Aug 212015
 

Black Breath-Slaves Beyond Death

 

I’m still trying to catch up on recommending new music I discovered earlier this week. I unloaded a bunch yesterday, I have more today, and I’m hoping to pull together some more this weekend (although I’m leaving town today for a short vacation, and that may interfere with my blog compulsions).

BLACK BREATH

As I reported when I first found out, Seattle’s Black Breath have a new record coming from Southern Lord on September 25. It’s their third, with the title Slaves Beyond Death. Kurt Ballou recorded the album, Brad Boatright mastered it, and Paolo Girardi painted the cover art — and that’s some good help to have.

I thought it would be tough for Black Breath to top their great last album, Sentenced To Life, but based on the title track that premiered at Noisey yesterday I think they just might. Continue reading »

Aug 202015
 

Thy Catafalque- Sgùrr

I haven’t had time to compile a round-up of new music since Monday. I enjoy posting premieres and accompanying reviews when I like the music, and we’ve had a lot of those this week (more are coming later today), but they do tend to cut into the time available to search out other new songs worth recommending. When three or four days pass without a round-up, it’s not possible to cover everything I’d like to cover — too much good music comes out every day. So this is just an initial group of things I’d like to recommend for now; with luck I hope to prepare another round-up for tomorrow.

THY CATAFALQUE

There are few bands whose music I admire as much as Thy Catafalque. Thanks to praise about the band I first read at The Number of the Blog back in early 2011, I discovered the wonders of Thy Catafalque’s discography and began writing about the music, which in turn led me to make the acquaintance of the band’s remarkable mastermind Tamás Kátai. And then later that same year I was simply blown away by the band’s newest album, Rengeteg. I’m terrible at making narrowed lists of things I like, but if I were to attempt to make a list of my 10 favorite metal albums of all time, I know it would be a strong contender. Continue reading »

Aug 172015
 

Bob Malmstrom-cover

 

Well, it has been a long time since I last wrote about Bob Malmström on our putrid site. The first time I encountered these Swedish-speaking Finns was back in December 2011 (here) after catching their official music video for a song called “Eliten”, which was a kind of searing, headbanging, thrash/hardcore/punk onslaught, as rendered by a bunch of dudes in suits sipping champagne. The second time was in April 2013 (here) when the subject was a lyric video for the title track from their album Punkens framtid, which rocked so hard it nearly knocked me flat, though I somehow kept my feet despite bouncing around in a solo mosh pit of my own making.

But now I have a new excuse to enliven our site with some Bob Malmström insanity, because they’ve just released a video for a cover of a song called “Du kan lita på mig” (“you can trust me”). The song was the title track to a 1993 album by a Swedish singer/songwriter named Tomas Ledin. After hearing the Bob Malmström version, I listened to the original. It’s a bouncy, catchy, pop-py bit of fluff (as heard by my ears, which are scoured to a bloody mess by a daily dose of extreme metal and can now barely tolerate anything bouncy and poppy). I much prefer what Bob Malmström have done with the song — and not just because the video includes a lot of coke, whiskey, boobs, more coke, and hilarious English subtitles. Continue reading »

Aug 172015
 

Grave 2015-2

 

I have many albums I badly want to review, and I had a fair amount of time this weekend to devote to that. So what did I do? I listened to new songs and EPs instead. I just couldn’t stop myself. The more I bounced around the interhole, the more good new stuff I found. I collected some of it yesterday (here), and there’s a lot more in this post — and with any luck, I might manage to write about some of those EPs I found before the day is out. Presented in alphabetical order by band name:

GRAVE

Okay, okay, I realize this first song isn’t exactly hot off the presses, since it debuted on August 5. But gimme a break, it’s by Grave, and anyone who knows anything about my musical tastes knows there’s no way in hell I’m going to miss writing about new Grave music.

The name of the song is “Redeemed Through Hate” and it will appear on the band’s next album, Out of Respect For the Dead, to be released by Century Media in October. It follows the Morbid Ascent EP in 2013, about which Andy Synn wrote a review in haiku: Continue reading »

Aug 172015
 

Terra Deep-part of this world part of another

 

(Our guest “Bonnie Fjord” reviews the forthcoming third album by Oregon’s Terra Deep and introduces our stream of one of the new songs.)

In 2012, one-man metal auteur Terra Deep self-released his debut album Starlight Lodge. The audience of Then was treated to a staggering and ambitious black metal document, a horn of grim plenty that successfully brought together second-wave Norwegian riffage, a Swedish aptitude for the progressive, and the operatic pomp of folk metal. The audience of Now, whatever the span of its attention during this Great Musical Exchange, should be poised to devour Terra Deep’s newest work.

