AN NCS PREMIERE: HELLEBORUS — “SAPROPHYTIC DIVINATIONS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 052019
 

 

Many of us often hope for unions of visual, musical, and lyrical artistry, the integration of sights, sounds, and words that manifests a cohesive vision, with each part elevating the others and making possible a more compelling holistic experience. Such achievements are less common than we might wish, but the Colorado band Helleborus have given us one through their new album Saprophytic Divinations, which will be released by Redefining Darkness Records on December 6th.

This won’t come as any great surprise to people who are familiar with the band’s 2016 debut album, The Carnal Sabbath, or their 2017 single “Prayer of the Undying“, both of which we wrote about here, and yet the new album seems an even more fully realized reflection of the band’s far-reaching aspirations.

Before today Helleborus had already revealed one example of that artistic integration referred to above, presenting a song called “Alraun Ghost” along with artwork created for the track by Stefan Todorovic (Atterigner) of Khaos Diktator Art, and today we’re presenting another one — revealing both the title track and Stefan Todorovic‘s artwork for the album. (In the days ahead Redefining Darkness will share yet a third track and the artwork created for that song as well; all three pieces of art will be included in the 6-panel digipak CD edition of the record). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AKHENATEN — “ERISHKIGAL: KINGDOM OF DEATH”

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May 162018
 

 

We’ve devoted significant attention over the years to the musical creations of Wyatt and Jerred Houseman through their band Helleborus, but the brothers Houseman have another project named Akhenaten, and it’s Akhenaten that’s the subject of the following premiere.

Through this project, the Housemans have drawn inspiration from the mythology and mysticism of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, interweaving exotic melodies into a framework of blackened death metal. The new Akhenaten album, Golden Serpent God, revisits these ancient deities and occult mysteries over the course of 11 tracks, and the one we bring you today in advance of the album’s May 31 release by the triumvirate of Satanath Records (Russia), Cimmerian Shade Recordings (USA), and Murdher Records (Italy) is named for the Mesopotamian goddess Erishkigal, queen of the underworld Irkalla and sister to Inanna, the goddess of heaven, whom she destroys (at least temporarily). Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 27): HELLEBORUS, VIN DE MIA TRIX, ENTROPIA INVICTUS, VINTERSORG

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 162017
 

 

(Our ally Gorger from Norway returns to our putrid neighborhood bearing gifts — four more underground gems from 2017, three of which we haven’t previously reviewed. To find more of his recommendations, type “Gorger” in our search bar or visit Gorger’s Metal.)

And so, a month did pass anew. That’s what you get when life finds its way of twisting and turning for a handsome young man. To the worse I might add.

Nah, who am I fooling. I’m neither young nor good looking. Fuck it. Time to drown ourselves in more tunes never before presented on No Clean Singing.

By the way, I’ve sunk to new depths, and enrolled with the herd of sheep. So for those who care to give a fuck, this cunt can also be found on Facebook now. With this self-advertisement I likely can’t get any lower, so let’s fire up the engines and soar into mighty metallic sceneries. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HELLEBORUS — “HELLEBORUS BLACK”

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May 312016
 

Helleborus-The Carnal Sabbath

 

On June 17, Satanath Records (Russia) and Black Plague Records (USA) will jointly release The Carnal Sabbath, which is the debut album by Colorado’s Helleborus. The album has been a long time coming — we debuted a song from it (“Coils”) in March of last year, and other songs from the album have surfaced periodically since then. But now the full album release is nearly upon us, and we’re very happy to bring you the premiere of another new song — “Helleborus Black” — in the form of a drum cam video.

Helleborus — which is the scientific name for a genus of beautiful but poisonous flowers that bloom in winter — was created by the brothers Jerred and Wyatt Houseman. Last June, KevinP interviewed Wyatt for us and asked about the album that was then taking shape, drawing this response:

“The Carnal Sabbath is the title of the album and there will be 9 featured tracks…. My lyrics reflect aspects of sexual mysticism, death worship, and The Qabalah. With each track I have reached into the dark corners of my mind to reproduce some of my deepest introspection. My desire is to cast a shadow of my own on a lot of these areas. Each track harnesses a very potent and romantic force of energy. We do not demand contact from the other side but romanticize our own connections with it.”

Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: WYATT H. (HELLEBORUS AND AKHENATEN)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jun 052015
 

 

(KevinP brings us another short-but-sweet interview, this time with Wyatt H. of the Colorado bands Akhenaten and Helleborus — whose new song “Coils” we premiered earlier this year (here) with a free download.)

K:   So how does one go from brutal death metal [Execration] to Mesopotamian and psychedelic black metal?

W:  Helleborus and Akhenaten were in development during our time spent with Execration. Jerred  had already started developing sounds for what would be Akhenaten in 2010. Around the time I was asked to join Execration, we were already experimenting with the elements of Black Metal before we had formed a solid project. Execration already had two releases when I started rehearsing with them. The nature of the music never fit with me but I enjoyed the chaos and energy behind it. Jerred and I tried our best to put our soul into the project with the last release The Acceptance of Zero Existence. Even though we had great success with the album, it brought light to me, that my brother and I were putting too much energy into something that wasn’t ours and of our true nature. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A FREE DOWNLOAD): HELLEBORUS — “COILS”

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Mar 262015
 

 

Brothers Jerred and Wyatt Houseman were formerly members of a brutal death metal band from Colorado named Execration. They have turned their talents to a new project — Helleborus — which is the scientific name for a genus of beautiful but poisonous flowers that bloom in winter. Their debut album The Carnal Sabbath will be released later this year, and today we bring you the premiere of one of the album tracks — “Coils” — plus the chance to download it for free.

Helleborus is a departure from the brothers’  previous work in Execration. It’s a psychedelic black metal project created to explore themes of sexual mysticism, the Qabalah, and the Esoteric.  About “Coils” in particular, Wyatt Houseman explains: Continue reading »