I’m headed for the airport again this morning, and then winging my way back to sunny Southern California for my day job, returning to sodden Seattle on Sunday. This will again restrict my blog time. Before leaving, I wanted to share a few recent discoveries.
THANTIFAXATH
This Toronto band, whose three members prefer to remain anonymous, released a self-titled EP in 2011, and now they have a debut full-length on the way. Entitled Sacred White Noise, it’s coming out on April 15th via Dark Descent. Not long ago the band premiered an advance track named “The Bright White Nothing At the End of the Tunnel”. I’ve been meaning to check it out, and finally did so last night — and I’m in love.
There’s a writhing, dissonant guitar lead that begins almost immediately and then intermittently continues to whip and squirm its way throughout the rest of the song, and once heard it’s hard to forget. But that’s only part of the music’s attraction. The song also includes hammering percussion, scalding riffs, bestial black metal vocals, and a load of other strange but magnetic repeating motifs.
With lots of thunder in the low end and lots of lightning in the clouds. it’s both brooding and ecstatic — superbly dynamic music, both weird and wonderful, straight through to the alien ending. I’m really anxious to hear more from this album.
Listen to the new song below.
AMPUTATION SPREE
Amputation Spree is a one-man project, the man in question being Spencer Van Dyk, who dwells in Raleigh, North Carolina. I first came across Amputation Spree in November 2011, after the release of an EP on Bandcamp entitled Three/Inferno that I subsequently reviewed here. Somehow I missed the November 2012 release of an EP named Koyaanisqatsi, which appears to consist of one 20-minute long track.
Yesterday Amputation Spree released a new single named “Celestial Visitation”. This one is an instrumental track, and I’m really digging it. The music includes jabbing, stomping, distorted riffs, warping guitar leads that alternately sound like bells chiming (with a Doppler effect) and alien signals from the mother ship to the strike fighters about to assault our world. It’s driven by pneumatic rhythms that change on a dime, and the whole thing is just electrifying. You can get it for a buck on Bandcamp, and you can stream it below.
https://amputationspree.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/AmputationSpree
SARGEIST
A couple days ago I reported that Finland’s long-running black metal heathens Sargeist have a new album coming from the World Terror Committee. The name is Feeding the Crawling Shadows. I just learned that Stereogum has now premiered a song from the new album named “The Shunned Angel”. I haven’t even heard it yet, because I’m on the way to the fucking airport and the net connection I have at the moment isn’t good enough for streaming. So please listen to it and let me know what you think.
It’s one of those exclusive stream things, so I can’t embed it. Go HERE to listen.
MECHINA
Last August DGR reviewed a new song from Chicago’s Mechina named “Cepheus”, and I’ll quote part of that here:
“‘Cepheus’ is one of the heaviest songs the band have done by far, complete with whole new experiments of lush orchestration weaving their way through everything. Even the electronic voice at the opening works like an instrument, on top of the chanting in the background. It’s a percussive, hammering, militaristic song, and if it’s any hint of what the band will be up to on their next release, we are in for a dark, heavy-as-hell experience and it’s going to be a rush of a ride.”
Today, DGR alerted me to the fact that Mechina are making “Cepheus” available for free download on Bandcamp for the next four days — until March 9. He figured it might be worth a quick share to get the word out — and so now you know. A stream of the song is available below, along with the relevant links.
https://mechinamusic.bandcamp.com/track/cepheus
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mechina/114376106370
11 Responses to “SEEN AND HEARD: THANTIFAXATH, AMPUTATION SPREE, SARGEIST, MECHINA”
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My cat perked up and freaked out when I played THANTIFAXATH 🙂 Awesome song!
Passed the cat test. Always a good sign.
Yeah he rose up from a slumber and looked very scared! Definitely passed the cat test hahah
FWIW, the label’s name is Dark Descent, not Decent. Good label, too.
Thanks for the catch. Half-assed editor. I’ll kick his (my) ass for this.
Hi Islander, the song from “Sargeist” begins with a violent and constant blast beating accompanied with a grimy guitar work sustained in its entirety by a sad,the dark melody and there is a bridge in the half of the tune that peaks hard which gives more intensity and the voice is an agonizing howling from start to end. The song, in his whole structure is a dramatic composition united with a fierce “traditionalist” black metal tremolo picking. I think this song is able to dig into the head leaving an emotive imprint. Masterpiece!
by a sad, dark melody…my mistake!
Thanks for the vivid description! Very anxious to hear it for myself…
hope you have a safe trip! 🙂
Dat Sargeist.
Thantifaxath continues to maintain their shadowy persona by not only deleting their Bandcamp presence but also now the Soundcloud link is gone.