(written by Islander)
Yesterday I doubted I’d have time for a roundup today due to picnic preparation participation (the post-pandemic PPP). But as you can see, I did, due to waking up way earlier than I thought I would.
I’m going to miss those extra hours of lost sleep by the time this day and night end, but getting to delve into these four tremendous new songs, three of which arrived with excellent videos, is the silver lining to that wearying cloud.
The keywords for what follows are “immensity” and “intensity”.
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT (Germany)
One of our site’s favorite black metal bands, Der Weg Einer Freiheit, will be releasing a new album named Innern in September through Season of Mist. Along with that exciting news, this past week brought the unveiling of an album track named “Eos“, presented through the first of today’s three excellent videos.
The song is described as “a visceral meditation on destruction and renewal; it adopts the voice of a fallen soldier, whose final hope is to become one with the earth, a vessel for life rather than a casualty of violence.” The press release we received included these further words, which I think are worth quoting:
“Eos” stands at the heart of the album’s journey. The song reminds us that from the grave of war, life returns rooted in sorrow, reaching toward light. Its journey begins in restraint, with guitars echoing in mournful dialogue. Then a pulse emerges beneath, a low-end rumble of bass accompanied by the drums’ ritualistic cadence. From this stillness, the track bursts into a maelstrom. Searing guitars and a punishing rhythm come together, presenting black metal at its most unrelenting. [Nikita] Kamprad’s anguished vocals tie the violence to its aftermath, rendering grief inseparable from transformation.
Within Innern, “Eos” functions as both accusation and elegy. The song reflects on nature’s quiet, uncompromising justice. Over time, life stirs in silence; the red, blood-soaked soil gives way to green. The Earth begins to dance once more. During the song’s final act, the war’s architect is overtaken by the same regenerative force, dragged down from his throne and absorbed into the soil.
In reflecting on the song, the word that comes to mind is “oceanic”. Its opening phase becomes vast and shines, like slowly moving tides, though a throbbing guitar gives it a tense pulse. And then the music becomes a whirlpool-swirl and it crashes, like a storm-driven assault on rocky shores, with its own vibrant pulse.
The vocals are tremendous, ruinously howling and extravagantly soaring, and the rhythm section’s varying maneuvers continually seize attention too. The music also extravagantly soars and sweeps, rising along with the vocals to reach a pinnacle of tragic grandeur.
https://orcd.co/derwegeinerfreiheitinnern
https://derwegeinerfreiheit.bandcamp.com/album/innern
https://instagram.com/derwegeinerfreiheit
https://www.facebook.com/derwegeinerfreiheit
ELBE (Czechia)
A press release landed in our in-box yesterday reporting that the Czech band Elbe had joined the roster of Octopus Rising / Argonauta Records. It also disclosed that those labels would release a new Elbe album named Peculiar in early Autumn 2025. I wasn’t familiar with Elbe, but decided to check out their new single based on the description of their music as “blending elements of post-metal, post-rock, doomgaze and atmospheric intensity.”
The single, “Never Again“, was presented through a fascinating and extremely well-made video (directed, written, shot, and animated by Marek “Frodys” Pytlík). Rather than risk spoiling what happens in the video and how it might be interpreted, I think I’ll say no more about it — but of course I’ll say something about the song.
I was about to use the phrase “ebb and flow” to describe the song, but those words seem too mild. In its least intense phases, the music slowly swirls and brightly gleams, like celestial vapors gently caressing the senses around a rhythm section that brings a bit of funk to the groove.
But the music also abruptly detonates and darkens, stomping and groaning and wailing around growls of harrowing intensity. And then Elbe turn up the intensity another notch, slugging hard as the vocals splinter into furious screams. Those ethereal keys don’t disappear but they seem to scream too.
Back and forth the music goes, providing variations in both the softer and harder phases, including some subdued singing of the song’s title before Elbe bring out their battering-ram rage one more time.
https://elbeband.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/elbeband
https://www.instagram.com/elbe_band
SHADOWS (Germany/Sweden)
Shadows is a blackened death metal band composed of former members of such acts as Visceral Bleeding, The Berzerker, Enshrined, and Ominous. Yesterday they released a video for their forthcoming debut album’s third advance track, “Delivered From Sin“. It includes a guest solo by Andreas Hedberg. I missed the album’s first two singles, but I’m sure glad I didn’t miss this one.
The face of vocalist/guitarist Dejan Milenkovits, as it changes from signs of disgust to fury (without over-acting), might be the most riveting aspect of the video, but his gritty snarling and screaming voice is also riveting. As for the music, its opening guitar harmony establishes a mood of anguish, and then the band pick it up and make it tremendously more expansive. The low end sounds like the rumble of an earthquake just before the drums begin blasting.
The song’s distressing main riff has deeply penetrating power, and the music’s near-symphonic breadth brings another scale of dramatic intensity. A glorious guitar solo manages to pitch the intensity to an even higher zenith, while an immensely heavy bass keeps everything grounded in darkness.
The name of Shadows‘ album is Miseria. It’s set for release on August 29th.
https://shadows-official.lnk.to/delivered-from-sin
https://shadows-official.com/
https://shadows-official-cult.bandcamp.com/album/delivered-from-sin
https://www.facebook.com/shadows.official.cult
ORDEALS (U.S.)
Six years after their last EP (Choose Death, enthusiastically reviewed here by our Andy Synn), the New York black/death trio Ordeals are returning with their debut album, which has the hard-to-forget name Third Rail Prayer. My last choice for today’s roundup is the album’s title song.
It sounds like emergency sirens going off in the opening seconds, the only warning you get before the song explodes in an assault of blasting drums, incendiary guitar-storms (it still sounds like sirens are going off within them), and crazed screams. The riffing is engulfing but feverish; the bass thunderous; the lead guitar a fiery and frenetic presence; the voice unhinged as it cries out.
That voice maniacally laughs too, and the guitars ring out peals of pain above big booming beats and earth-heaving low frequencies. The lead guitar pierces through and wrenchingly wails, a prelude to a spiraling splendor of sound, which is itself a prelude to a final jaw-dropping, heart-pounding convulsion of violent intensity.
I don’t have any desire to touch a third rail, but listening to this I think I already know how that would feel.
Third Rail Prayer will be released on September 26th by Eternal Death.
https://eternaldeath.bandcamp.com/album/third-rail-prayer
https://www.facebook.com/OrdealsAscendant