I got a late start on the day and my NCS time is rapidly running out, so I’ll skip the usual long-winded introduction and just quickly summarize what I’ve picked to recommend below:
This collection includes startling new songs from forthcoming records by four bands whose past releases I’ve enjoyed, and one recently released album from an equally startlng newcomer to these ears.
VETER DAEMONAZ (Russia)
To begin, I have a song from a new EP by the Saint Petersburg black metal band Veter Daemonaz, whose previous music I’ve commented about repeatedly in the posts collected here. The song is “На Север (первое видение)” (which means in English, according to Google Translate, “To the North (first vision)”).
Here, Veter Daemonaz deliver music that blazes like a scathing fire but is nevertheless bleak. The skipping and thundering beats and huge bass undulations make it lively, but the ferociously impassioned vocals rip like the teeth of huge wolves, and the firestorm of sound, lit from within by feverishly flickering leads, is as dark and distressing as it is scathing.
Take deep breaths, because the intensity of the music is unrelenting and near-overpowering; this fire leaves only ash behind.
The other two tracks on the new EP are the title song, “Литания” (Litany), and “Нас Ведёт Огонь” (Fire Leads Us); I’m again relying on Google Translate for those English renditions. The EP will be released on April 30th. The arresting cover art, which is at the top of this post, was made by Rotten Fantom.
https://veterdaemonaz.bandcamp.com/album/–4
https://www.facebook.com/veterdaemonaz
SEPTUAGINT (Greece)
Next I have the first single from a debut album by the Greek band Septuagint, whose previous releases included an EP and two splits (we premiered the most recent of those splits here and reviewed the earlier one here).
In this new song, “Spirituus Luna Nox“, a guitar rings and quivers like magickal bells within towering waves of abrasive riffing, riffing that transforms into searing gales of desperation and frenzy as the drums leap forward into blasting tirades.
The song also packs merciless, hard-slugging grooves, militaristic drum-bursts, and savage vocals that burst into wild cries. The ringing music also shrouds the brute-force physical punch and crazed vocals with an esoteric atmosphere that’s both chilling and mesmerizing, in keeping with the lunar, nocturnal spirit of the song’s name.
The name of Septuagint‘s debut album is Acosmic Conflagration, and it will be released on May 20th by London-based Odium Records.
https://odiumrecords.bandcamp.com/album/septuagint-acosmic-conflagration
NADSVEST (Serbia)
Now I come to another old favorite, the Serbian band Nadsvest, whose excellent debut EP Kolo ognja i železa I reviewed here. The song below, “Vihori boja” (Whirlwinds of color), is the first track revealed from their debut album Slovo meseca i krvi (Letter of the moon and blood).
I don’t know if Google’s algorithm properly translated the name of this song, but it does indeed seem like a whirlwind of sonic colors, beginning with an electrifying “tribal” drum beat, gleaming swirls of sound, and thoroughly rabid vocals, ecstatic in their bestial ravages.
With every variation, the drumming continues seizing attention, as do the maniacal, throat-ruining vocal expressions, with the guitars creating an enveloping high swarm and spiraling up like exultant djinns.
But you’ll also encounter some diabolical heavy-metal riffing that gets stuck in the head damned fast, supernaturally shimmering keys, darting arpeggios that sound like devils frolicking, and even throat-singing. And man, the closing sequence of booming and battering drum progressions in the last minute and a half is jaw-dropping.
Slovo meseca i krvi is set for release by Soulseller Records on May 17th.
https://soulsellerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/slovo-meseca-i-krvi
JOURS PÂLES (France)
And now, the last of the four advance tracks in today’s column, this one from the genre-bending French band Jours Pâles, whose 2022 album Tensions absolutely floored me (and I tried to explain why in this review).
What you’ll find below is a lyric video for a song called “La Reine de mes Peines (des wagons de détresses)“. According to Google Translate, that means “The Queen of my Sorrows (wagons of distress)”. It reminds me why I spilled so damned many words trying to capture the experience of their last album — because the music is such an enormous cornucopia of sounds and styles.