Recently having signed a two-album deal with Dusktone, platform for dim luminaries Welter In Thy Blood, the man who identifies as either Hursag or Matthew Edwards — depending on context — has completed work on his third opus, Part of This World, Part of Another. Casual net perusal reveals some kind of connection to another Oregonian group, Glossolalia Records, but scant correspondence with Edwards has revealed a solitary musician with a kind of controlled creative mania. The album was, however, engineered and co-produced by The Will of a Million‘s Stephen Parker, part of the Glossolalia compound. Continue reading »

Aug 162015
 

Luctus-Rysys

 

I spent a couple of hours yesterday listening to new songs and a few recent short releases. As usual, I found a lot to like, and the music I’ve collected here comes from various widely dispersed corners of the black metal soundscape.

LUCTUS

I discovered this Lithuania-based band only a few weeks ago and wrote enthusiastically about some of the songs from their last release (2013’s Stotis) in a previous edition of Shades of Black (here). As I mentioned in that previous post, Luctus have now finished recording a new concept album entitled Ryšys (which means “connection”), and finally a song from the album has just become available for streaming. Continue reading »

Aug 142015
 

AEvangelist-Abstract Catharsis

 

I’m again backlogged with new music that I haven’t had a chance to send your way this week. I’m hoping I’ll have time this weekend to compile a few more collections, but to make a start here are three new songs that I hope you’ll make time to hear.

ÆVANGELIST

Yesterday the void-faring Ævangelist entity released a head-spinning 14-minute track on Bandcamp. Entitled “Abstract Catharsis”, it was originally recorded in 2013 for a four-way split that never came to fruition, and as far as I can tell, it hasn’t previously been made available for listening.

Those who are familiar with Ævangelist already know that no two of their releases (or, for that matter, individual songs) sound completely alike. “Abstract Catharsis” preserves the overarching otherworldly ambience and predatory ferocity of much of the band’s sound, but this one incorporates a lot of other different and very interesting elements. Continue reading »

Aug 132015
 

Rotting Christ-Lucifer Over Athens

 

I’ve been distracted over the last couple of days by a combination of demands by my fucking day job and time spent with some old friends who decided to escape the furnace that is a Texas summer by visiting Seattle. On top of that, Facebook eliminated my personal profile because it wasn’t under my real legal name, which deep-sixed my friend connections to hundreds of musicians and record labels, whose FB statuses were a constant source of new-music discoveries for me. Put all that together, and the result is that I’m way behind in discovering and writing about new music streams. I’m hoping to re-group in the next day or two, but for now, here are some quick items (the last of which comes to us courtesy of Grant Skelton).

ROTTING CHRIST

As we previously reported, Season of Mist is releasing a double-live album by the almighty Rotting Christ on August 21. Entitled Lucifer Over Athens, it was recorded in Athens in December 2013, and it’s the band’s first-ever live album.

Yesterday, SoM premiered a full stream of the new album, which you can check out below. It’s available for pre-order at this location. Continue reading »

Aug 112015
 

Insomnium-Omnium Gatherum split

 

In preparing these round-ups of new songs I usually try to include music from more obscure underground bands in addition to names most of us would recognize. But I didn’t have much time yesterday to wade through the interhole in search of new things, and by chance two of the new songs I heard come from some of the bigger names; the third one has been out for a month, but there’s a reason I’m including it now. And by chance, catchy melody is the common theme for these songs (which is a big reason these three bands are so well-known).

OMNIUM GATHERUM

It’s been over two years since Finland’s Omnium Gatherum released their last album, Beyond. On August 9 they began a North America tour headlined by fellow Finnish melodeath stalwarts Insomnium — who are mounting the tour without growler/bassist Niilo Sevanen, replacing him for this tour with Mike Bear (Artisan, ex-Prototype) from the U.S. And to coincide with the tour, Omnium Gatherum and Insomnium are releasing a 7″ vinyl split, featuring artwork by Olli-Pekka Lappalainen. Continue reading »

Aug 092015
 

Lux Ferre cover art

 

Off and on over the last couple of days I browsed the web and links we received via e-mail, hunting for new music that I thought would be worth recommending. I’ve collected some of those here. The songs display different styles, though they are all connected to the traditions of black metal — and I think they are all very good.

LUX FERRE

Lux Ferre are a Portuguese band who somehow eluded my attention until this weekend, despite the fact that they’ve released two full-lengths and have a third one coming out this fall. The new album is entitled Excaecatio Lux Veritatis.

Lux Ferre obviously don’t crank out their albums in a hurry — this new one comes six years after the band’s last record, Atrae Materiae Monumentum, and that one followed their debut album (Antichristian War Propaganda) by five years. Though I can’t comment on the band’s previous releases, the first advance track that has appeared from the new album is tremendous. Continue reading »