Sep 262016
 

winterfylleth-the-dark-hereafter

 

(Todd Manning wrote this review of the new album by Britain’s Winterfylleth.)

The ever-prolific British Black Metal madmen Winterfylleth are poised to release their newest full-length, and first for Spinefarm Records, entitled The Dark Hereafter. Drawing inspiration from Britain’s venerable heritage, Winterfylleth construct their own take on rustic and hypnotic Black Metal.

The group prove once again to be experts in walking the fine line between mood and atmosphere and sheer aural violence. In only five songs lasting around forty minutes, The Dark Hereafter” is able to maneuver a vast number of emotions. Opening tracks “The Dark Hereafter” and “Pariah’s Path” both showcase the band’s more immediate and brutal side. They alternate between blast beats and mid-paced double-bass-heavy sections with powerful, throat-shredding vocals. The riffs are simultaneously melodic yet razor sharp and drenched in distortion. Despite the immediacy of these tracks, they also possess a hypnotic quality as well. This allows for a smooth transition between the first and second halves of the release. Continue reading »

Sep 262016
 

sepulchral-curse-at-the-onset-of-extinction

In the spring of this year we premiered the latest album by the Finnish band Solothus (No King Reigns Eternal), along with a review that praised the album as “an artful combination of staggering heaviness, neck-snapping aggression, and cold, alabaster beauty,” one that “generates an atmosphere of emotional collapse and physical decay, but… gets the blood pumping, too.” Little did we know then that Solothus vocalist Kari Kankaanpää was also in the ranks of Sepulchral Curse, whose debut EP A Birth In Death appeared two years ago. And now we also know that Sepulchral Curse have recorded a new EP that will be released in December, the name of which is At the Onset of Extinction.

The first track on the new EP is “Envisioned In Scars“, and we have the premiere of that song for you today. It’s as powerfully appealing as the latest Solothus album, though it diverges significantly — and dynamically — in its musical strategies, culminating in a very interesting display of black/death metal. Continue reading »

Sep 262016
 

barghest-teeth-split

 

(Wil Cifer reviews the new split by Louisiana’s Barghest and California’s Teeth.)

This is a split that captures two different shades of metal. They are both dark.

The first side of this cassette release showcases Baton Rogue’s Barghest, who are just as feral as in their earlier releases, but this time around the buzz-saw of rapid fire guitar you face is smoothed out by the more cavernous production, giving them the needed ambience for me to fully digest their sonic venom. Continue reading »

Sep 252016
 

ravencult-force-of-profanation

 

Time to make the Sabbath black again. I had great difficulty pulling together this week’s collection of black metal, and music next door to it (I’m apparently forbidden from using the term “blackened”, at least temporarily). I have a massive list of new music in this vein that I’ve assembled over the last week alone. I wish I had time to make this collection two or three times longer than it is. In other words, just another Sunday.

Lots of eye-catching cover art in here, too.

RAVENCULT

Almost exactly one year ago Metal Blade announced the signing of the Greek black metal band Ravencult, and now, roughly five years after their last album, a new one is on the horizon. Bearing the name Force of Profanation, it’s set for release on November 11. The first song in today’s collection is the album’s first advance track, “Beneath the Relics of Old“. Here’s what the band said about it: Continue reading »

Sep 252016
 

woes-video-clip-1

 

We post lots of premieres for music we like (and only for music we like). The opportunities don’t all come to us through labels and PR representatives. Some of them are requested by bands who are doing their best to spread the word on a DIY basis. That’s how this one came about.

The band is WOES, from Copenhagen, Denmark, and the video is for a new single named “Lost & Alone“. Before watching this video for the first time, I didn’t know what to expect. It left me gasping. Continue reading »

Sep 252016
 

Rearview Mirror

 

Okay, I know some of you are probably laughing, or trying not to laugh. But I’m serious here. Yes, Tim Lambesis tried to hire a hit man to whack his wife and he’s now in prison for that. And yes, he’s now suing personnel at two San Diego County detention facilities for failing to provide medication to ameliorate the side effects of steroid withdrawal, leading to “painfully sensitive breast enlargement”. But even though reports of this latest occurrence are what dragged As I Lay Dying up from the depths of my memory, let’s just put all that embarrassment aside for a few minutes and reflect upon the music of As I Lay Dying.

