This will be quick, because I hadn’t planned on any posts today besides the earlier THAT’S METAL! nonsense, but what I’ve found this morning is just too much awesomeness not to share with you: brand new songs from Obscura, Gorguts, and Between the Buried and Me.
OBSCURA
This band have a new album called Omnivium due for a March 29 North American release on Relapse Records. In mid-January, we featured the first song from the album, called “Septuagint”. Now, the band have released a second song, called “Vortex Omnivium”, which you can stream after the jump. As you listen, you can also gaze upon the wonderful album art above, executed by Orion Landau (who has also created art for the likes of Origin, Dying Fetus, and Disfear).
Obscura, if you don’t know, is a German progressive death metal band from Germany composed of guitarist/vocalist Steffen Kummerer (Thulcandra), guitarist Christian Müenzner (ex-Necrophagist), fretless bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling (Pestilence), and drummer Hannes Grossmann (Blotted Science, ex-Necrophagist). All of these dudes are exceptional musicians — very fast, hyper-technical, jaw-droppingly good. As their last album (2009’s Cosmogenesis) abundantly demonstrated, they can also write songs that are as catchy as they are technically challenging.
For purposes of this post, it’s also fitting to note that the band took their name from a 1998 Gorguts album called Obscura. Listen to the new song right after the jump.
So, what’d you think of that? It fuckin’ shot the top of my head right off into space.
GORGUTS
Most people we know who talk about this Canadian tech-death outfit utter their name in tones of abject reverence. They’ve been hugely influential — and they’ve not delivered a new album since 2001 (From Wisdom To Hate). The only constant member of the band has been guitarist/vocalist Luc Lemay.
Lemay has now joined forces with some heavyweight talent to reconstitute Gorguts: drummer John Longstreth (Dim Mak, Origin, The Red Chord, Skinless, and more); bassist Colin Marston (Dysrhythmia, Behold . . . The Arctopus, Krallice, and others); and guitarist Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia, While Heaven Wept, others).
Lemay recently reported that the new Gorguts finished all the song-writing for a new nine-song album in January, and that it will include an instrumental piece for string orchestra. In his words, “[It] is going to be over one hour long. It’s still very brutal but darkly, ambient and progressive as well. The album main concept is going to be a musical journey that will talk about the wonders of Tibet as well as the dramatic fate they’ve been going through for over 50 years now.”
Lemay further reported that because the band is still in discussions with an unidentified label, they can’t yet provide a specific release date, but are shooting for this summer.
And now the music: Lemay has made available a new song (without a title) taken from a pre-production session recorded by Colin Marston at a studio in Queens. Check it out (it’s fucking stupendous):
BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME
This super-talented North Carolina-based band will release their new album, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, on April 12 via Metal Blade Records. We now know that it will consist of three-songs, totaling 30-minutes of music. Here’s what guitarist Paul Waggoner recently had to say about the new album:
The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues will introduce two human characters who live in different planes of existence, separated by millions of light years. We find that each is confronted with similar personal issues that they need to reckon with. Both characters make decisions that will change their lives, and perhaps the course of the universe, forever. Musically, it sounds like BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME. The record has elements of aggression, beauty, quirkiness, and pure cacophony. For ‘Part 1’, we establish several themes which I’m sure will be revisited in the lengthier ‘Part 2’, which is something we really look forward to. We love to expand on simple ideas and see where they take us.
Now for the music. The band have just released a six-and-a-half minute portion of one of those three long songs, “Specular Reflection”, via AltPress. Because we’re jealous of your attention, we’re going to put it right here for you to stream (and allow me to say, holy fuck, is it good!):
[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Specular_Reflection_edit.mp3|titles=BTBAM: Specular Reflection (edit)]That’s all for today . . . unless of course we see something else that’s so awesome we have to share it with you, without delay.
15 Responses to “TECH YOURSELF TO DEATH: NEW MUSIC FROM OBSCURA, GORGUTS, AND BTBAM”
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Fucking awesome. New Obscura sounds filthy!!!
The new BTBAM kicks soooo much ass. When it was first announced that they were releasing an ep I was disappointed it wasn’t going to be a full length. Fortunately enough, though, this will be a two parter. So I’m happy now, to say the least.
I’m coming around to the point of view that sometimes it’s better (for fans) if a band releases EPs that come with less separation in time than full-lengths where fans have to wait years between releases to get new music. Where the band is as popular as BTBAM, that’s not always practical, given the amount of effort that goes into promotion and distribution, but I’ll be very happy to have this EP and wait for more to come later. This partial song sounds sick.
That’s certainly more conviction than I’m used to hearing from BTBAM.
I’m a cautious fan of theirs–I feel like the often sacrifice attitude and song for sound and technique (a bad trade) but they always put at least one fucking amazing song on each record.
That clip was very good–moody, driven, not too wanky. I’m potentially very excited.
Sooooo…did anyone else see the Obscura album art and think “this must be how demon spawn eggs are fertilized”?
Good observation. However, I believe the album art is actually an excerpt from a medical text on Rigel V. Nasty looking ovum. It’s a wonder any of those Rigelian sperm ever get through.
Damn, this one went right over my head. Are you making a Star Trek reference?
I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me.
Haha, well I do personally enjoy some Star Trek (this may be a redundant statement, as I am on a metal blog, commenting on a post about tech-death). I was mainly asking because I at first interpreted “Rigel V. Nasty looking ovum” as a reference to a supreme court case that I maybe should know about.
I didn’t even notice that what I wrote could look like the caption in a court case, but you’re right. I was just trying to refer to alien life, and the name “Rigel V” popped into my head. I’m sure it’s the name of a planet in the Star Trek series, but that’s about all I remember. This attempt at humor didn’t work very well.
holy shit did anyone hear that gorguts song?! fucking insane. i hate words because they dont even come close to capturing the awesomeness of music. and it was only pre-production?! fuck me, colin marston is a fucking god, not to mention luc lemay. gorguts takes the cake today.
oh and what a great way to be introduced to this blog! i live in portland and its great to know that i have a local source for awesome metal. im a regular at metalsucks and i eat that shit up like a fiend.
I’m glad someone finally commented about the Gorguts song — it’s fuckin blowing me away. I’m really excited about this album. And welcome aboard man. Glad you found us. We’ll do our best to give you reasons to come back here every day.
Well that sucks. My internet browser won’t download the Gorguts song. It also cuts up Obscura so bad you can’t possibly listen to it. Good thing I have already heard the song, though.
Does suck. What browser are you using?
It is windows explorer. I think my antivirus program might be stopping it. Not that you guys would upload viruses, but the program has to check. My work computer plays it fine.
That BTBAM doesn’t really sound deathcore to me. I have always heard them classified as deathcore and, so have been reluctant to give them a listen. I actually like it.