(written by Islander)
I spent the first half of Saturday, from early morning til noon, laboring over yesterday’s Seen and Heard column, and that doesn’t count the time I spent listening in previous days. I would have been willing to do the same thing today but I can’t. I have family activities that begin mid-morning.
To try to conform today’s selections to the more abbreviated time, I’ve had to cut back on my plans to write reviews of the two albums that I’ve inserted after the four individual songs we’re starting with. Both albums have been out in the world for nearly two weeks already, and I fear if I put off reviews to a future day I’ll never get to them; I just have too much else to do on a daily basis around here. You’ll see the nature of the compromise I made with myself.
But first, let’s begin with those four individual songs.
PANZERFAUST (Canada)
It’s unlikely that you’re unaware of Panzerfaust, so we’ll skip the background info and get right to the latest news: On December 4th Eisenwald will release The Lucifer Principle (Redux), so named because it’s a remixed and remastered edition of the band’s 2016 EP The Lucifer Principle. This revised edition also includes a new Panzerfaust song, “All Grounds Zeroed“, which debuted last week with a video.
Following the gradual swell of an eerie and ominous ambient overture Panzerfaust immerse listeners in riffing that sizzles, swarms, and writhes, pierced by shrill feverish tones that arc heavenward. They back that with big booming beats and frantic percussive clattering. It all combines to build unnerving tension.
Scalding screams, gruesome roars, rapidly tumbling drums, and bursts of roiling fretwork-mania escalate the music’s feeling of viciousness and terror. Panzerfaust also add orchestral accents that diabolically dance and shiver, accents that seem to partake of Eastern melody and add an occult aroma to the proceedings, as well as high-toned flickering notes that bespeak madness.
There’s no relent, no time to breathe, no room for reflection, only Hell come to Earth.
https://panzerfaust.bandcamp.com/album/the-lucifer-principle-redux
https://www.facebook.com/PANZERFAUST.BM.OFFICIAL/
SKAGOS (Canada)
Eleven years after their 2013 album Anarchic, the Skagos duo of Ray Hawes and Isaac Symonds returned on the winter solstice of 2024 with a new album named Chariot Sun Blazing, which justifiably was acclaimed by many writers and listeners. Thankfully, the band’s fans won’t have to wait nearly that long for more Skagos songs, because on December 21st (another winter solstice) Bindrune Recordings will release the band’s fourth album, Stricken.
“Cleft From the Immanence” is the one song from the new album you can hear now. The dual-guitar melody that opens the song, which straddles a line between piercing clarity and mangled distortion, quickly creates a distressing experience. Seamlessly, that heart-breaking melody begins to flow more broadly as the guitars are joined by vivid drumwork and vividly musing bass notes.
Bursts of feverish fretwork periodically intercept the melody, and eventually the riffing transforms into swaths of ravaging grit below hammering blast-beats and rampant screams. Another even more abrupt and stark change occurs through an interlude in which quivering organ keys, sorrowful piano notes, weeping strings, a mournful flute, and sharply popping percussion create a more introspective but no less stricken mood.
The music swells and intensifies; glinting guitars brightly ring between the channels; the drums pump; the bass gallops; and even as the vocals scream their torment the music magnificently swells and becomes beautiful.
It’s an elaborate and meticulously crafted song, and one that takes far more than one listen to fully appreciate. We’re fortunate to have Skagos back again so soon.
https://bindrunerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/stricken
NECRONAUTICAL (UK)
We’ve devoted a lot of attention to Necronautical over the years, beginning with Andy Synn’s review of their debut album in 2014. We’ve reviewed subsequent albums, interviewed the band, and put our spotlight on individual songs. Now we have a further chance to reconnect with the band because on December 4th Vendetta Records will release their fifth album, The Second Death.
To help spread the word, Vendetta has premiered two singles from the new album, and the second one surfaced last week along with a frightening video. The song itself, “Shadow Work“, is damned frightening too. Here’s the band’s statement about it:
We are pleased to present the music video for ‘Shadow Work‘. The title refers to the spiritual practice of exploring and integrating the unconscious and hidden aspects of the self. Also known as Nekyia: a ritual used to question the ghosts of the dead to shape your future.
The video was created to serve this concept, with our protagonist trying to escape his confines, only to learn he is imprisoned by his own self.
To repeat, this is a frightening song. Without warning the blast-beats explode in fury, the riffing boils and churns, orchestral waves arise and gradually wash across the music like seas of anguish, and the vocals eject screams of utterly crazed intensity.
Necronautical do shift gears, in both the rhythms and the riffing, but they also add convulsive guitar soloing, dramatic symphonic tides, frantically flickering strings, and further explosions of throat-ruining screams. In other words, the intensity remains at a high level.
When the turbocharged drumming does eventually slow down, the music grows more saturated in sorrow, paving the way toward a guitar solo that’s a channel of dismay and agony, followed by a closing arpeggio that ripples brightly. What a thoroughly gripping song this is.
https://vendetta-records.bandcamp.com/album/the-second-death
https://www.facebook.com/Necronautical/
LIMBES (France)
For today’s fourth song, before I turn to the two albums mentioned at the outset, I have the first track to be revealed from a new album by limbes, the solo project of Guillaume Galaup that’s the successor to his band Blurr Thrower.
