Since the end of last week we’ve accumulated some small collections of new music that we think are very sweet. In a way, they’re all teasers for longer and grander things to come from some very good bands. Consider us well and truly teased. But this isn’t like getting all hot and bothered with a chick in the backseat of your car and then being denied the payoff. No, this is a good kind of tease.
Late last week we featured the first of these brief releases — a three-song EP from Swedish black-metal behemoths, Marduk. Today, we’ve got two more: New music from Pristina (U.S.) and Pandemonium (Poland).
PRISTINA
We were bowled over by this Connectuicut band’s 2010 debut album, The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow), and we weren’t the only ones. It has received plenty of attention and critical praise. You can see our review of the album here, and our revealing interview of Pristina mainman Brendan Duff by using this link.
We heard from Brendan a few days ago with some very welcome news. First, Pristina has recorded three new songs that will only be made available as a limited edition EP at the band’s live shows, though one of them is available for streaming now (we’ll get to that). Second, Pristina have finished writing their next album and plan to begin recording it shortly. (more after the jump . . .)
The new song is called “The Black Syph”, and it’s a sure sign that Pristina’s next album will be one to get, without fail. The song is dark, discordant, uncomfortable, vitriolic, howling, painful. It’s an open wound and a loaded gun. It’s an intense assault of distorted riffing and raw shrieking, pummeling drums and raking guitars. It’s also just plain heavy as fuck. Nobody sounds quite like Pristina.
The song is streaming on Pristina’s Bandcamp page (here). we’ve taken the liberty of embedding the music player below. The lyrics to the song are right below the player, and to follow Pristina’s news, check our their Facebook page here.
Oh the guilt.
Pray I never open my eyes again.
Fallen further down from an unknown grace.
Fade out.
Drifting away.
A place between nowhere and goodbye.
Remember me as violence.
Remember me as pain.
Hubris.
Let no joyful voice be heard.
Fragments of a dead life.
Despair.
Blackened Syph.
My mind wasn’t mine.
Gun in my mouth.
Go out with a bang.
PANDEMONIUM
Pandemonium has been a long-running fixture of the Polish metal underground; their first demo dates back to 1991. They’ve played hundreds of concerts with big-names such as Slayer, Celtic Frost, Morbid Angel, Behemoth, Cannibal Corpse, Vader, Samael, Unleashed, Asphyx, and Desultory. Their last album (Hellspawn) was released in 2007, and they’ve got another one called Misanthropy that’s now being recorded and is projected for release this autumn.
To build interest in the forthcoming album, Pandemonium has put two of the songs from the album on a special promo digipack, and Godz of War Productions sent one to us.
The band calls its music “satanic dark metal”, and that’s a pretty fitting description.”Black Forest” is an assault of suffocating black metal, relentless and vile, with bleak guitar melodies and a mix of echoing shrieks and strangled throat-singing. “God Delusion” is marked by moaning guitars, a cascade of percussion, and a guitar solo that sounds like a giant blowtorch being lit off. But what really grabbed me about “God Delusion” were the big, lumbering, low-end riffs — like the black metal version of a sludgy, stoner stomp.
Yes indeed, consider me well and truly teased. I’ll be looking forward to Misanthropy, just as I am Pristina’s next album. You can check out “Black Forest” and some of the band’s previously released songs on the ReverbNation player below:
For more info about Pandemonium, visit their Facebook page.
xxx
20 Responses to “SHORT, BUT SWEET: PRISTINA AND PANDEMONIUM”
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“Go out with a bang.”
This made me giggle. I quite liked the bass. It was like a golem lumbering across my balls and occasionally smacking me in the face with a big floppy donkey dick.
Hm. I’m pretty sure that came out wrong, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
I don’t want to think about you putting your finger on it.
What about in it?
What is “it” anyway?
Well, if you don’t know, I sure can’t help you. And as for whether it is better to put your finger on or in “it”, I’ll just remind you that this is a family-friendly site.
Manson family, of course.
Speaking of family friendly…
You’re familiar with Texas…do you know Eleven Hundred Springs (the country band)?
The name doesn’t ring a bell. Do they have blast beats?
No, but they have a song called “Long Haired, Tattooed, Hippie Freaks”…I assume we can somehow identify with that song…
That sounds promising. About the only country I listen to any more is cajun (my family has roots in bayou country as well as Texas). Feeds my need for speed — the closest country genre to thrash and grind. Pine Leaf Boys and Lost Bayou Ramblers are part of a new wave of cajun that I’d recommend.
I’ve never listened to cajun country. Actually, I didn’t even know it existed…
That said, I think outlaw country (Hank 3, Eleven Hundred Springs, Cash, etc.) are who I most closely identify with….well, not identify, but who I like the most….
I’ll have to find some cajun country…
The Pine Leaf Boys are pretty damn good.
Can we PLEAAAAAAAASE have a No Clean Singing Sings Country day????
So are the Lost Bayou Ramblers.
You’ve made my night more awesome!!!
Awesome idea! Let’s do it! Would you e-mail me two or three recommended songs?
Sure!!!
Are we going contemporary or classic?
Glad you’re gettin something out of those two bands. Beausoleil has been around much longer, more traditional, but still cool.
I think we want country with an edge, stuff that’s closer to the raucous end of the spectrum. Like what we’d be writing about here if this were a country site. Songs from those bands you mentioned above would be a good place to start.
Check Your inbox…
I seriously doubt many people who visit this site are gonna wanna listen to any country. But we are here to expand minds and kick ass. So they can suck my dixie.
Well, you never know, and there’s only one way to find out for sure, and that’s to do it! (I’m talking about a country feature, not sucking your dixie)
Now, if we could only get Pristina and Pandemonium to do covers of Folsom Prison Blues and Jolie Blonde.
I should apologize for consistently getting so damn off topic.
But I won’t.