SEEN AND HEARD: DAWN OF SOLACE, OUTER HEAVEN, PATHOLOGY, MORBID MESSIAH, BOURN ULTRA

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Aug 272021
 

 

As I hoped, I had time to compile a second round-up on this Friday… and I have ideas for a third one tomorrow, so do check back. There’s no sandwich this time, unlike the first compilation today, just a severe case of whiplash as you go from the first song into what comes next.

DAWN OF SOLACE (Finland)

It appears that the revival of Dawn of Solace by Tuomas Saukkonen will be a lasting one, because a new album named Flames of Perdition is now set for release on November 12th via the Noble Demon label, and the first item I chose for this collection is a video for its first advance track, “White Noise“.

The emotional power and intensity of the song absolutely floored me. The intensity builds steadily, from its soft and wistful beginning through grim, heavy chords, neck-cracking drums, darting riffs, and the soaring, spine-tingling voice of Mikko Heikkilä (of Kaunis Kuolematon). It reaches a zenith of dark and moving impact via a stunningly beautiful and deeply moving guitar solo by Jukka Salovaara. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KRISIUN, DOEDSVANGR, SERPENT COLUMN, NERVOCHAOS

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Aug 272021
 

 

This round-up is a Brazilian death metal sandwich with some poisonous charred goods inside. I’m anticipating I’ll have time for a second round-up later today, which will be some other kind of tasty but toxic meal.

KRISIUN (Brazil)

Yesterday Century Media released a video for the title track from Krisiun‘s latest album, Scourge Of The Enthroned, which is has been out since September 2018.

This is such a good song — jagged and jolting, weird and wailing, menacing and mad. Moving mainly at turbocharged speed, it gives your skull a hard slugging and your guts a good gouging, blaring and boiling with maniacal ferocity but also packing a pulse-pounding punch and infiltrating bits of eerie melody. The soloing screams, the vocals are savage, and the drumming is lights-out. And it’s a blast to watch these veteran barbarians perform the song. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GOAT TORMENT, MORTIFERUM, ANOMALY, TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE DISASTER

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Aug 262021
 

 

As you can see, I found time to stitch together another round-up of new music today. As usual, it barely scratches the surface of new songs and videos I’ve spotted this week, but I thought the choices would collectively give our visitors whiplash, and it pleased me to think so.

The music I’ve chosen for today comes from three pre-established personal favorites and one newcomer that’s already made a very positive first impression.

GOAT TORMENT (Belgium)

We begin with a supercharged adrenaline rush, a track that delivers storming, Marduk-like sonic warfare which marries bullet-spitting and bomb-throwing drums, wild, incendiary riffing, dominating vocal savagery, and an exotic wailing solo with an Arabian flare. Continue reading »

NIGHTMARER – MONOLITH OF CORROSION

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Aug 262021
 

(Andy Synn takes some time out of his busy schedule to lavish praise on the new EP from Nightmarer, out tomorrow via Total Dissonance Worship)

I must admit, I was late to the party with Nightmarer.

I totally missed their first EP, Chasm, and didn’t get a chance to check out their first album, Cacophony of Terror, until well after practically everyone else in the world had long-since done so (and moved on).

So I told myself that, given the chance, I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again… and although I almost ran out of time (this EP actually comes out tomorrow, so we’re down to the wire here) I’m glad that I kept my promise, even if only by the skin of my teeth, as Monolith of Corrosion is easily the band’s best work yet.

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (TOO MANY NAMES TO PUT IN THIS TITLE, AGAIN)

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Aug 212021
 

 

The usual torrent of new music continued this past week, culminating in the expected high tide on Friday. Harried by my day job, I couldn’t keep up with what happened yesterday, though my compatriot DGR did, and he again funneled a lot of the new stuff my way. Five of the selections you’ll find below came from him, though I did manage to add eight more advance tracks that I scoped out this morning, to create a lucky 13.

As in other instances of gigantic round-ups such as this one, it includes a lot of bigger names, but I’ve infiltrated some lesser-knowns. It’s like putting out honey to attract flies, and then hoping something they weren’t expecting bites them. Welcome aboard flies! Here we go in alphabetical order:

1914 (Ukraine)

It’s exciting to see an underground favorite such as 1914 (whom we’ve been writing about since their early days) getting picked up by a big label such as Napalm, for the simple reason that it will expose their prodigious talents to a wider audience. The fact that Nick Holmes makes a guest appearance on the song/video that leads off this collection will help as well. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: AEON, UNDERGANG, BEYOND GRACE, THE SILVER, DOLD VORDE ENS NAVN, ATRÆ BILIS, FURZE, SARKOM

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Aug 192021
 

 

I thought I could get this round-up finished in time to post it yesterday when most of these songs and videos were hot off the presses, but I got diverted by my day job. But day-old bread is still pretty good bread. (We don’t have any rule against mixing metaphors here.)

