AN NCS PREMIERE: WIDOWER — “THE UNHOLY OATH”

There’s not much left of the mangled carcasses on the cover of Widower’s new EP, The Unholy Oath, and it looks like what’s left is about to be trampled again by those demonic steeds and their spiky driver. Having heard the EP, I’d say that’s fair warning of what you’re in for as a listener.

The Unholy Oath is the second EP by this foursome from my old hometown of Austin, Texas, and we’ve got a full stream of it for you down below — one day before its official release. Although the cover itself foretells the carnage that awaits you, I’ll add a few more words of introduction.

The music does indeed gallop like those demon horses — it’s a high-energy torrent of vibrating riffs and rippling leads punctuated with knee-buckling jabs, a blackened thrash attack that gets the pulse racing while also infiltrating your head with catchy melodies. As you might expect, the vocals are nasty as hell — the kind of high, strangled shrieks that sound like they come from something (not recognizably human) that dwells in fire.

The EP includes a healthy helping of dual-guitar duels, and I should also mention that when these dudes latch on to a groove (as they frequently do), it’s really nice headbang fuel, too. If you can’t find some evil fun in this rampaging EP, I’ll be surprised.

The Unholy Oath was tracked at Diamond Factory Recording Studio by Travis Bonner, and edited, mixed, and mastered by Ryan Butler at Arcane Digital. The cover art is by Andrei Bouzikov. It will be released on January 22, and you can pre-order it via the Bandcamp link below:

https://widoweratx.bandcamp.com/album/the-unholy-oath

http://www.facebook.com/widoweratx