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Lamp of Murmuur Release Second Full-Length Album “Submission and Slavery”

Ted Nubel — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 22:27:17 +0000

Lamp of Murmuur, a one-man black metal project that prefers to be shrouded in as much mystery as possible (and seems to unintentionally generate all the more hype for it), released their sophomore album Submission and Slavery today with little advance warning. There’s no physical media listed yet for the album, but if you want one, I suggest paying very close attention.

Raw in spirit and sound, Submission and Slavery packs the expected creative, melodically-infused riffing and out-of-genre nods that distinguish Lamp of Murmuur against so many similar acts—note the absolutely amazing, not metal at all, solos on “Deformed Erotic Visage,” and the Christian Death cover that closes it out. The record also includes some dungeon synth-esque interludes to break up the pacing. Having only three original ‘metal’ songs on the record might seem slim, but I’d note that those three songs still account for 25 minutes—and I’m comfortable with a focus on quality over quantity.

The album is out now on Bandcamp, with more details to come on further formats.

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Submission And Slavery by Lamp Of Murmuur

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Update (9/17/2021): Doubling down on the surprise release approach, Lamp of Murmuur has also released a new Punishment and Devotion EP featuring two tracks “received and interpreted during the same sessions as Submission And Slavery, but due to conceptual reasons were left out of the record.”

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Punishment And Devotion by Lamp Of Murmuur

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Primal Fear – “In Metal We Trust” (Premiere)

Invisible Oranges — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 22:00:22 +0000

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I never know what to do with power metal on the site. Powerful clean singing and titanic melodic riffs still move units and put asses in seats, particularly in Europe, but I’m still less-than literate in the titans of the style.

That’s why when I asked IO staffers Dan Lawrence and Richard Street Jammer if i should check out Rulebreaker the newest album by Germany’s Primal Fear, their response was a flabberghasted “what are you waiting for?”

I was right to listen to their advice. Nearly 19 years of existence has honed Primal Fear into a fine-tuned metal delivery machine. Their approach is unequivocal and straight ahead. “In Metal We Trust” isn’t just the title of their new single, it’s the lead line in the chorus, and the melody of that chorus is also the lead guitar line.

Subtle? No. but that would be besides the point. Subtlety is the sound of peace, and Primal Fear is music to make war to.

From bassist/vocalist Mat Sinner:

“‘In “Metal We Trust’ combines the early vibe of Primal Fear songwriting with all we’ve learned over the past years and our current production status & skills. Enough space for all the guitarists to deliver some great shredding and Ralf’s vocal trademarks, German traditional metal speed with a pounding production & sound – enjoy!”

Pounding, indeed. Those drums are as loud as a cannonade. Primal Fear make music by dyed in the wool metalheads for dyed in the wool metalheads. Who needs crossover appeal when you have riffs? not I.

—Joseph Schafer

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Rulebreaker drops on January 29 via Frontiers Music SRL. Pre-order it here for physical and here for digital. Follow Primal Fear on Facebook and Twitter.

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Furze – Baphomet Wade (Premiere)

Invisible Oranges — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 00:00:33 +0000

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What does it mean to make weird metal? The easy argument to make is that metal doesn’t really get weird until the orthodoxy of a specific subgenre has been codified sufficiently to allow the would-be oddballs to understand exactly what conventions can or should be subverted. If you believe that, then you don’t get weird death metal until you know what regular death metal is, you don’t get weird doom until you know what regular doom is, and so forth.

Even a cursory survey of weird metal’s scattershot history, however, contradicts that simplistic narrative. In fact, it’s much more plausible to argue that the most authentic weirdness in metal is the weirdness that sprang up with and through the development of orthodoxy. Hell, you don’t even need to get out of one of heavy metal’s foundational runs – Black Sabbath’s first six albums – before you realize that, man, Sabotage is a weird album. And that doesn’t even take into account Technical Ecstasy or Born Again, for crying out loud. Cirith Ungol’s King of the Dead, Celtic Frost’s To Mega Therion, Demilich’s Nespithe, Voivod’s Killing Technology, Coroner’s No More Color, etc.: all albums that are deeply weird in one way or another, but which did not depend for their genesis on the genre from which they sprang having entered a period of creative stagnation.

