SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): SAVAGE NECROMANCY, ABOLITION RITUAL, PHENOCRYST

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 202022
 

 

In rooting around among new releases over the past week I got myself into some pretty nasty and gnarly music. Because it’s my habit to impulsively share whatever I happen to be into, I’m sharing some of that with you here. But it’s not just the nastiness that hooked me to these releases. As I hope you’ll agree, the following two albums (and one EP) have other qualities that make them noteworthy.

Fair warning: on the spectrum of black/death metal, most of these lean more in the direction of death. Further fair warning: I haven’t had time to write thorough reviews, just some very broad and possibly superficial impressions, just a come-on for you to do your own listening.

SAVAGE NECROMANCY (U.S.)

The vocalist of this Arizona band has a great pseudonym — Diabolical Fuckwitch Of The Black Flame — and she also has a helluva voice. She opens the band’s debut album Feathers Fall To Flames with a gripping performance in the opening track “Milenio De La Crucifixión”. There she voices a fervent melodic chant in Spanish, though later in the album she also growls like a subterranean hell beast and howls like a rabid wolf. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CAEDEOUS — “OBSCURUS PERPETUO” (AND A VIDEO PREMIERE TOO!)

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Mar 182022
 

On March 22nd the Portuguese symphonic black metal metal band Caedeous will release their third album, Obscurus Perpetua, and today we present not only the premiere of the album as a whole but also an official video for the song “Magisteri Peccatorum“.

If we were trained medical professionals we’d advise you to take your seats and get a firm grip on something solid before embarking on this journey, because Obscurus Perpetua is a dazzling, diabolical, and disorienting trip through the imperiums of Hell. The music is elaborate and unpredictable, theatrical and bombastic, sometimes breathtaking in its splendor but always as scary as your worst nightmares. Fascinating music, to be sure, but also demented and intensely unnerving. Continue reading »

GLOSON – THE RIFT

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 162022
 

(Andy Synn descends into The Rift, the astonishing new album from Sweden’s Gloson)

Let me ask you something… what is it that makes one album, or one artist, better than another?

It’s not a question with an easy or simple answer, I know.

There are some people, for example, who seem to believe that being more accessible – more listenable, more likable, more relatable – is something that inherently makes an artist/album better, as their music is now capable of appealing to a wider audience.

On the flip-side of this, though, there are also those who affirm that becoming more challenging, more difficult, more complex – in any of a variety of different ways – is the only true way to keep getting better as a band.

Ultimately, of course, it’s all somewhat subjective, and each of us will have a slightly different set of criteria, a different suite of sensibilities which need to be satisfied (or not), in order to make that judgement for ourselves.

So when I tell you that The Rift, the second album from Swedish quartet Gloson is by some margin the best Post-/Sludge Metal album I’ve heard so far this year – surpassing even Cult of Luna‘s fantastic new record (a statement which I’m sure will inspire much shock and consternation amongst many of our readers) – chances are that some of you will believe me, and some of you won’t.

But that’s fine. Because it’s still true either way.

Continue reading »

PERSECUTORY – SUMMONING THE LAWLESS LEGIONS

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Mar 142022
 

(Andy Synn joins the lawless legions of Persecutory fans with this review of the band’s new album)

So, it’s official – my Hardcore phase which dominated the start of this year is now over and I am now fully engrossed in a shameless Black Metal binge, with new reviews for Vanum, Vimur, Terzij de Horde, Feral Light, and more, all in the works.

Before I get to any of those records, however, I want to draw your attention to Summoning the Lawless Legions, the recently-released second album from Istanbul’s Persecutory, as ever since I discovered it last week I’ve become addicted to its devilish delights. Continue reading »

DEAD REGISTER: “ALIVE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 142022
 

 

(In this post Wil Cifer reviews the sophomore album by Dead Register, which is set for release on May 13th by Seeing Red Records.)

This Atlanta trio has graced a few of my end of the year best of lists. They are known for flirting with various shades of heavy, sludge and doom being the two sub-genres that come closest to describing the darkness thickly emoted from the sonic swathes they summon, using only bass, synths, and drums as the primary instrumentation. Their new album finds the band continuing deeper into the despairing abyss their previous work has gazed into. This time around the grooves are just more refined.

The title track that opens the album carries a sleek industrial stomp. The drumming gives the vocals plenty of room to lament. At times the tension has a shadowy post-punk feel, but with more oppression to its heavy-handed melancholy. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ANTE-INFERNO, VIMUR, SILENT THUNDER, CEREMONIELE WALGING, SAKLAS, MEPHISTO, BLOOD RIVER

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 132022
 

 

I’m racing to finish the writing of this column so that it won’t appear too late in the day (or night, depending on where you are), so I’ll skip the introduction — other than to say there’s a lot of music here and a lot of variety too.

ANTE-INFERNO (UK)

“The horror and helplessness of the modern world clashes with the ancient past, and we bear witness to Antediluvian Dreamscapes as nightmarish as they are vivid and tortuous. The end of all life and the birth of the world are indistinguishable, and all who listen will be morbidly subjected to the harmonious torment of our writhing souls. The hour is come.”

