this: Hrůza zvítězí is extreme black metal without the indigestion. There's a lot on this album, but it's arranged and engineered to perfection.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Liverpool folk/black metallers Dawn Ray'd are releasing their new album Behold Sedition Plainsong on October 25th via Prosthetic Records, and it seems like the political band's message will be just as strong as ever on this one. A press release calls it "a call to arms and a potential catalyst for positive radical change," and then continues:

The first audio from the album [comes] in the form of the evocative album intro, "Raise The Flails", with its rallying cry -‘It’s time for new tales of resistance’. Behold Sedition Plainsong comprises of 11 tracks of what will surely become their trademark sound: pure black metal, shot through with sonic flecks of traditional folk. Each song is an emotional response to a political struggle, with a clear focus on ecological destruction and anti-capitalism.

You can listen to "Raise The Flails," which is clearly just an intro-type song but already sounds promising, below. Dawn Ray'd are also touring the UK and Europe, including a trek with False, and those dates are listed below too.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGUrOEfpO7I&feature=youtu.be

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Tracklist 1. Raise The Flails 2. The Smell Of Ancient Dust 3. Like Smoke Into Fog 4. To All, To All, To All! 5. A Time For Courage At The Borderlands 6. Songs In The Key Of Compromise 7. Until The Forge Goes Cold 8. A Stone's Throw 9. Soon Will Be The Age of Lessons Learnt 10. Salvation Rite 11. The Curse, The Dappled Light

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Dawn Ray'd -- 2019 Tour Dates 13 September - Fell Foot Woods - Ulverston 23 October - The Black Heart - London 24 October - Venue TBC - Sheffield 25 October - Stuck On A Name - Nottingham 26 October - Rough Trade - Nottingham *Free In Store* 27 October - The Pipeline - Brighton 31 October - Mother’s Ruin - Bristol 01 November - Henry’s Cellar Bar - Edinburgh 2 November - Damnation Festival - Leeds WITH FALSE 7 November - Alte Meierei, Kiel, DE 8 November - Ungdomshuset, Copenhagen, DE 9 November - Mörtelwerk, Leipzig, DE 10 November - TBA, Prague, CZ 11 November - Zukunft am Ostkreuz, Berlin, DE 12 November - Music City, Antwerp, BE 13 November - De Onderbroek, Nijmegen, NL 14 November - PMK, Innsbruck, AT 15 November - Venster 99, Vienna, AT 16 November - Aurora, Budapest, HU 17 November - AKC Attack, Zagreb, CR 18 November - Sub, Graz, AT 19 November - Kochareal, Zurich, CH 20 November - TBA, Clermond Ferrand, FR 21 November - Espace B, Paris, FR 22 November - Jugend Kultur Cafe, Troisdorf, DE

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Nile had been talking about a new album, and then they announced a tour with Terrorizer, leaving us wondering if we would know more about the album before that tour, and now we know more about the album! It's called Vile Nilotic Rites, and it comes out November 1st via Nuclear Blast (the same day the tour starts in Atlanta). Your first taste is the ferocious "Long Shadows of Dread."

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https://youtu.be/mhEQi-6PMkc

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Despite its vast wealth of diversity, death metal as a whole often follows certain stylistic trends and fads, such as the tech-death spring of the mid 2010s or the current wave of OSDM-revivalism. But one sect of death metal that has never truly seen itself dwell in the limelight is the mythic realm of death-doom. This unique blend of raw aggression and melancholic catharsis maintains its status as a more meditative and darkly spiritual exploration of extremity defined by aesthetically nuanced groups. One such outfit bearing this arcane torch into the present day is Portland-based Sempiternal Dusk. The mystical four-piece crafts deeply terrifying death-doom magic with a wholly singular approach. Formed in 2011, the members of Sempiternal Dusk converged at a time when death metal’s rotten tendrils had yet to foment a serious, widespread commitment to the genre in the Pacific Northwest. Though their first album was a spectacular descent into entrenched death metal (so deeply instilled with esoteric darkness that the group was signed by the then-lesser known label Dark Descent), it remained securely fastened in the underground world, never gaining the group due recognition. After a series of split releases in 2017 and 2018, however, the group began work on their upcoming sophomore album Cenotaph of Defectuous Creation, created with the intention of pulling their sound out from the sonic depths. Leading up to the album’s release next Friday, we are revealing another of Sempiternal Dusk's bizarre take on the marriage of doom and death metal -- an equally radical alternative to the speedy OSDM grime of their Portland compatriots -- in the form of “Refracted Suffering Through the Windows of Hell."

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The track begins at an excruciating crawl, a lethargic crash cymbal acting as a metronome for an oozing funereal instrumental passage. Almost immediately, however, Sempiternal Dusk pivot unpredictably into a gallop, a churning pit of double bass and cavernous riffs. Though the clarity of sound here is indeed more pointed and discernible than their first outing, “Refracted” still retains their signature sense of swelling anxiety. As this pit of sonic blasphemy pulsates and gradually changes in form, the blackened elements within the group’s sound become apparent as the unforgiving tonalities of their riffs meet the cavernous destruction of drummer/vocalist TC. In a grotesque trance, layer upon layer of atmospheric fog spills over until finally the cacophony breaks away into a twisted, harrowing outro of static decay. At its contextually dialed-back length of six minutes, “Refracted” serves as a perfect hybrid of the two differing timbres presented across this record: deathly funeral doom of the longer tracks and the ravenous speed of its shorter pieces. With a sense of the occult, Cenotaph of Defectuous Creation is a statement of permanence and steadfast stoicism. Its esoteric sound seeks only to reflect the deepest inner contemplation and suffering. It carries an essential element of doom in its core, but wears the hideously gaudy garments of death metal’s rage and pummeling violence.

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Cenotaph of Defectuous Creation releases September 27th via Dark Descent Records.

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Liturgy have been teasing a new album for a while, and they recently revealed they'd be debuting new material at a show at Brooklyn's Market Hotel this Friday (September 6th) (tickets), and now, one day before that show, they have released their first new single since 2015's The Ark Work. The new single is called "God of Love," and it's an eight-minute track that works an orchestra and a harp into Liturgy's increasingly distinct brand of post-black metal. The new song is also Liturgy's first with new drummer Leo Didkovsky, who replaced Greg Fox. Listen below (via Tiny Mix Tapes). Liturgy also added West Coast dates surrounding the West Coast debut of frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's Origin of the Alimonies, an opera that "collides metal, classical, and trap music." All dates are listed below.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dNmymSI8uQ

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Liturgy -- 2019 Tour Dates Sept 06 Market Hotel Brooklyn NY w/Deli Girls, Child Abuse, Sadaf, TBHQ Nov 09 San Diego, CA Soda Bar Nov 10 Los Angeles, CA Zebulon Nov 16 Los Angeles, CA REDCAT (Liturgy and CalArts’ Sonic Boom dir. Ulrich Krieger: Origin of the Alimonies) Nov 17 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill Nov 19 Portland, OR Paris Theater Nov 20 Seattle, WA Highline

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The days grow shorter and the sun's rays die out. Autumn is upon us, a time in which we light our own fires. When we last saw Bhleg, Solarmegin celebrated the sun and the life it gives us. Now, with Äril, Autumn and ancient tales fuel their fires. Listen to a premiere of "Från eld till aska" below.

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https://youtu.be/Hbl1CUDdIYs

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Still rooted in their own take on folk metal, Bhleg leans more on the blackened end of the musical spectrum this time around. Stripped bare and exuding raw emotion, Bhleg's own internal fires snap and pop, full of primal energy and charged with tales of old. Without the Sun, Bhleg becomes more ferocious in the dark, flickering light of their own making.

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Äril releases September 27th via Nordvis.

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Cult of Luna have shared a second single off their anticipated new album A Dawn To Fear (due September 20th via Metal Blade). Following the ten-and-a-half-minute "The Silent Man" comes "Lay Your Head To Rest," which is a little shorter, but no less epic. It balances melody, aggression, and experimentation perfectly. Check it out below.

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https://youtu.be/hfLfEsklhXM

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Nietszche once waxed about the Void staring back, but sometimes, not to his discredit, the endless depths reveal themselves. Case in point, Black Cilice: an impenetrable wall of horrific, dense fuzz, black as pitch and ghastly as death itself. Across its four preceding full-length albums and many, many demos, this mysterious Portuguese act reveled in nightmarish obscurity and terrifying ghost sounds, a howling wind through an empty, dead cave. Now, with Transfixion of Spirits, which can be exclusively streamed below, Black Cilice begins to reveal its grey self, casting off the weight of a greater darkness.

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Though once mired in a deeper grave, Black Cilice's fifth album plays a game of preference and balance: trading impenetrability for a relative clarity, droning hums for mystical songwriting, and darkness for a more palpable energy. This is a new face for Black Cilice, something less difficult and relatively welcoming, but still retaining the sinister, spiritual nature which defined the project's past. What makes Transfixion of Spirits's clarity all the more interesting is, when compared to previous Black Cilice releases, is its lack of guarding. Placed into context, albums like A Corpse, A Temple's raw nature feels more like nightwings now unfurled and cast open. A grand weight has been removed. Behold, the true face of Black Cilice.

