(written by Islander)
A quick note before embarking on the new songs and videos I’ve collected for today: Tomorrow there will probably be no SHADES OF BLACK column. I’ll be over the water in Seattle tonight for a big annual party. Between getting ready, getting there, partying, and getting back, I won’t have much time for NCS and I don’t expect I’ll have a clear head whenever I wake up tomorrow.
And then tomorrow will also serve up a couple of NFL playoff games I want to see, especially the second one.
As for what I’ve picked for today’s roundup, out of a really mammoth week of new releases, I’ve leaned further into shades of black metal than usual because of the likely absence of the Sunday column, and for the same reason I’ve made this collection bigger than usual. I’ve also probably leaned pretty hard into music that seems in line with my perception that the world is going to hell even faster than I thought it would, with way too many people beginning the year still thinking thoughts like these.
WITCH RIPPER (U.S.)
To begin, here’s a new song and video from an old favorite around here, Seattle’s Witch Ripper.
Launched by a quick but exhilarating drum solo, this song “Portal” pulls together riffing that eerily wails and primitively chugs, vocals that soar in song and caustically howl, sinister slithering arpeggios and grand melodic fanfares, devilish soloing and jolting grooves, and lots of exhilarating drum-fills.
In a word, the song is terrific — and catchy as hell. The sinister video is a hell of a lot of fun too.
“Portal” is from Witch Ripper’s new album Through the Hourglass, which will be released by Magnetic Eye Records on April 10th. Chris Panatier did the amazing cover art.
https://witchripper.bandcamp.com/album/through-the-hourglass
https://www.facebook.com/witchripper
https://www.instagram.com/witch_ripper
CNOC AN TURSA (Scotland)
Up at the top I mentioned a party tonight. It’s the 26th time I’ve attended an annual celebration in Seattle of the birthday of Robert Burns, and it will happen this weekend in many other places around the world. I’m no Scot, nor even remotely descended from any Scots, and it would take too many words for me to explain the attraction despite my lack of heritage. Maybe it just comes down to the pleasures of drinking a lot of whisky with a lot of crazy but also occasionally solemn people while wearing unbifurcated garments and listening to the Bard’s poems and songs.
Anyway, it was thus good timing that this week brought a new song by Cnoc An Tursa, and a really fine one it is, though I doubt I could convince people to sing it at the end of tonight’s party instead of “Auld Lang Syne”.
“Alba In My Heart” leaps from the speakers with great intensity, combining vividly rumbling and rattling drums with riffing that vividly whirs, simultaneously fierce and desperate in its mood. The music also thrillingly soars, and I think the high, trilling guitars would make me think of Highland bagpipes even if I didn’t know where Cnoc An Tursa come from and what inspired this album.
The vocals are absolutely ferocious; the bass boils as well as throbs; and the drumming will get muscles twitching; but the music also slows and panoramically expands, even as it casts a melancholy spell and manifests haunting grandeur. Thereafter a different and more dismal guitar harmony drenches the listener in sorrow, but the band follow that with a closing guitar solo that’s more uplifting and thoroughly mesmerizing (and one could imagine it being performed by a fiddler).
The song is from the band’s new album, and their first one in a long time, A Cry For The Slain. It will be released by Apocalyptic Witchcraft on April 24th. The stunning artwork was created by Olga Kann.
https://apocalypticwitchcraft.bandcamp.com/album/a-cry-for-the-slain
https://www.facebook.com/cnocantursa
DIABOLUS, MECUM SEMPERTERNE (Norway)
The next song caught my attention because the Norwegian black metal band that made it, Diabolus, Mecum Semperterne, has a lineup that includes members of Manes, Manii, Whoredom Rife, Misotheist, Mare, Djevel, and Vemod, among others. Those names just caught your attention too, right?
The first long song off their debut album took my breath away. In the opening phase of “Gratias agamus domino infero deo nostro” the drums furiously hurtle and the music brilliantly blazes, joined by possessed vocals of ravaging intensity — which then transform into the rising of reverent choral voices, followed by a deeper, slithering riff that’s more grim and distressing.
In that turbocharged opening phase, the song’s intertwining of demonic howls, monstrous roars, and clarion choral voices that slowly flow makes for a stunning combination. But the song as a whole also dramatically slows in its next phase. The riffing is still dense, abrasive, and immersive, but more forlorn in its mood.
