(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Sweden’s Gloson.)
Don’t you love it/hate it (delete as appropriate) when a band comes along, seemingly out of nowhere, with a debut album so good you struggle to grasp how they’ve actually managed it?
Because that’s exactly what Swedish Post-Sludgebringers Gloson have done. Continue reading »
This is good timing. At our site we’ve recently started rolling out our list of 2016’s “Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs”. Our 2015 list included a song by Sweden’s Gloson from their striking 32-minute debut EP Yearwalker. And now we have a new song to premiere from their forthcoming debut album Grimen, which is one we’ve been eagerly awaiting. Don’t be surprised if you see this song next year at this time, on our 2017 list.
We’ve already had one powerful clue that the dynamic power of Yearwalker wasn’t the result of random luck and didn’t represent a plateau of what Gloson were capable of achieving. I’m referring to the song “Cringe“, which appeared last fall. This new song, “Antlers“, provides further proof that Gloson have continued to move upward, even though they started their climb at a very high place already. Continue reading »
Happy Monday. Through the miracles of modern technology, I’m writing this at roughly 38,000 feet above the earth, somewhere across the deserts of northern Utah, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and the barren panhandle of Texas. Under duress from my fucking day job, I’m bound for Houston for the next couple of days.
Actually, it’s not exactly a miracle, not something like turning water into wine, more like turning water into weak tea — because although I can get online, the service isn’t good enough to stream music or videos. So some of the items I’m including in this round-up are things I can see but can’t hear.
WOLFHEART
I’m beginning with an item that I could have heard over the weekend if I had known it was out there. Unfortunately, I discovered it only today after boarding this jet I’m on. It’s a video for a new song by Finland’s Wolfheart named “Boneyard“. Continue reading »
Maybe I should have divided this round-up of mostly new music into multiple parts in an effort to reduce the sensory-overload risk. But I was so happy with the range of diversity in this collection that I decided to leave it alone. Hope you find some things to like in here.
NOCTEM
Haeresis is the name of the new album by one of our site’s favorite bands, the Iberian horde known as Noctem. They’ve been dribbling out tracks from the album since August, with “Through the Black Temples of Disaster” and “The Submission Discipline” having been previously released, and yesterday I discovered a third single, “Pactum With The Indomitable Darkness“. Continue reading »
Over the last two months, as I made my way through the hundreds of songs that had become candidates for this list, I fell into the habit of grouping certain songs together for listening purposes, usually because I thought they would complement each other. The first three in today’s quartet formed one of those playlists, and they kind of got stuck together in my head. I enjoyed the trip through them so much (and so often) that I decided all three belonged on this “Most Infectious” list, and that they should stay together here, just as they did when I was trying to figure out this list as a whole.
And then in recent days I found that another song I had already decided to include worked well as an addition to the original trio — which is why this installment includes four tracks instead of the usual two or three. (The songs that preceded these four on the list can be found here.)
GLOSON
When I included “The Aftermath/Beginning” on the list of candidates for this series, I had forgotten that Gloson’s Yearwalker was originally self-released in 2014, because we “premiered” this song from it last February in advance of its March 2015 vinyl release by Art of Propaganda and Catatonic State Records. When I remembered only days ago that the song was from a 2014 release, it was too late for me to abandon it (see the paragraph above about the first three songs in this post being joined at the hip). Continue reading »
Last month we had the pleasure of premiering the final track on the new album by Sweden’s Gloson. Now we bring you a premiere of the entire four-song EP: Yearwalker.
Gloson drive like a V-8 Interceptor across the wasteland, but not as fast. Speed is not the object, the destination is not the point. The point is the relentless hammering of the pistons set against the desolation of the surrounding vistas, and the hypnotic power of the melodies.
Gloson’s engine is driven by thick, vibrating sludge riffs, prominent bass lines, and spine-shaking drum beats. In each song the band establish a repeating motif in the low end and then drive it forward inexorably, relentlessly pounding their messages of gloom and woe like the chanting of a mantra. But as powerful (and powerfully hypnotic) as these repeating motifs are, they are not the whole story. Continue reading »
Alright, it might be a stretch to call this song a “premiere”, because some of the lucky ones among you have already discovered this music for yourselves. The debut EP Yearwalker of Sweden’s Gloson was self-released digitally last year, but it’s getting a proper international release on vinyl this coming March 23 by Art of Propaganda and Catatonic State Records. Apart from satisfying the vinyl hungers of Gloson’s fans, this new release achieves another admirable objective: It spreads the word of Yearwalker to the previously uninitiated — which included me. And I’m damned glad I’ve now been introduced to this surprising new band.
“The Aftermath/Beginning” is the final song on this four-track, 32-minute release. Entrancing guitar notes transform into pile-driving riffs, dreamlike melody is overpowered by an avalanche of rumbling darkness, caustic howls scrape against vulnerable flesh. As the song continues to unfold, yet another entrancing guitar melody spirals over the crushing low-end rhythms, like northern lights shimmering over mountain crags. The sludgy power of the song will get your head moving while it casts a spell at the same time. Continue reading »