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Transfixion of Spirits releases September 6th via Iron Bonehead Productions.

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Cattle Decapitation have debuted the first single off their upcoming eighth album Death Atlas (due November 29th via Metal Blade). It's called "One Day Closer to the End of the World" and it goes back and forth between relentlessly brutal death metal and a more uplifting, melodic hook before ending up in almost atmospheric post-metal territory. It's a cool song that covers a lot of ground without losing focus, and you can check it out below. The album was produced by Dave Otero, and, among other things, it features a Dead Can Dance cover with horns from members of Italy's Ottone Pesante. The album also has narration by Phish's Jon Fishman, an intro with a contribution from Riccardo Conforti of Italy's Void of Silence, a nine-plus minute closing track with Laure Le Prunenec of Igorrr and Ricinn (which, according to Metal Blade, vocalist Travis Ryan "considers to be Cattle Decapitation's finest moment"), and a guest appearance by Dis Pater of Brisbane's Midnight Odyssey. With regards to Jon Fishman's contribution, Travis Ryan says, "Jon is a big fan of the band and we were happy to have him come on board with the narration, as well as a quote off the top of his head that was inspired by the beautiful area he lives in, and recorded under the Maine night sky." Talking about the album, Travis also adds, "I want people to be shocked into thinking more about their futures, their loved ones, the pain they're potentially subjecting their future generations to. Everyone just seems to live in the now with no care for tomorrow and that's incorrect thinking as far as today goes. Don't make tomorrow a cancelled check." Cattle Decapitation also have an upcoming tour with Atheist, Author & Punisher, and Vitriol, with additional support from Full of Hell on leg one and Primitive Man on leg two.

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https://youtu.be/3QjXtrQKf88

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Cattle Decapitation / Atheist / Author & Punisher / Vitriol — 2019 Tour Dates Nov. 22: Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room * Nov. 23: Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Bar & Grill * Nov. 24: Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall * Nov. 25: New Orleans, LA @ The Parish @ House of Blues * Nov. 26: Orlando, FL @ The Abbey * Nov. 27: Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room * (no Author & Punisher) Nov. 29: Atlanta, GA @ Hell @ Masquerade * (no Author & Punisher) Nov. 30: Richmond, VA @ Canal Club * Dec. 1: New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge * Dec. 2: Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall * Dec. 3: Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry @ The Fillmore * Dec. 4: Toronto, ON @ Opera House * Dec. 5: Chicago, IL @ Metro * Dec. 6: Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theater % Dec. 7: Denver, CO @ The Oriental % Dec. 8: Grand Junction, CO @ Mesa Theater % Dec. 10: Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theater % Dec. 11: Mesa, AZ @ Club Red % Dec. 12: Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent/ Decibel Pre-Party % Dec. 13: Las Vegas, NV @ Fremont Country Club % Dec. 14: Fresno, CA @ Strummers % Dec. 15: Berkeley, CA @ UC Theatre % Dec. 17: Seattle, WA @ The Showbox % Dec. 18: Portland, OR @ Bossanova Ballroom % Dec. 19: Sacramento, CA @ Holy Diver % Dec. 20: Pomona, CA @ The Glass House % Dec. 22: San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick % *=Full of Hell %=Primitive Man

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Funeral doom vets Esoteric's anticipated new album A Pyrrhic Existence comes out November 8th via Season of Mist, and the first taste of the album is now here, in all its nearly-28-minute glory. That's the epic opening track "Descent," which you can hear below.

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Tracklist 1. Descent 2. Rotting in Dereliction 3. Antim Yatra 4. Consuming Lies 5. Culmination 6. Sick and Tired

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When we talk about atmosphere in black metal, we're talking about layering, density, and intensity. Bands seem to take one of two routes: either they champion a raw and unembellished sound (resulting in that oftentimes purposeful claustrophobic feeling) or a more polished and "lush" approach (resulting in something a bit more blossoming than choking). Both directions lead to stylistic wonderlands of possibility, from encasing you in black metal's icy void prison to launching you toward an infinite cosmos. And while the eventual direction is up to the artists in question, it's the final trifecta of layering, density, and intensity that persists, though, no matter how rough or smooth the black metal is. Personally, as summer here in Chicago wanes and winter approaches, I want something to counteract the sun's earlier setting and the air's rapid cooling and, generally, the city's approach toward total and nearly unlivable frigidity. I need out of that claustrophobia, something to expand my mind instead of encasing it. For that, I've turned to Chicago-based quartet Vukari and their upcoming third full-length Aevum. Here's a taste with an exclusive premiere of the album's opening track "Abrasive Hallucinations (Reality Hemorrhaging)."

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I've been a Vukari fan for a while now, having seen a number of their shows around Chicago, and let me tell you: this band gets better and better with every performance and every release. The band had teased a few demos earlier this year (tracks which eventually made it onto the album, but remastered of course) that piqued my interest, but upon hearing "Abrasive Hallucinations (Reality Hemorrhaging)," I knew immediately Vukari had found their wavelength. Black metal is already a saturated genre, especially the super-atmospheric corner that Vukari occupies, but the band steps out of that (and their own) mold with Aevum. The riffs are tighter, the blasts are more concrete, and the songwriting has become extremely emotive -- any "flatness" predicated by Vukari's postmodern tilt gets destroyed just by just the sheer weight of the thing. Aevum is emotionally heavy, the most important kind of heavy, and that ethos has been woven throughout all eight of these medium-format tracks (with the album closer being a longer, more involved behemoth unto itself). The opening track gives an ample taste of what's to follow, but remember: opening tracks set the tone, mood, and atmosphere of the songs that follow. As Aevum plays on, Vukari's wavelength ebbs and flows with humongous valleys and skyscraping climaxes, just the sort of undulations that black metal has championed for emotional intensity. As far as layering and density go, Aevum feels completely maximized but not overdone, which is extremely important for any black metal release not looking to just crush your head (the album was recorded and mixed in-house by bassist Spenser Morris who's also worked with Panopticon and Saor, then mastered at Trakworx Mastering by Justin Wies who's also worked with Agalloch, Pallbearer, and Vhol). Vukari takes the earworm approach, letting you soak into their luscious atmospherics without forcing your mind's hand. This is something I've noticed about their live performance, too, and unlike many bands who attempt this, Vukari have succeeded in translating some of that live "reality" to the recorded material. So, I'm filing this one under "albums to jam while Chicago descends into another horrific winter," and with that, maybe I know I'll make it yet another go-around the sun.

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Aevum releases October 1st via Vendetta Records. Pre-orders will go live tomorrow afternoon.

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Music festivals are gauntlets of both joy and punishment: you try to juggle must-see bands and parties with friends you rarely see from near and far all while still trying to meet your body’s basic needs. Inevitably, Machiavellian set times paired with late-night peer pressure for more hijinks means sleep is the easiest casualty, so each day of festivities trudges harder than the previous as bodily wear and the varied stimulants/drugs you've probably been doing all take their toll. Finally, it ends in a haze which seems like both an eternity and the blink of an eye, and suddenly you’re back at work thinking you need a vacation from your vacation, especially if your sleep-deprived body caught some sort of whatever sickness was floating among the hoards of fellow fest-goers. Now imagine all of that -- a true triathlon of endurance and excess if there ever was one -- but in a city that calls such a frenetic episode just a plain ole’ Tuesday. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Psycho Las Vegas experience. Being a Los Angeles resident for nearly a decade, I’ve picked up how many locals here treat Las Vegas like a weekend getaway locale. In that sense, Psycho Las Vegas feels like an extension of the Los Angeles metal scene, which is no hyperbole considering the fest was originally focused on doom/stoner metal and actually held in Southern California from 2013 to 2015. When it moved out to the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas starting in 2016, the stunning and already genre-varied lineup was too loud to ignore given the short distance, so I made my first sojourn as an adult to Sin City. And while I did learn a valuable lesson on my first trip to always check hotel beds for blood-sucking parasites that will never leave my nightmares, I was also bitten by the charms of the festival and have been a captive attendee ever since. The announcement of Virgin Hotels buying out the Hard Rock Casino prompted the festival to move locations to Mandalay Bay. In many ways, this was a big change not only in setting the festival now directly on the Las Vegas Strip but also providing far larger venues for the bands to perform in. And fuck, did this year’s lineup please everyone with larger-than-life bands from the Tom G. Warrior-led Hellhammer tribute Triumph of Death, prog-rock olympians Opeth, hammer-horror-loving doom legends Electric Wizard, and surprise Megadeth replacements The Misfits. Besides gods among men, there were plenty of delights to be had with bands who don't regularly grace big-name glossy magazine covers. One I particularly had my eye on was Norwegian black metal act Mork. Their 2017 full-length Eremittens dal caught my attention and retained it through to this year’s riff-upon-blackened-riff-filled headbanger Det svarte juv (which I included in my best-of-2019-so-far list). Mork functions like many prolific black metal bands: it was the one-man creation of Thomas Eriksen, but through the help of friends and compatriots, it was possible to transform Mork from a studio project to a stage project. The fledgling project has grown immensely in a short time having after two albums signed to illustrious metal label Peaceville Records. Clearly, the label recognized the same magic in the band that’s drawn guest collaborators from Dimmu Borgir, 1349, and Darkthrone. That magic being the essence of great black metal, always respecting where you came from while never sacrificing a distinctive and personal vision. Psycho Las Vegas, along with two subsequent Southern California gigs, were Mork’s premiere performances on American soil this year. I was elated to have the opportunity to interview Mork mastermind Eriksen only a few hours after they kicked ass at the truly ungodly festival hour of 12:15 p.m. We were escorted up to the staff suite high up in the Delano Tower where a very large black velvet painting of Iron Maiden’s Eddie kept us company while we chatted.

