SEEN AND HEARD ON NEW YEAR’S DAY: AVULSED, CRAWLING CHAOS, ARGWAAN, SERPENTS OF PAKHANGBA, AWRIZIS, STRESS TEMPLE, GROUND SWEAT, HUSMANSKOST, BYFROST

Fireworks at the Seattle Space Needle last night (photo by Sigma Sreedharan / KOMO #SoNorthwest Photography)

(written by Islander)

Happy New Year to all of you! May the turn of the calendar page begin leading you to many good things over the coming year, even if it mainly leads you to still write “2024” in your date entries over the next few weeks.

Yesterday we finished the main part of our annual LISTMANIA series, and I posted a “wrap up” for it earlier today. All those lists verified what we already knew as the past year crawled by, i.e., that 2024 was another great interval for metal, even if it was a garbage fire in many other respects.

We have abundant reasons to expect that 2025 will also bring us abundant metallic goodness and greatness, and some of those reasons are already concretely apparent, witness the music I picked for this New Year’s Day roundup (though some of it also comes from the later days of December — and a couple songs are from 2010!).

In case you’re wondering, I did party last night, and I am paying for my fun this morning. I picked today’s entries yesterday, before I did things that kept me in bed much later than usual and have pained my brain this morning. But I did most of the writing this morning, which explains any greater-than-usual lack of coherence.

Also in case you’re wondering, I’ll begin the final phase of LISTMANIA tomorrow, my Most Infectious Songs list, and I will try to add a new installment of it every weekday this month until the self-imposed guillotine comes down on January 31st.

Before I finish this intro and turn to the music, on behalf of everyone who toils at NCS I would like to thank all of you who have supported our efforts and the music we’ve tried to support over the last year. Without the sense that people pay attention to what we do, and value it, continuing to forge ahead would be a bleak prospect.

 

AVULSED (Spain)

I thought the best way to begin facing the New Year would be to charge in hard and fast, with teeth bared and fists raised, brazenly bold — before the eggnog curdles and while the resolutions are freshly minted and not yet broken. Avulsed‘s new song, a display of electric death metal ferocity accompanied by an excellent video, provides an superb way to do that.

All these performers, both younger and older, clearly know what they’re doing. They’ve absorbed a lot of tradition but then radiated it back like a plutonium core in some reactor that’s lost its coolant. Hell will be raised, blood will be boiled, necks will be wrecked, with extra fun in seeing two hands darting about a dual-neck guitar like hares.

The song is “Lacerate to Dominate“. It’s from, Phoenix Cryptobiosis, Avulsed‘s eighth studio album and the first collection of original material in 12 years. The album drops on March 4th, via Dave Rotten‘s Xtreem Music.

http://www.xtreemmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/Avulsed91
https://www.instagram.com/avulsed_official

 

CRAWLING CHAOS (Italy)

We’ll stay in the fast and ferocious lane with this next song by the melodic death metal band Crawling Chaos. The band provided this comment about it:

“’Nails of Fate‘ is an ode to the Norns of Norse mythology. The lyrics, freely adapted from the renowned Sigrdrífumál, are conceived as a kind of runic spread where the winter triad—Hagalaz, Nauthiz, and Isa—is cast. These three runes mark the beginning of Heimdall’s Ætt and are associated with Urd, Skuld, and Verdandi. In addition to twisting the threads of fate to shape the destiny of the individuals, these mythological figures also used to carve runes in order to keep a sort of cosmic chronicle of the entire universe. It is said that, as a symbol of the power they wielded over fate, the runes were even engraved on their nails”.

They describe the central theme of their new album Wyrd as one that follows a narrative thread which “weaves together some of the most fascinating female figures from classical mythology, European folklore, and history.”

This particular song, which also arrived with a very good video, is itself a richly woven tapestry, by turns mystic and mysterious, blazing and bludgeoning, howling and delirious. It gets the blood rushing, especially when the soloing heats up, but also includes some intriguing instrumental variations.

Wyrd will be released on March 28th via Time To Kill Records.

https://www.instagram.com/crawling_chaos_band
https://www.facebook.com/crawlingchaosit
https://crawlingchaos.bandcamp.com/

 

ARGWAAN (Netherlands)

I came across this next album in Ron Ben-Tovim‘s latest collection of recommendations at Machine Music. I share his reaction that the album is “Amazing,” and now I kick myself for having missed out on Argwaan‘s first two albums, the first of which is on Ron’s “Best of the Decade” list so far.

