(written by Islander)
The Alberta-based black/death metal band Revelator named their debut album Light The Devil’s Fire, and that is exactly what they attempt to do in their music — to wake up Lucifer, to ignite his flames to bonfire intensity, and to ascend with them to heights of evil glory.
Bold words those, but we can back them up today with a full streaming premiere of Revelator‘s revels in advance of the album’s September 12 release by Nameless Grave Records. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
In late June of this year something very surprising but very welcome happened: The vanguard industrial death metal band Crawl released their first album in almost 30 years through THC MUSIC/Virgin Music Group.
That album, No Way Out, was the horned flowering of seeds planted when Crawl reunited for a record release show on the occasion of the reissue of their remastered EP Womb, originally released in 1993 under the band’s previous name, Bleed.
Following that August 2019 performance, the band decided to start writing new material, and eventually produced No Way Out — despite being slowed by the challenges of reintegrating after so many years and despite the big roadblock thrown up by the covid pandemic (as well as a lot of subsequent impediments we needn’t detail that created further delays).
All the obstacles undoubtedly spawned a lot of wrenching frustration among the members of Crawl, but for both old die-hard fans and a lot of new ones, the album proved to be well worth the wait. It seemed like the band had picked up right where they left off so many decades ago, without missing a step. As a tremendous example of what we’re getting at, today we’re premiering a visually startling lyric video for the new album’s title track. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? Let’s immediately address what you’re about to hear and then come back and fill in some details about who’s doing it.
Figuratively speaking at least, it might be smart for you to strap on body armor and a tough helmet before you press play on “Umbrage Earned,” the Plague Curse song we’re now premiering, because it’s a roaring blast front of weaponized sound. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
We have for you today what we think will be a big eye-popping surprise, a carnival of musical wonders, something like a black metal rock opera, namely a full stream of the forthcoming second album by the evil Italian wizards in Winternius.
Titled Underwater Darkness, it’s set for release on September 12th by the Dusktone label, and it follows the band’s 2020 debut album Open the Portal and their 2023 EP Kultra Nightmares.
Still at the helm is founder Roby Grinder, also known as Winternius during his time with Sacradis, a band active in the Italian black metal underground from 1996-2011. The lineup through the years has included members and former members of Sacradis, Spite Extreme Wing, Abysmal Grief, and Necrodeath.
Winternius call their music “Black Rising Metal”, and you may understand why when you hear this album. It’s certainly not conventional black metal by any stretch. Up in the first paragraph we’ve already hinted why, but would like to explain in greater (but hopefully not too tedious) detail. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
Beginning in 2007 the Crimea-based Ukrainian band Ildverden released four albums, the last of those in 2015. In the 10 years since then, of course, Ildverden‘s homeland has been wracked by increasingly awful upheavals, and yet the band’s sole participant Kvolkaldur has chosen to persist, much as his country has, and so next month will see the release of Ildverden‘s stunning fifth album, Thou Not Shalt.
It should not be surprising that after 10 years — and especially those last 10 years — both Ildverden‘s music and lyrical themes have changed. As summed up by the labels that will release the album, the lyrics “have somewhat moved away from the pagan theme towards nihilism, detachment from what is happening and what exists, reflections and regrets, with moods of existentialist philosophy,” plunging “into melancholic deep reflection on the meaning and meaninglessness of existence itself.”
As for the music, the songs are more compact and reflect the emergence of different stylistic amalgams, of which we provide a stirring example today through our premiere of the album track “Down To the Hole“. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
Achathras is the name of a black metal band who surfaced for the first time earlier this year with two singles released in May and August. Cult Never Dies, the label that will release their forthcoming debut album, describes the Achathras three-person lineup as one that “features anonymous musicians from acclaimed and long-running black metal acts.”
And indeed, we don’t know who they are or where they’re located. They apparently want their music to speak entirely for itself, as an expression of their homage to the European black metal scene of the late ’90s. Which is just fine, because the music speaks in ways that really seize attention — as you’ll learn when you hear the band’s third single that we’re premiering today. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
What goes around comes around, and sometimes when fortune smiles the circle shines — though in the case of Wild Beyond‘s music, “shines” isn’t quite the right word. We’ll find some more accurate ones in a minute or two.
What went around the first time was this Philadelphia band’s self-titled debut album in 2023. Gravitating to it thanks to Adam Burke‘s spectacular cover art, we found rumbling and ravaging blackened thrash, but much more intricate and unpredictable in its maneuvers than much of what rips and races along under that genre banner. The music was often vicious and ugly but with a plethora of moving parts that were fascinating to follow. At times it produced hallucinatory effects; at others it became gloriously exhilarating.
And what’s coming back around now is a new Wild Beyond EP ominously named Black Sites In Lower Chambers, which will be released on October 17th in cooperation with Fiadh Productions. For reasons you will soon discover we are very happy to help spread the word through our premiere of a diabolical song off the EP that’s titled “Slaughtering the Lion“. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
Even after the enthusiasm that greeted I, Voidhanger Records‘ release of Unsouling‘s 2024 debut album Vampiric Spiritual Drain, it’s likely that the band’s Minneapolis-based creator Andy Schoengrund still remained best-known for his work in Feral Light. That’s likely to change after the release of Unsouling‘s forthcoming second album, Outward Streams Of Devotional Woe, and not simply because Feral Light has split up. As Andy has shared with us:
“Outward Streams Of Devotional Woe differs from its predecessor in that the meandering exploration of the first album has been replaced with a more sure-footed and focused journey. The anchor of black metal with the bleed into gothic, dark wave, and death metal influences is still very much present, but it is more reigned in and pointed.”
The new album will be co-released by I, Voidhanger Records, Canti Erectici, and Unsouling, and to help pave the road toward its October 3 release we’re now premiering the album’s first single, “Your Momentary Passing“. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
At the end of this week, the Bandcamp Friday for September, Willowtip Records will launch pre-orders for a new album from Minneapolis-based Kostnatění. Titled Přílišnost (Excess), it’s this constantly surprising project’s third full-length overall, and follows the blend of technical black metal and Middle Eastern folk revealed in 2023’s Úpal (“Heatstroke”) — an album we described as “extravagantly head-spinning – dizzying, dazzling, and disorienting.”
Willowtip states that on the new album Kostnatění “has packed into this bizarre base an even stranger array of influences that must be heard to be believed,” resulting in “the band’s heaviest, most compact and violent songs to date.”
You will be able to test these claims today as we premiere the first advance track from the album, a song named “Samotář (Loner)“. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
On October 3rd Dolorem Records will release Soul Awakening, the debut album of the French death metal band Horror Within. After listening to the song from the album we’re about to present, it would be a good guess as to why they named it “Tears of Angels” — because they apparently want to make the heavens cry and plead for mercy.
The music, which draws influence from the likes of Entombed and Dismember, is mercilessly mauling, brutally bone-smashing, reflexively head-moving, and as chilling as it is electrifying — and that’s true of the album as a whole. While noting that the band draw on “the roots of Swedeath — that saturated sound typical of the HM-2 pedal”, Dolorem makes another accurate observation about the album:
Horror Within isn’t just organized chaos: it’s a constant search for balance between old-school savagery and a modern aesthetic. Syncopated rhythms, dissonant textures, unexpected breaks, oppressive atmospheres — the band injects contemporary tension into their music, without ever sacrificing coherence or impact.