SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: HIDEOUS DIVINITY, CATTLE DECAPITATION, NILE, PEDOPHILE PRIESTS, HELLRUNE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 072019
 

 

I’m always reluctant to do what I’m doing in this post, i.e., just inserting videos and song streams without any commentary.  Trying to describe music I want to recommend, and to explain why I’m recommending it, is a continuing challenge, but I must admit it’s also fun for me (and cathartic to get my feelings about the music  off my chest). Unfortunately for me, if not for you, I don’t have time for that today. Still, I think there might be some value in the filtering/selection-process itself, and in alerting people to things they might have overlooked on their own.

Even though I’m keeping quiet, I hope you’ll feel free to share your own reactions in the Comments. And with that, here we go… Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: HIDEOUS DIVINITY

 Interviews, WAXING LYRICAL  5 Responses »
Jul 142018
 

 

(In this week’s edition of Andy Synn’s series on the creation of metal lyrics, he elicits thoughts from lyricist/guitarist Enrico Schettino of the Italian death metal band Hideous Divinity.)

If you’re not already familiar with Italian blastmasters Hideous Divinity then stop whatever you’re doing now (which I suppose is reading this column) and head on over to their Bandcamp page straight away and listen to their facemelting third album Adveniens, which our very own DGR described as:

“…an atomic blast that never seems to stop expanding ever-outward from moment one, never losing momentum, and leaving nothing but ash, dust, and mutation in its aftermath.”

And then, once you’re done with that, make sure to come back here and read this new edition of Waxing Lyrical, where the band’s guitarist Enrico Schettino discusses where his lyrics come from, where they’re going, and the method behind the band’s particular brand of metallic madness! Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2017’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 8): IMMOLATION, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, INCONCESSUS LUX LUCIS

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2017  7 Responses »
Jan 192018
 

 

I can’t say there was really an organizing theme or strategy that motivated my decision to group together these three new additions to our Most Infectious Song list. They simply happened to be close together on my master list of candidates, which is alphabetized by band name. And they also happened to be easy choices for me… though all three tracks had serious competition among others on the albums from which they came.

IMMOLATION

It was a given. in my mind, that something from Immolation’s new album would be on this list. With Atonement, they proved again (as they have over and over) that they “are one of those untouchable bands”, to quote from TheMadIsraeli’s review of the album. They were pioneers, and they remain inimitable… and they just never give up, never surrendering to the weight of years or the burdens of expectations. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (BY DGR): DYSCARNATE, BROKEN HOPE, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, ARCHSPIRE, VOLTURYON, FLESHKILLER, THE RITUAL AURA, SEPTICFLESH, THE HAUNTED

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 052017
 


Dyscarnate

 

(DGR has again stepped forward for round-up duty and has pulled together 9 new songs and videos that caught his eye between last week and yesterday.)

Last week saw a tremendous on-rush of heavy metal news, and of course, since many people knew that we here in the States (or at least many of us) would get a long three-day weekend, a lot of it hit in the back half of the week. As the site’s resident hoover vacuum, I’ve compiled an itemized list of nine… items… that caught my interest over the course of the week that we didn’t get a chance to cover that I will now lovingly shove right into your faces.

If you’re a big fan of death metal and its chugging ilk, this roundup is mostly for you, as it seemed like a large chunk of what I found came from that sphere of influence. There’s definitely the requisite world-traveling element as well, as we go from England to Canada to Italy to the States to Greece to Sweden (twice), and you can see where this is going from here. So let’s quit goofing off and get to the fun stuff. Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: ENRICO SCHETTINO (HIDEOUS DIVINITY)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jun 062017
 

 

(KevinP brings us this interview of Enrico Schettino, guitarist of Italy’s Hideous Divinity, whose superb new album Adveniens was reviewed by us here and is available now via Unique Leader.)

 

K:  How does it feel to exceed expectations with the new album for the second time?

E:  It feels good indeed, if this is what people truly believe. I mean, to exceed expectations sometimes looks like the only way in death metal nowadays. Competition’s insane. And also, people’s judgments leave you disoriented.  This is our life, sometimes we are at ease with the pressure, it compels us to push the envelope.  Some other times, we decide to take a deep breath, a step back, and do our thing:  rewrite, relisten, erase, rewrite. “Ad libitum”.

In other words, I really didn’t know what “expectations” were!  Too many different awkward ideas about how a band should sound today. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3): VALLENFYRE, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, NOVEMBERS DOOM, ADRIFT FOR DAYS, DIREWOLVES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Apr 082017
 

 

I had planned to conclude an ever-expanding round-up of new music and videos yesterday, but missed my target. Based on the gagging and gurgling sounds, I think my arrow hit someone in the throat.

