Nov 302016
 

Paria-Knochenkamp

 

The German black metal band Paria were spawned in the year 1995 and since then have grown ever more toxic and terrifying through a sequence of demos and splits, ultimately collected in a foul 2011 compilation (fittingly named 11 Years Of Blood, Cum & Satan), and then three full-lengths, the last of which was 2013’s Surreal Satanist.

On the 25th of December, W.T.C. Productions will add to Paria’s horrific legacy by releasing a new EP, entitled Knochenkamp, and today we bring you the premiere of its third track, “So Far From the Hidden God“. Continue reading »

Nov 302016
 

Terra Tenebrosa art

 

(In this month’s edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy Synn reviews the discography of Terra Tenebrosa.)

Recommended for fans of: Blut Aus Nord, Leviathan, Ævangelist

Some bands are easy to categorise. Death Metal. Black Metal. Thrash. You can stick a band in one of these boxes and (generally) have a good impression of the sort of sounds you can expect to hear.

Of course, sometimes the category itself can be a bit nebulous. Metalcore. Nu-Metal. Progressive Metal. These aren’t quite as well-defined, and are frequently used as a catch-all term (often, but not always, with negative connotations) for bands that don’t fit properly in one of the “core” Metal genres (no pun intended).

And then there are bands like Terra Tenebrosa, who seem to willfully defy categorisation altogether.

“Avant-Garde Black Metal” seems to be the closest approximation that most people have settled on for their sound, but even this doesn’t quite capture it. There are elements and undercurrents of everything from gloomy Post-Metal and chaotic Hardcore to pulsing Industrial and droning Ambient music, all wrapped up in a grim shroud of morbid, blackened vibes and horror-movie atmospherics.

Whatever it is, though, it works. Continue reading »

Nov 302016
 

suppressive-fire-nature-of-war

 

If you’ve had enough of middle-aged big-name thrash bands who’ve lost the fire in their bellies and you’re left yawning by fledgling retro thrashers who sound like they couldn’t punch their way out of a paper bag, listen up: We have a track for you from Suppressive Fire with a song title that isn’t an exaggeration: “Nuclear Dismemberment“.

This isn’t the first time we’ve paid attention to this band from Raleigh, North Carolina. Near the beginning of this year, in one of our new-music round-ups, we featured a song off their debut album Bedlam, which was released in mid-January. And in mid-January of next year, the band’s second full-length, Nature of War, will be upon us. That’s where you’ll find “Nuclear Dismemberment”. Continue reading »

Nov 302016
 

sarkom-anti-cosmic-art

 

On the 2nd day of December, Dark Essence Records will release the new fourth album, Anti-Cosmic Art, by the veteran group of Norwegian black metal barbarians known as Sarkom. Produced in a way that gives it the sonic power of a megaton detonation, it’s a compact, varied, and consistently addictive blast of fire and ice that will keep your head in a hammer lock from start to finish. You’ll see — because we’ve got a full stream of the album for you today.

At seven songs and 30 minutes, the album doesn’t overstay its welcome, but instead leaves the listener wanting more. The first time through it is like unwrapping one thorny, charred gift after another, each song a nasty surprise, and each track so well-written and so capably performed that it sticks in the head like a spike. Continue reading »

Nov 292016
 

npf-gf-cover-art-web

 

If you aren’t already dreading the holidays ahead, we can help fill them with dread, disorientation, and anxiety. At the very least, we can divert your mind and shunt it off along dark tangents where your imagination may flourish in interesting ways.

Actually, we won’t do any of that ourselves. We’re merely conduits to the people who will — the solo artists behind Never Presence Forever and Gridfailure, who have joined forces for a split that’s projected for both a digital and a tape release on December 23. We have a full stream of the split below — with a preface, of course, produced by a mind that has already been spellbound and then fragmented by these sounds. Continue reading »

Nov 292016
 

the-great-old-ones-eod-a-tale-of-dark-legacy

 

Numerous metal bands have drawn inspiration from the horrors spawned by the imagination of H.P. Lovecraft, but few have devoted themselves so single-mindedly to capturing the atmosphere of the stories as The Great Old Ones. They continue this mission on their new album EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy, which will be released on January 27 through Season of Mist. The seventh track on the album is “Mare Infinitum“, and we’re helping to premiere it in this post.

