(written by Islander)
On almost all weekdays for many years I have committed to make either two track premieres or an EP premiere or an album premiere. Sometimes there is a day off because of some late-stage mishap (never my own, of course), as there was on Tuesday of this week, and sometimes we either receive only one invitation for a track premiere or only one that we’re happy to accept (believe it or not, I do turn down invitations when I can’t enthusiastically recommend a song).
Today was one of those rare days when I only calendared a single song premiere. And so, as on Tuesday, I had a bit of time to use for catching up with new songs and picking a few to recommend in another rare weekday roundup. Barring some kind of unexpected interference I will have more to recommend, as usual, on Saturday and Sunday.
EXTOL (Norway)
The Norwegian band Extol are returning with their first album in a decade, one that reunites the original lineup of Peter Espevoll (vocals), Ole Børud (guitars, vocals, bass), David Husvik (drums, vocals), and Christer Espevoll (guitars).
The song most recently revealed from the album, “Merciless Hunger“, is the one I chose to lead off this roundup. Peter Espevoll has described it as “a warning against those who seek to usurp the beliefs of others, cloaking their hunger for power in a language of love, truth, and sacred justice.”
To these ears the song is in some ways a throwback to Extol’s early era. They immediately assault listeners with slugging grooves that pack a heavyweight punch, but lace them with flickering clear-toned notes, and then they pull the blast-beat trigger, expel raging blackened screams, and send the guitars mysteriously swirling and maniacally darting.
But Extol being Extol, they follow that ferocious and frenetic opening episode with towering chords and a mesmerizing (and prog-minded) guitar melody, soon followed by a lilting and glinting instrumental. The vocals remain harrowing in their hostility, but deranged screams and anguished wails also intrude as the rapidly skittering fretwork and vigorously tumbling drumwork go off in further strange and fascinating directions.
Before this musical kaleidoscope reaches its surprising final moments (I won’t spoil the surprise) the band reprise some of the song’s melodic flourishes, which are beautiful to recall.
Extol’s new album is named Aura of Decay, and it’s scheduled for release on November 6th via Solid State Records.
https://ffm.to/extol_auraofdecay
https://www.facebook.com/ExtolOfficial/
AETHERIAN (Greece)
One of our favorite melodic death metal bands, Aetherian, dropped a new single earlier this week, and of course we wasted little time checking it out. It follows another single, “The Great Beyond,” which appeared last year (reviewed here), and their second full-length At Storm’s Edge (reviewed here). Aetherian have described the narrative of the song in these words:
In the pursuit of eternal glory, a rising civilization seeks to build monumental temples to praise the Sun god. Venturing deep into the ancestral forests, they encounter the native tribes, slaving those who yield, slaying those who resist. “Onto Primeval Land” is an exploration of cultural collision, vanity, and the dark archetype of history: when two worlds collide, only one survives.
In line with that violent and bleak narrative theme, the song’s opening riffage is feverishly vicious but also moans like a dismal siren. As the opening percussive cannonades withdraw, the music scales high but wails in grief, and then ravenous vocals expel fury as the band go on the attack again, though they accent that renewed assault with chiming notes of bell-like clarity.
The song repeatedly manifests chaos, and the vocals explode in shattering screams, but the music also continues to expand into melancholy musical panoramas and to include pealing arpeggios that sound like fervent yearning, and wailing melodies that are grievous to hear, as well as vibrantly darting guitars that sound… resilient.
All in all, it’s a breathtaking, emotionally powerful, and immediately memorable song, one fronted by astonishingly intense vocals. A very good reminder of Aetherian’s abundant talents.
This single will appear on a new Aetherian album named Fall of Civilization which is projected for release in January 2027, and we will be keenly interested in hearing that when we can.
https://linktr.ee/OntoPrimevalLand
https://aetherianband.bandcamp.com/track/onto-primeval-land
https://www.instagram.com/aetherian.band
https://www.facebook.com/aetherianband
ARONIOUS (U.S.)