-- Joseph Aprill

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So this is your first time in the United States. How has your experience been so far? It’s my first time in the States as an artist. I actually went here in 1997 on a trip with my family. We were on holidays. We went, it was during the summer though, to Florida. So I’ve been here before and we’ve played Canada a couple years ago with Mork, but this is the very first time on American soil as Mork and it’s very exciting. We’re really happy that you guys had us over here. How do you feel your performance at Psycho Las Vegas went today? You know what, we were having line checks, sound checks, rigging, and it was in this big empty hall [the Mandalay Bay inside venue called House of Blues]. To us, this was a big venue. We thought there couldn’t be anyone showing up here at noon, but all of sudden [makes a pop noise] it was packed. That was not expected, but that has actually happened to us before and we don’t take it for granted. So obviously it was a great way to start off our career in America. How has Vegas in particular been as a first experience with the band? Yea, this is Sin City after all. An insane place in the middle of the desert and you know I’m from Norway, so I’ve never experienced this before. It’s like in the movies, like Leaving Las Vegas and… Fear and Loathing? Yea, there you go, that and the Hangover films. I don’t know, it’s insane, but it was really cool to finally get here. It’s not a particularly black metal place, but we’re having fun. We got in last night and haven’t had much time to get up to too much wrong or stupid stuff yet [laughs]. We did get to go in a car up and down the strip a couple times, once while it was light out and the other at night with all the neon. I had to see that. We spent a couple of nights in LA beforehand and actually hung out at the Rainbow Bar & Grill, which was literally a dream come true! Speaking of which, obviously Rotting Christ had to cancel their shows out here due to the visa situation, but you guys and Tomb Mold are still going ahead with the shows in San Diego and LA. So what are you looking forward to with that? LA to me is special because with the Sunset Strip, the Rainbow, the Whisky a Go Go and everything else. It’s rock-'n'-roll history, you know. Something I’ve been having on the top of my bucket list for a long, long time. My bucket list was that I wanted my music to pay the way to LA. Now we did it and I still can’t believe it. We also found out the Rainbow has an AirBnB apartment and stayed there. I had no idea about that. It’s actually really nice and just a short walk down to the pub. So you know we hung out there and got to catch a show at the Whisky as well. I’m an old AC/DC fan and the very first AC/DC vocalist, Dave Evans, he did a gig at the Whisky the night before we came here. So we got to go and even met Neil Turbin who was also there. Carmine Appice too! Just insane you know, but I guess that’s average life in LA.

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https://youtu.be/BaxEZK-lZKw

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In a previous interview you mentioned a big part of your desire to visit LA was Lemmy. In the context of Lemmy dying not too long ago and clearly you being a big fan, what does that mean for you being in the presence of where he lived? That was insane, you know, and I don’t care that much about the statue, pictures and stuff but the actual fact he lived there. The first night we were in town we got to know a person who lives in the same building that Lemmy lived in and who knew him. So we actually got to go into the building; we saw his apartment and everything. I didn’t expect that to happen. So we poured down quite a bit of Jack and Coke that night and we were hung over the entire next day in LA [laughs]. Growing up, how did you come across heavy metal and I assume later black metal? How did you know that was music meant for you? Black metal, that actually came a bit further down the road actually. I started in punk rock with Sex Pistols, the Clash, Buzzcocks, and some Ramones. Not that much Misfits, but I will see the Misfits tonight. I know that my bass player, Robin, he is a huge Misfits fan so this is a big break for him. After punk rock I discovered AC/DC, which is still right here [Eriksen makes a light fist-bump to the heart] and the other obvious ones. Maiden has been a huge part for me. Metallica, Megadeth… and you know just evolving like that for me. But in one year, I think it was 2001, I went to Roskilde festival in Denmark where I saw Mayhem live for the first time. I was standing on the stage because my father and I had a relative who was working the festival. So we got to go around with these VIP pass and I was only 16 years old. With Mayhem I was like, “who fucking was this?” with barbed wire, the cutting with knives, and the bass drums blasting. So that was my start with black metal. After that I went home and searched online for what is this. I found Burzum. Obviously Darkthrone. Those bands shaped me into black metal. It really hit me hard and I discovered that this is something I really can do. To live it. Was there a particular event that changed you from being a fan to feeling like this was something you wanted to create? I’ve been playing in bands for many, many years. I started off in 1997 or something and I started Mork in 2004. I just jumped into black metal. I tried it without that much knowledge. I just tried it with some demos and all of a sudden I just evolved into it and now I feel its natural. It’s been a nice ride. I certainly feel some of Darkthrone and Burzum in your music. Is it anything about them in particular that pulls you in? Yea, you know you can’t find a higher quality of black metal than that basically. Burzum, he has the atmosphere… real atmosphere. Darkthrone is more the rock-'n’-roll part. When those two... mate [laughs], you get Mork. That’s a perfect blend. I’ve been honored to work with the Darkthrone guys. Nocturno Culto sang on some of my songs and he’s a friend of mine. Fenriz has supported me and my band a lot. He’s talked about us and had us on his radio show. We message each other every once in a while. Really nice guys, but they hate to make appearances and be seen. So they live their lives. I remember I visited Nocturno Culto once where he lives. Had a very nice dinner and listened to old Pink Floyd records. Really cool guys so it’s a shame that they don’t do anything live but that would probably take away some of the magic as well. That’s the surreal part for me of now having seen Mork live. Burzum and Darkthrone albums, that’s what you listen to at home and you don’t get to experience songs like that live. Seeing you guys it kind of felt at times like seeing Darkthrone live. That’s good. I’m honored to hear you say that because I was hoping we could take this sound a bit further in honor of these guys. Beneath it all, it's kind of a tribute but also has evolved as well. Having released four albums now it’s a really big part of me, so it’s not a tribute anymore. It’s more me, you know. It’s a one-man band and I’m an only child. Call me an egotistical selfish asshole, but I get to do just what I channel and having the boys on stage with me it just works really well. With your songwriting I feel like you definitely fit in with the idea of Norwegian black metal in that your lyrics are in Norwegian. For the scene in general but also for you personally, why is Norway such central part to your art? It’s in the name, you know. “True Norwegian Black Metal.” You can’t play that in America. A Portuguese band can’t play Norwegian Black Metal. It’s something really special to that little country that I come from. I remember when I was listening to Burzum records and Darkthrone records. Sitting looking at the artwork and through the lyric sheets. The Norwegian lyrics and titles gave me even more atmosphere. I don’t want to step on anyone but personally when I hear Norwegian black metal with English lyrics it doesn’t hit me as hard actually. It has to be sung in Norwegian. There’s something, not tribal but… true and raw about that. I don’t know [laughs]. I like the way a band like Enslaved talked about it. I think it was Ivar Bjørnson who said it makes him feel rooted. For sure! We come to America, we play Turkey, Canada, Germany, Poland… and wherever we’ve played the music has been “exotic." It’s something special in not being just another rock band. And yea, it makes us feel special too [laughs].

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https://youtu.be/Z5yMy2UzJH0

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Along with the Norwegian focus in your songwriting I always find interesting black metal bands that incorporate great clean singing and you definitely have that. Was there a conscious decision you made to include that or did it just come as a natural fit for Mork? With my previous bands I’ve been only doing clean singing, so it’s always been a part of me. It actually took some time to include that into Mork because I was a bit scared of what the hardcore black metal fans out there and my peers would think. In the beginning, I wasn’t in the scene. I wasn’t buddies with all these guys but now I am. I feel that black metal is about doing the best that you can and being the best that you can be. So why shouldn’t I just let the flow go. Not just create music based on Burzum and Darkthrone records but based on myself. So I pull in inspiration from whatever I feel. I’m not genre based at all. If a song is good it doesn’t matter what genre it is. It could be disco, country… I love music. How did it come about having a guest musician playing a Norwegian fiddle [Hardanger fiddle] on one of your songs? There’s actually a couple. We have a track on our second album, the track is called “Den lukkede porten." We even played that one today. The title means “the closed gate," and there we have some Hardanger fiddle. That’s a friend of mine [Freddy Holm] and that’s a real fiddle, not a keyboard. On our third album the title track “Eremittens dal," “the valley of the hermit,'' the intro for the song as well [is] played on cello, and that’s also done by the same guy. The one we played this morning is very Norwegian with the riff [Eriksen begins singing the song’s melody]. It really fits that kind of folkish Norwegian fiddling. So [it] was a no-brainer to include that. He’s a great friend of mine and from the same town as me where we often go to the same pub. He’s actually helped me mix the stuff too. The last two albums he and I mixed. He’s a really talented guy and the only one I know from my hometown who actually lives off music. He’s hired everywhere. He played some stuff with Taylor Swift even… he’s all over the place. He’s a very nimble instrumentalist and if he wants to learn something he just does it. A highly impressive guy and I take my hat off to him! In other interviews you’ve mentioned while writing and composing this latest album it was a dark time in your life, such as some tragic events happening to your family. Any fan of music knows it can help you get through hard times in life. How do you feel working on Mork helps you? Along with that have you contemplated at all how you have or will feel when fans come up to you saying a song or album of yours got them through difficult times? I’ve never yet experienced that with fans though I’ll be deeply humbled if it does. Of course music does help people get through things. One experience I have had with my music was when we played in Turkey, in a city called Izmir. There was a boy there in a Burzum t-shirt who had come from Iran just to see Mork. He had been imprisoned in Iran because he was listening to blasphemous metal as a Muslim. So his parents had to pay bail and he was told he had to recommit to Islam. Instead he just went out of jail and saw Mork in Turkey. I think that shows black metal really is important to some people in really being a true rebellion for some because they’re suppressed by religion one way or another in their lives. That hit me hard in a strange way because I just went down there as a rock-'n’-roll band to play a gig and have fun. I wasn’t expecting to encounter anything like that. As for my own experience while making that album my father passed away, my mother got sick, I lost two grandparents, and my girlfriend broke up with me. Everything wasn’t good and it felt like I got served with everything at once in that one year. I don’t think I could function as a social being without being able to make my music. That’s how important it is for me. If someone chopped off my hands I’d still find a way to make music.

