(Andy Synn presents four fascinating releases from May that are well worth checking out)
May was an odd month… obviously we were quieter than usual here at NCS due to our annual NWTF/MDF break, but it also felt like there were fewer releases during that time that I really wanted to check out.
Of course, that all changed in the last week or so, as it seemed like every band/label out there decided to back-load their releases, meaning that there’s a lot for me to get through in this article in order to feel like I’ve at least semi-caught up with what I missed.
Hell, I’ll probably end up doing a second one of these “Things You May Have Missed” pieces later this week… and even then I’ll have to leave a few things on the cutting room floor (such as my wider thoughts on the new Devin Townsend, which some have called “a masterpiece” but which feels to me like yet another attempt to sum up his entire career in one “definitive” form that, as a result, simply iterates on existing elements and ideas rather than actually adding to his artistic palette).
Until then, however, enjoy some (hopefully) new music that you may otherwise have missed!
DEUS SABAOTH – DISTORTION OF LIES
Making music isn’t easy at the best of times… life, work, illness, and all sorts of different demands and commitments tend to get in the way whenever you least need them to.
But making music while your country is being bombarded by an invading foreign power? That’s a level of stress and struggle I can’t even comprehend.
And yet this is exactly what Ukranian Black Metal trio Deus Sabaoth have managed to do over the last few years, releasing their debut album, Cycle of Death, last year and now following it up with their sophomore album Distortion of Lies (released just last week).
Comprising seven darkly infectious tracks, richly apportioned in layers of chilling melody and brooding melancholy, the band’s particular blend of seething guitar work (courtesy of main songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alyona Neith), rhythmic, hammering drums, and gravelly, guttural vocals, is buoyed by an undercurrent of semi-symphonic misery/majesty (especially during the gloomy grandeur and soaring melodic hooks of “Distortion of Lies” and triumphant penultimate track “For There Will Be Dawn”) that helps give them a slightly more esoteric identity than your average “Melodic Black Metal” band.
It also helps that the music is dynamic enough – from the grim, furious intensity of “Worship” and “Tree of Knowledge” to the unsettling, folk-horror menace of “Last Gleam” and the climactic, doom-laden strains of “Wooden Box” – to keep things feeling fresh and vibrant, even if the band aren’t necessarily adding anything new to the canon, with the result being that Distortion of Lies should definitely (and deservedly) earn the band a whole new array of fans.
HARBOURED – WE’RE THE ONLY LOVE THAT WE LEAD
Featuring two members of Allegaeon (Michael Stancel and Brandon Michael) and one member of Emasculator (Cierra White), there’s an argument that Harboured could be referred to as a “super group” (at least in certain circles)… if that term hadn’t been rendered pretty much meaningless over the years.
Call the group what you will though – and the question of their specific genre tag remains pretty open, with the term “Post Black Metal” being thrown around a lot, even if it perhaps doesn’t quite fit them as well as it does some other bands – there’s a lot of collective talent on display here, with the band’s recently-released second album earning (and deserving) positive comparisons to the likes of Junius, Chrome Waves, and Lantlôs (especially during the immersive, introspective strains of “Guardrail” and “End Credits”).
From the slow-building swell of the opening title-track to the final climactic note(s) of the twitchily energetic “Agenda Suicide”, the trio lock into a sound so thoroughly divorced from their main projects that you could be forgiven for thinking that We’re the Only Love That We Lead was the product of a creative partnership going back decades, despite the fact that the group only put out their debut album in 2023.
Diverse and dynamic, marrying weighty riffs and impressively intense drum work with an array of harsh screams and crooning cleans, songs like the thrumming, bass-driven catharsis of the SOM-esque “Sevin” and the scintillating shimmer ‘n’ shine of “New Year’s Day”, as well as the electrifying back-to-back blending of gorgeous melody and glorious emotion that is “Debts” and “Halifax”, should definitely (and finally) help put Harboured on the map as a project more than worth supporting on their own artistic merits, and not just the pedigree of everyone involved.
MANSVARA – SABLE ODES TO NIHILITY
“Dissonant Elegance” is the name of the second song on Sable Odes to Nihility, the debut album from Mansvara (whose line-up includes members of Horda, Void Spectrum and more), and aptly describes their bleak, blistering, yet oddly beautiful brand of Blackened Death Metal.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s also heavy as hell – the pure blasting fury and artillery-strength riffage on display during the likes of “Deathsentence” and “Lingering Void’s Echo” should be more than enough evidence of that – but the elegant, eloquent dissonance threaded like poisoned veins throughout songs such as the aforementioned “Dissonant Elegance”, the gloom-laden, atmosphere heavy “Grief Doctrine”, and the sinuous, sinister title-track proves that there’s always a moody method to the band’s metallic madness no matter how aggressive and abrasive things become.
As a result the album ultimately lands somewhere between the prowling, predatory vibe of Svart Crown‘s outstanding Profane and the creative complexity of Ageless Oblivion‘s equally stunning Penthos, and while it’s probably going to take me a little while to be able to say, with authority, whether or not Sable Odes… ultimately lives up to those lofty standards (meaning it’s a good thing the record feels like it’s probably going to have some serious staying power) on first impressions what we have here is one of the strongest debut albums of the year.
Don’t believe me? Well, if you can put aside about 37 minutes to blast this one… and make sure to blast it loud to ensure you really get a chance to appreciate the multifaceted melding of dissonance, melody, and scorching riffery which makes up “Obsidianize”, “Consigned Doom”, etc… you might just discover a brand new favourite. I sure have.
PHASE MERIDIAN – EGREGORE
It’s fitting that beloved Prog-lords Mastodon just released their first new songs in years (and their first new music since the sad passing of Brent Hinds) just after Phase Meridian released their new album (their first full-length release since 2022’s Grow. Decay. Transform.) as the two bands clearly possess both a shared lineage (to the point where the former are a clear influence on the latter) and a shared love of gnarly, proggy Sludge Metal.
That’s not to say that Phase Meridian are a simple derivative of their Atlant-ean brethren – just take a listen to the undulating ebb and flow of opener “Violence is Sacred” and you’ll no doubt also hear some sonic similarities to the likes of early Dvne and much-loved NCS faves Witch Ripper (if only due to the way the band move back and forth between cathartic howls and contemplative clean singing) – but there’s definitely a sense that, on this album at least, the Minnesotan trio deserve just as much attention and exposure.
Whether that’s for the charred-to-the-bone churn ‘n’ burn of “For Those Who Choose Extinction” – which highlights the harsher and more chaotic side of the band’s sound, especially when it comes to the bone-rattling drums and clanging, cantankerous bass lines which underpin the song – the lurching, infectious grooves of “Egregore”, or the booming, bombastic riffs, crooning clean vocals, and soaring soloing of penultimate powerhouse “Negative Patterns” (which really shows you what the band are capable of), the high points of this album are absolutely worth the price of admission.
Sure, it’s not perfect – the various bits and pieces which make up “In the Palm (of the Dead Hand)” don’t hang together as well as the band clearly intended them to (in my opinion at least) – but the trio’s collective creative and compositional abilities have absolutely come on in leaps and bounds since their debut, which suggests to me that we haven’t even seen the full extent of what this band may be capable of yet.