MORE SEEN AND HEARD: ENCRUST, TREPALIUM, KLONE, UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION

Earlier today I collected a handful of items I saw and heard in my catching-up time last night, but since posting that round-up I’ve discovered even more new metal that’s worth passing around. The bands featured in this post are: Encrust (U.S.) Trepalium (France), Klone (France), and Unfathomable Ruination (UK).

ENCRUST

Okay, first thing you should do is click THIS LINK to see a bigger copy of that stupendous cover art up there.

Is that not killer? It’s the cover for From Birth To Soil, the debut album by a Chicago quintet who call themselves Encrust. The artwork was created by Ryan Kasparian (whose work we’ve featured elsewhere on NCS) and Chris Angelucci. Not coincidentally those two happen to be one of Encrust’s two guitarists and the band’s vocalist, respectively.

From Birth To Soil was released by Density Records last week, and on the same day the band premiered a lyric video for one of the album’s tracks, “Engine of Deceit”. I only caught up with the video today, and I’m really digging the music and the lyrics. The song is a big, swaggering, brawling hybrid of sludge/stoner riffs, pile-driving percussion, and death-metal vocals. There might be some way to avoid headbanging to this song, but it would probably require severing all the nerves to your neck muscles.
 

 

The entire album is still streaming at Noisecreep (here), and it’s up on iTunes and Amazon mp3 as well.
 

TREPALIUM

Trepalium’s 2012 album H.N.P. is one of many I’ve heard this year that eluded my feeble attempts to review every good album to see the light of day in 2012. And yes, it is very good indeed. Most people would probably classify Trepalium’s sound as “groove metal”, but they also incorporate stylistic ingredients from death metal, thrash, and progressive metal into their sonic feast. This morning I saw that they’ve now released an official video for “Heic Noenum Pax” (here is no peace), and it’s a striking piece of filmmaking.

Shot in black and white, it includes not only shadowed footage of the band performing but also some very cool, very dark, very mysterious animation that seems inspired by the Strychneen Studio album art. Props to director Guillaume Jolly. Excellent song, too. Watch and listen:
 

 

H.N.P. can be ordered here. Trepalium’s Facebook page is at this location, and their official site is here.
 

KLONE

Klone are another French band who, like Trepalium, are part of the Klonosphere collective. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about their new album The Dreamer’s Hideaway and featured a song from it called “Rocket Smoke”. The album will be released on October 5, but today I saw that the entire album is streaming for the next 48 hours at THIS LOCATION. If you haven’t yet discovered this band’s music, or you’ve been on the fence about whether to take the plunge into The Dreamer’s Hideaway, this is an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed.
 

UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION

Speaking of full-album streams: Two weeks ago we reported on the completion of this London-based group’s debut album, Misshapen Congenital Entropy, at 16th Cellar studios in Rome with Stefano Morabito, who has produced albums for bands such as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Hour of Penance, Vomit the Soul, Inherit Disease, and Blasphemer. It has now been released by Sevared Records, and limited edition orders can be placed at this location.

In addition, the whole album is now streaming on Bandcamp and can be downloaded digitally there. As previously reported, this is brutal, take-no-prisoners, slamming death metal that manages to layer some mighty grooves (and a few cataclysmic bass drops) into the scorching blasts of snare-heavy percussion and flashing, grinding riffage. The songs include some nasty guitar solos and disgusting guttural vox, too.

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