AN NCS PREMIERE: INFECTING THE SWARM — “OBSCURING THE SEVENTH SUN”

 

Augsburg, Germany, is home base for the über-talented one-man brutal death metal band Infecting the Swarm. With one well-received album under his belt (2014’s Pathogenesis), Hannes S. has completed a second album in a planned conceptual trilogy, this new one named Abyss. Lacerated Enemy Records will be releasing the album on September 9, and today it’s our pleasure to bring you the premiere of the album’s seventh track — “Obscuring the Seventh Sun“.

Yesterday on our putrid site we posted an “op-ed” piece (here) attempting to answer the question often asked of metal heads: “Why do you listen to that stuff?” Our writer (Mr. A. Synn) identified many answers, but for him the main one could be summed up in one word: “ENERGY”

 

 

That piece drew quite a lot of views and dozens of comments, many of which agreed that the vitality and emotional power and intensity of metal is a big explanation for the attraction.

I thought of those comments when I listened to this track a few more times last night.

Well, at least I thought of them after I was able to collect my thoughts, which had be driven out of my head like moths overtaken by the leading edge of a tornado. I think some brain goo squirted out of my ears as I was listening, too.

There’s certainly no shortage of energy in this song. There’s so much blistering guitar work and lightning-speed drum and bass work that we could significantly reduce our carbon footprint by just shutting down all the power plants, putting this song on an endless loop, and hooking that up to the generators.

It’s also mercilessly mauling. The damned thing attacks like an army of piranha and frenzied barbarians wielding clubs. Acting together. And assaulting in a tightly coordinated fashion. With someone bellowing encouragement in a voice that seems to gurgle up from some oceanic trench.

But the song also delivers a different kind of energy, in addition to the sensation of riding Ol’ Sparky until your head smokes and your eyes roll back in your head. There’s an eerie, voracious, monstrous atmosphere that creeps through the song, and ultimately achieves dominance in the track’s third minute, when a horrifying, droning swarm of noise blankets the listener, with something like tortured souls wailing in the background. Or maybe I just imagined that.

 

Hannes S. considers Abyss “a giant step forward for the band”. That may sell Pathogenesis too short, but I’ll certainly say this: I’m almost slobbering at the prospect of letting this entire album blow my brain to smithereens.

Abyss will be released on September 9, 2016, by Lacerated Enemy Records. CD pre-orders can be placed here, and digital pre-orders are available at Bandcamp:

https://laceratedenemyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/infecting-the-swarm-abyss

Follow the band on Facebook at this location:

https://www.facebook.com/InfectingTheSwarm/

Track list:
1. Entropy
2. Perennial Ruins
3. Hypogean Awakening
4. Innate Divinity
5. The Bleak Abyss
6. Hollow Sphere
7. Obscuring the Seventh Sun
8. Spiral Fragmentation
9. Descension