Sep 122018
 

 

Heavy metal’s fascination with the occult has deep roots and shows no signs of weakening. It is manifested in many ways, not all of which can be reconciled into some philosophically consistent gestalt, running the gamut from sorcery and witchcraft to elaborate schools of satanism, from the Dark Lords of Middle Earth to the horrors conceived by Lovecraft.

To this day, the embracing and channeling of evil cuts broad swaths across metal genres (white magic fell before the power of black magic within heavy metal in its infancy), though how we should understand the concept of “evil” and why it’s such a persistent feature of metal are subjects beyond the scope of this post. The subjects are on my mind simply because they had something to do with why I chose the following five new songs for this round-up, all of which appeared (in many instances without warning) over the last 24 hours.

CIRITH UNGOL

The first bolt from the blue took the form of the first studio recording by these Kings of the Dead since the release of Paradise Lost in 1991. It’s a single named “Witch’s Game“, which was recorded for inclusion in the forthcoming animated movie The Planet of Doom (more info about that here). The B-side of the single is a live version of “Doomed Planet” as performed at Germany’s Hammer of Doom festival in 2017. As you can see, it comes with stunning cover art by Michael Whelan. Continue reading »

Jul 082016
 

Witchthroat Serpent - band

 

(We present another interview by our comrade, Comrade Aleks, and this time he had a great conversation with Niko Lass of the French band Witchthroat Serpent.)

Who would introduce the band better than themselves? Nobody! And as we want to do things right, let’s start with the official press-release I got from Witchthroat Serpent: about their new album Sang-Dragon:

Sanguis draconis is a thick, blood-red resin extracted from exotic trees. Since the dawn of time, it has uses in medicine, crafts, and of course. magic. And so is Witchthroat Serpent’s music: dark and heady as blood, weird as it would come from another world, and ridden with that old powerful magic men both used to practice and fear.

Witchthroat Serpent was created in November 2011 in Toulouse, France, by Fredrik Bolzann (guitar/vox), Niko Lass (drums), and Lo Klav (bass), with the aim to spread occult and powerful doom metal. The self-titled first album was released on CD in 2014 by Deadlight Entertainment, soon followed by a tape version through Zanjeer Zani and on LP by US label Emetic Records the year after.”

Witchthroat Serpent is not a clone. It has its own spells, and sure knows how to use them to enthrall the listener. Morbid groove and psychedelic tunes to seduce you to your perdition. And so too is their new album Sang-Dragon (enthralling), recorded in one day at Drudenhaus studio in September 2015. First released on CD by Deadlight Ent., it will be spread on noble black wax by Svart Records on August 26th. Before that, after just returning from a successful Spanish-French tour in May, the trio appeared on stage at Crumble Fest on June 4th and will play at Motocultor Fest on August 19th.

We had a nice conversation with Niko — informative, productive and honest. Continue reading »

Feb 252016
 

Witchthroat Serpent-Sang Dragon

 

The French trio Witchthroat Serpent made an impressive debut with their 2014 self-titled album, and now they’re poised to follow that with a new full-length named Sang-Dragon, which will be released by Deadlight Entertainment on April 30. Though the release date doesn’t arrive for two months, we have the premiere of a new song that should cause you to circle it in red on the calendar.

The first morbid notes of “Into the Black Wood” tell you that you’re about to cross a threshold into a dark place, and the feeling is reinforced when the mammoth, fuzz-bombed riffs begin raining down like meteors. By contrast to the titanic stomp of those deep brontosaurian chords, Fredrik Bolzann’s voice soars up high in a psychedelic wail. Continue reading »

Mar 312014
 

Here are a handful of new songs and videos I found this morning that I thought were worth passing along.

WRONG

I got interested in this new two-man black metal band because the vocalist and drummer is Phlegeton from the excellent Spanish metal band Wormed. His partner, who plays guitar, bass, and piano, goes by the initials DP and is a member of The YTriple Corporation and Neverdie. Their second album, Pessimistic Outcomes, is coming out in April.

In January I featured a Wrong video for a song from their first album, and what I found today is a just-released video for the new album’s title track. The song is slow-moving and depressive, with squalling tremolo guitars and methodically pummeling percussion that moves between rock beats and rolling thunder. Incorporated within this bleak, atmospheric music are two contrast points — ugly, distorted, bile-spewing vocals and eerie, ethereal piano notes. Continue reading »