(written by Islander)
We’ve arrived at another Friday when Bandcamp relinquishes its share of sales to artists and labels. The timing is always a bit awkward for me because I usually post roundups of new music on Saturdays, too late to help people take advantage of Bandcamp’s temporary boon to music-makers. Of course, our usual week-long series of premieres and reviews still provide a lot of recommendations, and listeners can always save things for the next Bandcamp Friday (which will happen on September 4th).
I didn’t plan to do a roundup today because I had agreed to premiere and review a new album, but that fell through at the 11th hour. So I have some unexpected time to fill that hole, though not as much as I would have liked. I wish I could do more today, but a little something is better than a lot of nothing, especially because all of the following three songs are stupendous in different ways. If all goes well, I’ll have a lot more music to share tomorrow.
P.S. Although this little roundup doesn’t include releases by Dark Descent Records or Unholy Anarchy Records, both of those labels have pledged to donate 20% of any purchases made today on their Bandcamp pages to the GoFundMe established by Neill Jameson (of Krieg, and a contributor to NCS) to help deal with expenses after the recent passing of his wife Nikki from cancer and his need to become a full-time caregiver for their autistic daughter Vale. Direct donations to the GoFundMe can be made here. Please help if you can.
CH’AHOM (Germany)
Last fall Ch’ahom released a demo that functioned as a harbinger of another full-length to come, following up on their debut album Knots of Abhorrence (2023). They respectfully titled the demo Covered in the Priests Black Shit, and I summed it up as “six tracks and 15 minutes of storming chaos and howling madness, of tunnel-boring bass-lines and skull-clattering, bowel-loosening beats — a lights-out extravaganza of black/death/grind.”
Well, now that new album has been officially announced. Its name is Anthropic Rites Of Sublimation, and 20 Buck Spin has set it for release on September 18th. It’s described as “a concept album set in a fictional world inspired by the rituals, art, and architecture of pre-Hispanic cultures.” Today also brought us a stream of the album’s opening track, the remarkably elaborate “Cult Of Xaman“.
Fast tribal drums launch the song while strange wailing tones waft around those ritualistic beats. The rhythm slows, and it sounds like birds squawking and acid flooding. The beats accelerate, and the riffing swarms and contorts as the vocals rabidly howl and bestially roar.
The music also viciously jabs, seems to ooze poison, miserably moans, and goes off like a sickening siren. The drums boom, tumble, crash, and eventually hammer down a back-beat. The vocals rant and rage. It’s a thoroughly riveting experience.
https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/anthropic-rites-of-sublimation
https://www.instagram.com/devouringopaion
WELLNESS CHECK (U.S.)
Not really knowing what to expect, I took a flyer on this next song after the Indianapolis quintet who made it sent us a recent e-mail. It knocked me flat, threw me around the room while wrecking it, vigorously applied a tire iron to my head, and pureed the goop that came out in a blender.
In more prosaic terms, Wellness Check describe themselves as “a mathcore grindcore death metal band”, and their first single “Transient Curse” does indeed whip together ingredients from all those genres to electrifying (and destructive) effect.
The song inflicts abusive feedback, drives like an enormous battering ram, and snarls like metal being mangled. The raging vocals are explosive, and so is the jolting and jarring fury of the music — though the guitars also seem to miserably squirm, to cry out, and to peal like a warning siren. The song also dramatically slows, but only to set the stage for another dose of bone-busting and head-spinning mayhem.
On the one hand, the song is brutalizing, but on the other hand it’s intricate, fast-changing in many ways, and eye-popping in its vocal intensity. I also encourage you to read the lyrics at Bandcamp, because they’re potent.
“Transient Curse” will be included on a Wellness Check debut EP that they plan to release in the fall of this year; I’ll be very eager for that. Also, Wellness Check are playing their first show at Black Circle in Indy on Aug 21st.
https://wellnesscheck.bandcamp.com/track/transient-curse
https://www.facebook.com/wellnesscheckofficial/
DUMAL (U.S.)
Though we had praised Dumal’s debut album The Confessor back in 2020, I managed to overlook their last release, an EP named Blackened Spirit (2023). We won’t overlook their next release — an album named The Trials of Existence that’s coming out on October 2nd.
The new album’s first advance track, “Rendered Impotent by Glass“, is a musical kaleidoscope. It’s maniacal and blood-rushing; it’s scary as shit; it’s intriguing; and it’s magnificent.
Backed by a steadily cracking beat and a furiously pulsating bass, and fronted by malicious howls, the guitars and keys churn and throb, blare and quiver, wail and writhe, and the song digs its big hooks deep into listeners as all that happens. It sounds simultaneously desperate, ecstatic, and imperious.
Roughly halfway through, Dumal change things, pulling back on the spectacle they’ve been making and introduce a pulsating guitar bridge, joined by some fuzzy bass-noodling. They then carry that new melody forward at a pace slower than before, causing it to enticingly ring and squirm. Even when the band accelerate again, and those vicious vocals rejoin, the ringing melodies still generate a magnetic attraction.
Honestly, even after all those words, I’m still grappling with how to describe the song and worried that I haven’t done it justice. Fortunately, you can listen for yourselves!
https://dumal.bandcamp.com/album/the-trials-of-existence
https://www.instagram.com/dumal_666/