THE MORNING MAILBAG: DORDEDUH, BISON BC, WINTERUS

I got tired of calling these posts “Seen and Heard”. So, just for the sake of variety I’ve picked a different title for today. I’ll probably go back to “Seen and Heard” soon, because that’s what this is: Things I saw and heard while browsing the web today that I thought were worth sharing.

DORDEDUH

I first learned of this Romanian band in the spring of 2010 when working on a review of Vîrstele Pămîntului, the first album by the revamped Negură Bunget. They were revamped because two of the original members — Hupogrammos and Sol Faur — had left the band in 2009. Dordeduh became the new vehicle for their musical pursuits. Dordeduh released a debut 2-song EP, Valea Omului, in 2010, and have been working on an album since then.

Yesterday, thanks to NCS reader KevinP, I discovered the album’s name — Dar De Duh (“Gift of/from the Spirit”) — and learned just how close the album is to being released: September 28. On the Prophecy pre-order page, I saw that not only is the album going to be available as a CD, it’s also being released as a 2-CD set, a 2-CD + DVD “book”, and a double LP. The second CD consists of the two songs from Valea Omului plus a cover of “Ruun” by Enslaved. Pre-order details can be found here.

I also saw the killer cover art up above, which was created by Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu. AND, last but not least, I heard the album version of a song that originally appeared on the  Valea Omului EP — “Cumpăt”.

“Cumpăt” comes to you with a clean-singing warning, but you know I wouldn’t be messing with it if the clean singing weren’t really good. And it also includes some downright acid-drenched harsh shrieks and bearlike roars, too. And to continue the contrast, the music is a hybrid of beautiful folk melodies, sublime instrumental passages, and open-field cavalry assaults. It’s quite an amazing song.
 

 

A video for the album’s final track, “Dojana”, is expected soon. Dordeduh is on Facebook at this location. Here’s a video of Dordeduh performing at a festival in August 2011:
 

 

BISON BC

Thanks to a press release I received yesterday but overlooked until this morning, I now know that Metal Blade has established a web page devoted to Lovelessness, the new album from Vancouver’s Bison BC. The album cover has also been revealed, and as you can see, it’s quite the eye-catcher. There is also a release date: October 22 and pre-order info (here).

I really enjoyed the band’s last album, Dark Ages (2010), and so this was welcome news. But I especially got warmed up over the streaming of a new song from the album — “Anxiety Puke/Lovelessness”.

It’s a long song, and it transforms itself as it progresses. The first section is mainly slow, and utterly bone-grinding. It’s heavy like a rolling tank, fiery like a spewing flamethrower, dark and dirgelike and dramatic. And man, the dual guitar instrumental that consumes most of the song’s mid-section is a damned crusher. But in the back half, the pace picks up, the instrumental work because more melodic and even progressive — but without losing any of the weight. Excellent fuckin’ song, and a step up for this band.

 

WINTERUS

Winterus are a band who we first featured way back in October 2010 through a MISCELLANY post. This Michigan-based USBM outfit is at work on a new album to be titled Dark Womb, but today they released the EP we’ve been expecting — Hellform. It consists of an intro track (“The Curse”) and two songs (“Amazonia 3000 B.C.” and “Hellform”), both of which are now streaming on Bandcamp, where the EP can also be downloaded (here).

In most ways, the music on Hellform is very much in the vein of Nordic black metal, with slightly muffled blasting drums and machine-gun double-kicks, knife-edged tremolo guitars, and flesh-rending vocals. But with the cold threshing of the senses also come arcs of atmospheric melody that, in my mind, link up the band with West Coast USBM brethren in bands such as Ash Borer, Wolves in the Throne Room, and deafheaven. This is good stuff.