Roughly two years after the release of their Serpent’s Curse debut album, Heads For the Dead have risen from whatever moldering, lightless tomb where they’ve been hibernating, and they’re hungry… for your flesh. Or at least they certainly sound famished for the delights of crunching bones, rendered entrails, and gushing ichor based on the new song we’re about to present.

That debut album was a massive-sounding exposition of Swedish death metal with an attraction to the tropes of old-school horror, and an addictive work of mauling terror it was, as exemplified by our dropping of one of its tracks into our list of Most Infectious Extreme Metal songs that year. Based on this new song — “At the Dead of Night“, which we’re presenting through a lyric video — they’ve lost none of their ability to crush, rend, and frighten in the intervening time.

But before we get to it, that image at the top of this post isn’t the cover of their forthcoming sophomore album Into the Red — this is: Continue reading »

I’ve been hungry for this new album ever since I first caught wind that it was on the way. That greediness was based entirely on finding out who was in the band, and the names of the people who had contributed as guest or session musicians. The leading roles were filled by the very busy Jonny Petterson (Wombbath, Ursinne, Henry Kane, Pale King), who was responsible for the music and its production, and by vocalist Ralf Hauber (Revel In Flesh), with Erik Bevenrud (Down Among the Dead Men) as the session drummer. And to add to those names, Matt Moliti (Sentient Horror) performed guitar solos on three tracks, and Håkan Stuvemark (Wombbath, Pale King) soloed on two others.

With that line-up and those additional contributors, I had little doubt this new collaboration, which goes under the name Heads For the Dead, was going to be good. The question was, how good? And the further question concerned the direction that Petterson pursued in the music. Death metal, of course, but that’s a very broad label, and Petterson has already proven that he’s capable of venturing off in more than one direction beneath that big banner.

Well, now we have some clues for you. One track premiered earlier this month from this new album, Serpent’s Curse, and today we’ve got a second one in advance of its release by Transcending Obscurity Records on September 24th. Continue reading »