NEW BANDCAMP DEBUTS: THE FLIGHT OF SLEIPNIR, SCORDATURA, FOUL BODY AUTOPSY, AND TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION

Work and work-related travel cut short my blog time the last couple of days, but I’m now back in the land of the grey and soggy, also known as home. So, last night and this morning I plunged through the sphincter of the interhole in search of metal things I missed, and here’s some of what I found. These are all new albums or songs that have appeared on Bandcamp over the last day or two — and they all fuckin’ blew me away.

THE FLIGHT OF SLEIPNIR

Our blog brother MaxR (Metal Bandcamp) contributed a line-up of doom favorites in our 2011 Listmania series, and it included a song from an album (“Essence of Nine”) by a Colorado band named The Flight of Sleipnir. I’m pretty sure that was the first time I’d heard of them, and I’m also pretty sure I failed to check out their music even after Max praised them in these words: “Perfectly executed black metal rasps, beautiful clean singing, folk harmonies and a doomy groove. So atmospheric and, yes, mellow.”

Fast forward to last night when NCS supporter Utmu sent me a message about a new album by this band — Saga — that’s due for release on February 15. The album art (above) is awful damned cool, and so is the song from Saga that began streaming on Bandcamp yesterday.

The song is “Hour of Cessation”. Scarring shrieks mix with monstrous roars and melancholy clean vocals, and ringing distorted guitar melodies unfold over jagged and pounding rhythms. The song also includes two contrasting guitar solos that are both very cool. Both jarring and beautiful, this is a fine song and a hot teaser for the album as a whole.

http://theflightofsleipnir.bandcamp.com/album/saga

SCORDATURA

In early January we were pleased to premiere a video for a song from the then-forthcoming album by Glasgow’s Scordatura. Yesterday, the entire album (Torment of the Weak) was released on Bandcamp. Let me repeat what I said about the song we premiered, because it will give you an idea of what to expect from the album:

“[L]et your mind turn to the idea of a blender filled with scoops of Hate Eternal, Suffocation, Dying Fetus, and Origin, set to puree . . . [t]hough it may be your brain that gets pureed. Scordatura twist and turn and slice and dice in a whipping fury of technically oriented brutality. And by ‘technically oriented’, I don’t mean a flurry of prog-minded note-wanking. I mean the whirring teeth of a meat grinder turning slabs of beef into finely carved tartar. It’s raw, red, and delicious.”

Give the album a spin below.

http://scordatura.bandcamp.com/

FOUL BODY AUTOPSY

I first wrote about this one-man band in a MISCELLANY post last December, and that has a lot more detail about Foul Body Autopsy and the music. Yesterday, the man behind Foul Body Autopsy, Tom Reynolds, released a new EP — The Epidemic Sickening the World.

The 6-track EP is now streaming on Bandcamp, though it’s not available for digital download. Instead, it can be ordered from a small label named UKEM Records via this link.

Since I just discovered this release, I’ve only listened to it once. But based on that one listen, I’m sold. After the introductory track (which is a sample-filled soundtrack of something very bad unfolding), the songs deliver a brutal blend of swarming guitar leads, ragged vocal viciousness that ranges from gutturals to shrieks, and pulverizing rhythms. The tracks include grisly-but-catchy melodies and a full load of headbang triggers. Convulsive, cannibalistic, high-energy music that stays with you.

If you want to just get a taste, “The Last Days of Humanity” was my favorite track based on that one play-through, but all the songs kill.

http://foulbodyautopsyofficial.bandcamp.com/album/foul-body-autopsy-vol-4

TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION

If you don’t already know, Total Fucking Destruction is a side project of Brutal Truth’s maniac drummer Richard Hoak. Yesterday, TFD premiered a new 2-track EP named Monsters for free download at the Grindcore Karaoke Bandcamp site. The title song includes guest vocals by Rodney Anonymous of punk band Dead Milkmen.

The songs really caught me off-guard — but in a very good way. They’ve got a grind backbone (and a completely obliterating drum track), but there’s a big array of styles crammed into a very short space of time (the bombastic mix of keyboards and howling clean vocals in “Monsters” particularly floored me). It’s like a gene splicing of Anaal Nathrakh, Devin Townsend, and a high-caliber machine gun. These are two densely layered songs that demand repeat listening.

http://grindcorekaraoke.com/album/monsters-ep