Eventually, both the drums and the riffing grow more frantic and dire, and distant roars frighteningly expel spoken words. Once again, the music both accelerates and expands, creating visions of terrible glory and wrenching agony. Once again, the spectrum of vocals also expands, and the effect just makes the music all the more terrifying.
The band’s self-titled debut album, which includes this song, will be released by Terratur Possessions on February 20th. And by the way, the band’s name translates to “The Devil, Always With Me”, and the song’s name means “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God”.
https://terraturpossessions.bandcamp.com/track/gratias-agamus-domino-infero-deo-nostro
https://www.facebook.com/TerraturPossessions
UNMOTHER (UK)
Unmother is a black metal band based in London, formed in 2019 by members from Those Damn Thieves, Formless Body, and Dothe. They released their debut album Lay Down The Sun in 2021 through True Cult Records, and now they have a second one, State Dependent Memory, set for release on February 20th.
The first advance track from the album, “My Armor“, thoroughly sold me because of its passionate intensity — though it doesn’t begin that way. It begins with a woman softly speaking (in words I can’t make out), backed by dark and dismal chords (rough in tone) and brightly pinging keys.
At nearly a minute in, however, the song becomes more tempestuous, with drums rapidly thundering and a voice screaming in torment. Yet while the riffing is then more expansive, flowing like a vast tide, the mood is still unmistakably dark and anguished.
Unmother do switch things up, shifting into rocking and leaping beats and a vividly surging riff. Though the vocals are still mostly scarifying, they also include fervent yells and distorted spoken words. But the music eventually descends again into dismal emotional depths in which the lead guitar seems to miserably weep and only the drums and those shattering vocals keep the heart beating fast.
The song provides a powerful reason to check out the album as a whole — it will be released physically via Fiadh Productions on vinyl and cassette.
https://unmother.bandcamp.com/album/my-armor
https://www.facebook.com/unmother.london
https://www.instagram.com/unmother_official
GROWTH (Australia)
This week also brought the news that the Australian progressive death metal band Growth have a new album named Under The Under that’s set for release on March 27th via Wild Thing Records. What’s next in today’s collection is a performance video for the album’s incendiary (and mind-boggling) first single, “Remember Me As Fire“.
Prepare for fretwork that both maniacally convulses and stressfully blares, coupled with equally adventurous drumwork, growly bass appearances, and a cavalcade of cut-throat screams and belligerent roars. The riffing continues in constant flux — screaming and convulsing in seizures, fluidly swirling and rapidly darting, dissonantly blaring, and seeming to moan in anguish and to boil in pain.
The overarching moods of the song manifest emotional darkness in varying shades, including moments of outright dementia, and the closing guitar solo, which unfurls over insectile jolts, sounds truly miserable. But to repeat, the technically lights-out performances and the riotously unpredictable nature of the composition are mind-boggling.
https://growthmusic.bandcamp.com/album/under-the-under
https://linktr.ee/growthnoise
https://www.facebook.com/growthnoise
MIRE (U.S.)
Yesterday afternoon DGR tipped me to the news that the Denver band Mire (not the Manchester band Mire) had released the first single and title track to their new album Pale Reflection. So I tracked down the song and video, and that’s what’s next.
The vocals are definitely blistering in their howled and screamed intensity, and the riffing swirls, roils, and rapidly skitters in ways that get the adrenaline flowing and the head spinning. Astutely, the drums are mainly steady, because everything else sounds wild — though the song also packs a lot of groovesome, vividly throbbing punch.
An emerging fretwork fever also establishes a pattern that’s pretty groovy in a different way, like a rhythmically attuned insect swarm, and the song further includes both finger-tapped and fret-melter guitar solos that will make listeners heads spin even faster. I should also add that for a song this kaleidoscopic, it’s highly infectious too.
https://thebandmire.bandcamp.com/album/pale-reflection
https://www.facebook.com/thebandMIRE/
SLÔDDER (Sweden) / SUNDOWNER (Australia)
Last November I had the pleasure of premiering a crusher of an album named Narcissist by the Swedish misanthropic sludge band Slôdder. Two days ago I got a Bandcamp alert that Slôdder had just released a new two-track split with the sludgy Australian band Sundowner. After putting on a helmet and a chest protector I gave it a listen.
