In the autumn of this year Void Wanderer Productions and War Productions will jointly release the third album by the melodic black metal band Obšar from Slovakia. The album’s name is Propastnyk, and it continues exploring the band’s inspirations from Ruthenian nature, culture, mythology, and demonology.
To help introduce the new album, what we have for you today is a stirring and beautifully multi-faceted song from Propastnyk named “Vorožky“. Continue reading »
The first time we featured the music of Black Hill Cove at this site two years ago we described it as “bleak and furious”, “both emotionally and ‘physically’ bruising and battering”, with every ingredient seizing attention and collectively creating “a viscerally intense experience”.
At that time the music we focused on was from this Portuguese band’s powerful debut album Broken, an amalgam of hardcore, thrash, and sludge that was released by Raging Planet Records. Black Hill Cove and Raging Planet have followed up that album with a new one named Ex Tenebris Vita that they released in April of this year, and to help call attention to it we’re now premiering a video for a song off the album named “Eternal“. Continue reading »
Full disclosure: In writing about the music of Hvile I Kaos, I run up hard against my technical limitations. It’s more than the ever-present fact that I’m self-taught and formally un-trained in writing about music of any kind, and not a musician either. In the case of Hvile I Kaos the limitations are more severe, because the principal instrument is a cello, because classical music traditions play important roles, and because esoteric studies provide much of the inspiration, and my ear and mind are even more untrained in those contexts.
A serious student of classical chamber music (and backwoods folk music) would have a far finer appreciation for the nature of the Hvile I Kaos compositions and the demands and achievements of the performances. A serious student of esoteric spiritualism, and of the invocation of demonic spirits in particular, would make far better connections between the inspirations and the music’s moods and maneuvers, which have a ritualistic conception. In my case, it may be more like serenading sheep.
Of course, these limitations and the daunting challenges that flow from them haven’t stopped me from writing about Hvile I Kaos at our site, a habit I’ve indulged off and on for nearly the last seven years (as you can see here). Sheep have feelings and I suspect are moved by serenades, but unlike sheep (for better or worse) I can attempt to express the feelings ignited by the music, which is mainly what I’ve done before and now will try to do again.
The task this time is bittersweet, because Hvile I Kaos has announced that Lower Order Manifestations, the album we’re premiering today on the eve of its July 12 release by In Vitae Manifestatio in partnership with Eisenwald and House of Inkantation, is the project’s final record. Continue reading »
As you gaze upon the nightmarish cover art for the Javanese band Vultures‘ debut EP, you can understand the title they chose for the record: Divine Retribution Unleashed. But then also consider what horrors might await if those hideous beings became your companions in dreams, crouched upon your chest during an… eternal sleep.
“Eternal Sleep” is indeed the name of the song we’re premiering today from Divine Retribution Unleashed in advance of the EP’s joint release in different formats on July 15th by the multi-national triumvirate of Death in Pieces, Onyx Stone Blood Records, and Oldskull Production.
It’s one of 6 songs on the EP, all of them connected to each other to form a single storyline, with lyrics and events drawn from the Qur’an to narrate subjects such as “Pharaoh and Moses, war, death, aftermath, and doomsday”. Or, to put it differently, the narrative represents (in the band’s words) “a reminder of the destruction that has occurred in the past, as well as the destruction that will occur in the future, which is just a matter of time”. Continue reading »
We have written frequently over the last six years about the music of the Italian band Thecodontion, whose primeval and prehistoric thematic interests have been as interesting and erudite as their guitar-less but ever-evolving formulations of death metal. And so we were highly intrigued to learn that Thecodontion vocalist G.E.F. had started a new band named Clactonian, joined by Thecodontion drummer V.P. (also in SVNTH) and Finnish musicians who include Ashen Tomb on the resume.
Like Thecodontion, the thematic interests of Clactonian are rooted in prehistory, and particularly the Paleolithic Age. The name itself is a term given by archaeologists to an industry of European flint tools made by an extinct species of archaic humans who lived hundreds of thousands of years ago. (You can find more about here.)
Clactonian‘s debut demo, which we’re premiering today, is entitled Dea Madre (“Mother Goddess” in Italian). It too has prehistoric connotations, because that title refers to the famous Venus of Willendorf, a small figurine discovered in 1908 that’s estimated to have been made around 29,500 years ago. As this article discusses, researchers have speculated that the figure and others like it represented an early fertility deity, perhaps… a mother goddess. The figurine’s image features in the cover art of Dea Madre, with notable modifications in keeping with the music.
