Once again I find myself awash in new music discovered over the last 24 hours that I want to share with you. I’ve picked three new songs to feature in this collection, and you know I must really like them since I have to send you to other sites to hear two of them.
HATE ETERNAL
Every death metal fan worth his or her salt has to be salivating over the prospect of a new Hate Eternal album — and that’s what we’re about to get. The new record is named Infernus and it’s set for North American release by Season of Mist on August 21. In addition to the fact that it will contain Hate Eternal music, it’s also adorned with painted cover art by the masterful Eliran Kantor. And now we also have a new song to hear.
The track premiered at DECIBEL today, and its name is “Pathogenic Apathy”. It’s as brutal and voracious, and as technically head-twisting, as we’ve come to expect from Hate Eternal over their long career, and Erik Rutan also sounds as scary as usual. The song is also loaded with some deliciously head-bangable grooves, so limber up your neck muscles.
Go here to listen:
http://decibelmagazine.com/blog/2015/6/2/streaming-hate-eternal-pathogenic-apathy
As you may know, Hate Eternal are also participating in the Metal Alliance Tour along with Deicide, Entombed A.D., Black Crown Initiate, Lorna Shore, and Svart Crown. I’m fucking sick to my stomach that I will have to be away from Seattle when this thing rolls through my fair city. Here are the dates:
HATE ETERNAL TOUR DATES:
*** Hate Eternal headlining show
### No Entombed A.D, Svart Crown
June 3 Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
June 5 Spokane, WA @ The Pinnacle Northwest
June 6 Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven Seattle
June 7 Portland, OR @ Tonic Lounge Portland
June 8 Oakland, CA @ Oakland Metro Opera house
June 9 Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent
June 11 Las Vegas, NV @ LVCS
June 12 Mesa, AZ @ Club Red Theaters
June 13 El Paso, TX @ Mesa Music Hall
June 14 Lubbock, TX Depot “O” Bar###
June 15 Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room
June 16 Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Live
June 18 New York, NY @ The Gramercy Theater
June 19 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
June 20 Charlotte, NC @ Tremont Music Hall
June 21 Sanford, FL @ West End Trading Co.***
MYRKUR
I guess there are still people out there who don’t think Myrkur or the Danish woman behind the band are kvlt enough. I guess they probably still won’t be converted even after learning that Myrkur’s new album includes session work by members of Mayhem, Dodheimsgard, and Nidingr, plus a guest appearance from Christopher Amott of Arch Enemy. I don’t worry very much about such things — I really liked Myrkur’s debut EP, and I’m excited to hear the debut album as well.
The new album is named M, and it’s due for release by Relapse on August 21. The woman behind Myrkur wrote the music and the lyrics and performs piano, guitars, and vocals on the new album, but yes, there are some notable other appearances on the record:
Teloch (Mayhem): Additional guitars & Bass
Øyvind Myrvoll (Nidingr): Drums
Ole-Henrik Moe: Íslensk fiðla, hardingfele & violin
Håvard Jørgensen: Acoustic guitar
Tone Reichelt: Horn
Martin Taxt: Tuba
Chris Amott (Arch Enemy): Additional guitars on “Mordet”
Also, the album was co-produced by Garm of Ulver.
And you can now listen to a new song from the album named “Hævnen“. I’m including it in two player types below. The song is a study in contrasts. It’s both slow and melodic (in a very grim, sombre way) and it’s hell-ripping; and Myrkur shrieks like a banshee and sings in an ethereal voice, like a ghostly spirit.
http://myrkur.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/myrkurmyrkur
KHEMMIS
I discovered Colorado’s Khemmis for the first time when I caught their set at the Denver Black Sky festival last summer, and they made a really big favorable impression on me (see musings about their show here). Recently it has been officially announced that the band have signed with 20 Buck Spin for the release of their debut album Absolution, which was produced by Dave Otero (Cobalt, Nightbringer). That was a very exciting development, and now you have the chance to hear one of the album’s six new songs — “Torn Asunder”.
The band were nice enough to give me an advance listen to the track before it became public, and I’ve been a big fan of it since the very first listen. It’s a deft combination of huge, vibrating doom riffs and flickering/serpentine melodic lead guitar, massive stomps and swaggering rock ‘n’ roll. The song also includes a wonderful, squalling guitar solo — and the vocals are also really good, from the high, clear clean song reminiscent of classic doom to the harsh howls and bellows. I’m really looking forward to hearing the rest of the album, and to seeing this band live again (they will soon be announcing a western U.S. tour that will include Seattle).
DECIBEL again got the privilege of doing the premiere. So, use this link to go check it out:
http://decibelmagazine.com/blog/2015/5/27/get-torn-asunder-by-denver-sludge-merchants-khemmis
The album can be pre-ordered via the Bandcamp link below.
http://listen.20buckspin.com/album/absolution-2
https://www.facebook.com/khemmisdoom
19 Responses to “SEEN AND HEARD: HATE ETERNAL, MYRKUR, KHEMMIS”
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I’m so excited for the new Hate Eternal album!! 🙂
Hell, I’ll buy the KHEMMIS album for no other reason than that awesome 70’s sword-n-sorcery artwork
It is damned cool. And check out their “Wizard’s Brew” shirt:
https://khemmis.bandcamp.com/merch
Clicked for Myrkur…was not disappointed. Kvlt is just a synonym for uncreative, anyway.
