(Andy Synn is in charge today… woe unto us all)
These are dark days, my friends.
Our beloved overlord has abandoned us to go off and… checks notes… have something called “a social life”?
Which means it’s all up to little ol’ me to keep the site running this weekend while he’s off gallavanting around.
Thankfully I had not one but two “short but sweet” collections already in the works, which means we will still have some stuff to post this weekend… but you can be damn sure I’ll be having some stern words with Islander about his behaviour as soon as he gets back.
1917 – EXECRATIO PERPETUA
In a world which seems constantly obsssed with whatever the latest new, young, fresh thing may be (and our scene isn’t innocent of this either, just think back to any of the various fawning articles over whatever the latest “teen Metal band” sensation was at the time, and then think about just how long many of them lasted… or didn’t) it’s reassuring to know that you can still discover long-running bands you weren’t aware of who are still kicking ass and taking names entirely on their own terms.
Argentinian Death Metal duo 1917 are one such example of this phenomenon, having released their debut album way back in 1998, and following it up with a further 12 full-length releases in the years since… however it wasn’t until they dropped their Execratio Perpetua EP a few months back that I first stumbled across them.
Beginning with the choppy, chattering riffs and caustic, Carcass-esque vocals of “Repulsión”, then moving swiftly through the moodily melodic guitar work and brooding, undulating bass lines of “El fango hediondo de la vergüenza” and the more blackened blastery of “The Seed of the Hecatomb”, culminating in the chunkier, chuggier attack of “Cáliz de hiel”, the band (Alejandro Sabransky on vocals/guitars/drum programming, Mario Mansilla on bass) display a knack for combining sharp, hooky riffs with subtle technical twists (Mansilla’s bass work in particular demonstrates some subtly proggy proclivities across all four tracks) in a manner which reflects their many years of experience.
Sure, I’d love it if they were to find a real, flesh and blood drummer capable of taking them to that next level (which is no slight on Sabransky’s programming work), but if you’re a fan of bands like Sadus, Hypocrisy, and early God Dethroned – as well as the catchier works of the aforemention Steer, Walker, and co. – you would do well to check these guys out, if you haven’t done so already.
CISZA – YOU ARE JUST A GHOST
Last time we heard from Polish Post-Black Metal quartet Cisza – and the last time we wrote about them – was just after the release of their debut album, She Yearns for Other Worlds, back in 2023.
At the time the band’s sound drew, and deserved, laudable comparisons with the likes of Agrypnie and Harakiri for the Sky, and while they may have gone… ahem… silent for a while, they certainly weren’t forgotten about (not around these parts, anyway).
And while I wasn’t able to find time to write about their new EP, You Are Just a Ghost, in advance of its release last month – sorry guys – I’m happy that I’m able to share at least a few words about it here today, in the hope of helping it, and them, reach a few more ears.
The aforementioned Agrypnie/HftS comparisons still hold true, of that there’s no doubt – the opening title-track leaning a little towards the former, albeit with what feels like an even more pronounced Melodeath edge, while “Until Last Breath” errs more towards the latter – but the band’s second release, shorter though it may be, feels both more refined and more defined, as they strike a more confident and self-assured tone.
This is particularly apparent during “Journey to the Stars” – whose rocket-propelled blastbeats, seething tremolo lines, and soaring melodies represent an even more intense approach for the band (one which it maintains for the majority eight minute run-time) – and cathartically catchy closer “Untrodden Paths of Satan” (which features some of the most electrifying guitar work on the EP, as well as some unexpectedly epic synth embellishments), both of which have me hoping to hear much more, much sooner, from these guys after this.
HEXER – A BLACK FLAME IN COSMIC VOID
German Black/Doom duo Hexer are another band we haven’t heard from in a few years – possibly due to guitarist/vocalists Marvin Giehr’s commitments to his other band, Imha Tarikat – but whom we’re always happy to hear more from, no matter how long it takes.
In this case that takes the form of three brand new tracks whose heaving riffs and pounding drums sit somewhere in the grim, gloom-shrouded sonic landscape between Ultha at their darkest and harshest and Bölzer at their boldest and most bombastic.
As impressively massive as the guitars are, and as hard as drummer Gereon Brune hammers away at his kit, the biggest strength of these songs is the way they deviously and dynamically shift shape as they progress, with thunderous opener “Torch Head” combining heaving, tectonic rhythms and howling, tortured vocals with moments of sinister, simmering atmosphere (all building to an absolutely scorching crescendo), while the early-Mastodon-esque title-track showcases both some punchy, powerhouse riffage and some proggy, technically-challenging passages (especially in the song’s second half) that are as stunningly intense in their execution as they are surprisingly intricate in their ambition.
It’s colossal, nine-and-a-half minute closer “Horizontal Heavy Rain”, however, that really hammers home how much we’ve missed Hexer during the last few years, its absolutely crushing, crawling riffs and surging, stomping, strafing drums – capable of shifting from a stripped-back, bare-bones bludgeoning to a vicious, visceral barrage of blastbeats, and back again, at a moment’s notice – collapsing into an abyssal, ambient mid-section before exploding back out of the speakers again as it reaches its sickeningly catchy, sludge-soaked finale.
RANĂ – FREAMĂT
Blackened Crust collective Rană are yet another band who we haven’t heard from since 2023 (which, obviously, wasn’t that long ago… even if it feels like a lifetime), when they released what is still one of my favourite albums of the last several years in the form of the Blackened Crust brilliance of Richtfeuer.
And while I’ve been anxiously awaiting something new from them ever since, what I did not expect was for their next release to take the form of a seventeen-and-a-half minute single track epic named “Freamăt”.
Of course, it’s not like the band are strangers to long-form compositions (“Our Smouldering Grief”, the epic finale of Richtfeuer, was actually even longer than this one), but the decision to make their latest release just one track suggests that they’re telling a complete story here, one with its own ups and downs, ebbs and flows, and a clear beginning and end.
Which is exactly what you get when you push play on “Freamăt”, whose slow-burn beginning first emphasises the doomier and more melodic side of the band’s sound – tolling chords and chiming leads forming a backdrop for a mix of sombre choral vocals and bleak, wounded howls – before, eventually, unleashing a blackened blitzkrieg of pummelling blastbeats and scything tremolo lines that instantly raise the intensity.
Even these, however, are eventually contrasted against the echoing, post-metallic ambience of the song’s mid-section (where the contrast between harsh and clean vocals also remains as compelling as ever), which pulls the band’s sound back to a darker, doomier, crustier place, only to then reintroduce an extra dose of that same melancholy melody from the intro, which serves as the key to the track’s cathartic crescendo, with the whole band going hell for leather until they collapse into a brooding, exhausted calm.
It’s a fascinating, captivating, piece of work, and one which has me hoping we’ll get another full length from them sooner rather than later!