So here we are, a day late, and late in the day also. Plus, it’s a Saturday, which means damn few people will even discover this post, and to exacerbate the problems I’ve thrown in music from ten bands, which is probably more than most people have patience for. Oh, but it could have been so much longer! I still have much more music to recommend, some of which will be in tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK feature.

Because this third part of the week-long round-up has metastasized to such a great extent, I’m dividing the tumor evenly into two parts, which means there will be a Part 4 a bit later today — and I’ll also be brief with my own words. Enjoy the music… and do share your own reactions in the Comment section if you’re so inclined.

VALLENFYRE

Vallenfyre‘s new album is Fear Those Who Fear Him, set for release by Century Media on June 2nd. This is an eagerly awaited return from one of our favorite bands, and the video below is for the album’s first single, “Kill All Your Masters”. Continue reading »

HIDEOUS DIVINITY: “ADVENIENS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 282017
 

 

(DGR turns in one of his typically detailed reviews, this time focusing on the new album by Italy’s Hideous Divinity.)

I tried something different with my first few listens of the new Hideous Divinity album Adveniens. I put the whole thing into a shuffled order, so that the first few times Adveniens breathed life into my speakers, it was done in a random order each time. I did so because I wanted to really see what songs captured my attention, which ones really reached out into the ether and punched me hard enough to make me check what song I was on.

I say this, in part, because the branches of the hyperblasting brutal-death metal tree that Hideous Divinity hail from are many, and at times it can be difficult for bands to stick out. Now three albums deep, Hideous Divinity have never had too much of an issue with it — having written their music like lyrical mad scientists unleashed upon the brutal death world — but the line between a solid hunk of speedy and caveman-level groove-heavy death metal and the monotonous whirring of a truck engine can be a little thin, and even the best of bands have failed the wire-walking act and fallen into that crevasse before. Adveniens does not. Continue reading »

HIDEOUS DIVINITY: “ANGEL OF REVOLUTION”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 232017
 

 

I have a much-delayed round-up of new music to post later today. I resisted the desire to make it even longer by including still more new music that surfaced since I first began putting it together three days ago. But I don’t want to overlook this new song by the Italian band Hideous Divinity that premiered yesterday at two European sites. The song is “Angel of Revolution“, and it’s from the band’s new album Adveniens, which will be released on April 28 by Unique Leader in the U.S. and Everlasting Spew in Europe.

This new track follows another one named “Ages Die” that debuted earlier this month, and in case you missed that one, I’ve included it below as well. I’ll also share a comment about the newest song by guitarist Enrico Schettino: Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS: HATE, SUCCUMB, MAUSOLEUM, PHRENELITH, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, CRYPT ROT, SIGIL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 072017
 

 

As I looked through my list of candidates for a SEEN AND HEARD round-up, and having siphoned off some of the more blackened entries for a continuation of the latest SHADES OF BLACK column, it dawned on me that many of the remaining songs were of a deathly variety. And so I’ve compiled them here with a different post title. Different forms of death, to be sure, but plenty of heaviness and savagery is to be found below.

HATE

Tremendum is the name of the new album by the Polish leviathans (note, I did not say “behemoths”) in Hate. It will be released on May 5 by Napalm Records. This morning the band debuted a lyric video for the first single from the album, a track called “Asuric Being“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: HIDEOUS DIVINITY, FIRESPAWN, WOLFHEART, FUOCO FATUO, ZEAL AND ARDOR, EXOCRINE, SEPULCHRAL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Feb 042017
 

 

It’s been a crazy week for this half-witted editor. Interferences by my fucking day job coupled with interferences by my non-blogging personal life prevented me from posting any news and new-music round-ups all week. That means I’ve accumulated an enormous list of things since last weekend. Unfortunately, I still won’t have time to catch up this weekend.

I’ve got work I need to do today for an annual event I’m attending tonight with my spouse, and based on past experience, I’ll be in no condition to write anything on Sunday morning. I’ve agreed to post one premiere tomorrow, which I’ll get ready today, but there probably won’t be anything else on the site tomorrow. Maybe the coming week will be less crazy and I can do a delayed Shades of Black thing and/or a “That’s Metal!” post after the new week begins.

Okay, enough with the excuses. On to a regrettably small but diverse collection of new things I noticed last week.

HIDEOUS DIVINITY

When I first started using the title “Seen and Heard“, it was because I intended to include both news about, and artwork from, new albums, even when there was nothing yet to hear, as well as streams of new songs. And I have items in both categories to recommend today in this large collection, beginning with the artwork at the top of this post. Continue reading »

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