NEW AND NASTY: DEMONICAL, CRAVEN IDOL, AND MONDVOLLAND

I hate to let a day go by without something new on the site, and although this morning kind of got away from me, I do have three items from yesterday that I thought were worth sharing.

DEMONICAL

I’ve been following this Swedish death metal band since 2010 and have written about them often since then. Their 2013 album is one I’ve been gleefully anticipating and I finally had the chance to hear it last week. Its name is Darkness Unbound, it’s scheduled for release by Cyclone Empire on September 20, and it’s awfully good.

This, however, is not the time for a review. Instead, I simply want to throw your way a new lyric video for a track named “The Order”. Demonical remain thoroughly wedded to the sound and spirit of evil, throwback, Swedish death metal, and man, do they do it right. Wonderful guitar tone, malicious vocals, an air of festering menace, sharp production values — “The Order” will put a charge into any fan of old-school Swedish butchery.

https://www.facebook.com/Demonicalofficial

 

CRAVEN IDOL

I’m hereby reminding you that Craven Idol are a London-based band who have recorded a debut album (Towards Eschaton) that will be released on October 15 by Dark Descent. It features cover art by one of my favorite metal artists, Paolo “Madman” Girardi. In July I included one of the new tracks (“To Summon Mayrion”) on the site, and yesterday another one erupted onto YouTube.

“Orgies” is yet another good advertisement for this album, this one being more of an evil old-school thrash attack than the first single. These dudes really know how to craft neck-sprain-inducing riffs and load up the songs with an air of gleeful satanic foulness. Get ready for some marauding black thrash:

(Thanks again to Vonlughlio for the tip.)

http://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/towards-eschaton
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Craven-Idol/158945044134965

 

(photo credit: John Gallardo)

MONDVOLLAND

I can kill two birds with one stone in this final album. First, it gives me an excuse to remind you about the vinyl series known as Elemental Nightmares, which has assembled a remarkable group of bands who have contributed new songs for 13 split releases. The song you’re about to hear will appear on one of the splits. To see a lot more detail about the project, check out their site or read this NCS post about it — and please, please, please, seriously consider making a monetary commitment to help the series become a reality.

Second, it gives me an excuse to remind you about Mondvolland. Way back in January 2012 I lavished praise on Pestvogel, the free, three-song EP by this Dutch band featuring wonderful cover art by Bob Mollema’s cover art. I really liked the whole thing, but the title track in particular got its hooks in me, so much so that I included it in our list of 2012’s Most Infectiuous Extreme Metal Songs.

What I found yesterday was video of a life performance in Arnhem by Mondvolland just a few days ago of the song they recorded for the Elemental Nightmares series, “Lelijke Vent”. It’s difficult to categorize, which was also true of Pestvogel, and that’s one reason I’m so high on this band. I’ll just leave it at that and let you listen below.

Web Site: http://www.mondvolland.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondvolland
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/mondvolland