Feb 022016
 

Fleshgod APocalypse video

 

I’ve been gorging myself in newly released (or newly discovered) songs and a few EPs over the last 24 hours. If music were food, I’d be this guy by now — just one more bit of song and I’d explode. To make matters worse (i.e., better), I liked a large percentage of what I saw and heard. So that I can begin getting some of the music up on the site, I’ve divided the collection into multiple parts. More might come today, but definitely tomorrow.

By the way, if you’d like to hear full-album streams of the new Urgehal and Obscura albums, go here and here, respectively.

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE

Fleshgod Apocalypse have been teasing about a new video, and we’ve been speculating internally about which song from their new album (King, reviewed here) would provide the subject matter. Now we know, because today FA premiered their new video for “Cold As Perfection”. Before you watch it, here’s a statement about the video by drummer Francesco Paoli, who also directed the clip along with  filmmaker and photographer Salvatore Perrone. The video, by the way, is NSFW.

“The song is about ageing and the sad consciousness of losing physical and mental integrity with the passing of time. While we waste our life in the continuous research of perfection, which we know will never be reached, we deliberately sacrifice the splendour of our existence that is composed by an infinite number of imperfect details. We lose ourselves, we lose the time that nature offered us for free and we offend those not lucky enough to have as much as we have. It’s scary because it’s not an invented story, it’s reality and it’s inexorable.”

As Sr. Paoli explains, “The theme is brutal and extreme, that’s why it deserved an equally extreme video.”

Below you can see the censored and uncensored versions of the video.

https://www.facebook.com/fleshgodapocalypse/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zhrine-Unortheta cover art

ZHRINE

Zhrine is an Icelandic band (formerly known as Shrine) founded in 2008 and including members of Svartidauði. Today, details were revealed about their debut album Unortheta, including the cover art as rendered by one of my favorite metal artists, Zbigniew M. Bielak (Watain, Behemoth, Gorguts, Ghost). Along with release details, a new song premiered — “Spewing Gloom”.

The music is unsettling, the whirring riffs embracing dissonant tones and dark atmospheres, with an aura both funereal and otherworldly, predatory and hallucinatory. Hollow, soulless vocal roars amplify the music’s eerie message, which does indeed spew gloom. Very promising…

Unortheta will be released on April 8 by Season of Mist. Pre-order here.

https://www.facebook.com/zhrineofficial/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demonstealer - This-Burden-Is-Mine

DEMONSTEALER

Our Mumbai-based friend The Demonstealer (Demonic Resurrection) has completed work on a new solo album — This Burden Is Mine — though he had some talented help in recording it: drummer George Kollias (Nile) and guitar soloist Nishith Hegde (Demonic Resurrection). And let’s not forget Michal ‘Xaay’ Loranc, who created the great album cover.

Along with these announcements, we also were treated to a song from the new album — “How the Mighty Have Fallen” — which turns out to be surprising in its contrasts and changes of mood and style.

There’s a mighty roar at the beginning of the song, soon followed by earth-shaking percussion, twisted, flickering arpeggios, hammering riffs, and more deep, bestial vocal poison. But that’s just the beginning (though it’s a brutal and electrifying start) — a soaring clean voice joins in as the song’s chorus takes a turn for the melodic, and there’s also a dreamlike mid-section where that voice takes center-stage along with an entrancing keyboard melody.

But that’s not even the last surprise, because the song takes further twists and turns after that interlude, incorporating elements of both thrash and progressive metal, and with a fiery solo to boot, along with even more vocal variety.

The album is being released independently on March 25 and is available for pre-order on this Bandcamp page:

https://demonstealer.bandcamp.com/album/this-burden-is-mine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zombie Lake

ZOMBIE LAKE

The next song came my way via a tip from KevinP. The band is Zombie Lake, and the song is an un-mastered track from their forthcoming second CD, which should be out later this year via Germany’s Iron Shield Records. Zombie Lake’s multinational line-up includes vocalist Martin Missy (Protector), guitarist/bassist Derek Schilling (ex-Neglect), drummer Antman (Arkham 13), and lead guitarist Bill Kelly.

“Killed A Thousand Times” thrashes like a caged beast, full of rapid-fire, jabbing riffs and pummeling beats. It’s prime headbang meat, and Missy’s well-honed and savagely abrading vocals are also very strong. I was expecting a guitar solo, and hoping for one that would be a good match for the headbanging intensity of the rest of the song, and got one.

https://www.facebook.com/zombielake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tendagruta cover

TENDAGRUTA

To conclude this first part of my round-up, I have for you a track named “Urfuto Tripimivo”. It’s one of six tracks that appears on a record called Ensalmo do Sargaço, which will be released by Dissociated Records on May 14, 2016, and collects several tracks by the Portuguese duo Tendagruta that originally appeared in various compilations or single releases.

Before hearing the song last night, I was unfamiliar with Tendagruta and didn’t know what to expect, but thought this song was fascinating. It’s a combination of deep, dark, droning sounds and shimmering electronics that becomes increasingly intense… until it erupts in a cacophony of destruction, with haunting tones that sound almost like an ancient flute calling to spirits above the rhythmic, concrete-cracking demolition noise. There might be massed voices in the song, too, or at least a synthetic choir.

http://dissociatedrecords.bandcamp.com/releases
http://tendagruta.bandcamp.com/album/ensalmo-do-sarga-o

  7 Responses to “SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, ZHRINE, DEMONSTEALER, ZOMBIE LAKE, TENDAGRUTA”

  1. Tendagruta are insane… I rememberd one of their songs from couple of years ago, if it helps anyhow https://soundcloud.com/latrinadochifrudo/motim-na-bou-a and there was one (Il Culta) also released on Aural Bowels compilation… anyhow, good job as always!

    • That song from the Aural Bowels comp is one that will be included on this new release — and thanks for the Soundcloud link too. I’m looking forward to hearing more.

  2. Zombie Lake is pure awesomeness \m/

  3. That Fleshgod is sounding better and better. Stoked to catch them live (hopefully) in a few weeks.

  4. I heard Zhrine when I received the newsletter from Season of Mist. Thrilled to see them launching some Icelandic kaleidoscopic bm. I almost started to believe that Terratur Possessions had copyright-protected that sorts.

  5. Author & Punisher, Tendagruta & The Body Tour would be awesome! I may have to either be on drugs or need them afterwards though.

    • Oh man, that really would be a hell of an experience. I’m not sure drugs would be enough though. Might need intensive psychiatric care as well. Also, if things work out as I hope, we may be bringing folks some more Tendagruta madness soonish. 🙂

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