..because nothing says creative like working in a style already defined by bands like Alcest and Ulver, right?
Ouch.
Okay..I admit…that may have been a bit harsh…(maybe 🙂 )
…honestly, I dont even think Myrkur is bad, but she’s not exactly doing anything outside the box here either
Thats my thoughts. Its passably good black metal. Especially this newer song,
but its of a style that has literally been done a trillion times since yesterday.
Being an old school hardcore fan growing up I learned to appreciate a good copy cat.
Whether its the bands energy or maybe just a few new riffs I hadnt heard yet, theres always room for more.
But just like Black Metal, theres a trillion bands playing a style of hardcore that hasnt really
advanced since 1985 and meanwhile, once in a while, people go nuts over something like that.
In this case, I dont see Islander/NCS gushing over it. Its a fair and good presentation of new metal.
But Ive seen many journalists fawning over it and it smacks of being slightly disingenuous at times.
I’m not saying she’s fantastic, and you’ve got a point. But calling the avante-garde style “defined” by Alcest and Ulver is pretty limiting as well. Consider this: I can define “kvlt” in four words: Under A Funeral Moon. Any deviation from that formula is grounds for having “kvlt” status challenged. It’s not possible to encompass the sound of Alcest, Deafheaven, Krallice, Altar of Plagues, Wolves in the Throne Room, etc, by such simple terms, which is what makes those bands, for better or worse, the more interesting MODERN subset of the black metal genre. Even if most of those bands don’t count as black metal anymore, which they don’t.
..really?…because Id say “kvlt” bands like Mgla and Cultes De Ghoules sound nothing like “Under a Funeral Moon”
..as for the bands you listed…here, I’ll encompass them in one word: Amesoeurs
Look man, all snarkiness aside, if atmospheric post-blackgaze bands are what wind your clock, Ive got no issue.
I guess I just want to know why, if you care so little for “kvlt” black metal that youve never really gotten by the Norsecore worship bands, you feel like you can make a sweeping generalization about this kind of music
Sorry to butt in, but I’d argue “kvlt” is really a measure of obscurity and not musical style. Bands routinely lose their kvlt status by following up a shitty-sounding cassette-only demo with better produced, more widely released albums containing the same exact songs recorded at higher fidelity. And the term is applied to some wildly divergent-sounding music.
You guys seem to be arguing about the merits of music that iterates on a specific set of conventions versus music that incorporates but branches out from those same constraints, which happens with any art form and in my reckoning has no correlation to creativity. That’s like saying it takes less creativity to compose haiku than beat poetry because haiku are so formulaic in structure and narrow in theme. But my experience is that working within rigid limitations requires just as much creativity as working without constraints.
Either way, hopefully you’d both agree that not liking a band because you don’t like it is rational, whereas not liking it because it’s not “trve” enough is insecure elitist nonsense.
…actually Im arguing over the idea of making sweeping generalizations about certain styles of music based on ones affinity for it. In this case “kvlt” black metal seems to be referring to what would be considered traditional or underground black metal…which is apparently deemed uncreative because, in the original posters experience, all of these bands are completely derivative of Darkthrone..a style he dosnt care for
…Meanwhile, something like Myrkur is deemed creative because he enjoys this style, even though bands like this are pretty much working from an already established template themselves and not truly doing anything unique based on those parameters.
In other words…a band like Myrkur is no more “creative” within its own specific subgenre than Norwegian black metal band #2 would be when compared to Darkthrone
Whether the music was “trve’ or not has no bearing on my comment
Nah, you have me all wrong. I love ALL of that music, traditional, kvlt, avant-garde, and no-longer-black-metal. I grew up on the trvest of the trve. I think you’re just getting all wound up about what was basically a joke in my OP. I will cede, however, that our definitions of kvlt clearly differ somewhat, which is fair enough. However, I think there’s a big difference between being derivative of a band that only does two things like early Darkthrone (trem-picked riffs over blasts/power chord twangs over 4/4 rock beats), and being derivative of a band that went from full-on black metal all the way to dream pop and everything in between like Alcest. At any rate, I don’t want to continue arguing, we like really similar music and I hate faceless internet debates. Have a lovely evening 🙂
I fail to see the HATE for Myrkur. I like what I hear!
Art and music for Khemmis and Hate Eternal are all great things.
MYRKUR AND HATE ETERNAL?
*flushes toilet*
I usually think most metal album covers are really really dumb and/or ugly. So, I think it’s interesting that I dig all three of these album covers from Hate Eternal’s angel-ish figure with wings made of torn pages and the hoof handed guy reaching out to him with the red eruption behind, to Myrkur’s still, atmospheric, and colorless photo, to Khemmis’ comic style wizard (with tubes on his staff), armed babe, and skeletons.
I’m not liking the Myrkur as much as the songs on her EP, but I’ll definitely give the album a shot.
I can’t stop listening to that Khemmis track…especially the riff before the first vocals at ~1:25. DOOOOM.