Nov 052021
 

The death metal band Delphian was formed by brothers Jason and Matthew Williams while attending Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, CA. In an effort to fully realize their envisioned amalgam of technical, progressive, and groove metal within the framework of death, they enlisted drummer Kevin Talley (Suffocation, Dying Fetus) on drums and bassist Martin Rygiel (Decapitated, Lux Occulta) for the recording of Delphian’s debut album, Somnambulant Foregoer.

The new album is set for release on November 12th, and to pave the way Delphian have been releasing lyric videos for some of the nine tracks that it encompasses. Today we have the pleasure of adding to that sequence through our premiere of the album’s explosive and electrifying title track. Continue reading »

Nov 052021
 

On November 27th a consortium of labels led by the Ukrainian GrimmDistribution will release the debut album Stonewounds (Каменю рани) of Ukronakh, and they introduce it with these words:

“The Ukrainian project Ukronakh (У кронах) was founded in 2020 by Artyom ‘Voidger’. Ukronakh’s music combines genres such as atmospheric black metal and death metal, reflecting the personal inner experiences of the author, inspired by the atmosphere of the moss-covered forests of the Carpathians and the aesthetics of pre-Christian cultures of the northern peoples…. The album is saturated with the atmosphere of the damp Carpathian forest. The listener will have a story about the spirits of antiquity who wander the forest paths of the Carpathian mountains in oblivion and find no rest….”

We share those words because they are worth keeping in mind as you listen to the album track we’re premiering today, “Де журба обіймається зі злістю” (Where Sorrow Embraces Anger), although the name of the song itself provides a telling introduction to the thoroughly gripping music. Continue reading »

Nov 042021
 

 

Many of us have had the misfortune of dealing with funeral homes after the passing of a family member (I’ve had to do that more times than I want to remember). There must be exceptions, but in general it’s an unpleasant experience, partly because of the grief that clouds it but also because of the feeling that behind their solemn and sympathetic countenance the directors are preying upon that grief, to turn it into coffin sales, flowery bouquets, and ultimately profit for their businesses. The unspoken sub-text is that what you spend is a measure of your love for the departed.

That kind of experience forms the lyrical theme of Sea Sleeper‘s song “Coffin Salesman” — though the theme stands as a metaphor for larger and even more insidious aspects of our societies. The track appears on this Portland band’s eye-opening debut album Nostophobia, an album that was originally released on CD and digital formats this past February by Metal Assault Records and is now headed for a November 5 vinyl release by the same label.

“Coffin Salesman” is the subject a mind-boggling new video we’re presenting today, which is appropriate, because the song is mind-boggling too. Continue reading »

Nov 042021
 

 

The Swedish death metal band Necrophagous boasts a line-up whose members have spent time in Visceral Bleeding and Entrails, and those pedigrees provide clues to the music encompassed by their debut album In Chaos Ascend, which is set for release by Transcending Obscurity Records on January 7, 2022. It has an old school flavor — flavors of Morbid Angel and Dying Fetus, of Deicide and Cannibal Corpse, of Suffocation and Revulsion. The music is undeniably vicious, but also packed with contagious riffs and compulsive grooves.

What we have for you today is a stream of “Wolf Mother“, the third single released from the album so far. As you’ll soon discover, it’s an exercise in high-powered, high-speed hostility and flesh-stripping derangement, which ends with a devolution into grisly moods of degradation and decay. Continue reading »

Nov 032021
 

Surely you’ve listened to Revelator by now. If you haven’t, there better be a damned good excuse, like a protracted coma or meningitis-induced deafness or living-under-a-rock ignorance. Possibly you just don’t like absolute musical crushers you can headbang to and/or maelstroms of noise capable of causing your brain to lock up and/or hallucinatory experiences that will disturb your sleep. But we’ll discount those latter explanations, because you’re here at this site, aren’t you? Of course you’re attracted to such things.

We of course are big fans of the genre-colliding Australian band who made Revelator, none more so than our slave DGR who devoted many (MANY) words to it in his review. But we’re not only inveterate fans of the music. We also always relish the videos that The Amenta and friends craft for their songs, because they’re just as wild and unsettling as the music.