Weirdness in black metal is a little more complicated, in part because the aesthetics of black metal’s second wave coalesced so quickly that much of the generative tissue of eventual weirdness seemed to become static much faster than in the development of other genres. It’s also complicated because, far more than in other subgenres, the weirdness in black metal has so often been an intentionally outre, performative weirdness. One need only look at the likes of Sigh, Arcturus, Fleurety, Dodheimsgard, Solefald and so on to see bands reveling in their strangeness. Although the Ur-weirdness of Ved Buens Ende seemed more naturally come by, that is much more the exception than the rule in weird black metal.

Which brings us, finally, to Furze. Two things are incontrovertible: Furze is weird, and Furze (usually) plays black metal. Unlike the majority of black metal’s tinkerers and ruiners, however, Furze doesn’t exactly feel like sole weirdo Woe J Reaper is trying to be weird. As truly, uniquely, disconcertingly weird as his music is, it feels instead like the product of a fundamentally strange musical personality trying to make, well, regular-ass black metal. This means that even as Baphomet Wade, his most “traditionally” black album since 2007’s UTD, tramples its stupidly graceful way through surf rock, post-punk, fake endings, witchy punk-rap, psych-doom, and Darkthrone-baiting atavism, it sounds like nothing so much as one guy trying to make black metal the way he hears it in his head.

But to focus solely on the curiosity of Furze’s music does a disservice to its animating conservatism: as it was and shall be, Baphomet Wade is a showcase for riffs. Mr. Reaper’s fingers are so fleet and smooth throughout the album that we may as well crown him Sideways Black Metal’s Mark Knopfler and be done with it.

I’ll be honest: I don’t know why you listen to music. But if enlarging one’s stock of life experience by temporarily sharing the headspace of an artist rings true for you, then Baphomet Wade is a gift. This is how the world sounds to someone else whom you will never meet. Living in these songs for their brief lief is like having someone drive you home while you’re half-drunk in the passenger seat. The streets and stars outside are yours, but they’re moving, on someone else’s volition, through an unfamiliar geometry.

Let Furze show you a new way to remember old truths.

—Dan Lawrence

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Baphomet Wade is out this Friday, 11/27, via Freshtea. Follow Furze on Facebook.

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Triumvir Foul – “Labyrinthine – The Blood Serpent Unwinds” (Premiere)

Invisible Oranges — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 00:00:05 +0000

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A horrific rumble emanates from deep within the ossuary. A short year and a half ago, Oregonian duo Triumvir Foul exploded into the death metal scene with their well-received and fast-to-sell-out demo, An Oath of Blood and Fire. True to the “old school” style, the “rabid” death metal sound of Triumvir Foul’s debut was putrid, sharp in execution, and absolutely relentless (and they had the gall to close out the cassette with an Autopsy cover – a brave move). Now a trio, Triumvir Foul have re-emerged from the depths depraved and foaming at the mouth.

“Labyrinthine – The Blood Serpent Unwinds,” the opening track from their approaching full-length, is a powerful opening statement and assertion of nightmarish power. Pulling the listener in with a wide-eyed, snarling oration, Triumvir Foul spews forth a slow-flowing river of doomed, noisy sewage. The tension carried in this unwinding is palpable – the trio slithering and winding – but able to explode at any moment…which they do. In its fruition, the unveiling of Trumvir Foul’s true, final form is awe inspiring and terrifying – the sound of teeth ripping flesh and clattering of bones translated into its pure, musical essence. Old school death metal has never sounded so fresh.

From the artist:

The corruption of flesh and spirit
Decorate my mind with depravity
Leave me squirming for all to see
Within the tomb of God’s placenta
And walls drenched in my foul emanations
Emanations of lust and decay
Hail Vrasubatlat!

