(written by Islander)
I’m beginning today’s collection with the same explanation I used in yesterday’s roundup, except I slept even longer and later last night than I did on Friday night. I may have done too good a job in convincing my restless mind to turn itself off overnight, because a big chunk of this morning had passed by before I could begin turning it on again.
The result is that this post is again appearing near mid-day in my time zone. The further result is that I’ve had to cut it back from what I had initially planned, or it would be appearing in the afternoon, and unfortunately I need that time to deal with other personal obligations before the new week launches tomorrow.
And so, this collection of songs is shorter than I wish it were, but I hope you’ll still get something pleasurable out of it. I certainly did.
INQUINAMENTUM (UK)
From 2012 through 2018 the Leeds-based melodic black metal band Inquinamentum released four albums and an EP, but nothing in the last eight years. Their members have kept themselves fairly busy in other projects, including Spawning Abhorrence and Soulfracture, but they have finally come back together under the banner of Inquinamentum, and with a new vocalist (Thomas Blanc) behind the mic for their new album Abyssal.
I found out about the album through a message from my compatriot DGR (whose birthday is today!). He thought he had covered Inquinamentum’s last release eight years ago, but I can’t find any evidence of that (he did write about a Spawning Abhorrence album, which he placed on his 2016 year-end list).
But even though DGR’s memory may be a bit off (or my searching skills may have been inadequate), I’m very glad he tipped me to Inquinamentum’s new album, so glad that I’m beginning this truncated column with the arresting first advance track from Abyssal.
The name of the song is “The Last Light From The Pyres“, and it was released with a lyric video that also shows us the band’s performance. A song of many facets, it begins with the reverberation of slashed chords that seem to vent a feeling of anguished torment above rumbling drums and throbbing bass tones. And then the band spin up the intensity, elevating the riffing into a searing roil, spurring the drums into a blasting torrent, and bringing forth incinerating screams.
But other facets also emerge. High in the upper reaches a keyboard melody slowly flows, panoramic in its feeling and drenched in melancholy. The vocals descend into grim gutturals. The riffing wails in a way that connects to that stratospheric melody, and together they create a piercing sensation of sprawling tragic grandeur as the vocals fire away with shattering intensity.
The music segues into a brief period of wistful-sounding lightness near the end, but Inquinamentum really pour it on in the final phase, which culminates in one long devastating scream.
Abyssal is scheduled for release on October 30th.
https://inquinamentum.bandcamp.com/album/abyssal
http://facebook.com/inquinamentum
OBSCVRE SER (Brazil)
In some respects Inquinamentum’s new song is a wrenching experience, but this next one is an order of magnitude more emotionally devastating and sonically pulverizing.
If the name looks familiar it may be because I included another song by this São Paulo band in a weekend roundup just two weeks ago. That song, “O que sobra“, was the first one revealed from Obscvre Ser’s new album O vazio não morre, and now they’ve launched a second one — “Esse Abismo“.
Initially the song proceeds at the pace of a lurching stomp, its footfalls enormously heavy, while dissonant tones disconcertingly ring and writhe. It’s a dismal and disorienting experience, and unhinged screams make it even more unnerving.
Just when you might think you can’t take any more of this agony, the band abruptly accelerate, with blast-beats firing away and the riffing even more damaged in its dismally groaning and feverishly writhing emissions. The drums also brutally pound and fervently tumble; a guitar quivers and shrieks in pain, but also heavily moans; the bass charges like a battering ram; the vocals go beyond what we might think of as the limits of human endurance.
There’s nothing easy about listening; no rays of uplifting light lie within; but it’s a song that’s not soon forgotten either.
The song’s lyrics (in Portuguese) are every bit as disconcerting as the music. The protagonist tries to move forward but is caught in an emotional abyss, struggling to be free of anguish and vowing to kill a cursed feeling that has trapped him there.
O vazio não morre is scheduled for release on October 31st.
https://obscvre-ser.bandcamp.com/track/esse-abismo
https://www.facebook.com/obscvreser/
http://instagram.com/obscvre_ser
BOARHAMMER (Germany)
A couple of days ago the German ruffians Boarhammer launched pre-orders for their new album III: Instruments of Fungal Intent, and simultaneously launched its first single, “Forest Grave Malediction“, which is the song that opens the album.
