(written by Islander)
At this site we try to range widely in our listening and in the music we choose to share, to range widely in both geography and in the stylistic character of what we recommend. We also intentionally spend more time delving into obscure quarters than names most metalheads already know.
But of course, we are only a small and huddled group of hobbyists (fanatical hobbyists)), and even after many years of foraging we still miss a great deal, though sometimes we eventually find what we missed.
And so today we have at last found the massively heavy Ukrainian sludge band Celophys, whose sixth album Neanderthal will be released by the Ukrainian label Robustfellow Prods. on August 21st.
We have learned that Celophys was founded in 2012 in Cherkasy, Ukraine, originally as a duo, but evolving into the solitary one-man project of Oleksandr Beregovyi following the full-scale war in Ukraine.
As the label writes regarding Neanderthal:
[T[his new record strips heavy music down to its absolute most primordial, caveman-weight elements. It’s a crushing, monolithic slab of down-tuned audio warfare…. Neanderthal delivers a massive, unyielding wall of sound, slow methodical rhythms, and a weed-soaked prehistoric atmosphere.
Across tracks like Neanderthal, Mammoth March, and Paleo Dub, the project drags the listener straight back to the Stone Age, cementing its distinct, unyielding footprint in the European underground sludge scene.
These are not empty words, as you’ll discover for yourselves through our premiere of the above-mentioned “Mammoth March“, which very much sounds like what its title describes.
The song’s opening moments create a strange and unsettling quasi-harmony, with eerily shivering ethereal tones way up high and warping throbs far down below. Not knowing how long that will last, it thus comes as a shock when Celophys drops the hammer, creating an immense crashing and crushing magnification of the decibels.
Backed by slow and steady beats that slug like rams and pop like gunshots, that two-tone pairing continues, but with more grievous intensity. The low frequencies continue to throb but also generate great groaning exhalations that move at a slowly heaving pace, while the high tones sizzle and sear. All the ingredients together create a dire and daunting mood (and they will get heads moving too).
While the burning continues overhead, the bass-level music settles into a dismal crawl that spreads corrosive reverberations, and the vocals finally arrive, cutting into the listener with gritty, agonized cries that become strangled in their sound.
The great groaning and burning march resumes, but the song also shifts into even more oppressively bleak proceedings while still causing the earth to shake. The vocals also shift into more frightening zones, through a tandem of rasping screams and monstrous growls.
When the march resumes one last time, heavily heaving ahead and drenching minds with its incendiary miasmas, your body will have one last time to indulge a slow lurch until the bitter end.
Neanderthal features artwork by Petro Krul and design by Yurii Dubrovskyj. It was produced by Filipp Dobrov and recorded at OwlCraft Studio. Oleksandr Beregovyi handled the mix and master.
As always with Robustfellow, the album is backed by hand-crafted, strictly limited-edition physical artifacts: It will be released on tape in a “Mammoth ivory cassette shell” (limited to 42 copies) and a “Paleo Pink cassette shell” (limited to 24 copies), as well as digitally.
Find pre-orders via the link below, and at that location you can also listen to the previously released single “Paleo Dub“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://robustfellow.bandcamp.com/album/celophys-neanderthal
ROBUSTFELLOW:
https://robustfellow.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/robustfellow_prods
https://www.facebook.com/robustfellow