—Triumvir Foul/Vrasubtlat

Triumvir Foul’s self-titled debut will be available on CD via Blood Harvest Records on December 11 (with vinyl to follow in February of 2016), as well as cassette via Triumvir Foul’s own imprint, Vrasubatlat, which should coincide with the CD release date.CD preorders are slated to go live today – ensure your own nightmares of plumbing the depths of insanity become a distinct reality. Listen to an exclusive stream of “Labyrinthine – The Blood Serpent Unwinds” below.

—Jon Rosenthal

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Yidhra – Cult of Bathory (Premiere)

Avinash Mittur — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 00:00:41 +0000

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It’s a given that Los Angeles produces a myriad of sounds and styles, even within heavy metal. It’s impossible to associate subgenres with the city when quality grind, sludge, crust and death metal can rage in full force on any given night. Yidhra is a rather oddball act among the bunch. The band takes the stoner doom sound that has been overdone all across the West Coast, and brainfucks it.

Ted Venemann’s gruff shouts and his “mad professor” appearance mask his punk roots. Live, he attacks the stage with the same vigor and motion that he gave in his hardcore days—when was the last time you saw a doom metal singer hang from the ceiling rails? But then the theremin appears, and so does the mad professor. Between-song breaks are replaced by spaceoid oscillations conducted by Venemann, allowing just enough of a respite from Dave Krocker’s swinging power chords.

Check out an exclusive stream of the title track to Cult of Bathory below. Krocker’s riffs aren’t immediately catchy; they’re endlessly unnerving, always keeping you on your toes without allowing your heels to ever touch the ground. That’s Yidhra’s strength: convention and resolution are thrown out the door in favor of trapping you in their sonic discomfort; it makes for addictive listening, like stoner doom Stockholm syndrome.

—Avinash Mittur

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Cult of Bathory will be available on vinyl on December 11th via Black Voodoo Records and on December 4, the band will play a record-release show at the Complex in Glendale, California. Follow them on Facebook and pick up merch on Bandcamp.

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Darkest Era – Gods and Origins (Premiere)

Invisible Oranges — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 00:00:06 +0000

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Well, this year in metal is wrapping up, in fact we’re already composing our year-end lists, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few stellar releases left coming down the pipe. For instance, Gods and Origins, a 7-inch by Northern Ireland’s Darkest Era. The band’s last album, Severance was one of my favorite records of last year, and while Gods and Origins is slight in comparison—only two songs, and one of them a re-recording—it’s still an absolutely essential listen.

The band’s mix of twin guitar harmonies, Celtic melodies, gothic atmosphere and upbeat doom is essentially unchanged a year later and that’s a good thing. This sound is potent. Krum, the band’s vocalist, deserves special mention. His performance here is as strong as anything you might have heard on the Crypt Sermon or Magister Templii albums that came out this year. The new song, “Elohim,” sounds like it could have fit in easily on Severance as does their re-recording of “An Dagda (formerly “An Dagda Awakens”).

—Joseph Schafer

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Gods and Origins is out this Friday, 11/20, via Cruz Del Sur. Follow Darkest Era on Facebook.

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Mercy Ties – Proper Corruption (Premiere)

Invisible Oranges — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:00:24 +0000

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I’ve got a love-hate relationship with local openers. On the one hand, they tend to be my friends, or at least acquaintances, and watching their sets is good form. On the other hand, they tend to be not-very-good (few bands stick together long enough to gel into something truly worthwhile), and sitting through the same lukewarm set every other week gets to be a chore.

Exception to the rule: Mercy Ties, a five-piece metallic hardcore band that’s been opening for too many great bands in Seattle recently, including Kowloon Walled City and Fight Amp. I say too many because I go out of my way to see Mercy Ties whenever I can, but usually at the end of their set I’m too exhausted to see the headliner (this is why you put the local band last on a three band bill, club owners).

