MISCELLANY NO. 29: DISMA, SOLSTORM, AND AUTOPSY

Man, it’s been more than a month since our last MISCELLANY post. Time has gotten away from me. ‘Course, that’s just a figure of speech, because I never had hold of Time in the first place. I just do my best to run along with it, but it’s been leaving me behind, choking on its dust. I need to make an effort to catch up before it’s too late and I become nothing more than an antiquated relic of the past.

Where was I? Oh yeah, MISCELLANY. Well, it’s been so long that it might be worthwhile to provide a refresher on what these posts are all about: We keep a running NCS list of bands whose music we haven’t heard before but who look interesting for one reason or another. And then, at unpredictable times, I pick a few names randomly off the list and listen to a song or two from each one, not knowing for sure whether the music will be good. And then, I write about what I heard and put the songs in the post so you can form your own opinions.

For today’s MISCELLANY session, I picked Disma (U.S.) and Solstorm (Norway), and I threw in a new Autopsy song for good measure. Not to spoil the suspense, but this turned out to be a fucking great musical expedition: two winners, without doubt. (more after the jump . . .)

DISMA

Back in January, we posted a feature about DECIBEL magazine’s list of The Top 25 Most Anticipated Albums of 2011 (here). I recognized most of the bands on that list, and some of those projected albums have now been released and have indeed been awesome (eg, the latest releases from Trap Them, Krallice, BTBAM, Amon Amarth, and Primordial). But I didn’t recognize all of the names. Disma was one of the names that was new to me, so I mentally filed it away, hoping I’d remember when the album arrived.

Recently, Disma’s label, Profound Lore, made a song from the new album available for listening, though the album itself hasn’t yet been released. (The album is called Towards the Megalith, and it’s projected for release in June or July.) So, for my first stop on this MISCELLANY tour, I listened to that song.

Now, just to set the stage, you need to know that although Disma is a relatively new band, its members have been players in the extreme metal game for quite a while. Gaze upon these names and tremble: Disma was formed in January 2007 by guitarists Bill Venner (Incantation, Body of Christ) and Daryl Kahan ( Funebrarum, Abazagorath, Assück) and they were eventually joined by drummer Shawn Eldridge (Funebrarum), bassist Randi Strokes (Methadrone), and vocalist Craig Pillard (Incantation, Evoken, Disciples of Mockery). Disma released a 3-song EP in October 2009 called The Vault of Membros.

Now, on to that song I heard. It’s called “Spectral Domination”. This is very heavy music. Let me say that a different way: This is VERY FUCKING HEAVY MUSIC. It’s the kind of music that could permanently traumatize children under the age of 15, and probably stunt their growth, too. The music is just massively badass, the kind of hair-raising death metal that calls up morbid images of early Incantation, Revenant, and Carnage, like the sky is raining body parts and rain that’s the color of old blood.

Here’s the track I heard:

Disma: Spectral Domination

Profound Lore has made that song available for free download (here). I found another Disma track on Soundcloud called “Chaos Apparition”, which appeared on that Vault of Membros EP:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/12708359″]

For more info, check out Disma’s Facebook page (here) or their MySpace page (here).

SOLSTORM

We’re huge fans of two Norwegian bands that share a common member. The bands are Byfrost and Hellish Outcast. The common member is a titanic drummer named Mads Lilletvedt (a/k/a Alkolust). Until quite recently, we didn’t know that Alkolust was also involved with a third band called Solstorm (or “solar storm”). That was really all it took for me to pick this band off our MISCELLANY list and give them a listen.

Solstorm released an EP in 2009 and they have a full-length album due for release on Duplicate Records on May 22. That label has made a song from the new album for free download, just like Profound Lore did with the Disma track (other labels, including Season of Mist, do the same thing, and I really don’t know why the fuck all labels don’t do this). The song is called “On This Barren Rock”, an you can download it here, or you can just listen to it right now:

It’s slow, heavy, crushing, grim, and still melodic (in a very dark way). It’s experimental in its odd injections of noise, it carries you along like a rushing stream, but it focuses your attention because it’s not like what you heard yesterday or the day before. Listen:

Solstorm: On This Barren Rock

If you’re interested in more, here’s an even more doom-laden, avant-garde track from Solstorm’s 2009 EP. The song is called “Exhumation”, and it’s morbidly hypnotic. It’s a kind of stoner music for people who will never sober up:

Solstorm: Exhumation

AUTOPSY

In a late entry to this MISCELLANY expedition, I’m including the latest song that Autopsy has decided to put up for streaming from their new album, Macabre Eternal. Yesterday, Brooklyn Vegan debuted the song, “Always About To Die”.

You gotta admit this is a cool album cover. And the song is damned good too:

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/brooklynvegan/brooklynvegan-presents-autopsy/s-XmZnK”]