In Lovecraft’s mythos the Esoteric Order of Dagon was the dark, terrifying religion brought to the benighted community of Innsmouth by Capt. Obed Marsh upon his return from the South Seas, seducing the townspeople with promises of prosperity, power, and through interbreeding with the amphibious Deep Ones, transformation and eternal life. Those listeners familiar with The Shadow Over Innsmouth will recognize the reference in the new album’s title, as well as the connections of the song titles to that horrifying tale — and that’s because the album conceptually represents an original sequel to that famous story. Continue reading »

Nov 292016
 

balfor-black-serpent-rising

 

Serpents, fire, blood, and bone. Torches burning and bonfires blazing. A night lit by sparks and cloaked by wood smoke from the blaze. Invocations of power and praise to the drawing of steel. Remembrances of a barbarous past, consecrated in blood. The video we’re premiering captures such visions, but your mind’s eye could create them simply from the music.

The song is “Serpents of the Black Sun” and it comes from Black Serpent Rising, the third album by the Ukrainian band Balfor, which will be released on January 15, 2017, by Drakkar Productions.

Balfor’s line-up includes current and former members of such groups as Khors, Raventale, and Hate Forest, and this new full-length follows the band’s last album, Barbaric Blood, by a long six years, with the 2013 EP Heralds of the Fall dividing the wait. Continue reading »

Nov 282016
 

abigail-williams-new-song-2016-photo

 

Almost exactly one year has passed since the release of The Accuser, and now at last we have a new song from Abigail Williams to share with you. This is a demo track that will eventually appear in final form on a future release. Its origins can be traced back to a time soon after the release of the band’s third album, Becoming, in 2012 (with the original version co-written by former AW member Ian Jekelis and AW’s Ken Sorceron), though it has been revisited and revised more recently by Sorceron.

The name of the song is “The Final Failure“. At more than 11 minutes in length, it’s a multifaceted and emotionally intense track that alternately smolders and burns, like a campfire that’s dying in a frigid and hostile wilderness despite efforts to revive it. Or it could be felt as an expression of beleaguered striving in the face of one bad twist of fate after another, ultimately ending in failure and a staggering collapse into desolating grief. Continue reading »

Nov 282016
 

witchery-in-his-infernal-majestys-service

 

(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Sweden’s long-running Witchery, which is out now via Century Media.)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock this year you’ll probably have heard something about the release of a new album by a bunch of head-banging, hard-riffing, Thrash Metal veterans who are currently undergoing a bit of a critical renaissance.

No, not Hetfield and co… we’re talking about motherfucking Witchery, bitches! Continue reading »

Nov 282016
 

natvre-wrath

 

As all lovers of extreme metal are well aware, Greece is home to some of the planet’s most powerful and distinctive black metal bands. As the years have passed, the “classic Hellenic sound” of the early and mid-’90s has morphed and expanded in a multitude of directions, reflecting the still-vibrant creativity at work in the Greek underground. NATVRE’S is one of the newer exponents of black metal from Greece who have managed to establish their own distinctive style within their homeland’s traditions of burning black ferocity.

NATVRE’S are based in Thessaloniki, and they self-released their debut album Wrath in 2015. The copies disappeared quickly, selling out in just a few months. But the Dutch label Argento Records knew a good thing when they heard it and are now primed to re-issue Wrath in a 3-panel digisleeve CD edition with enhanced artwork. We’ve written about one advance song from the album already (“Lazarines“), and today we get to bring you the premiere of another savagely crushing track, this one named “Endless“. Continue reading »