The name of the new album is Violable; it was released on December 13th; and it includes seven songs. Beyond confessing amazement, I’m flummoxed about how to describe the music succinctly because it’s so multi-faceted.

Depending on where you are in the album, or even within individual songs, the music’s sensations might be violently assaulting or brilliantly glorious, lonely or vast, elegantly grieving or fervently yearning, severely tormented (especially in the harrowing intensity of the vocals) or gently wistful.

The Encyclopaedia Metallum pigeonholes Argwaan as “Depressive Black Metal,” but that’s a feeble characterization of the elaborate music on this album, which frequently ranges beyond the standard tropes of that sub-genre, and even beyond black metal altogether or even metal writ large. Sadness does shadow much of the music, but just as often it bursts open in turmoil and splendor.

In all its changing phases, it’s immersive and moving, an emotional powerhouse, and a reminder to list-makers that sometimes the waning days of December bring some of the year’s best albums.

(Thanks also to Reggie P for recommending this album in a comment on a Shades of Black post a few days before Christmas.)

https://argwaan.bandcamp.com/album/violable
https://argwaan.com/
https://www.facebook.com/people/Argwaan/61553689470966/

 

SERPENTS OF PAKHANGBA (India)

I included this next song to provide a bit of a breather before punching up your adrenaline again, but it’s a breather that won’t dull your senses.

This song, “Soraren Chant“, is the one that ends this Mumbai-based “Shamanic Art Metal” band’s new album Air and Fire. It includes a guest performance by Nate Miller on an ancient two-stringed instrument called the Erhu (it’s not the only unusual instrument on the album). The many other guest performers on the record include Mallika Sundaramurthy (Unfathomable Ruination, Emasculator, ex-Abnormality).

The song is a transfixing hybrid of the ancient and the modern, of the mystical and the earthy. It’s mesmerizing and transportive, and the singing, both high and low, is a key reason for that, but it’s also muscle-moving. As the song proceeds, it also becomes heavier and more harrowing as the rhythm pounds, the music sears and darts, and gritty roaring voices emerge.

Here is a some more information about the band:

Pakhangba is the name given to the Primodial Dragon Deity in Manipur, India. Formed by Multi-instrumentalist Composer-Producer Vishal J.Singh (known for his Avant-Prog brainchild Amogh Symphony), Serpents Of Pakhangba is a retelling of Asian Mysticism and Shamanic Art in the zone of “Equal between Divine Masculinity and Divine Femininity” in an artistic, meditative yet dissonant and much heavier way. Mentioned by local music journals as “Feminist Centric” Art-Metal and “Witchcore”, Serpents Of Pakhangba creates massive positive energy in their live performance through storytelling in their songs while combining Dissonant Avant Garde, Metal with Asian Chants and Mysticism.

Air and Fire is set for release on February 12th.

https://serpentsofpakhangba.bandcamp.com/album/air-and-fire
https://www.facebook.com/serpentsofpakhangba/

 

AWRIZIS (Czechia)

Now it’s time to ramp up the New Year fireworks again, and to do that I’m including a stream of a new album named My Heart Has No Home, released on December 24th by these Czech melodic black/death metallers.

The album includes 9 relatively compact songs. The first one, “Ov Heart & Reason,” hooked me hard, like all good album-openers should.

That song’s central keyboard motif brightly rings like wondrous chimes, almost like an ethereal harpsichord. The music also soars and sweeps, hammers and howls, thrusts and throbs. The keys begin to warble, almost accordion-like or in kinship to a hurdy-gurdy, and the beats rock, but the song also erupts in intensity with heart-in-your-throat effect.

The following songs follow suit, wrapping together hooky melodies and bone-busting grooves, savage snarls and futuristic electronics, symphonic magnificence and hell-for-leather gallops, sky-spanning splendor and furious vulcanism, all of it exhilarating.

I could see people bouncing to this in a rave and also bouncing off each other in a pit, or even swaying beneath the Milky Way with eyes wide open on a cloudless and lightless night. All in all, it’s a hell of a spectacle.

https://awrizis.bandcamp.com/album/my-heart-has-no-home
https://www.instagram.com/awrizis/
https://www.facebook.com/AWRIZIS

 

STRESS TEMPLE (Israel)

Like the Argwaan album featured above, I also came across this next song among the many good ones included in Ron Ben-Tovim‘s latest collection of recommendations at Machine Music. As he put it, “Black metal and grindcore have never been so happy.”

