On the 25th of May, Everlasting Spew Records will release Blackest Horizon, the third album by the Italian death metal band Valgrind (named for the ancient gate that stands before the great hall of Valhalla in Norse mythology), which follows the band’s tremendously good 2017 EP, Seal of Phobos. Last month we brought you the album’s victorious opening track, and today we present another. This one — “Last Angel (Into the Unknown)” — begins a trilogy of songs that end the album.
That song we shared previously — “Victorious” — launches the album in extravagant fashion, delivering a kaleidoscopic aural experience that’s hallucinatory, heart-pounding, mind-bending, savage, and exuberant to the point of madness. The one you’re about to hear is no less fascinating.
A sense of tension, peril, and unearthly wonder pervades “Last Angel (Into the Unknown)”, along with changing atmospheres of derangement, mystical eeriness, and plundering ferocity. Of course, as one would expect from Valgrind, the song is also (mostly) a full-throttle surge of energy, launched by a galloping drum rhythm (which latter turns into a battering fury) and the buzzing, rising and falling whirr of the guitar, accompanied by Daniele Lupidi’s wild, torturous howls. The track further includes a cornucopia of shimmering and chiming leads and fiery soloing, which become the paramount source of the song’s intriguing atmosphere. The surge does subside to a statelier pace — and when it does, the music becomes even more spectral and chilling.
“Fascinating” is a word that continues coming to mind as this album moves from start to finish. Valgrind are clearly not content to deliver mere brutality with impressive technical flourishes (though they’re quite good at that), and they’re to be applauded for having more adventurous and inventive ambitions.
Below, you’ll find the stream of the song we’re premiering today as well as a reprise of “Victorious” and the riveting title track. Everlasting Spew will offer the album stand-alone, and in some very attractive bundles. For further release details, check the following links.
Pre-order:
https://everlastingspewrecords.bandcamp.com/album/blackest-horizon/
https://everlastingspew.com/
Valgrind:
https://www.facebook.com/valgrindband
https://valgrindband.bandcamp.com
TRACK LIST:
1 Victorious
2 Sunken Temple of Initiated
3 Third and Last
4 The Blackest Horizon
5 Sacrificial Journey
6 The Empire Burns
7 The Fist
8 Last Angel (Into the Unknown)
9 Last Angel (The Psychonaut)
10 Last Angel (Hades Horseman)