This startling new song, “à l’offensive des offensés“, creates unexpected juxtapositions. On the one hand, the riffing is dense and raw, like a sandstorm driven by hurricane winds, and the drumming and cymbal-work provide pulse-pounding energy. On the other hand, up in the song’s stratosphere the music slowly flows, like an expression of wistfulness, and instead of screaming, the vocals dramatically soar and passionately wail.
The song remains thoroughly immersive even when the drums decelerate. The musical layers, which include what sounds like the bass section of an orchestra slowly moaning, create experiences of expansive beauty, hopeless longing, and scathing torment, and the clean-sung vocals are never less than stirring — though they also seem perpetually driven by torment.
The name of limbes‘ new album is Litanies. It will be released by Frozen Records on January 15th. You can find quite a lot of evocative words about the inspirations and musical design of the album at the Bandcamp page linked below, where it’s available for pre-order.
https://limbes.bandcamp.com/album/litanies
https://www.facebook.com/limbesmusic/
JÖJJÖN (Hungary)
Now I’ll turn to the first of the two albums I mentioned in the introduction way up above, the remarkable third full-length by the Hungarian black metal band jöjjön (which is the solo work of Zsolt Sipeki). Its name is Szelet Vet, and it was released on November 6th.
In late September I tried to help spread the word about it by premiering an album track named “Mutability“, a song whose principal lyrics were taken from a poem of the same name by Percy Bysshe Shelley. In that premiere feature (here) I included a fair amount of background information about the album, but a great deal more is available at the album’s Bandcamp page and it’s worth reading. It impressively demonstrates just how much thought went into the conception of the album, its lyrics, and the music.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the album and been powerfully moved by it, and so I can’t help but feel guilty for not finding the time needed for a complete review. To somewhat assuage my guilt, but mainly as a way of further trying to lure listeners into the album on their own, I’m just going to focus on one more song besides the one we premiered. I chose “Cre(m)ation“. To quote jöjjön:
“‘Cre(m)ation‘ opens the record with a boat ride across a wind-driven sea through the mysteries of human mind to the afterlife, arguing cremation and creation are the same act seen from two directions”.
The song itself is quite a ride, and one that changes as it crosses its own Styx. The riffing is gritty but also rings, churns and quivers but also peals. The bass is prominent and interesting. The very organic-sounding drumming is dynamic, but locks into back-beats more than it scampers. The vocals growl as they speak but also erupt in rabid howls.
Just as the song seems to end, it shifts, briefly banishing the rhythm section in favor of a brightly ringing solo guitar that sings an ancient and intriguing melody. It continues to ripple and ring when the rhythm section return to lead a staggering march.
The guitar melodies further seize attention through further variations, and dig deeper into our heads as they do, and the drumming continues adding dynamism, while the grim and raging vocals remain implacably savage. Near the end the song suddenly becomes faster and more feverish, but I bet that ringing riff (both fervent and mysterious) will still echo in your mind.
The album is a quite varied experience, and “Cre(m)ation” reveals just some of the experiences it holds. I hope you’ll make your way through all of it.
https://jojjon.bandcamp.com/album/szelet-vet
https://www.facebook.com/jojjonmusic
NIHILO (Switzerland)
If you read the introduction to my segment on jöjjön’s album, you’ll know what I’m about to do with the new full-length from Nihilo.
This new album, Abyss, was released on November 3rd by Xtreem Music. In advance of the release I focused on two songs that I included in different editions of our weekend Seen and Heard roundups — “Primal Instinct” and “Dishonored Death” (which featured a guest appearance by Shyaithan from Impiety). I summed up the first of those as a maniacal outburst that begins to sound ecstatic, “like the untamed revels of devils”, and the second one as “raging and rabid”, an “electrifying musical surge” that “savagely swarms and frantically soars”.
In one last effort to draw attention to the album I’m focusing (again) on just one song, and decided to use the closing track “Enter the Abyss” because it presents a different (and more horrifying) dimension of Nihilo’s capabilities.
The song authentically feels very much like what its title ominously signifies. The opening guitar harmony reverberates in tones both jagged and shining, and as it does so it creates a daunting and oppressive mood, a mood of wretched agony. Beneath that stricken melody an enormous bass growls like a great beast.
When the drums appear (explosively), that daunting and dissonant melody blares, and when the roaring and howling vocals arrive (horrifying all by themselves) the riffing also transforms into frenzied seizures and sends up fanfares of imperious cruelty. The drums furiously hammer, erupt in rapid fills, and steadily beat martial rhythms, while the bass frequently rumbles like an avalanche.
As the end approaches, the guitars again send out brazen fanfares of sound, one final announcement that we are leaving everything we knew behind, now greeted in our new domain by hellish powers (or at least I think that’s one way to interpret it).
The song is an unsettling and astonishing way to end a powerhouse of an album, an album I hope you’ll make your way through from the start.
https://xtreemmusic.bandcamp.com/album/abyss-2
https://www.facebook.com/nihilometal/