(written by Islander)
The Swedish group Teratum rose up from the ashes of the band Beastiality in 2024, and the next year they viciously announced themselves with a two-song promo tape made available in extremely small quantities. They are now following that with a debut EP named Ordnance of Spiritual Warfare, which will be widely released by Dying Victims Productions on August 21st.
The EP includes re-recorded versions of both songs from the demo, and two more. For those who weren’t exposed to the demo tape, Teratum’s music does draw upon the violent black/thrashing antecedents of Beastiality, but it has other dimensions as well, which become evident in the song we’re premiering today, “Total Void“, which Teratum present with a frightfully occult video.
The lyrics of “Total Void“, like the lyrics of all four songs on the EP, are baleful. Paraphrasing only slightly, they celebrate the unbinding of flesh, the pillars of reality crashing down, and a mounting of madness that sets the world ablaze: “Behold the sights of what lies beyond”.
In the song, Teratum immediately give us a glimpse of what lies beyond, unfurling a dismal and unearthly melody above ominously pounding beats. As that melody proceeds, the fretwork begins to heat up and then it maniacally boils, the drums more furiously hammer, and three of the band’s members howl those hateful words in teeth-bared unison.
Yet the music continues returning to eerily wailing and perniciously ringing melodies, which flare into hellish tremolo’d ecstasies. The riffing is fiery and crazed, but triumphantly soars, and the vocals also explode in screams of utmost fanaticism above pulse-pounding rhythms.
TERATUM Line-up:
DTH: Drums & Vocals
PWL: Vocals & Bass
DMH: Vocals & Guitar
SET: Guitar
Dying Victims Productions will release Ordnance of Spiritual Warfare on 12″ vinyl and CD formats. It features cover artwork by Mørkestøl. It comes recommended for fans of Nifelheim, Desaster, Zemial, Sweden’s Morbid, and Germany’s Poison.
Find pre-orders via the link below, and also check out Teratum’s video for the record’s first single, “Leviathan Rise“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://tinyurl.com/teratum
TERATUM:
https://teratum.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/p/Teratum-61560878560955/
https://www.instagram.com/teratumofficial