SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): BEHEMOTH, CRYPTOPSY, RIVERS OF NIHIL, THE OCEAN

 

Well, this is just getting ridiculous. As you may have seen me observe in Part 1 of today’s round-up, the last few days have brought a proverbial flood of new advance tracks and videos. I had planned to make this a two-parter, with better-known bands in Part 1 and more obscure names in Part 2. But before I could even begin working on the second Part, my NCS comrades brought to my attention all the following new stuff, most of which just appeared this morning.

So, I decided to insert all this late-breaking stuff in Part 2 (again presented alphabetically, but with few words from me) and then turn to what has now become Part 3.

BEHEMOTH

To begin, here’s the official music video for Behemoth’s “Wolves ov Siberia“, which will appear on their new album I Loved You At Your Darkest. The song is a roiling, rapacious, dissonant piece of speed and savagery, with melodic accents that are emblematic of Behemoth‘s penchant for looming, sulphurous majesty.

 

 

Of course, there is a wolf in the video, and his hapless prey, and final visions of a cold moon.

The new album will be released on October 5th by Metal Blade Records (North America) and Nuclear Blast (Europe).

Pre-order:
http://behemoth.lnk.to/ILYAYD

Facebook:
http://facebook.com/behemoth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CRYPTOPSY

“We knew that the video had to be as chaotic as the song. To accomplish this we strived to remove all full band performance shots and replace them with extreme close-ups on individual members. In order to match the frantic pace of the music we challenged Chris Kells (director/editor/producer) to make a myriad of seamless edits between multiple angled and minimally lit shots. We must say that we are blown away with what he accomplished.”

And those are Cryptopsy’s reflections on the video for “Sire of Sin“, one of the four songs that will appear on the band’s forthcoming EP, The Book of Suffering – Tome II, which features cover art by Remy C (Headsplit Design).

You can probably get a good idea about the music just based on those words concerning the video. It’s breathtakingly berserk, explosive, vicious, and of course technically jaw-dropping — the kind of wild sonic hurricane that’s guaranteed to send pulse rates through the roof (with a brutal breakdown at the end).

Pre-order:
https://cryptopsyofficial.bandcamp.com/album/the-book-of-suffering-tome-ii

Facebook:
https://www.Facebook.com/Cryptopsymetal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RIVERS OF NIHIL

If the next video don’t put a smile on your face, I’ll eat my hat, the one that’s made of chocolate which I keep handy for such dares. It may make you smile more broadly if you happen to be of a certain ago, such as my own, which damned few of you are. It really is brilliant (credit to Mygoodeye Musicvisuals, who made it, and to the band of course).

The song here is the title track from Rivers of Nihil‘s latest album, Where Owls Know My Name, reviewed here by Andy Synn. It is, of course, aces — just like the video.

Bandcamp:
https://riversofnihil.bandcamp.com/

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE OCEAN COLLECTIVE

Berlin’s The Ocean Collective (aka The Ocean) are returning with their first album in five years — Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic. It will be released on November 2nd by Metal Blade Records. As you might guess from the title, the new album is the first installment of a two-part record, though we’ll have to wait until 2020 for the second part.

As for the album’s title, the press release tells us: “The Phanerozoic eon succeeded the Precambrian supereon, spanning a 500 million-year period leading to the present day, and it has witnessed the evolution and diversification of plant and animal life on Earth, and the partial destruction of it during 5 mass extinction events. Conceptually and musically, The Ocean’s Phanerozoic is the missing link between the albums Precambrian and Heliocentric / Anthropocentric“.

The new album also includes the participation of Peter Voigtmann (who has handled the lighting design at The Ocean’s live shows), as well as new bassist Mattias Hägerstrand and drummer Paul Seidel, in addition to creative mastermind Robin Staps of course.

The song below is “Permian: The Great Dying“, and man, it’s an indigo-dark, intense, shape-shifting, and wholly involving piece of music. It is also, of course, in part a well-earned exception to our rule about singing.

Pre-order:
https://www.metalblade.com/theocean/
https://theocean.bandcamp.com/album/phanerozoic-i-palaeozoic-2

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