Apr 182022
 

Aparthiva Raktadhara‘s 2018 debut demo Agyat Ishvar popped a lot of eyes wide open, including ours. Even at only 12 1/2 minutes in length, it struck like a nuclear-tipped missile, often breathtakingly fast, cyclonic in the intensity of its riffing, and berserk in the ferocity of the vocals. Yet the frontal assault of the music didn’t completely obscure its intricacy or its insidiously seductive effects. It left us as intrigued as it did obliterated.

Now we’re about to have an even more formidable demonstration of this trio’s powers, because on May 20th Iron Bonehead Productions will release their debut album Adyapeeth Maranasamhita (আদ্যাপীঠ মরণসংহিতা). It was received, as the band explain, “as a burning revelation of riktata, realized within our hearts as we meditated under a Bodhi tree by the Ganges in Chanak, Uttar Kalikshetra, in fall 2019.”

Now that revelation has taken its complete form through sound, and we bring you part of that experience in today’s premiere of the album’s closing track, “Nada of Creation Collapses Onto Primal Bindu“. We think you’ll be quickly convinced that this isn’t like any other death metal you’re likely to hear this year. Continue reading »

May 202018
 

 

Black metal isn’t a two-sided coin — it’s more like a tetraplex. Yet I’m still thinking of the music in Part 2 of today’s SOB column as the other side of the coin from what was in Part 1. The music there was more cerebral, more emotionally complex, often more spiritual and atmospheric… and what’s here is more visceral, more violent, more inclined to take no prisoners. Or at least that’s how I think of the distinctions at a very high level.

I happen to like both “sides” of this “coin”; some may prefer one side to the other. Some, in fact, may recoil as the following selections apply a blowtorch to your eardrums.

BLASPHAMAGOATCHRIST

If you were members of Blasphemy, Goatpenis, and Antichrist, and you decided to join forces, what would you call your collective endeavor? Well, duh, you’d call it Blasphamagoatachrist! I mean, Phemypenisanti was probably already taken. Continue reading »