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Mork's latest album Det svarte juv released April 19th this year via Peaceville Records. [caption id="attachment_66549" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Photo credit: Andrew Rothmund[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_53734" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Illustration by Emily McCafferty[/caption]

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This summer has definitely been very interesting for experimental releases, so here are eight more records that recently came out. So, dive into a world of weird techno, post-club, post-industrial, free-jazz and ambient music, alongside some truly unclassifiable works. Enjoy!

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0010x0010 -- MØDVLXXR July 15th, 2019 The first steps of Raymond Tijssen in the techno domain followed a rather straightforward, acid-informed concept. The early works of the producer in Xisohpromatem and 303+606 revel in that ethos, something that also followed with full-length |||Ø||| with Tijssen performing a deeper dive into the core aesthetics of techno and acid music, navigating through asphyxiating ambiances and bombastic rhythms to achieve a great result. Now, Tijssen returns with 0010x0010’s sophomore record MØDVLXXR, exposing a renewed vision for his project and exploring this new space. The usual suspects are still here of course, with “Voodoo In My Blood” unleashing an absolutely vile straight techno beat, as the heavy drum beats mutate through the presence of distortion. There is an unforgiving essence that rises from these moments, highlighted vividly in the claustrophobic “Never Surrender," while acid elements further enhance the intensity of this ride. Still, smoother detours are taken with “Escape from Rodeo Drive” and “Tsim Sha Tsui Express” awakening a calming essence, which is even more pronounced in the sardonically title “Techno is Dead." What is however striking is the denial of Tijssen to remain static and contempt with simply rehashing the clichés of techno and acid music. “Choose One” is a testament to that fact, with the amorphous rhythmic components unfolding a mysterious and menacing ambiance, while the glitch element subtly applied to “Buffer Underrun” creates an intriguing percussive illusion, a loop with no end in sight, as spacious synths complete the ambient collage.

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E-Saggila -- My World My Way August 2nd, 2019 My World My Way opens with a resounding bang in “Aziza," as producer extraordinaire E-Saggila puts a whole other meaning to the term “sonic collage.” Balancing between a variety of sounds and genres, E-Sagilla thrives through the meticulous collection of synthetic instrumentation, samples, field recordings, and distorted vocals and then combines these to create a pathway into a stunning post-club realm. Navigating through My World My Way feels like an epic journey, an odyssey that has been condensed to just 30 minutes. The oppressive quality of the record bring in the hard hitting elements of techno and methodical progression of industrial in “Crimson Landscape," paving the way for the rise of noise and its sound design extensions in the sublime “Stars Dying in Succession." Intensity is a key element in E-Saggila’s concept, and it comes in many flavours, be it through the intense, hellish vocal delivery of “Alia" or the industrial motifs of “Pattern Obligation." And within these moments the producer is able to find the next logical evolution for her vision, turning the mechanical progression of “Pattern Obligation” to a complex, polyrhythmic paradigm in the title track, to finally lay this work to rest with the haunting melodies of “One Last Midnight."

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Fire-Toolz -- Field Whispers (Into the Crystal Palace) August 7th, 2019 In the current extreme music landscape there is an expectation from adventurous musicians and composers to cross over genres and blur the boundaries between diverse sounds and musical practices. In that manner areas of extreme metal have collapsed within the noise trajectory, or have built further fortifications through industrial machinations. But, when it feels like everything has been tried out, there are these creative forces that still push further and create an even more bizarre sonic amalgamation. Fire-Toolz mastermind Angel Marcloid is such a force, moving seamlessly between edges as remote as black metal and vaporware. Fire-Toolz boast a rich discography containing numerous full-length records, but in the project’s debut album for transcendental record label Orange Milk they perform a return to form with a dizzying sonic venture through ever changing sonic trajectories. Everything begins with a laid-back synthwave-y quality, peacefully setting in only for the processed black metal shrieks of Marcloid and the exploding blast beats to ruin this moment of pure serenity. From that point on there is an endless rotation of every influence imaginable. Hints of progressive rock become prominent through the marvelous guitar parts of “BEING," while at the same time the subtle cheesiness of the 1980s synth pop creeps in with “April Snowstorm” and “Smiling at Sunbears Grooming in Sunbeams." Certain turns for a darker sound balance this sweeter quality, with the musique concrete informed “The Warm Body” stealing the show and the surreal “Fluids Come Together & The ‘I Am’ Appears” introducing a minimalistic touch. All while a jazz essence of improvisational galore and soothing essence is just a step away.

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Loscil -- Equivalents August 16th, 2019 Throughout his career as Loscil, Scott Morgan has been using elemental subject matters to construct his vision. Through the depths of the ocean all the way to the ethereal realm, and from the microcosm of physics to the vastness of the cosmos, Morgan has managed to find voices for all these ideas. The latest influence however comes from a more sentimental place with Equivalent being inspired by a collection of pictures taken by famed photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz famously took these photographs with the goal of eliminating the subject matter from the pictures, resulting in one of the first abstract picture collections. While Morgan’s work has always traversed the abstract music territory, Equivalents sees this essence come to the forefront. As a result Loscil’s new record arrives with an eeriness, highlighted perfectly through the subtle drones of “Equivalent 6." The slow moving process warps space and time, giving the impression that the drones are unchanging and constant. It is then the use of dynamics that orchestrate these pieces and breathe new life into them. The process of transformation for “Equivalent 5” showcases Morgan’s excellent application of progression, controlling both the dynamics of the track and the emotions of the beholder at the same time. While at the surface Equivalents might appear blunt and stripped down, a deeper listening experience unveils all the majesty of Loscil’s minimalism.

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Red Nailmaker -- Basilisk EP June 24th, 2019 Wunderblock Records was launched in 2013, aiming to expose and promote the forward-thinking elements of the underground techno scene. Through the years they have displayed a strong inclination towards the heavier side of techno, in its post-techno, EBM, and industrial manifestations. The latest revelation in this lineage is the mysterious Berlin-based act Red Nailmaker, which arrives with a debut EP called Basilisk. Red Nailmaker set a post-industrial scenery from the opening second of “Basilisk Part 1," amongst falling noise debris and heavy beats. The movement and progression always retain their menacing perspective with synths appearing in the form of cyberpunk inspired scythes, reaping through the soundscapes. The same motif is applied in “Basilisk Part 2," although Red Nailmaker applies a more strict progression, intensely aligned with the techno doctrine. Repetition and continuity are key here, while the EBM injections augment the effect of each individual element. It is an intense ride that Red Nailmaker has produced, and through the ten minutes of this EP they expose all its disfigured majesty.

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Telepathic Band -- Electric Telepathy Vol 1 September 20th, 2019 This is the second time Daniel Carter and Federico Ughi appear on this feature, and for good reason: after working with Stelios Mihas and Irma Nejando in Radical Invisibility, they are now returning with the Telepathic Band, joined by an impressive array of musicians in bassist Hilliard Greene, clarinet player Patrick Holmes, and pianist Matthew Putnam for an absorbing, psychedelically inclined improvisational work in Electric Telepathy Vol 1. There always appears to be a telepathic connection between veteran musicians whenever they are improvising, but in this collective that aspect reaches a whole other level. The manner in which the tracks transform is simply uncanny, with “Ghost-Watch” setting out in a slow jazz groove, before diving into a serene interlude beautifully led by the piano, before visiting an abstract realm of dissonance to finally dissolve in a drone-like vortex of sounds. And it is one thing when this seamless communication is applied to five-minute long tracks, but the record actually opens in epic fashion in “Flesh Dialect," a 19-minute etude on the experimental aspect of jazz. Space rituals are enacted through a lucid progression, sound effects establish alien sounds that hover over the instrumentation and the dizzying dissonance of Carter and Holmes awaken the hallucinatory quality of this work.