“Gimme More!” is the name of this quick song and also captures my wish after hearing it. It features a banshee screamer and a ravenous growler, plus head-butting grooves, belligerent percussive furies, and riffing that alternately bursts in spasms, swarms in frenzies, and slashes like knives. It bounces and it brawls, feels rabid and freeing, and hell yes… gimme more.

The song is from Stress Temple‘s debut album Stressful Songs For People Who Don’t Have Time, which will be out on all platforms on “03.01.25.” I don’t know if that means January 3rd or March 1st.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557788977088

 

GROUND SWEAT (U.S.) / HUSMANSKOST (Norway)

In its infinite wisdom, YouTube served up this next split between Ground Sweat from NY and Husmanskost from Kristiansund right after that Stress Temple song ended. The split started playing so fast that I didn’t know what I was hearing since I was on another screen typing some notes, but it sounded like the algorithmic DJ knew just how to follow up the Stress Temple track.

On the split, Ground Sweat start by chewing up the listener with three songs, and Husmanskost then violently spit out the remains with four more. The whole thing lasts just a hair more than 11 minutes.

Ground Sweat punch the adrenaline right off the bat in “Surrender to Disintegrate,” with fast. battering-ram grooves; crazed and carnivorous riffing; beats that blast, batter, and gallop; lead guitars that scream and screech; and high-low vocals that are both berserk and bestial.

Their next two songs keep the voltage high and the listener’s head spinning, veering from feral careening punk to grindcore mayhem and back again. It’s scary to imagine what this band would do to a live pit.

When Husmanskost take their turn, they keep the energy up in the red zone, thanks to blazing-fast and relentlessly jaw-dropping snare-work, blowtorch riffage mixed with insectile fret-spasms, and malicious bellowing.

Their songs are mainly maelstroms of uncaged madness, but the band do punctuate the insanity with quick doses of knee-capping groove and infectiously pulsating chords.

I don’t care how hungover you might be this morning (I sure as hell am), this split will wake you the fuck up and get you ready to fight the world.

https://groundsweat.bandcamp.com/album/split-ep-with-husmanskost
https://www.facebook.com/p/Ground-Sweat-61555758248815/

https://husmanskost.bandcamp.com/album/split-with-ground-sweat
https://www.facebook.com/husmanskostmetal

 

BYFROST (Norway)

In our NCS WordPress blogging software we have a “plugin” that shows us our Top 10 posts each day in terms of web traffic. Yesterday, for reasons I can’t fathom, one of the Top 10 (actually No. 4) was a post I wrote on December 31, 2011, cleverly entitled “Happy New Year Motherfuckers.” Of course I had to go look at it.

Apart from comparing a photo of fireworks shooting out of Seattle’s Space Needle to a massive ejaculation, I included some song streams for New Year’s Eve. One of those songs, which I thought would be a good way to march into the New Year, was Byfrost‘s “Horns To the Sky.” Man, seeing that song title caught me in a tidal wave of nostalgia, which I then proceeded to gleefully surf.

Back then, I was as worshipful a fan of Byfrost as existed anywhere. That song “Horns To the Sky” was one of many favorites I had from their 2010 debut album Black Earth, which I reviewed here, describing the music as “bare-boned and primal”, filled with “hooks so sharp and deep that it’s easy to get caught up by them”, producing “the sensation of being shaken like a rag doll by giant, clawed hands in time to a hellish beat.”

I put a song from that album named “Desire” as the first entry on my list of 2010’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. It included a guest guitar performance by Arve Isdal (“Ice Dale” of Enslaved fame). I wrote then:

“Desire” is loaded with massive riffs that compel head-banging, as well as memorable melody. Don’t be fooled when the music comes to a dead stop at 2:13. It’s just shifting to a more stately pace. And when the opening theme returns again at 5:20, you may smile, and you’re almost sure to start banging yo’ head with a vengeance.

“Say your prayers / To someone who cares / You will be burned / Why haven’t you learned?”

Below I’m including streams of both “Desire” and “Horns to the Sky,” from both Spotify and ReverbNation, which I didn’t know still existed. They remain great songs, and great ways to get into a new year. Last night I played them for some of the people I was partying with — they weren’t metalheads, but the songs were still a hit.

P.S. According to Metal-Archives, Byfrost have been “on hold” since the release of their second album in 2011, Of Death. I enthusiastically reviewed that one too, and I included the song “Buried Alive” from that album on my 2011 Infectious Song list.

https://www.facebook.com/BYFROST/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6SRevxBxnxX6pgi2R6ATiv