AEON (Sweden)

To begin, we worship in the “Church of Horror“, the first song from the first album by Aeon in nine years. It’s a fast one, with a blazing blizzard of jittery riffing and skull-assaulting drums providing the accompaniment to guttural fury directed against pedophile priests and the church that’s sheltered them. Bits of dismal melody and jolting slamtastic groove play a role in this outraged musical tirade, along with a queasy and maniacally quivering solo. If your ass is dragging, this will fix that for you. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CARCASS, CADAVER, CALLUS, SUN OF THE SUNS, STORMGREY, SHADECROWN, SOMBRE FIGURES, THOMAS BEL, ZORNHEYM

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Aug 142021
 

 

Upon awakening this morning I gave some passing though to concentrating on one or two albums and trying to write something that might pass for a review or two. As you can see, the thought didn’t last long, and I instead dove back into the giant list of new songs and videos that had become the source of the giant two-part roundup I compiled yesterday. And that led to this further compilation… though it does include one album review after all.

CARCASS (UK)

“I’d describe this album as dad rock.” So says Jeff Walker about the new Carcass album, Torn Arteries. The song that premiered (here) at Rolling Stone along with an excellent animated video (created by created by the inimitable Costin Chioreanu), an extensive history of the band, and a very enjoyable interview of Walker, is definitely more of a rocking song than most others in Carcass‘ storied discography, but the song’s rapidly chugging riff, worming leads, squirming solo, and booming drums do get their hooks in the head. Moreover, Walker’s vocals are damned nasty, and there’s a devilish atmosphere surrounding the song as well. I like it! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): LLNN, ROTHADÁS, SEPULTURA, SKEPTICISM, SUL AD ASTRAL, SWELLING REPULSION, UNTAMED LAND, THE ZENITH PASSAGE

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Aug 132021
 

 

This is Part 2 of a mountainous round-up of new songs and videos that surfaced during the last week. If you haven’t perused Part 1, it’s here. Before cutting these 16 offerings into two pieces I arranged them in alphabetical order by band name, and so here we have L – Z. Musically, this one might be even more wide-ranging than what you’ll find in Part 1.

LLNN (Denmark)

“Although the song begins with spacey ambience, it quickly falls forward into a mighty chug that’s then handed off to vocalist-guitarist Christian Bonnesen‘s stone-scraping howls. It only gets heavier from there, as avalanching bass rumbles and violent drums bash the groove into the ground with the force of King Kong punching the earth.”

That’s what Revolver’s Eli Enis wrote in introducing the premiere of this next song two days ago, presented through a video that depicts an entity from beyond our solar system swallowing our planet whole. And it is indeed a humongously heavy track, and a creepy one. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): ALDA, ARAN, CHROME WAVES, CULT BURIAL, EUCHARIST, FAMISHGOD, KAECK, KORPIKLAANI

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Aug 132021
 

 

It’s a rare day when I have no premieres to write for our site, and no posts to edit and format from any of our other writers either. So I spent the extra time listening to more than the usual number of new songs and videos released this week, and found a whopping 16 of them I wanted to recommend.

Rather than put them all in a single post, which might have been like hitting you in the mouth with a bag of nails, I’ve divided them into two parts, arranged alphabetically from the beginning of Part 1 to the end of Part 2 — beginning with A and finishing with Z.

ALDA (US)

It’s been a long wait for something new from this very talented Washington State black metal band, but now they’re back with a new album named A Distant Fire, and a first advance track from the album that’s a sure sign the wait has been worthwhile. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BENEDICTION, DESTRUCTION, FOREIGN PAIN, KLANEN, MISANTHUR, UNHOLY VAMPYRIC SLAUGHTER SECT, VIRIAL

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Aug 112021
 

 

Lo and behold, I again found time to prepare a round-up, right here in the middle of the week, thanks to the fact that our album premiere today was written by Mr. Synn instead of moi (and if you haven’t read that and listened to the new Fawn Limbs record, don’t forget to do it).

For today’s collection of new songs and videos I again decided to include a mix of both very well-known names and deeply underground ones, again arranged in alphabetical order. I enjoyed them all, and hope you will too.

BENEDICTION (UK)

It’s great to see Benediction performing in this video, a reminder of how much we have missed from the plague-driven banishment of shows. The song, as you may already know, is a grim and ravaging heavy-hitter that kicks into a savage scamper before slowing into a doomed musical apocalypse. And man, Dave Ingram‘s deep, fully rounded growl is (as always) spine-tingling. (He also made this video.) Continue reading »

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