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Yatta -- Wahala August 2nd, 2019 Poetry is inherently imbued not only with the spirit of lyricism, but also with a musical essence. Poems are written with a sense of rhythm or melody in mind, which always becomes clear when reciting them. Still, there is obviously a more abstracted space when poetry meets experimentalism, and together these can meet in a different musical medium. Yatta has been exploring that space through Spirit Said Yes, a powerful record encompassing diverse elements, from experimental electronic by way of drone and musique concrete, to the spirit of soul and blues music. Yatta now returns with the follow-up work to Spirit Said Yes, Wahala, an inherently more ambitious record showcasing the full range of the artist. A bizarre world awaits exploration and it sets upon you from the strange introduction of “A Lie" where the intriguing use of audio effects invade the story telling capability of the track. From that point, Yatta sets out on a volatile journey that reaches far and wide, starting from the blues infused moments of “Blues," moving to the choir based “Cowboys” before making a fantastical retreat in the unclassifiable space of “Rollin" where the repetitive progression of electronic music collapses on the sound poetry of Yatta. What happens after numerous repetitions is that a wonderful illusion sets in where Wahala can actually adapt to your own mindset. The record is of course a roller coaster of emotions and sensations, but somehow the serene passages of “Francis” and “Shine," the dreamy quality of “Underwater, Now,” and the aggressive manifestation that is “Rollin” appear just at the appropriate time to fit your mood. That is quite extraordinary.

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Zavoloka -- Sobor EP June 26th, 2019 Kateryna Zavoloka has built an extraordinary discography through an adventurous outlook towards experimental electronic music. Ambient music and experimental leanings were present in her debut record Suspenzia before Zavoloka turned her attention toward an abstract, glitch-informed IDM manifestation with Plavyna. As time passed, Zavoloka’s vision would continue to stretch further, seeing more prominent implementations of digital synthesis, use of field recordings, and the influence of the traditional music of her native Ukraine. In the Sobor EP, Zovoloka offers a condensed dose of her sonic vision. The title track introduces this work through an unconventional and overarching introduction of synths before the IDM rhythmic infections join in. While the beats and rhythmic backbone of the track remain static, the melodic phrases and ambient touches that accompany the piece constantly mutate. From melancholic overtures to peaceful serenity, Zavoloka masterfully conducts this progression, before embarking on the equally enigmatic “Freedom of Exclusion." Here, the abstract essence comes closer into view as the minimal introduction sets the tone while the soft percussion and spacious synths mold the track. It soon becomes another magical ride through a deconstructed psychotropic scenery.

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[caption id="attachment_66560" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Photo credit: Tashina Byrd[/caption]

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When Bazillion Points released the Murder in the Front Row book in 2012, Invisible Oranges realized what a treasure trove it was. Justin Norton interviewed co-authors Brian Lew and Harold Oimoen before the book hit shelves. The collection of photographs from the epicenter of the potent Bay Area thrash scene showcased a time before camera phones could document the exact moments Kirk Hammett made the bold move from Exodus to Metallica, Slayer ditched wearing eyeliner, and Dave Mustaine would play the first Megadeth shows. At the 2013 edition of the Outside Lands Music Festival at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Lew would meet up with Adam Dubin. Although an “outsider” from the San Francisco scene as a native New Yorker, Dubin had been working with Metallica since 1990 when doing a record company promo on the recording of what would be known as “The Black Album” expanded into the four-and-a-half hour A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica documentary that showed Metallica go from underground heroes-done-good to this generation’s biggest rock band. It would begin three decades of work with the band. Dubin knew there was something special within those pages that showed the band way before he ever met them and the scene that they transcended to get to that point. In fact, he knew it as far back as the first interviews he did with the band before the book even existed. “By the time I got to work with Metallica which was in the fall of 1990, there was already a bunch of things about them that were legendary. It would be years before I would untangle it and I always felt like I would enjoy an experience of going back before I entered the world with them and seeing what made them,” he said. “There was an interesting moment that I remember. It was the first time that I ever interviewed Kirk Hammett on camera in a real way which was in October of 1991, and we were making an interview series. I cut together a film that ran before on the 'Wherever I May Roam' tour. He said something like, ‘I started Exodus.’ I didn't know he did Exodus. He very vaguely touched on it, but it stuck in my head for some reason. It was almost like Kirk's life started when he joined Metallica, you know?”

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https://youtu.be/JImsHFVztGI

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We’re speaking at a Philadelphia pizza place around the corner from PhilaMOCA. The mausoleum-turned-art space is hosting two sold-out screenings of the Murder in the Front Row documentary whose existence is owed to both his early curiosity and the impressive photographs in the book. “What I loved was, when I finally got my hands on that book, there's the whole life of what's happening before Metallica comes to town and that was really interesting, and then you see the effect when Metallica does come to town,” he explained. “You see an effect in two ways: you see the effect on the scene [and] you see the effect on Metallica, because Metallica's not in San Francisco for six months and by that point they were already 50% a Bay Area band, you know? I was like ah-ha… that is a story that's interesting to tell. “It was almost like a level playing field,” he continued. “Metallica wasn't bigger than everybody else, they were just one of the guys looking for a guitar player or looking for a bass player. Then Mustaine comes back [and] he's trying to keep it together so he has Kerry King with him. People were helping each other more than backbiting each other. So I wanted to explore that, and I guess it was like when Brian Lew handed me the book, I looked at these pictures, these wonderful pictures that just breathed to me. You could feel the sweat. You could feel the emotion in the pictures.” As a native New Yorker whose formative years were spent with Rick Rubin at NYU which he parlayed into directing iconic Beastie Boys videos in the Licensed to Ill days and Def American videos for the likes of Trouble, Wolfsbane, Black Crowes, and The Four Horsemen, he wasn’t at Ruthie’s Inn when Slayer wrecked the place. He didn’t see Exodus at all, let alone with Hammett on guitar. He never set foot in The Stone. But he set about trying to use that to his advantage. “I'm very clearly a Brooklyn New Yorker as my accent will tell,” he laughed. “But I had two things I think helped: one, it was an outsider's perspective… rather than that be a hindrance, I used that as an asset. I could stand back from it and look. My insiders were Harold and Brian who created the book. But I could stand back from them. In a way, sometimes those guys, they couldn't see out of there, they were so inside. I felt like I could look down from above a little bit. So that was one thing.” He continued, “But the other thing was I understood scenes because I had been in one in New York. When they were doing all this, the Beastie Boys were part of a scene, and that whole New York downtown thing was a scene that I was involved with and that I was around, and I remember it. The Beastie Boys before they were Beastie Boys, they were hardcore kids, and there was a whole gang of hardcore kids that would turn up at all the hardcore shows. There was nothing any more significant about those three guys than the other of the ten, 20 guys that were running around. So I felt I understood that.” He felt that there was nothing wrong with telling a story that he wasn’t involved with -- even though many music documentaries are told from the perspective of someone who was there -- as long as he was honest and let those who were there speak for themselves. “There was a moment in the film. There's one of the people who built the scene, a guy named Erik Lannon. He's not super famous, but he played in a lot of bands [most notably Mordred on their first couple of demos]. He's in the film, and he has this original Metallica shirt, and he's showing it to the camera and says that he was there that first show when Metallica came to San Francisco, which would put it in the fall of 1982. He goes, ‘I was there. I know a lot of people claim to have been there but I was actually there and I got this shirt from the bass player Ron McGovney at the time.’ “That comment resonated with me,” Dubin concluded. “The minute he said it, I can remember it, and of course I used it in the film, because over [the] years I had kind of felt the same thing. Over the years, a lot of people have talked about, oh, they were there at downtown, they were there at the [pre-Beastie Boys] Young and the Useless shows, and I was like, ‘No, you weren't there because if you were there I would've known you were there because you knew everybody by name or face,’ you know? It wasn't a big group!” Dubin realized that between his Metallica background and the fact that they were easily the biggest export from the Bay Area, it would be easy to turn Murder in the Front Row into Metallica: The Early Years and ignore the many other bands that made the scene so legendary. He took that into account even if he didn’t, no less an authority than Metallica themselves did. “They didn't want to make the film like that either,” the director affirmed. “I was given a clear mandate that they would only be in it if they were kind of treated equally with everybody else. And I agreed with that. That was a good idea. “I like to say this is not a Metallica movie, it's a movie with Metallica in it,” he said. “And it's difficult, I'll tell you, because Metallica, first of all, they're really good on camera at this point. They're really good. And they're charismatic. So there's a natural tendency to want to lean on them, but I can just say I didn't want to make the film featuring them more than everybody. "But then you start to go into it and we approached it like this: there was a time when everybody was equal. When James Hetfield was just an 18-year-old kid, just like the kids listening to him who were maybe his age or a little younger, and that's the time I wanted to get to and bring everybody back to the interviews which we did by showing them the old photographs and stuff like that. At that moment in time, that's really cool to capture.” Although you can’t ignore Metallica’s impact, Murder in the Front Row takes great pains to not ignore anyone else. “I wanted to express that Metallica were just part of that but then you have these great other stories,” Dubin said. “Quite frankly, a whole movie could be done about Testament and it would be a great movie. And certainly Exodus is still really an amazing story. I like to point out that before Lars and James ever came to town there was Kirk with his own band that he put together called Exodus that was playing thrash music.” Testament to this inclusiveness was the time and care spent on the fallen heroes of the scene. Aside from the obvious attention paid to Cliff Burton, former Exodus frontman Paul Baloff and band manager Debbie Abono are eulogized in touching ways through interviews with bandmates and friends. “I wanted to have their stories because I felt that they were absolutely intricate with the scene itself,” he explained. “I never knew Debbie Abono. I never knew Paul Baloff, and I never knew Cliff, but I felt as I explored the scene that these three people had a massive influence on the scene. “Baloff is probably less well-known -- thrash people know him but a wider audience doesn't really know about what a wild man he was. I think he was really good for thrash. He lived it and breathed it and believed it and I think it was almost like Paul Baloff was put on this earth to promote his own love of thrash music and get it out there and he probably did it at expense to himself in a way. He did it with everything he had in his body. That's what I got from Paul. So I wanted to express that.” The scene where Exodus’s Gary Holt and Tom Hunting visit Baloff’s grave is especially touching. Abono, who managed Possessed, Exodus, Vio-Lence, Forbidden, and others and was known as the “Band Mom” for helping out long-haired musicians as a septuagenarian, was beloved among the scene. This was evident from interviews from everyone from Rob Flynn to her children. “Debbie's an even more amazing story because it's so unusual,” he marveled. “I did really want to give her her due and her fair share because I feel she affected so many people's lives. I mean, even the Metallica guys speak so warmly about her that she must have been really quite a person.” Even long-time fans who watched the Cliff ‘Em All video back when it was on VHS knew that Metallica playing the Day on the Green in 1985 was special. Among early shows in dark clubs and theaters, it stands out as the first time Metallica was video-taped unleashing their revolutionary sound upon a festival audience.

