TWO FINAL 2017 RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THEMADISRAELI: TONGUES AND ATHENIC

 

(Here we are, on the last day of the year. But before it disappears into the history books, TheMadIsraeli has a couple more 2017 releases to recommend.)

 

I decided before we let 2017 end, I’d get one more in. This is another case of released way too late in the year for it to matter for many people. I’m telling you, December releases for albums fucking suck.

TONGUES

I, Voidhanger is low key one of my favorite labels around. They’ve always been good at acquiring some of the absolute best in the realm of avant garde and progressive, especially in the black metal realm. When the music isn’t either of those things, it’s full of so much venom and grit it’s hard to say no regardless.

Tongues are a Danish black metal band, a minority genre to my knowledge considering Denmark’s typical pedigree for metal. They play a very dissonant haphazard style that still manages to contain quite a bit of melody, with some slight death metal and doom metal riffing touches put in play to enhance the rather dismal horrific atmosphere of their sound. Their debut record Hrellia is quite impressive.

 

 

In I, Voidhanger band tradition, the mix is very “live”. Everything sounds very organic, the guitars utilizing a very brittle, abrasive tone to give the music this sense of it perpetually falling apart and reassembling itself.

Tongues are very much a fan of organized entropy, with full-range, layered riffing and sinister chord work at play, combined with shifting and fluttering song structures. The vocals are of that withered yet bitter sort, and the drums strike a delicate balance between excess and shamanistic ritualistic simplicity.

I definitely recommend listening to this, it’s good. Even if this style of black metal isn’t normally your cup of tea, you should still check it out.

Bandcamp:
https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/hreilia

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ATHENIC

Athenic are a tragic story. A promising New Zealand tech-death upstart going back as far as 2011 and consisting of close friends, an earthquake took the life of their bassist, Matti McEachen. Unable to feel right going on, the band hung it up.

In 2013, they decided to get together and record all of their material into one album as a memorial to Matti, what was originally planned to be two when they had plans on being a band. It is only now though, in 2017, that Athenic decided to release this record.

It is an exceptionally impressive collection of technical and progressive death metal that should serve as a treat, but will also inevitably bring some dismay due to the band’s current position that this is all they will do.

The album is free on Google Music and a few other places (including Spotify and iTunes), and the band is allowing anyone to do whatever they want with it, so we’ll stream it here. It’s an odd sensation to hear a band that could’ve been great, but were also never going to continue; this release is their epitaph.

The album (or albums) are called The Chapters Of The Osireion: Histri.

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Athenic.band/