The Artisan Era has a reputation for releasing technical death metal, and the Wisconsin band Aronious have been part of their roster for the release of two albums, Perspicacity (2020) and Irkalla (2022), and now also for a third one slated for release in November, The Ever Living Ones.
But Aronious don’t exactly fit the mold that most people probably imagine when thinking of tech-death, and they continue to evolve in ways that bend the mold into interesting shapes, and sometimes even break it. The first single from their new album is a striking example of their morphing creativity.
“Dawn of Diathan” begins with a melody (or anti-melody) that’s simultaneously monstrous and dismal. The layered instruments create hallucinatory sensations that writhe and moan, that seem alien and ill, dissonant and near-miasmatic. But as nerve-shuddering as that experience is, it doesn’t completely distract from the rampant escapades of the drummer or the sewer-pipe reverberations of the bass.
The vocals are themselves ugly, the kind of grit-choked and near-strangled gutturals that sound profoundly foul and heartless. So it’s a startling surprise when a reverb-ed singing voice woozily wails way up high in tandem with those pernicious growls.
In many respects, the music remains unsettling and hallucinatory, but it’s a changing vision. Backed by a kind of off-kilter lurching groove, an unusual instrument (maybe a violin? maybe a woodwind of some kind?) traces an exotic Eastern melody but one that’s melodically linked to that strange opening riff, one that brings to mind an ancient snake charmer entrancing a cobra.
Meanwhile, the drumming continues seizing attention with a panoply of inventive and unexpected flourishes, and the song’s vaporous, semi-poisonous, semi-hypnotic melodies continue to drift along while other accents flicker and chatter. The band also make room for yet another exotic solo and a final appearance of that striking singing voice.
Really an amazing song that I’ve had a hard time tearing myself away from.
The Ever Living Ones is set for release on November 13th. We are in the fortunate position of premiering another song from the album on October 30th.
https://aronious.bandcamp.com/album/the-ever-living-ones
https://www.facebook.com/aroniousmetal
NIDARE (Germany)
The Berlin-based post-black metal band Nidare released a hugely impressive debut album named Von Wegen in 2022 (we happily premiered a song from it then) and followed that with a stunning EP named Naehe und Flackern in 2023 and another eye-opening EP named Es Laesst Nicht Los, Ich Jedoch Laengst in 2024. In recent days they’ve released a new single (along with a bleak and haunting video) called “Schweigen” that’s the advance herald of a new album to be released in 2027 via Moment of Collapse. It arrived with this description:
Within its seven-minutes, the song confronts a culture of silence that protects perpetrators at the expense of survivors. Uncompromising and deeply unsettling, “Schweigen” challenges a system that values its own reputation over human lives.
The song is immediately unsettling, thanks to layered instruments that sound both diseased and clarion-clear, combining to create sensations of wrenching disturbance. The music wails in pain and frantically chitters, like small birds gone mad. The decibels rise higher and higher over thundering drums and feverishly throbbing bass notes, with raging screams propelling the experience to even greater heights of unnerving intensity.
The abrading guitars also ruinously claw, roil like a whirlpool of agony, and soar in untreatable pain. Throughout that the drumming remains electrifying — until the drummer suddenly ceases, marking a shift in the music into more spectral and grief-stricken domains. Gradually, the intensity swells again, though those spectral expressions of desolation persist in the midst of unhinged screams and immersive seas of instrumental torment.
Raging howls join the screams near the end as the music escalates into a blast-driven crescendo of breathtaking but unnerving power, replete with vibrantly trilling guitars. By the end, you might be left wide-eyed and gasping.
I’m grateful to Rennie from starkweather for linking me to this song and video even before we noticed a press release about it.
https://nidare.bandcamp.com/track/schweigen
https://www.facebook.com/nidareblackmetal
https://www.instagram.com/nidareblackmetal
https://www.facebook.com/momentofcollapse/