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https://youtu.be/qdlQyNe_9tE

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Even to those who have seen this footage, the story about how famous promoter Bill Graham chastised the band for trashing their trailer was one of the funnier moments of the film. Moreover, the way the show is presented in the film as a prideful, triumphant homecoming for the departed bassist gives it a new perspective. Dubin said, “Thank God MTV News had their camera there that day and it was on the side of the stage that Cliff was on -- one camera to record that magnificent performance. What does that mean to a kid who grew up in Castro Valley to be playing that day? He had attended Day on the Greens. Kirk had also attended Day on the Greens. What does it mean to be standing up there playing, seeing faces that you've grown up with? And not just that, beyond that, 60,000 other faces!” Aside from the two Philly showcases, Murder in the Front Row has been playing across the country since its informal premier at San Francisco’s Kabuki Theater last April. For a director used to working with the biggest band in the past few decades, the DIY approach is a refreshing change of pace. “I still have not been contacted by film distributors and yet we're selling out theaters every night we play this film,” he said. “It's almost like the music itself. The powers that be, so to speak, don't recognize the power of metal, but as we sit here we know there's people all around this room in metal shirts, they know what they want. They know the story they want to come see. So we were like, ‘Let's just put it in theaters and see what happens.’ And guess what? Every theater we've put it in has sold out and demanded more. It's kind of a very nice wrap up to this story, you know?”

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Murder in the Front Row is screening at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Brooklyn. Due to the screening on Tuesday, September 10th selling out, a second showcase on Friday, September 13th at 10:00 p.m. has been added. Following both screenings, WSOU DJ Doug “The Hurricane” will host a Q&A with Murder in the Front Row director Adam Dubin. Additional screenings across the country are listed below: 09/08 – Raleigh, NC @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/10 – Dallas, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/10 – San Antonio, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/12 – Winchester, VA @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/12 – San Francisco, CA @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/13 – Brooklyn, NY @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/13-19 – Denver, CO @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/14 – San Francisco, CA @ Roxie Theater 09/16 – Littleton, CO @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/16 – Denton, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/16-17 – Long Beach, CA @ Art Theatre 09/17 – Dallas, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/17 – Eindhoven, NL @ LAB-1 09/19 – Athens, GR @ Athens Intl. Film Festival 09/20-22 – Seattle, WA @ Grand Illiusion Cinema 09/21 – Denver, CO @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/22 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop 09/24 – Dallas, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/24 – Seattle, WA @ Grand Illiusion Cinema 09/26 – Oakland, CA @ Oakland Int. Film Festival 09/26 – Seattle, WA @ Grand Illiusion Cinema 09/27 – Omaha, NE @ Alamo Drafthouse 09/28 – Window Rock, AZ @ Goen Cinemas 09/30 – Dallas, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse 12/13-14 – Santa Ana, CA @ Decibel Metal & Beer 12/16 – Athens, GR @ Gagarin 205 (Gimme Shelter Film Festival)

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With last year's release Devouring Radiant Light, Skeletonwitch abandoned their brand of scorched death-thrash metal, their bread and butter throughout five albums over a decade, in favor of ambitious black metal atmosphere. It was a risky move that was brought on by the musical growth of guitarist Scott Hedrick. In our interview with the guitarist, he explains, “In the last couple years I’ve really gotten into all kinds of crazy free jazz music, and lots of ambient, world music and stuff. It’s not like our record’s going to sound like any of those things directly, but there are elements creeping in from my love of Brian Eno, my love of Pharoah Sanders or Don Cherry where I come up with ideas that are pretty wacky when jamming.” The new direction alienated some longtime supporters, but also gained Skeletonwitch newfound respect from others. This did not only include a litany of metal music critics falling over themselves to praise the disc, but also René Aquarius, drummer for avant-garde "New Wave of Dutch Heavy Jazz" duo Dead Neanderthals. “I knew [Skeletonwitch] for some time, but never really got into them,” he admitted via email from his home in the Netherlands. “That definitely changed when I heard Devouring Radiant Light. It's an excellent record and really the band's best album in my opinion.” Hedrick had already been a fan of Dead Neanderthals for some time. “My brother recommended Dead Neanderthals to me about 4 years ago,” he said, also via email. “I loved them immediately! At that point I was listening to a lot of noisy/free jazz and krautrock, so the timing was perfect. I responded to it immediately.” The guitarist was surprised to find out that the feeling was mutual through social media. “Rene posted about Devouring Radiant Light from the Dead Neanderthals socials and I was shocked,” Hedrick gushed. The Twitter exchangewhen they first met is hilarious (the guitarist said he was a huge fan of their work to which Aquarius responded “YOU GOTTA BE SHITTING ME!”). “Fortuitously, Skeletonwitch had some European dates already on the books so I asked them if there was any way we could meet in person.” They met in person, but by then they had already discussed working together. This was not out of line for Dead Neanderthals who have been extremely prolific and always willing to experiment with other musicians, including some who are metal-adjacent. “We have been collaborating with people who operate within or adjacent to the metal scene such as Vincent Koreman (of Nihill), Sten Ove Toft (of Altaar) and Thomas Ekelund (otherwise known as Trepaneringsritualen), however the outcome was never very metal. Maybe because that wasn't the sound we were pursuing or maybe it was our bad influence, haha!” Saxophonist Otto Kokke elaborated that “[c]ollaborations are maybe a bit more natural in the improv scene, which is also more focused on individual musicians that operate in more fluid combinations. Whereas in metal it's more like ‘hey I like your band.’” “Admittedly I was a bit nervous,’ Hedrick said, “but I've been making a concerted effort to move outside of my comfort zone and challenge myself. Besides, I'm just a huge fan of these guys; it would be crazy not to work with them! Fortunately they made the first move and sent me tracks with a sax and drums and I reacted to the foundations they laid down.” “Otto and I recorded two ideas and sent rough mixes to Scott to work with,” recalled the drummer. “Scott worked on his ideas and sent rough mixes back to us. We sent kept on sending files back and forth until we all thought: This is it!” The result is Ghosts, nearly forty minutes of doomy drone that sees Kokke’s bleating sax commingle with Hedrick’s soaring, wailing guitar; all the while Aquarius ties the cacophonous clatter together with a monotonous, trance-like intensity. Utech Records previously previewed “Death Bell,” which is relatively delicate and nuanced, and Invisible Oranges is pleased to exclusively stream the second track from the album, “Bone Hill." The album’s first half is the more aggressive track of the two, with droning-and-distorting sax-and-strings that sound almost like electrified bagpipes, making for a powerfully hypnotic experience that is way more Sunn O))) than Sun Ra.

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“[I’m] not sure what this sounds like exactly but I don't think it sounds like jazz,” said Kokke, while Aquarius added “I think it sounds like Dead Neanderthals, which is something I'm pretty proud of to be honest!” “I agree with all of you,” replied Hedrick. “The presence of a saxophone does not make it jazz, just as the presence of a guitarist from a metal band does not make it metal.”

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Ghosts releases Friday, September 13th. It can be pre-ordered on limited vinyl or as a digital download through Utech Records. When asked if there would be live performances, the band said they were “working on something but can't get into specifics yet.” Keep Invisible Oranges bookmarked for details as they are made available.

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Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of September 1st to September 7th, 2019. Release reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays. 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.

