SATURDAY SONIC SLAUGHTERING: TONGUES, REPTILE MASTER, BLASPHEMOUS NOISE TORMENT, IMMENSITY, KÖRGULL THE EXTERMINATOR

 

This would normally be titled as a “Seen and Heard” post, but I was in an alliterative mood this morning. This is a selection of new songs (and a pair of older ones) that I discovered over the last 24 hours and want to commend to your ears. As usual, I’ve tried to include a variety of sounds, but they’re all deliciously devastating in their own ways.

TONGUES

Tongues are a duo from Aarhus, Denmark. Their debut EP Thelésis Ignis was released last year by I, Voidhanger Records, and they’re now at work on their first full-length album, which I, Voidhanger hopes to release in 2016. In the meantime, Tongues have posted a new song named “Golden Crown of Death” to their Bandcamp page as a “name your price” download. It will appear on a vinyl compilation entitled Roam The Streets II: Fuck You – We’re From Aarhus, to be released in December by VoxHall.

 

 

This compilation also includes tracks by Blood Label, Gespenst, Mordtor, Møl, Road To Manila, Savage Machine, and Woebegone Obscured.

“Golden Crown of Death” has a raw production that coats the sound in the sizzle of corrosive acid, and the dissonant, deranged lead guitar excretions are unsettling but gripping. With dynamic pacing and perfectly bestial vocals, this is a black/death steamroller that’s a very enticing teaser for the band’s first full-length.

https://tungerne.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/tungerne

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REPTILE MASTER

Reptile Master come to us from Tromsø, Norway. Their debut album In the Light of A Sinking Sun was released on October 23 by Blues For the Red Sun Records. Although the album is streaming on Spotify and other digital platforms (but not Bandcamp), the only song I’ve heard is the title track, but it’s really impressive.

The introductory instrumental passage is steeped in sorrow, but entrancing — and what comes after is a slow, staggering descent into the abyss. Crushing, baleful doom cloaked in an atmosphere of evil that’s made even more menacing by the use of ominous tremolo riffs and wrenching vocal extremity. But man, the dual guitar melody that takes over in the song’s back half is a soul-piercing experience you won’t soon forget.

(Thanks to “M” for the tip on this one.)

http://www.reptilemaster.com
https://www.facebook.com/reptilemasterNO
https://www.facebook.com/BLUES-FOR-THE-RED-SUN-645295312258485/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLASPHEMOUS NOISE TORMENT

The next song in this calamitous collection is the first track on a new album by Italy’s Blasphemous Noise Torment, released about a week ago by Germany’s Amor Fati Productions. The entire album is available for streaming on Bandcamp, where it can also be ordered from the label (it’s offered only as a CD, but the order will get you an immediate download of the music).

Reversed Cosmos is the band’s second album, following 2011’s Ancient Insignias and an assortment of smaller releases dating back to 2002. However, as far as I can remember, this is the first time I’ve heard the band’s music. I was attracted to this stream by the cover art, created by the talented Alexander L Brown.

That first track, “Rise of the Self Proclaimed God”, manages to be both magisterial and majestic despite the fact that it’s a titanic onslaught of blackened death metal ferocity. It generates an aura of malignant menace and impending doom, but it’s a goddamned galvanizing listen. Heavy as hell, intensely gripping, and quite memorable. I’ll definitely be returning to this album to take in the rest of what awaits within….

https://amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com/album/blasphemous-noise-torment-reversed-cosmos
https://www.facebook.com/Bnt.BlasphemousNoiseTorment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMMENSITY

Immensity are an atmospheric death-doom band from Athens, Greece, whose debut album The Isolation Splendour will be released by Hypnotic Dirge Records and Solitude Productions on February 15, 2016. The album includes five new tracks with a total run-time of 48 minutes plus the two tracks that first appeared on the band’s 2012 demo, The Lonely Aquarelle.

Yesterday Hypnotic Dirge posted one of the new songs to Bandcamp — a track called “Irradiance (For the Unlight)” — which is available as a “name your price” download. The label plans to post another song in January, when the album will then become available for pre-order.

“Irradiance” is drenched in tears, melding huge stomping riffs with beautiful but bereft guitar and synth melodies and combining monstrous, deep harsh vocals with impassioned clean ones (and somber spoken words). Easy to get lost in this long, anguished, gorgeous song….

(Thanks to Grant Skelton for the tip on this song.)

https://hypnoticdirgerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-isolation-splendour
https://www.facebook.com/Immensity-250810974965150/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KÖRGULL THE EXTERMINATOR

You may have noticed that I’ve been going back and forth in the ordering of the songs in this collection, between faster and slower music. Following that pattern, the final songs in this collection come from a band who have a thirst for speed.

I recently read that on November 27 Ván Records would be releasing the fourth album (Reborn From the Ashes) by this Spanish band, which now includes Javi Bastard from the murderous Graveyard on bass. I thought the cover art (by Alastor Nihilosatan) was very cool, and so I started searching to see if any of the new songs were streaming anywhere. Although I found nothing from the new album, I did find two tracks from their last full-length, Metal Fist Destroyer.

This is vicious blackened thrash that’s like an ant swarm under your skin — racing riff savagery, booming grooves, and filthy snarls and shrieks, with some punk influence in the second of these tracks. I’m now anxious to hear the new album.

https://korgulltheexterminator.bandcamp.com/album/metal-fist-destroyer
https://www.facebook.com/KORGULLTHEEXTERMINATORAXETHRASH