At their Bandcamp page Boarhammer describe their new music as “Eight songs and 48 minutes of psychedelic Black Heavy Metal, rooted in the raw energy of earliest Black Metal, the swagger of obscure Heavy Metal, and the reckless spirit of Punk and Rock ‘n’ Roll.” And further:
“Rough-hewn by choice, the songs twist through crawling heaviness, warped psychedelic visions, flashes of epic melody and primitive violence, while retaining the band’s unmistakable theatricality and fuck-you attitude.”
All of this seems accurate, as measured by “Forest Grave Malediction” — although Boarhammer first set the stage with a musical preamble, one that’s well suited for an impending Halloween night. It combines slow and haunting organ keys the whistle of a night bird. But soon enough the band start up, delivering a punk percussive cadence, feral riffing that both lustfully throbs and frantically swirls, and vocals that sound like an enraged bear.
The tremolo’d part of the riffing takes over for a time and flies high, just in time for a chorus of wild cries to trade off with those beastly growls, and they continue trading places. The clanging bass also takes the lead for a time, creating a prelude for an orgiastic guitar solo and a poisonous flow of fiendish melody.
The soloing also returns for a lengthier and wilder engagement, and man, it’s exhilarating to hear. After that the band go nuts, with drums violently hammering, the guitars creating the experience of a grand mal seizure, and the vocals even more possessed than before. But Boarhammer also pull back one last time, generating a dismal musical throb around steady beats, and then bringing in an eerily ringing spectral melody.
At the very end, primitive drums lead a march, and bubbling fungal tones sound like they’re about to lead us into the next song… which we will eagerly await.
Instruments of Fungal Intent will be released on October 31st. You may have noticed the first three selections today are all from albums due for release on Halloween, or the day before. But of all of them, “Forest Grave Malediction” seems the most tailor-made for that most metal of nights.
https://boarhammer.bandcamp.com/album/iii-instruments-of-fungal-intent
http://www.instagram.com/thetrueboarhammer/
LES BÂTARDES DU ROI (France)
And now to finish — with an EP from the Orléans band Les Bâtards du Roi that Les Acteurs de L’Ombre Productions released on Friday. It first caught my attention when LADLO and the band released a video for its title song “Ici Meurt ma Joie” about 11 days ago, a video that’s done very well for itself at YouTube since then.
That video documents the performance of the band (grotesquely masked and strangely garbed) before a festival-sized audience. The song (and the EP) continues a medieval narrative that Les Bâtards du Roi began in earlier releases, a tale of brothers who committed regicide, plunging a kingdom into ruin and torment, and then wandering in exile through devastated lands.
In the song the band gently establish a melody of sorrow, and then make it tremendously heavier and more expansive. The sweeping music seems to cry out in anguish around vividly changing drumwork, nimble bass flourishes, screeching snarls, and fervent howls.
After a brief pause the band use acoustic guitar to gently carry forward that grieving melody, but once again they also dramatically accelerate and expand the music, with some hard-hitting grooves in the mix as well. Great swaths of musical heartbreak provide the finale.
I’m rapidly running out of time, so I won’t be able to portray the other two songs on the EP in as much detail as I have the title song — but believe me, they speak for themselves very well. They harness together passages of ancient and folkish elegance (with female singing by Agathe “Diffamie” Boulanger from Galibot accenting that in the second song), as well as warlike assaults of fire and fury, varying crests of impassioned melody, and bursts of battering-ram heaviness.
The third song, “Où pourrit la lumière“, also includes a rapidly trilling guitar solo that’s especially fine, an acoustic instrumental that returns us to the forlorn loneliness of the title song, and grand choral vocals that match the music’s own towering grandeur.
https://ladlo.bandcamp.com/album/ici-meurt-ma-joie
https://www.facebook.com/ladloproductions
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564480907615
https://www.instagram.com/lesbatardsduroi