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Upcoming Releases

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Cognizance -- Malignant Dominion | Prosthetic Records | Technical Death Metal | United Kingdom At long last, Leeds based tech-death outfit Cognizance present their debut full-length Malignant Dominion. Sharing some of the same DNA of iconic OSDM and 1990s tech-death alike, elements of technical virtuosity add an impressive flourish to their lean, progressive, European extreme metal sound. Embodying the archaic structures of old-school death metal, the record also explores the melodic and groovy sides of the style. Malignant Dominion features guest appearances from Job For a Cowboy’s Jonny Davy, Extol’s Ole Børud, and members/ex-members of Aborted and The Faceless, making for a well-rounded and delightfully stacked tour-de-force of beefy, razor-sharp complexity.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Kayo Dot -- Blasphemy | Prophecy Productions | Electronic + Experimental | United States (New York) From Jon Rosenthal's premiere of "Turbine, Hook, and Haul":

There is a weightlessness to the inimitable Kayo Dot‘s newest album Blasphemy. Yet another notch in the brilliant Toby Driver’s belt, Kayo Dot’s ninth album traverses the worlds of progressive rock in a sea of brilliant, brooding fog. This is grey music, the soundtrack for a grey, gloomy day or a walk through immeasurable stillness.

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Foscor -- Els Sepulcres Blancs | Season of Mist | Black Metal | Spain Otherworldly black/progressive metal outfit Foscor reemerges with their seventh studio album Els Sepulcres Blancs, the follow-up to 2018's Les Irreals Versions. Venturing deeper into the strain of dark, melodic prog sound the group have been exploring as of late, this new release sees the Catalan quintet temper that tragic darkness with a triumphant, uplifting sonic edge and heightened dramatic flair. Els Sepulcres Blancs is fantastic piece of aural passion from what has quietly become one of the most compelling progressive metal bands in the world today.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Mizmor -- Cairn | Gilead Media | Black Metal | United States (Oregon) The mighty Mizmor returns, now in a much more digestible format and style. If we look back to 2016's Yodh, we now realize that album's brilliance was slightly obscured by its indecipherability and, well, total claustrophobia. Even though that is the point of this music, digesting Yodh is a monumental task, one that nonetheless pays off in spades. But that doesn't mean more digestible music from Mizmor is bound to be worse. Oh hell no. Check out Cairn and see why. We'll have a full review coming later this week via Langdon Hickman.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Sleeping Ancient -- There Is No Truth But Death | Viridian Flame | Black Metal | United States (Texas) From Thomas HInds's premiere of "Akeru":

The humid mire of Texas’s Gulf Coast may not be a locale that immediately comes to mind at the mention of black metal’s frigid countenance, but the sweltering, furnace-like claustrophobia conjured by underground Houston outfit Sleeping Ancient amounts to an aural perspective on the genre that perfectly befits the suffocating heat of their hometown. Standing as sonic outliers in a scene more typically focused on earthy, groove-based styles such as death metal and stoner rock, this four-piece act was originally formed in 2010 as an instrumental post-rock collective paying homage to the cosmic, apocalyptic horrors of H.P. Lovecraft.

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Disillusion -- The Liberation | Prophecy Productions | Melodic Death Metal | Germany Well, here it is: Disillusion's first album in 13 years (though we had a taste with 2016's single "Alea"). This is long-form melodic death metal perhaps at its absolute finest and most expressive. The Liberation banks on its expansive choruses and ambitious songwriting, both of which keep the album piqued at all times. Oftentimes when bands "come back from the grave," they bring a bunch of dirt and worms with them. Not with Disillusion, though: The Liberation feels brand-spanking-new. Definitely not one to miss.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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Vitriol -- To Bathe From the Throat of Cowardice | Century Media | Technical Death Metal | United States (Oregon) From Jon Rosenthal's premiere of the guitar playthrough video for "Crowned in Retaliation":

Portland death metal trio (now apparently a four-piece, but that is more recent news) Vitriol make music which exudes emotion. Of course, that sentence is a bit of a false lead: this is not romantic music, nor is it sad or filled with longing. No, Vitriol is the music of hate. In a new playthrough video, guitarist Kyle Rasmussen and bassist Adam Roethlisberger put their own vitriol on display so that the world may ask their forgiveness.

https://youtu.be/hC_kr6BoAI4

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Pale Grey Lore -- Pale Grey Lore | Small Stone Recordings | Weed Smokin' Music | United States (Ohio) Blending elements of garage psych, space rock, post‐punk, and stoner doom, Columbus's Pale Grey Lore create focused, hook-driven material complete with melodic vocals and molten instrumental grooves bass, proving the time-tested formula of heavy rock-'n’-roll to be truly timeless. Beginning in 2014 as a collaboration between brothers Michael Miller (guitar, vocals) and Adam Miller (drums), the outfit have since shared the stage with Pelican, Monolord, Lo-Pan, and many others, finally completing their second studio album Eschatology. Taking a heavier, fuzzier, and trippier approach to the sound established on their self-titled debut, Eschatology is a deeply satisfying demonstration of the nostalgic old-school aesthetic Pale Grey Lore have so carefully cultivated.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Omophagia -- 646965 | Unique Leader | Technical Death Metal | Switzerland This album's eponymous first single begins with lyrics that go: "zero, one, zero, one, one, zero…" -- my immediate reaction to this is that Omophagia are poking at generic deathcore or djent, much of which involves two-note guitar playing. After that bit, Omophagia begin to rip space and time with their hyper-aggressive form of technical death metal. From diminished ascents to chugging rhythms to massive climaxes, 646965 is basically textbook material for fans of this genre. I'm not blown away, personally, but I won't hide the fact that this album made my knee bop over nearly its entire runtime.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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The Ember, The Ash -- Consciousness Torn from the Void | Avantgarde Music | Black Metal | Canada From Jenna DePasquale's interview with project mastermind 鬼:

Surely, there needs to be a place to store overwrought feelings in order to arrive at a place of hope, and that’s where The Ember, The Ash comes in. 鬼 has added the new band to his list of rock and metal ventures, and it is arguably the gloomiest yet. While his songwriting still very much mimics the building of a staircase, it is one that aims steadily downward to the pits instead of upwards to the heavens. Together, Unreqvited and The Ember, The Ash are two halves of the same heart.

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Pinewalker -- Migration | Weed Smokin' Music | United States (Utah) Erupting from the rocky mountain town of Salt Lake City with their debut album Migration, Pinewalker wields gargantuan post/doom metal riffs like mighty weapons to illustrate and subsequently destroy vast and picturesque sonic landscapes. Following a single narrative thread, this record details the exploits of a mythic beast undergoing change in its rawest form. Spiraling upwards into profoundly psychedelic territory, these seven tracks see Pinewalker issuing a powerfully eclectic first utterance with formidable compositions ranging from doom and sludge to soaring melodic prog, with some passages even digging into the occasional serving of grisly death metal. Fuck yeah.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Noekk -- Waltzing in Obscurity | Prophecy Productions | Progressive Rock | Germany Sink into the folky drama of this prog-rock side project of Empyrium -- Waltzing in Obscurity is dreamy and devastating with its raw beauty and gentle songwriting approach. This album doesn't "play" so much as it "runs" through your mind, digging deep beyond your consciousness to swoop you away to headier places. That said, this album is also grounded heavily in riffs, passages, and complex progressive arrangements. It's a lot for your mind to be fed, but Noekk does it with such a suave touch.

-- Andrew Rothmund

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RottenDawn -- Occult | Saturnal Records | Death Metal + Doom Metal | Finland Though the album's more extreme passages are still steeped in the existential headiness of funeral doom, one can easily distinguish the unique old-school death metal features that lie at the core of RottenDawn’s sound throughout the entirety of Occult. While they consistently incorporate an equal representation of both genres into their compositions, the band is also capable of emphasizing certain moods to instigate emotive shifts within individual tracks and across the album as a collective whole. By uniting traditional perspectives on these subgenres into a modern aesthetic amalgamation, RottenDawn have created a timeless, undeniable statement concerning the cryptic darkness hidden at the core of the human condition.

-- Thomas Hinds

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Trad-doom revivalists Crypt Sermon have made a big leap with their anticipated sophomore album The Ruins of Fading Light, which is now streaming in full two weeks ahead of its scheduled release date of September 13th (via Dark Descent). There's a lot to take in on this LP, and you can start doing that over at Decibel, where the whole album is streaming. Three tracks are also streaming below. Crypt Sermon are also playing release shows in Philly and NYC.

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Lönndom's corpse was laid to rest long ago, but its spirit lives on. Graavehlder, formerly known by his more familiar handle Graav, which he carried from the Volkermord (read as: Armagedda) days onward, continues his pagan tales with the newly birthed Ehlder. With a familiar, odd soul and near-rock sensibilities, the blackened folk metal found within Ehlder's debut Nordabetraktelse are as ancient as its storyteller's body of work is vast. There is a unique quality to this work which belies its lineage -- the jangling character and lilting, almost playful rhythms which emerge from the brackish maw tell a story older than Ehlder, but what fuels it is older still. Listen to an exclusive premiere of "Tagen" below.

