QUICK HITS: THE SPIRIT, BORN TO MURDER THE WORLD, CHTHE’ILIST

 

I’m still grateful to my friend Andy, whose Waxing Lyrical series continues to relieve my compulsion to come up with something new to post here on Saturdays. And as you can see, I’m still not completely free of the compulsion. I’ve also now abandoned the goal of this week-long series of Quick Hits as a vehicle for catching up on new music from the last two weeks. For the third day in a row, I’ve again been diverted by late-breaking releases: Everything collected here appeared yesterday or the day before.

THE SPIRIT

Last fall Germany’s The Spirit self-released an enormously impressive debut album entitled Sounds From the Vortex. In April, Nuclear Blast announced that they had signed the band, and yesterday revealed that they would be re-issuing Sounds From the Vortex on August 10th in CD, LP, and digital editions (with new cover art). To celebrate the occasion, Nuclear Blast released a lyric video for an album track named “The Clouds of Damnation“, which happens to be my favorite track from that record. And so, although many of you are no doubt familiar with the music through that previous self-release, I wanted to start today’s round-up with that new video.

 

 

By way of introduction for those who may be new to The Spirit, I’ll quote from our friend Gorger’s review of the album at NCS last December:

“Germany’s The Spirit is a newcomer on the market, but little and nothing indicates that the band is a debutant. The band came out of the casting mold two years ago, and have since then chiseled out a solid work. Sounds From The Vortex blends black and death into a melodic spectacle that drags the mind back in time. The band themselves claim to have created something that should be able to appeal to fans of classic No Fashion releases, and I can agree with that description.

“The Spirit has a spirit, a sound, a breath of early melodic extreme metal, and although the similarities are not significant, I get some vibes of bands like Dissection and Immortal around At the Heart of Winter. The style is mild, without becoming too gentle, for their mid-tempo black/death has rhythms and drive that’s easy to like. It is nevertheless the guys’ flair for good melodies and structures that to the greatest extent makes a mark.

“For being the first album, Sounds From The Vortex is an impressive vista. And it’s not just ‘good for being a debut’. Listen to “The Clouds of Damnation”, for instance, and enjoy the diversion in fluctuating and oscillating guitars and the whipping percussions….”

Pre-order:
http://nblast.de/TheSpiritSFTV

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/thespiritband

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BORN TO MURDER THE WORLD

Born To Murder The World is a project started by two old friends, Shane Embury (Napalm Death, Brujeria, etc.) and Mick Kenney (Anaal Nathrakh/Mistress), joined by vocalist Duncan Wilkins (Fukpig, Mistress). Their debut album, The Infinite Mirror Of Millennial Narcissism (ouch!) will be released on August 24th through Embury‘s Extrinsic Recordings label. Along with this news and an interview of Embury, DECIBEL premiered a Born To Murder the World track named “Brutality Alchemist“.

I learned of these developments from my NCS comrade DGR, who explained that these gents had “decided to form a band made just for me”. He pronounced this new song to be “just lovely”.

You have to know DGR, or at least have developed a sense for the kind of music that vibrates his chords, to understand that use of “just lovely”. Or you could just skip directly to “Play” and get destroyed by this track.

Bandcamp:
https://borntomurdertheworld.bandcamp.com/album/the-infinite-mirror-of-millennial-narcissism

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/BTMTW/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHTHE’ILIST

I think it’s fair to say that Le dernier crépuscule, the 2016 debut album by this Canadian death metal band, made a hugely favorable impression on fans and critics. Chthe’ilist may have been little-known before then, but no longer. And so when Profound Lore released a new Chthe’ilist EP yesterday with little advance warning, it didn’t take long for word to spread.

Passage Into The Xexanotth consists of two songs, the first of which (the title track) is described as an “unreleased track that has its origins even before the Le Dernier Crepuscule sessions”, and the second of which is a cover of “Beneath The Crypts” by the Swedish death metal band Crematory, which dates back to 1991 Both will accelerate the pulse and make queasy the guts. The former is a roiling rampage and a sure-fire mosh trigger… and becomes a stalking horror, too, accented by a shrieking paranormal solo that reeks of misery and despair. The latter batters and romps from start to finish, but writhes like giant feeding maggots too.

Passage Into The Xexanotth is loads of fun for death metal addicts, and it’s available now on 7″ vinyl and digitally.

Bandcamp:
https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/passage-into-the-xexanotth

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Chtheilist/