(written by Islander)
When I listen to music I know I’m going to write about I don’t do it the way “normal” people do (I use the term loosely because I know our usual visitors would abhor being labeled that way, and with good reason). I tend to jot down words and phrases, trying to capture what I’m feeling so I can write about it.
That didn’t happen when I listened for the first time to the Infernal Thorns song “Black Flesh“. I didn’t freeze up, but something like the opposite of freezing, caught up in the sheer flood of adrenaline in the bloodstream, marveling at the hellishness of the heat and the bolting changes, muscles twitching from all the diabolical musical barbs, and not one word jotted down.
It was so much hellish fun, such a bacchanal of barbarism, that I didn’t keep track of how many times I listened before reminding myself I needed to organize some thoughts as a way of introducing our premiere.
But fuck, I guess I just introduced our premiere.
Eventually I did jot down some words, and eventually formed them into sentences. I wanted to call out one of the most strikingly hysterical guitar solos I’ve heard this year — one that’s immediately followed by eerily yowling notes that conjure visions of bodies dissolving.
I wanted to call out the main guitar tones, which are really mind-raking even for a listener who’s hardened to the sonic abrasion of steel rasps working at ruinous speed. I wanted to somehow capture the galvanic turbocharge of the hell-spawned riffing, which is simultaneously violent and jubilant, veering between viciously jolting assaults and episodes of maniacally writhing dual-guitar madness.
I wanted to call out the exhilarating effect of thunderous bass-lines, skull-splitting drumwork, hard-slugging grooves, and a tandem of gang howls and monstrous roars, but also to highlight the blood-congealing effect of brief interstices that cause the music to drag and groan.
Well fuck, I guess I just introduced our premiere of “Black Flesh” a second time.
Please forgive my overuse of the “I” word. This isn’t about ME, it’s about the communion between YOU and INFERNAL THORNS that needs to happen right NOW:
The song is from this Chilean band’s third album Christus Venari, a nine-track 39-minute affair, which will be released on September 12th internationally by Personal Records. It was recorded in Audiocustom Studio and produced by Seba Puente.
Pre-orders are available now, and so is the diabolically glorious first single released from the album, “Christ Distressed“. Don’t miss it!
P.S. One of these two songs, or one of the other 7 songs on the album, is guaranteed to be on our year-end list of Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs – though I have no idea at this point how I’m going to decide which one!
PRE-ORDER:
https://personal-records.bandcamp.com/album/christus-venari
INFERNAL THORNS:
https://www.facebook.com/infernalthorns