RUMBLINGS OF THE BEAST: BEHEMOTH, IMPIETY, ZATOKREV, AND DIABLERIE

Normally I would have used the “Seen and Heard” label for this round-up of items I found yesterday while rooting through the interhole. But there’s something about these four items that suggested an alternate title . . . .

BEHEMOTH

Poland’s Behemoth have been busy recording their tenth full-length album — which is now projected for release by Metal Blade this coming fall — and yesterday the band announced that they’ve picked a name for it: The Satanist. Despite fame, some degree of fortune, and Nergal having survived multiple trips to court defending against charges brought under Poland’s laws against giving religious offense, Behemoth don’t fuckin’ back off, do they? Here’s a statement from Nergal that accompanied the news about the album title:

“It took us over two decades to come up with a title that…says it all. While our new songs artistically take surprisingly adventurous directions, our message stands steadfast—Proud and Radical. THE SATANIST stands for undying yearning for liberation and love for freedom in all aspects of life. Considering all our life experiences that often took dramatic curves I couldn’t think of more appropriate and fitting statement of who and where we are now.”

There will undoubtedly be a steady drumbeat of album updates from the band and Metal Blade over the summer. Undoubtedly we’ll post most of them here, too. Because, Behemoth!

 

IMPIETY

Nice artwork, isn’t it? It was sculpted by Lord Sickness for the cover of The Impious Crusade, which is the name of a new EP by Singapore’s Impiety. It will be released by Hells Headbangers on August 6 and it includes five tracks totaling approximately 22 minutes, one of which is a cover a cover of Sorcery’s “Lucifer’s Legions”.

Now, here’s what I saw and heard yesterday: Hells Headbangers have set up a Bandcamp page for the new EP, where it can be pre-ordered, and they’ve begun streaming one of the new songs — “Commanding Death & Destroy”. It’s blistering and bestial, a technically intricate, high-speed piece of metal fury. It’s worth hearing for the trio of head-whipping guitar solos all by themselves, but the vitriolic vocals and the eye-popping technicality of the instrumental performances are fantastic as well. Listen:

http://hellsheadbangers.bandcamp.com/album/the-impious-crusade
www.facebook.com/impietyofficial

 

ZATOKREV

I’ve written about this killer Swiss band several times before. Their 2012 album The Bat, The Wheel, and A Long Road To Nowhere was damned fine, and I happily added one of that album’s tracks (“Goddamned Lights”) to my list of last year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. Their musical style crosses many metal boundaries, including elements of death metal, sludge, doom, black metal, and even post-metal, and that album as well as other releases is now available on Bandcamp (go here).

What I saw yesterday was a live video of the band performing at the Swiss edition of Inferno Festival on March 16 at “Les Docks” in Lausanne. The video is dark, a combination of shadow and gold, indistinct around the edges — very interesting to look at, including the parts where the bandmembers torture their instruments on the floor of the stage, making them produce dying sounds (and I may have mentioned before that these dudes are vicious headbangers).

The sound quality is very good — good enough that this indigo-dark music will absolutely crush you into human rubble. The only negative about the video is that even at 12 minutes, it ends before the song is finished.

If you like this, other videos of Zatokrev’s performance at the same show can be found here and here. The song, by the way, is “…Zato Krev”, from the band’s 2004 self-titled debut album.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/ZATOKREV/203368676361866

 

DIABLERIE

I first came across this Finnish band in April, thanks to a tip from fellow blogger fireangel (Night Elves Forest). Last year, after an extended hiatus, they put out an EP (Transition) and they’re now at work on  a new full-length release. In my April post I featured two new demo tracks from the album that were streaming on Soundcloud — “Selves” and “Osiris”. Yesterday they put up a third one — “Rabid Dogs of Church and State”, which I found thanks again to a tip from fireangel.

This new one begins like a blast furnace with the door wide open — scorching high-speed death metal — but electronic/industrial elements eventually make their entrance. I’m still really liking Diablerie’s interweaving of these styles.

https://www.facebook.com/Diablerie/