Slôdder’s song, amusingly named “Lunkhead“, deploys ruthlessly distorted riffing that brutishly throbs and menacingly slithers, as well as knee-capping beats and hair-on-fire screams. The music gnashes and gouges like some primitive horror, and the soloing screams too, like a quivering and shrieking phantom on fire. But you can definitely also get your groove on in the midst of all the heavyweight sonic sludgery and the abundance of needle-sharp psychedelics.
Sundowner follow Slôdder’s menace and madness with “12 Minded“, a song introduced with abusive feedback and a lurching bass-line that sounds like the instrument is having concrete for a snack. From there, Sundowner inflict mid-paced skull-busting (and gut-rupturing) blows and riffing that resembles a moaning siren, if such a thing existed. Like Slôdder, they feature larynx-ruining screams that care not a whit for their listeners’ sanity.
It’s a primitive, stomping, thoroughly bleak experience that pairs well with “Lunkhead“. No psychotic psychedelics here, but instead of that Sundowner bring in maggot-worming leads and a penultimate dose of more vigorous pounding and gnawing, capped by more feedback and harrowing roars. If you’re in the mood for hopeless musical monstrosity, Sundowner’s your fix.
https://sldr.bandcamp.com/album/sl-dder-sundowner-split
https://sundownersludge.bandcamp.com/album/sundowner-sl-dder-split
https://www.facebook.com/slddr/
https://facebook.com/SundownerSludge
MALUM (Norway)
I hope you’ve stayed with me here to the end, because otherwise you’d have missed out on a tremendous closing song.
To avoid any confusion at the outset, this music is from the Norwegian Malum, not the Finnish Malum whose music we’ve covered in the past. This final song is from the Norwegians’ forthcoming second album, From the Voids.
“In Gloom II” is of course gloomy, but we’re not talking somnolent sonic drudgery, but instead a gradual building of dark intensity. Even the song’s slow opening makes a stark impact, launching a stunningly heavy march accompanied by guitars that wail in ways which feel like razor blades slicing off flesh, while the guttural vocals are authentically abyssal.
After that harrowing start the band begin picking up the pace, still pounding really hard but seeming to jump forward, while still surrounding those big grooves with a miasma of shrill cutting vibrations and peals of pain.
Then they accelerate further, setting the drums and their big bass in thunder gear, and the guitars pulsate like blazing and shivering chimes — very distressing yet also gleaming. Malum continue frequently altering the tempo and continue submerging the listener in dense, expansive riffing whose layered melodic refrain is harrowing to hear — feverish and fervent but intensely agonized in mood and ever-deeply penetrating as they extend their repeating cycle.
From the Voids will be released by Dark Essence Records on March 27th. Thanks to Rennie (starkweather) for alerting me to it even before I saw the label’s announcement and promo.
https://orcd.co/ingloomii
https://norwegianmalum.bandcamp.com/album/from-the-voids
https://www.facebook.com/norwegianmalum/
One Response to “SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: WITCH RIPPER, CNOC AN TURSA, DIABOLUS MECUM SEMPERTERNE, UNMOTHER, GROWTH, MIRE, SLÔDDER, SUNDOWNER, MALUM”
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Witch Ripper’s last album was my favorite album of 2023.
Here’s what I said over at Invisible Oranges:
This sludgy, burly monstrosity was love at first listen back in March. I was instantly addicted. At the end of each successive listen, I had the same reaction: “It’s over already?” The Flight After the Fall is (still) a stunning and stunningly cohesive work. Don’t let the song lengths intimidate you, though. Every song has a satisfying beginning, middle, and end, both internally and relative to the record as a whole, demonstrating the band’s expertise at structure and arrangement. It’s an impressive feat to make a handful of seven- and eight-minute songs fly by, and it’s even more so with a sixteen-minute closer. (A sign of a truly great album: the longest song is its most rewarding.)
And then there’s the ambitious, bonkers sci-fi story regarding wormholes and lost love that, like all good fiction, contains relatable images and feelings like “Grinding my teeth, scratching my sleeves / Sedatives coursing, can’t even sleep / Walls closing in.” In April, I said The Flight was “my gold standard for 2023 until proven otherwise.” That didn’t change over the course of the next eight months, and the explanation of why is simple: this is the pinnacle of metal in 2023.
(link: https://www.invisibleoranges.com/best-of-2023-steve-lampiris/)