AN NCS PREMIERE: VALGRIND — “LAST ANGEL (INTO THE UNKNOWN”

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May 102018
 

 

On the 25th of May, Everlasting Spew Records will release Blackest Horizon, the third album by the Italian death metal band Valgrind (named for the ancient gate that stands before the great hall of Valhalla in Norse mythology), which follows the band’s tremendously good 2017 EP, Seal of Phobos. Last month we brought you the album’s victorious opening track, and today we present another. This one — “Last Angel (Into the Unknown)” — begins a trilogy of songs that end the album.

That song we shared previously — “Victorious” — launches the album in extravagant fashion, delivering a kaleidoscopic aural experience that’s hallucinatory, heart-pounding, mind-bending, savage, and exuberant to the point of madness. The one you’re about to hear is no less fascinating. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VALGRIND — “VICTORIOUS”

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Apr 032018
 

 

Last year we had the fiendish pleasure of premiering two tracks off the Seal of Phobos EP by the Italian death metal band Valgrind. That was a remarkably multifaceted EP that succeeded on multiple levels, but it still may not be adequate preparation for what the band have accomplished on their new third album, Blackest Horizon, which will be released by Everlasting Spew Records on May 25th. But the song we’re presenting today provides a better sign — one that blazes like some widescreen neon billboard flashing with a thousand colors.

This new song is named “Victorious“, and it is indeed victorious — a kaleidoscopic aural experience that’s hallucinatory, heart-pounding, mind-bending, savage, and exuberant to the point of madness. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VALGRIND — “NEW BORN DECEIT”

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Mar 272017
 

 

“It’s so very satisfying to come across a piece of metal extremity that succeeds on multiple levels, one that’s deeply (and ominously) atmospheric and yet also vigorously bends your neck to its will”. That’s what we wrote about “Ekphora’s Day“, a song that we premiered last month from Seal of Phobos, the new EP by the Italian death metal band Valgrind. And those same words hold true for the song from Seal of Phobos we’re bringing you today: “New Born Deceit“.

This new song is a remarkable mix of gut-churning physicality and off-planet exotic allure. It’s brutal and heartless, full of predatory chords and the kind of ravenous voice that hungers for your liver, and it’s driven by demolishing drumwork. The music romps and rampages, but there’s another dimension to it as well, one that’s vertiginous and alien. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VALGRIND — “EKPHORA’S DAY”

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Feb 222017
 

 

It’s so very satisfying to come across a piece of metal extremity that succeeds on multiple levels, one that’s deeply (and ominously) atmospheric and yet also vigorously bends your neck to its will. And that’s what Valgrind have done with the song we’re about to premiere — “Ekphora’s Day“.

The song comes from this Italian death metal band’s new EP, Seal of Phobos, which will be released by Everlasting Spew Records on April 14th, and it includes guest growls by Jonny Pettersson of Wombbath, Ashcloud, and Henry Kane, as well as the first studio appearance of the band’s new guitarist, Umberto Poncina, who also engineered and mixed the EP . Continue reading »

V IS FOR VALGRIND, VIBRION, AND VIRULENCY

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Mar 272016
 

Valgrind-Speech of the Flame

 

Today some people are celebrating what they believe to be a victory over death. I’m more in the mood to celebrate the victory of death (metal). And so I’ve rounded up a selection of new songs from bands whose names begin with V — and the first two have resurrected themselves after long absences from the scene, with roots that go back into the early ’90s.

VALGRIND

Valgrind are an Italian death metal band who (according to Metal Archives) released four demos and an EP between 1995 and 2002 — and then seemed to go into hibernation until the appearance of their debut album, Morning Will Come No More, ten years later. Another four years have passed, but Valgrind’s new album Speech of the Flame was recently released by Lord of the Flies Records.

I learned of the new album through a Facebook friend who described their music with references to bands like Morbid Angel and Deicide. Although I haven’t heard the whole album, the two songs that are available for streaming sound damned good. Continue reading »