Actually, I only want to reflect on six songs, two from Shadows Are Security (2005), two from An Ocean Between Us (2007), and two from The Powerless Rise (2010). All but one come with official videos. Continue reading »

Sep 242016
 

kinit-her-the-blooming-world

 

No, this post isn’t about the new Mithras album, though it has been on my mind lately. It’s about a listening experience I had late last night (after possibly drinking too much), when the music fell into place as if it had been ordained by some ingenious higher power. I feel compelled to share it, not only because of how good each piece in the chain is, standing alone, but also because of the interesting ways in which each piece flows into the next and eventually comes back around to join together, the end resonating with the beginning in an unexpected way.

I’ll tell the story of how I came to move from each of these four recordings to the next precisely in the order set out below, because at least to me it makes this playlist even more strange and wondrous. And to be clear, the connections between the recordings aren’t predictable — it’s more like an evolution, progression, and transformation that’s occurring instead of a collection of like-sounding songs — with things becoming increasingly heavy and extreme. By the end, I had bought all four of the releases on Bandcamp.

KINIT HER

This experience began last night when I happened upon a Facebook post by metal writer and musician JR (I haven’t told the people involved in this story that I’m writing about them, so I’ll be using initials instead of full names). In it, he linked to a just-released new album by Kinit Her, calling it “magic”. Continue reading »

Sep 242016
 

rant-in-progress

 

(Andy Synn rants again….)

(Please note – the following rant is very much tongue-in-cheek and not intended as a piece of serious critical writing. No-one is going to actually stop you using these words. That being said, there’s possibly a kernel of truth or two in here somewhere…)

 

Ladies and gentlemen and smizmars… let’s try a little experiment shall we?

What I’m suggesting is that we – as writers, as fans, as commenters – agree to a moratorium (i.e., a temporary prohibition or embargo) on the use of certain words and phrases which have, to my mind, been roundly and seriously abused, over-used, and thoroughly bastardised in recent years.

Can we do it? I don’t know. What will happen? I don’t know either… but it might be interesting to see what comes from removing (albeit, only temporarily) certain “go to” words from our lexicon.

Plus, let’s face it, I’m sure some of you are just as sick of some of these words being misused, misapplied, and lazily attributed where they don’t belong! Continue reading »

Sep 232016
 

re-armed-the-era-of-precarity

 

Now more than a decade into their career, the band Re-Armed from Kerava, Finland, are on the verge of releasing their third album, The Era of Precarity. A concept work that imagines a world in which the worst elements and tendencies in modern society become ascendent, the album will be released on September 30 via Finland’s Saarni Records. Today we give you the chance to hear all of it.

You may think you’ve been launched into space, with glowing nebulas to light your way, as you listen to the album’s opening track, but the second one quickly yanks you back to earth and sends you rocketing forward with a blaze of flame trailing behind. And from there, it’s a jolting rush of thrashing death metal that keeps the adrenaline levels in the red zone… but there are also gliding chorus melodies capable of keeping your head immersed in visions far overhead as the wind tears at your face. Continue reading »

Sep 232016
 

acrimonious-eleven-dragons

 

Here are a select group of new and varied songs I discovered over the last 24 hours that I think are well worth your time.

ACRIMONIOUS

Almost four years have passed since the release of Sunyata, the second album by the Greek black metal band Acrimonious. That album was my own introduction to the band, and also one of my favorite releases of 2012. And so it was a very welcome surprise to find out yesterday that Acrimonious will be releasing a new album, the name of which is Eleven Dragons. As you can see, it features striking cover art by Vamperess Imperium. Continue reading »