And thus we’re thrilled to present one of their jaw-dropping, skull-exploding videos today, for a song that arguably could be considered the centerpiece of Revelator. And in addition to that we also have an extended interview of The Amenta‘s vocalist Cain Cressall, who answers some of the questions that will inevitably occur to you after watching — such as “How the fuck did they do that?”, “Are those maggots and spiders real?”, and “What the hell does this all mean?” Continue reading »

Nov 032021
 

The relatively new Swedish band Deber named one of the songs on their debut album for the title of the album itself (Aspire To Affliction) and another for themselves. By far, those are the two shortest tracks, positioned in a such a way that one of them begins the record and the other ends it. In between are three monumental songs — a trio of towering edifices, in terms of both minutes and the imposing visions they create.

We say that Deber are a relatively new band, but the members aren’t newcomers, even if they’re pursuing some new directions here. These two are DIE (in charge of strings and organ), who is a member of Anguish and Ondskapt, and HCF (who handles drums and vocals). What they’ve turned their attention to in Deber is funeral doom, drawing upon the influence of such masters as Evoken, Worship, Skepticism, and Colosseum.

As the album title suggests, they aspire to sounds of affliction, and they have achieved their aspirations, with staggering power. Continue reading »

Nov 022021
 

 

The video we’re about to present shows us… how shall we say it?… an interesting household. A seemingly innocent little boy and his pet rabbit. An abusive mother who doesn’t realize where her rages are going to lead. And in the living room, a bunch of death metal barbarians turning the humble surroundings into a psychotic war zone.

Oh yes, it’s an interesting video, with blood spatter in its future. And it makes an attention-riveting companion to the absolutely bludgeoning and eviscerating song “Good Boy” that it presents — a bombastic, mind-mauling, and terrifically brutalizing track by the Czech death metal band Cutterred Flesh.

Adorned by the macabre cover art of Par Olofsson, which itself features a couple of “good boys”, the album that includes this track will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records on December 3rd. Continue reading »

Nov 022021
 

 

We’re about to give you a gift of thrills, the kind of full-throttle, head-spinning spectacle that comes with our occasional warning to take plenty of deep breaths before you press Play.

The song is “Scorn“, and it does indeed have a vicious, clobbering, and condemnatory intensity, but it’s also absolutely wild, and guaranteed to light a fire under your nerves. It’s the work of a part-Dutch, part-Hungarian band of technically jaw-dropping death metal marauders who’ve taken the name Brooding Fear. It comes from their explosive new release, Abomination, which will be detonated by Ungodly Ruins Productions on December 3rd.

Take a good look at the wild, savage cover art for Abomination, because it provides a further big clue as to what’s coming. Continue reading »

Nov 022021
 

We’re about to expose you to a big jolt of electrifying insanity, one that’s sure to get your pulse jumping and your head spinning. It’s a hell-for-leather, no-holds-barred song called “I Will Wait For You In My Hell” by the Russian black metal band Wintaar off their new album Tear You Down, which is set for release on November 25th by the triumvirate of Satanath Records, Valgriind, and Svanrenne Music.

Even a quick glance at Wintaar‘s Metal Archives page demonstrates that the project has been incredibly prolific, releasing nearly 30 albums in just the last four years, and that’s not counting the participation of its sole creator WV in many other bands. And now Tear You Down adds to that discography, but also represents a change, in that WV has now been joined by two other permanent members, guitarist Namiros and drummer E.J.C. (who also performs additional bass and backing vocal).

In addition, WIntaar characterizes the new album as one that takes the band’s aggressiveness to the boiling point, and represents its fastest and heaviest work yet, while still presenting significant variations among the songs. Continue reading »

Nov 012021
 

Good morning class. Today we have a case study for you, a study in paradox. The paradox in question is how musicians who have clearly taken leave of their senses are able to create sonic sensations that are utterly maniacal, and yet make their stupendously berserk convulsions somehow sound… catchy? Yes, catchy! (Although it’s possible we’ve taken leave of our senses as a result of listening to this.)

The subject of the case study is a track named “Demonic Truculence” (bonus points for using “truculence” in a song title, and for making music that merits the word, especially when modified by the adjective “demonic”). The two evident maniacs who made it (Jonatan Johansson and Mikko Josefsson) go by the name Concrete Winds. The album that includes the track goes by the accurately descriptive name Nerve Butcherer. Continue reading »