SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: IGORRR, BEASTWARS, AFSKY, AEPHANEMER

(written by Islander)

With only one track premiere on our calendar for today I grabbed the free time to once again get a head start on our usual Saturday roundup of recommended new music. I picked four songs out of the great flood of new things that surfaced this week.

This little collection includes offerings from bands that have been personal favorites for a while (I’ll get to some newcomers to my ears over the weekend), and it begins and ends with songs paired with very good videos, both of which also include some very different combinations of metal and classical music (and the third song does too).

 

IGORRR (France)

I’m starting with a new song and a tremendous video from Igorrr‘s forthcoming album Amen for three reasons: (a) the song is named “Headbutt“; (b) the video concludes with an excavator delivering the coup de grace to a piano (a piano, to be clear, that had already seen the end of its useful life); and (c) the song is a tremendous head-spinner (and nose-breaker).

It really does begin like a startling headbutt delivered to the bridge of the nose… and then immediately switches to vividly rippling piano keys, vividly blasting drums, and vividly whirring guitar… and then switches again to solemn and soaring choral voices… and then switches again to vocal flame-throwing, viscerally throbbing grooves, and bursts of skittering guitar mania.

The twists and turns don’t stop there either. A syncopated beat provides the backing for a solo operatic singer and the resurgence of the piano. Further vocal and instrumental convulsions ensue, including spastic spices of glitchiness, spidery fretwork, guttural bellows, some terrific drumming — and of course a closing headbutt (two of them).

Speaking of the drumming, my compadre DGR would like to call out the drum fill at the 2:28 mark. As he commented in our little chat group, “They knew what they’re doing when they just broke it out solo and gave the drummer the full camera because fuck man, it’s perfectly placed and fucked up how smooth it is. Makes you jealous.”

I also want to share comments about the song from Igorrr mastermind Gautier Serre:

Is the biggest fortissimo ever made on a piano bigger than heavy and massive metal riffs? The match between classical music and metal was very close, but the piano won with that final excavator uppercut. Starting with an ostinato that gives the pulse of the track and shows that the piano can also be a rhythmic instrument, we witness smart blows between both parties, going crescendo until the actual headbutt on the piano, which wasn’t even the strongest or last move from classical music.

Amen will be released by Metal Blade on September 19th.

https://www.metalblade.com/igorrr/
https://www.facebook.com/IgorrrBarrroque/

 

BEASTWARS (New Zealand)

I’ve been religiously writing about the music of Beastwars ever since premiering a song from their self-titled debut album in 2011, which is why I’m dumbfounded to realize that I wrote nothing at all about their latest album Tyranny of Distance, which was released in 2023. I really have no explanation.

Well, soon enough that won’t be their latest album because they’ve just announced that a new album named The Ship // The Sea will be released on November 7th via Destroy Records. In keeping with Beastwars tradition its cover art is a piece by the tremendous NZ painter Nick Keller. It ties in with the album’s themes, described this way by the band’s vocalist Matt Hyde:

Life has become a marathon for most people. How can we not see the injustice, the cruelty of the world? Our new album is like Picasso’s Guernica – a reflection of war and horror, of endings and upheavals. It’s the sound of a ship adrift on a cruel sea.

Along with the album announcement Beastwars debuted the new album’s first advance song, “Levitate“. Within it the emotional power and range of Matt Hyde‘s voice remains a marvel to behold, as it has always been. But it’s not the only spine tingling thing about the song. Most immediately, it will get your pulse-rate jumping like a well-fueled piston and your muscles moving. It further includes slithering, darting, and screeching tendrils of devilishly delirious melody.

I get strong hints of post-punk in the song, but it’s damned heavy too, and as catchy as chlamydia. And fuck, it’s so good to hear Matt Hyde again.

https://linktr.ee/beastwars
https://beastwars.bandcamp.com/album/the-ship-the-sea
https://www.facebook.com/beastwars666/

 

AFSKY (Denmark)

On October 17th Eisenwald will release a new Afsky album named Fællesskab. A few days ago we got a first glimpse of it through a song named “Natmaskinen” (Nightmachine).

It opens almost like a waltz, slow and measured in its pace, but with a thrilling riff that vividly vibrates as it spirals up and down, yet it has a melancholy emotional quotient that becomes even more distraught as it leaps into a higher octave. The music is grand, but the vocals are scalding, though torment seems to fuel both of them.

Eventually the intensity subsides, in favor of a beautifully sad guitar harmony, joined by a moody bass melody. And then the music spins up toward the stratosphere again, trilling and turbulent, piercing and elegant above and booming and blasting below, with vocals that shatter into screaming shards. Intensely dramatic and breathtaking stuff here.

And although I’m certainly no expert in classical music, as I said at the outset this song does seem to embrace it. If only I could place the era… maybe the Romantic era?

https://afsky.lnk.to/natmaskinen
https://bio.to/afsky
https://afsky.bandcamp.com/album/f-llesskab
https://www.facebook.com/afskymusic/

 

AEPHANEMER (France)

And to close, here’s a very well-made video featuring both the band and a limber dancer for the first song from Aephanemer‘s forthcoming fourth album Utopie. Before we get to that, I’ll share the band’s statement about the album as a whole:

With Utopie, we set out to create a sound that brings together the elements we’ve always loved — the intensity of melodic death metal and the depth of classical music. We spent a lot of time shaping melodies, drawing inspiration from polyphonic writing, and building orchestral arrangements that feel both powerful and natural to us. It was a challenging but fulfilling process, and we sincerely hope listeners will connect with what we’ve crafted.

Now to the song. Its name is “La Règle du Jeu” (The Rules of the Game). As the third amalgamation of metal and classical music in today’s collection, this one is fast, intricate, and deliriously exultant — though Marion Bascoul‘s voice channels a vicious goblin snarl. When the delirium briefly subsides, the music sounds more sinister, but a glorious guitar solo whirls it up into ecstatic, head-spinning jubilation again.

The instrumental performances are fantastic, and it’s a treat to get to see them in the video. It’s also fun to watch the unchained dancer trying her best to interpret all the gloriously unchained musical madness. A thoroughly exhilarating audio-visual experience….

Utopie will be out on October 31st via Napalm Records.

https://www.indiemerchstore.com/collections/aephanemer
https://aephanemer.bandcamp.com/album/utopie
https://www.facebook.com/Aephanemer/