MONDAY IS VICIOUS

Almost no one likes Mondays. What you have to do is usually so much worse than what you did on the weekend. But almost no one likes to hear you complain about Mondays either. They’re suffering, too, and hearing you bitch doesn’t make it better. Still, something must be done. Complaining doesn’t help, but suffering in silence is still suffering.

You could just gut up, accept your fate, and soldier on, but fuck that stoic, stiff-upper-lip mentality. Let’s try an alternative: wallow in your suffering, but don’t do it in silence. Instead, do it with musical accompaniment that’s just as vicious as you feel. In fact, let’s kick our Monday squarely in the gonads with some music by a band that’s just perfectly named for the occasion — Vicious Art. And then let’s follow that up with some Sumerian thrashing black metal, as inflicted (viciously) by Melechesh in a brand new video.

Are you ready? But of course you are — why else would you be here? So let’s get to it.

VICIOUS ART

The members of this Swedish band paid their dues playing in the likes of Grave, Entombed, Dark Funeral, and Obscurity. We’ll save the rest of the background info about Vicious Art for just a few minutes, just long enough to get you in a properly vicious frame of mind, with this brand new song called “Chaos Confirmed”:

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Vicious_art_chaosconfirmed.mp3|titles=Vicious Art: Chaos Confirmed]

Of course, there is more after the jump . . .

Vicious Art originated in 2002. They recorded two albums and an EP, and then in 2009 the members put the band on ice for a while. Now, they’re back. They’ve recorded three new songs that they’ve just put up for streaming on their MySpace page, and are now busy hunting for a suitably vicious label.

The band is composed of former Dark Funeral members Matias Mäkelä (guitar) and Robert Lundin (drums), plus Jörgen Sandström (The Project Hate, ex-Entombed, Grave) on bass, Tobbe Sillman (ex-Guidance of Sin) on guitar, and last but not least, vocalist Jocke Widfeldt (ex-Dominion Caligula, Obscurity).

As you can tell from the first of the three new songs that we played before the jump, together they’re skilled in the vicious art of death metal, Swedish-style. They’re clearly students of the old school, but not slavish adherents of it. They can let it rip, and they can roll over you like a grinding tank, too.

Check out the next two of this triad of new songs. Try screaming “Fuck Monday!” as you listen. Unless of course you’re listening at work, in which case, just whisper it viciously.

MELECHESH

I had the pleasure of listening to Melechesh on their first-ever visit to Seattle last Friday, as support for the almighty Rotting Christ. I hadn’t really discovered their music until hearing the latest album, The Epigensis, which grew on me the more I listened. I became a genuine fan after hearing them in concert. They’re riveting to watch, and they’re masterful live musicians.

One of the songs they played last Friday was a track from their new album, called “Grand Gathas Of Baal Sin”. I banged my head so goddamned hard I thought it would come loose and roll off into the mosh pit. Lo and behold, I discovered over the weekend that the band has just released a video for the same motherfucking song.

On top of the fact that the song just rocks viciously hard, the video is a fascinating piece of eye candy. It was filmed in Istanbul, Turkey, with the band surrounded by ancient columns glowing at night and black water swirling at their legs. The occult near-eastern lyrical themes are enhanced by flashes of ancient script and strange designs, among other things. Kudos to Canadian director Rouzbeh Heydari for making such an interesting piece of video accompaniment for a strong song.

Put your hand on the ancient Sumerian texts that all good metalheads keep close by, and repeat after me: “Fuck this Monday, and all Mondays to come. I may be suffering, but I will not suffer in silence!”