You’ll feel the bass in your bones, and the drums in your skull, and the piercing tones of the guitars makes them come vibrantly alive as they continually twist and turn, charging hard with swift jolts and freakishly flickering like a devil’s own fiddle.
Electric piano keys and glorious guitar soloing brightly surface, beckoning us onward further into this mad dance – but the music’s dervish whirl suddenly ceases, giving way to brittle ringing guitars, distantly tumbling drums, and simmering synths, which form a prelude to fervent singing — and then we’re galloping and whirling again, heads spinning with further doses of magnificent soloing and leads that flicker like fireflies.
I haven’t mentioned the harsh vocals, but they’re every bit as eye-popping as everything else, way up in the bloody red zone of shattering passion.
The song is from Jours Pâles‘ forthcoming third album Dissolution, to be released by Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions on May 10th.
https://lesacteursdelombre.net/product-category/bands/jours-pales/
https://ladlo.bandcamp.com/album/dissolution
https://www.facebook.com/jourspales
HEKSEBLAD (U.S.)
Now we come to the full album I mentioned at the outset, from a band whose music was new to me. Hekseblad is a duo consisting of Bruxa, a vocalist and songwriter from Michigan who handles the lore and storytelling of the duo’s music (aWitch’s Amulet, Fanged Imp, Bruxa, Oaken Palace), and Frosk (Frog Mallet, Groaning Retch), a multi-instrumentalist and studio owner from Massachusetts who handled the instrumentation and produced the album.
Their new album, Kaer Morhen, was released by Hypnotic Dirge Records two days ago. I’ll share this preview from the Bandcamp page:
Drawing lyrical inspiration from the works of Andrezj Sapkowski‘s beloved Fantasy franchise “The Witcher” and musically recalling the days of true Black Metal glory (namely the likes of Emperor, Dissection, Gorgoroth and Obtained Enslavement), Hekseblad delivers a furious and magickal take on the sound of late 90’s Black Metal; balancing on the edge of melodic but malicious with their furious barrage of riffs and tying it together with flourishes of Symphonic sorcery conjuring a maelstrom of frozen ferocity.
You might have already guessed at those named influences from the cover art created by Aghy R Parakusuma, which vividly recalls the seminal works of Kristian Wåhlin (Necrolord). And certainly, the music does recall the glory days of those mentioned bands, but it’s far from a re-hash or a clone.
The songs are elaborate and very well-written, providing rapidly changing experiences of fire and ferocity, sinister sorcery and primal seduction, imperial grandeur and unchained barbarism, ruinous despair and fleeting glory — all of them laced with memorable melodies and head-moving grooves.
What we might think of as the brazen and jolting chords of “classic heavy metal” are just as big an influence in the riffing as the standard tropes of second-wave black metal, and sweeping keys (judiciously used) add to the music’s aura of diabolical magic and menace. As for the vocals, well they bring to mind some creature that’s a hybrid of lycanthropes and vampires, with all sanity lost in the breeding process.
There are also plenty of surprises in store (spoiler alert), including the actual stately waltz that comes to the fore before “A Grain of Truth (Nivellin’s Waltz)” comes to a close; the haunting harpsichord melody that opens “The White Flame“, which then carries the melody forward with blazing intensity; the dancing orchestration in “The Taste of Ash” (a thoroughly exhilarating song); the mournful, ringing notes and murmuring bass that usher us into the sorrowful interstitial instrumental “Ithlinne’s Prophecy“; and the acoustic-guitar strumming and mysteriously drifting flute that open the title song before it explodes. (And don’t worry, I haven’t given away every surprise).
I could go on (and on, and on), but suffice to say, this album is a huge and very welcome surprise, and one that will keep you perched on your toes from beginning to end.
Before bidding you adieu, I’m going to leave this link to a more extensive review of Kaer Morhen at Nine Circles, which does a far better job introducing the music than I have.
https://hypnoticdirgerecords.bandcamp.com/album/kaer-morhen
https://www.facebook.com/heksebladusbm/