But what about the music on the demo? Although you might guess that it is linked to the musical interests of Thecodontion, it instead pursues a different path, a path of early bestial black/death metal that (as G.E.F. has told us) draws strong influence from Beherit but also should appeal to fans of Archgoat, early Bathory, and some bass-driven bands like Barathrum or early Necromantia for the slower sections. Continue reading »
Today we help spread the news that on September 20th of this year Emanzipation Productions will release a new album named The Bastard by the veteran Danish death metal band Thorium.
To help build anticipation for this new sixth full-length from Thorium, today we’re also premiering a video for “Eclipsed“, the first single from The Bastard, which will be released on July 11th paired with a B-side song named “Underground” that’s also on the new album.
But first we should tell you about the Thorium lineup as it currently exists…. Continue reading »
Long-time visitors here (and of course many others elsewhere) will recognize the name Bornyhake, the nom de plume of the Swiss musician whose talents have featured in an extraordinarily broad range of bands and personal projects since the late ’90s, perhaps most prominently Borgne, Enoid, Pure, and Kawir.
Just looking at the Metal-Archives list of Bornyhake‘s current and past bands (32 o0f them at last count), and the fact that he also owns a recording studio and record labels, leads to the conclusion that music must be a necessity of life for him, perhaps second only to air (or a close third after the peskiness of food and water).
What’s also evident is that constant exploration and evolution must be an equal necessity, and that conclusion is reinforced by a Bornyhake solo project named The Path of Memory — a name you won’t find on that extensive M-A list, which is something of a broad clue about the nature of the music. Continue reading »
We’re told that the Saudi band Dune first formed around 2004 but went on hiatus in 2007 before making a public release — “hiatus” being a word often used instead of “split up” when the passage of time leads to a subsequent resurrection.
And Dune did indeed revive (thankfully), releasing a single in 2022 (“Refuge“) and another in 2023 (“Reject“). And then in May of this year they released their first EP, entitled Years of Chains, which includes those two singles and two more songs. It thus marks the 20th anniversary of their original formation.
Dune have explained that they wrote the songs on the EP years ago, but never got a chance to record them properly. After picking out these four tracks from their originals following their revival, they of course finally have recorded them, and we’re happy to help spread the word through our video premiere of “Sieve“, the EP’s opener. Continue reading »
(On the day of its release we’re premiering a debut EP by the Chicago death metal band Trail of Entrails, and Christopher Luedtke provides the introduction.)
If there’s one thing that’s more than established about death metal at this moment it’s the enduring spirit and dedication to the riff. The genre might have slowed down in the mid-2000s up until the mid/late 2010s but there was never an all-out cease and desist for the genre. Like many genres, there are always dedicated people keeping it alive and death metal is seeing quite the heyday again. And once again, a new player has entered the arena.
Trail of Entrails are the latest death metal dealers out of Chicago, IL. The band consists of Robb Exhumed (guitar/vocals; Mutilate, Waifu), Zacky Bifid (guitar/vocals; Bifid Corpse, Coffinfeeder), and Alex Entrails (drums; Barrier). Having already played their first live show (check out the footage below), the band is here ready to unleash their debut EP Rot In The Cellar. Continue reading »
“Idiosyncratic” is a good word for the music of the Spanish band Inerth, whose 2022 debut album Void drew influence from such divergent forebears as Godflesh, Napalm Death, Neurosis, Celtic Frost, Amebix, and Killing Joke.
To varying degrees, a lot of those influences can still be detected in their follow-up EP Hybris, which we’re premiering today, perhaps most especially Godflesh, but while these four new songs can still be considered a stylistic hybrid, they also sound more cohesive.
As you’ll see, we couldn’t resist the temptation to consider the songs one by one, but for the impatient among you we’ll offer this summing up of what you’re getting yourselves into:
The hallmarks of Hybris are compulsive grooves of bridge-collapsing and muscle-moving power; music of madness and mayhem that puts nerves on edge, coupled with episodes of crushing hopelessness; a vocal tandem that creates a gripping contrast; and an overarching atmosphere of human calamity, for which we have no one to blame but ourselves. Continue reading »