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https://youtu.be/i0gKsbbEcMA

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Graavehlder's own magic is unmistakable. Taken from a page written in his own blood, "Tagen"'s momentum grew long before Ehlder was birthed. Still, this monastic, solemn music is set apart from its lineage. It carries its sinister, folkish nature with a comportment all its own -- Graavehlder setting his new pet project apart from what led up to it. "Tagen"'s own woodland fury is spirited, but also channels a much more ancient deity through its own interpretation of ancient folk songs and tales. Ehlder is a magnificent continuation of the spirit which once channeled Lönndom and Armagedda, but separates itself through its own pure essence.

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Nordabetraktelse releases October 4th via Nordvis.

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Something evil is stirring in the Pacific Northwest… an entity too wicked and vile to exist on this planet has begun to drag itself up from the darkest depths of hell’s abysmal void to take its rightful place as the ruling force of Oregon and Washington’s extreme metal scene. Acting as a second coming of one of music’s most beastly and primordial movements, so-called OSDM revival has emerged as a re-imagining of grimy, gore-soaked old-school death tunes endowed with enough modern twists to cast new light into the genre's ancestral origins. At the forefront of this movement are the folks at 20 Buck Spin, a label which is pushing the limits of this revival toward but delivering in spades along the way. Witch Vomit is the latest uncovered gem of the PNW, incorporating the jagged violence and sheer terror of Stockholm-style Swedish 1990s death metal into a classic American death metal sound. The Portland-based quartet serves up raw yet atmospheric soundscapes of horror. Witch Vomit first formed in 2012, long before the aforementioned genre revival rose to prominence in the region. First established as a two-piece outfit with founding members T.T. and V.V., the group now rests comfortably on several releases under their belts. Representing a highly nuanced uptick in their sound, their latest release (and second full-length) Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave stands as the culmination of seven years of hard work and persistence in a scene that once held little to no consideration for death metal of their ilk. Given Witch Vomit’s role as an internal originator of the now-prolific PNW death metal movement, I wanted to get in touch with founding guitarist/vocalist T.T. to inquire about his own experiences from 2012 up through the present day. I began our discussion by asking him to elucidate his personal journey within that burgeoning group of artists, and how his own musical perspective had changed along with that shifting landscape. While you dig in, check out an exclusive full stream of Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave below.

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When you started Witch Vomit, you first performed as a two-piece act with you and V.V. As a founding member of the band, how do you believe your sound and identity have evolved and progressed since your formation in 2012? When we first started out, we had a pretty basic idea of what we wanted the band to be, kind of just playing pretty simple, evil death/doom. At the time, I feel like we didn’t need a full band to get what we wanted to do across, but as we started writing newer songs, we evolved a little bit and had a lot more ideas, and it turned into something that made more sense to have a full band to get them across. As you evolved into a full band, the death metal scene in Portland and the PNW has changed a lot in the past few years, at least to an external audience. Last decade, it feels like the region was more focused on Cascadian black metal and folk metal, whereas nowadays this disgusting, grimy OSDM has really be popping up with a lot of prolific new bands, including Witch Vomit. How have you seen death metal’s rise to prominence unfold from an internal perspective? It’s certainly changed a lot. When we first started we didn’t really even play death metal shows because there weren’t that many bands doing it. There was Ritual Necromancy, or Witchgoat, Cemetery Lust; a couple other bands were around, but it was definitely more spread out when people were still into that Cascadian sort of deal, so there weren’t that many shows for death metal bands. But probably around 2013 or so, I feel like more death metal bands started coming through Portland, and I think the crowds grew a lot more and that probably inspired more bands to start up.

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As a long-standing entity with a steady evolution toward the now-consolidated new/old-school sound, it comes as no surprise that Witch Vomit were one of the first to step beyond the simple emulation of early 1990s Tampa death metal and into a totally new fusion. Incorporating the classic buzzsaw guitar tone and jagged, diminished compositional structures, Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave represents an even mixture of the pummeling and guttural American-style assault and the Scandinavian variant of OSDM that followed soon after. Across its seven tracks, Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave maintains its remarkably focused sound with a breathless pace, wasting no time with transitions of ambient or melodic restraint. The first ten seconds of the record’s first track “From Rotten Guts” is perhaps the longest moment of respite offered to the listener, as a deep and sizzling guitar tone slowly swells into the hellish and violent aesthetic that continually grows in intensity across the following 27 minutes. Defined by sweltering uptempo tremolo riffs and double-bass percussion, along with a distinctly Swedish brand of sinister guitar harmonization, Witch Vomit’s compositions slither and writhe through densely performed passageways of pummeling full-bodied brutality and groove-laden breakdowns punctuated by squealing pinch harmonics and T.T.’s satanically inhuman vocal barrage. Though these tracks are contained within a relatively narrow aesthetic spectrum, Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave never becomes boring or tiresome thanks to its electrically charged pace and attention-grabbing ornaments such as the harrowing atonal solos that maneuver frantically over the aural fray in tracks such as “Despoilment” and “Squirming in Misery.” Despite their archaic and primeval nature, the band never abandons their distinct sense of technicality, performing masterfully complex death metal compositions with ease and precision. Furthermore, the auditory timbres are surprisingly fresh and musically relevant; the record as a whole is endowed with a sense of clarity rarely achieved in 1990s death metal (Scandinavian or American) with each sonic element emerging from the chaos as a distinct constituent of the hideous atmosphere the group seeks to create. Fusing complexity with raw savagery and modernity with nostalgia, Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave satisfies as a death metal record beyond its temporal and geographic context. Seeking to understand how Witch Vomit had blended these styles with an artistic touch, I asked T.T. to detail the steps he and the rest of the band had taken to further refine the cohesive timbre of their sound.

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Witch Vomit’s mission statement is to create a fusion between American, Tampa-style OSDM and the horrifying violence of Scandinavian 1990s death metal. How do you go about fusing those two styles, and what techniques and inspirations do you utilize to achieve that synthesis? I think it’s just the two styles we like the most, and they each have their own important elements. The American stuff, obviously Autopsy, is a big influence. I mainly gravitate towards bands that have an atmosphere with their sound, which I think has always been a thing with the Scandinavian bands. You definitely get a specific feeling when you put on an album like Left Hand Path, it kind of gives you the feeling of putting on a mental funeral. There are similarities musically, but they all have big atmosphere, which is what I like to incorporate into our music. The production on Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave is fantastic; you’re at your most crisp and present with hyper-precise performances despite how grimy and visceral the material is. The record has that old-school vibe with a modern edge that makes not necessarily accessible, but listenable to the point where it feels very high-tech despite the older perspective. What was your recording process like this time around, and how did you add to that process to perfect your sound? Since our first EP, we’ve recorded all our material at Red Lantern studios with Evan Mersky. When we went in for our first demo we had a super-specific idea of getting a Sunlight Studios sort of sound, and that’s kind of what we did with our first album too. He’s really good at picking up on how to make it sound a certain way. For the last EP, I wanted it to be a little more chaotic and noisy -- not necessarily noisy, but big and crazy, with delay on everything. And for [the new album], I wanted to keep an element of that with certain things, but overall kinda give it the classic sound of the bigger albums of the classic death metal scene where it’s more full and in-your-face rather than all over the place and chaotic.

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Though Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave is Witch Vomit’s first full-length release with 20 Buck Spin (who also distribute material by PNW natives Fetid and Cerebral Rot), their relationship first began last year with the release of their Poisoned Blood EP. Originally headquartered in Olympia, 20 Buck Spin has a deeply storied relationship with the Northwest’s extreme metal scene, and it thus comes as no surprise that they have recently become an active hub for gloriously vile old-school death metal. Regarding Witch Vomit’s involvement with 20 Buck Spin, I asked T.T. to explain the band’s mutual history with the label, and how he originally got in contact with that musical family. I then eagerly inquired about Witch Vomit’s plans for their upcoming album cycle, specifically if they planned to embark on a more extensive tour of the US to support the new songs.

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How did you guys get involved with 20 Buck Spin and the OSDM revival lineup they’ve been recruiting lately? How long have you guys been working with them? I’ve been a fan of that label for a while now, like Coffins and Vastum and Bone Sickness were on there. I figured that they were pretty close, Olympia is close to Portland, and I kinda like to keep things local. We met before when Torture Rack played up there, so I figured it was worth a shot to try to get on the label since I was already a fan of it. Last year’s EP was the first thing we did with them, but this is our first full-length with 20 Buck Spin. They put out a ton of awesome shit, especially from the PNW scene; Fetid, Cerebral Rot, we’re all on the same label and we all play together here. With your involvement in that scene, you guys only seem to have a couple live dates lined for late September in Seattle. Do you plan on touring more extensively on this album cycle? How are your plans shaping up? We’ve never done a tour proper… I wanna try to line something up for early next year to support the new album, probably won’t be anything too big but I like to just play shows here and there. I’m sure we’ll end up playing more in the next few years than we ever have in the past. Looking ahead to the full album cycle, what are you looking forward to in the months to come? What do you most hope to achieve going forward? For us, the most exciting thing is just to put our music down on tape and hear it back fully on record. I love playing live too, but extensive touring isn’t something I’m too interested in. The songwriting process and having everything come together is what we do it for, and hearing it back on LP and actually being able to hold it is the achievement at the end.

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Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave releases tomorrow via 20 Buck Spin.

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