And that’s how Ante-Inferno introduce their new album Antediluvian Dreamscapes, which follows their formidable 2020 album Fane (reviewed by Mr. Synn here). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRYPTIVORE — “CELESTIAL EXTINCTION”

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Mar 102022
 

 

Those of you who have spent years listening to death metal as it began to take monstrous shape in the first decade of the genre’s spawning and evolution will easily recognize the stylistic tropes that make up the musical arsenal brandished by Cryptivore‘s debut album Celestial Extinction. Drawing influence from early days of Amorphis and Carcass, Rottrevore and Grave, Cryptivore’s sound is a hybrid of death-metal brutality and explosive grindcore fury, all of it swathed in melodies that evoke haunted houses and horrifying crypts.

But this Australian band’s first full-length (which is the solo work of Chris Anning) is one of those releases where the familiarity of the ingredients in no way lessens the thrill of listening to it. You can see all the knives in the drawer, but once they start flashing and slashing in such remarkably dynamic fashion you get caught up in the spectacle. That’s a tribute to Cryptivore‘s own obvious knowledge of and love for the genre ingredients, but it’s also the result of top-shelf instrumental and vocal technique and a real talent for writing songs that feel like non-stop roller-coaster rides.

And so it’s a genuine pleasure to share with you a full stream of Celestial Extinction in advance of its fast-approaching March 15 release by Bitter Loss Records. Continue reading »

MIND ERASURE: “CONNIVE”

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Mar 102022
 

 

(The Greek black/death metal band Mind Erasure released their debut album last month, and it struck a chord with our writer DGR, as will become apparent if you read the following review.)

Mind Erasure landed in the net over the Valentine’s Day weekend back in February. The result of having a surplus of free time, I was able to explore a wide swath of upcoming releases and take a gample on quite a few of them. Spain’s AfterLife and Nightrage‘s latest release were some of the results of that musical binge and Mind Erasure‘s new album Connive was another.

Mind Erasure caught interest on the strength of their album art, which doesn’t really hint at much other than the logo suggesting a prog-death influence, but apart from that yours truly went in blind, and the experience was more enjoyable for it.

They are a hard band to describe; they jump through a huge collection of genre-hoops over the course of Connive‘s fifty-six minutes and just trying to nail it down to the core of their black and death metal influences doesn’t capture the full picture of what is happening here. Continue reading »

AEVITERNE – THE AILING FACADE

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Mar 092022
 

(Andy Synn delves into the darkness of The Ailing Facade, the upcoming new album by Aeviterne)

Gather round my friends and let me tell you the tale of… Flourishing.

With just a single album to their name, released all the way back in 2011 (the same year, as it happens, that Ulcerate released The Destroyers of All, which perhaps explains why The Sum of All Fossils ended up being somewhat overlooked/overshadowed in the grand scheme of things), the group may not be the most well-known of names, but in certain circles their legacy as a band well ahead of their time – progenitors, in many ways, of the still evolving Atmospheric/Dissonant Death Metal movement – is absolutely unquestionable.

But even if you’re not familiar with the band at all, you should still be excited by the upcoming release of the debut album from Aeviterne, as the group’s line-up not only features two ex-Flourishing members (vocalist/guitarist Garrett Bussanick and bassist Eric Rizk) but also involves creative contributions from ultra-talented ex-Castevet drummer Ian Jacyszyn and Artificial Brain‘s Sam Smith, which should give you some hint of the dark and demanding sound the quartet have conjured on The Ailing Facade.

Even taking these impressive credential into account though, the release of this album still raises the question – particularly in a world where bands like Ingurgitating Oblivion, Nightmarer, and Nero di Marte (to name just a few) have further normalised the incorporation of moody atmospherics and doomy, Post-Metal dynamics into Death Metal – of whether or not Aeviterne have perhaps come a little too late to the party to truly reap the rewards of their talents?

Continue reading »

ARKAIK: “LABYRINTH OF HUNGRY GHOSTS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 082022
 

(We present DGR‘s review of the new album by the California death metal band Arkaik. The album will be released on March 11th by The Artisan Era.)

For a very long time I considered Arkaik something of a bellweather when it came to the modern tech-death scene. Up until the time following 2017’s Nemethia the group were a pretty reliable snapshot of that scene, every two to three years adding to their conceptual album universe with a battering of groove-oriented and rhythmically-complex songs that straddled the line between being overly technical and brutally-core without leaning too far in either direction. Despite an ever-shifting lineup, Arkaik have maintained a fairly strong and consistent output. Because of that, as noted, they’ve been perfect if you’re the type to dance into and out of many different subgenres of heavy metal.

Now though, the situation shifts as labels have gotten far more specialized than before. It’s not so much that Arkaik find themselves at the forefront of a particular genre any more, but that they have found another label that specializes in where Arkaik are at this moment in their musical journey. Continue reading »

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