So Proper Corruption is good. I could tell you that it’s about the aftermath of the Mount St. Helens eruption, but that’s secondary to that it is good. Like, book studio time with Kurt Ballou good. Stream all 20 minutes of it’s teeth-gnashing fury below and let me know how you like it in the comments.

Go see local openers. One of them will be as good as Mercy Ties if you’re lucky.

—Joseph Schafer

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Proper Corruption is out on the 20th via Glory Kid. Follow Mercy Ties on Facebook.

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Diavolos – “You Lived Now Die” (Premiere)

Invisible Oranges — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 00:23:53 +0000

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Diavolos make their home at Hell’s Headbangers Records (Midnight, Shitfucker, etc), in case you couldn’t tell by the bullet-belted goat boy on the cover of their debut LP, You Lived, Now Die making graffiti on a Marshall stack with a bloody crucifix. It almost bends over backwards to telegraph exactly what you’re about to hear, and does a pretty good job. What you’re about to hear is a snappy bit of grimy death, hence why we’re streaming the title track below.

What can you say? It’s good branding, and Diavolos is a band that toe’s that label’s party line. In this case it’s an old-school death metal drinking party—like their labelmates, the band plays early-’80s fun-style death metal. If the production were a little cleaner, some people might call it death and roll.

The band has an impressive pedigree as well, featuring Taneli Jarva, formerly of Impaled Nazerene, as well as Tas Danazoglou of Satan’s Wrath, two musicians who specialize in this kind of bouncing, dirty ultra-simplified slaughter soundtrack music.

—Joseph Schafer

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You Lived Now Die by DIAVOLOS

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You Lived, Now Die is out on December 11 via Hells Headbangers.

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Spectral Lore – “A God Made Of Flesh And Consciousness” (Excerpt, Premiere)

Invisible Oranges — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 00:00:27 +0000

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There has always been a great depth to traditional Greek music. Even the most joyous bouzouki-led dance carries a vast sadness and introspection not quite grasped by modern Western music, and therein lies what makes Balkan music just so . . . “exotic” sounding to us. Such duality (among many other characteristics, of course) defines the music of the Balkan peninsula, and it is duality still which drives its most ambitious new son: Spectral Lore’s sole musician Ayloss. In an hommage to the music of his home country, Gnosis, the latest in a series of adventurous, lengthy EPs meant to expand Spectral Lore’s sound between full-lengths, Ayloss offers a metallic translation of traditional Greek music, both in spirituality and in execution.

“A God Made Of Flesh And Consciousness,” the “central” and longest composition found on the Gnosis EP, is an engrossing listen. Bursting immediately out the gate with a polyrhythmic Mediterranean dance rhythm (you recognize it from most Melechesh songs, actually), Ayloss bombards the listener with dense layers of exotic guitar meandering and distant, but still ever-present keyboards. The spidery, oft-foreign sounding fountain of melodic ideas bring forth images of Cretan shorelines and endless olive groves, but without taking on any of the “musical stereotypes” associated with the popular notion of Greek music. No, there is a genuinity to Spectral Lore’s adventures in Eastern-sounding music, a testament to Ayloss’s true musicianship. Over the track’s 14 minutes (of which you’ll get to hear a little over 10 [below]), Spectral Lore imbues its now trademark sense of raw power with a distinct, deep sadness, hidden between its many layers and cultural affects. As it is with any tribute, there is a nostalgia associated, and it just oozes from the depths of Ayloss’s compositional and technical prowess. Like a tragic hero. How Greek.

From the artist:

This song is basically the apex of the album musically and lyrically – it describes the potential evolution of matter to soul to spirit.

—Ayloss/Spectral Lore

Gnosis is available to pre-order on CD and is slated for a December 7th release via I, Voidhanger Records. Listen to an exclusive premiere of a 10 minute excerpt of “A God Made Of Flesh And Consciousness” below.

—Jon Rosenthal

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