SHADES OF BLACK: KAMPFAR, GRAVEBORNE, NECROSADIST, WILDERNESSKING, LVCIFYRE, VAKSLEN, KALL

Since the weekend began I caught up with a flood of hair-raising new songs and found so many worth recommending that I’ve collected them in two posts, this one being the first. I probably should have divided them into 4 or 5 posts, but since the unofficial motto of this site seems to be “long-winded”, why bother? New music from seven bands is gathered here. Shades and phases of black metal diversity… dig in!

KAMPFAR

This Norwegian band has been an NCS favorite for years. As previously reported, their new album Djevelmakt is due for release on January 21 via Indie Recordings. We previously featured (here) the first advance track from the album — “Mylder” — and now we have a second one, by the name of “Swarm Norvegicus”.

It begins with strings and piano and moves into a slow, massive, glorious, stomping behemoth of a song that builds in intensity. Both malignant and memorably melodic, it’s another very promising signpost on the road to one of our most highly anticipated 2014 albums. Listen next…

https://www.facebook.com/kampfarofficial

 

 

GRAVEBORNE

This next item mushroomed like a nuclear cloud even as I was writing this post. First, I discovered that Stereogum had premiered a new song from the forthcoming second album — Through the Window of Night — by this Finnish black metal band. That song is named “Men Behind the Sun”. Then I noticed that even before the Stereogum premiere, another song had been made available for streaming. The title of that one was “Tiesi Päähän”. And then, just as I was finishing this post I received a press release that, as of this morning, the entire album began streaming here:

http://www.terrorizer.com/news/streams/stream-gravebornes-new-album-window-night-full

Based on the first two songs, I’ve been tremendously impressed by this band, and I like the way Stereogum’s Michael Nelson described the music: “Graveborne sounds suspiciously like a product of Sweden: hard-hitting, concise, richly melodic; a descendant of Dark Funeral and Dissection, a cousin of Watain and Valkyrja…. [The first song premiered from the album] doesn’t attempt to reinvent black metal, it just takes some of the genre’s most exciting components and amplifies them to intoxicating levels, while subtracting everything that might be considered superfluous.”

Check out “Tiesi Päähän” below, and visit that Terrorizer link to hear the whole album. Through The Window Of The Night is due for release on January 20 via Séance Records. You can find Graveborne on Facebook here.

 

 

NECROSADIST

Poland’s Necrosadist have been around for 13 years, but I discovered them only yesterday. The fact that their last release, Sex, Drinks and Antichrist, came out in 2005 probably has something to do with that. But, at long last, they have something new coming — a five-song EP entitled Infernal Stench of Blasphemy, graced with cover art by Perversor (Ars Macabra, Krypt, Demonic Slaughter).

Over the weekend I heard one of the new songs, which the band have put on Bandcamp as a free download. Its name is “Sadomasochistic Rape” and you can stream it below. It’s an explosion of black thrashing hellfire that’s as virally infectious as it is filthy, and I’m digging it mightily.

No word on when the EP will be released (the band are apparently looking for a label).

https://www.facebook.com/bastardsfromhell666
https://necrosadist666.bandcamp.com/

 

WILDERNESSKING

As we previously reported, South Africa’s Wildernessking have recorded a new EP entitled The Devil Within, which will be released in the very near future via Bandcamp. This morning, to keep fans from gnawing off their own digits in anxious anticipation, the band released one of the new tracks for streaming. Its name is “Flesh”.

“Flesh”rocks hard, driven by riveting riffs and rambunctious drumming, with paint-pealing vocals that will leave scars on your headbanging face. Yet another strong outing by one of the best of black metal’s new wave.

http://wildernessking.bandcamp.com/track/flesh
https://www.facebook.com/Wildernessking

 

 

LVCIFYRE

Dark Descent Records will be releasing the second album of London-based Lvcifyre on January 21. Its name is Svn Eater. Over the weekend I caught up to the album’s title track and it struck me in the head so hard that  I hit the wall hard, followed by a dark descent to the floor, head still spinning. It’s a furious fusillade of  pummeling, blackened death metal that will stick in your head, or what’s left of your head. A thoroughly awesome song, with destructive riffs and fantastic drumwork.

It turns out that over the weekend, Dark Descent uploaded the entirety of Svn Eater to Bandcamp, so you can hear more of this ravaging black/death and order the album if you like what you hear. Links are below, along with that galvanizing title track.

http://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/svn-eater
https://www.facebook.com/Lvcifyre

 

 

VAKSLEN

Vakslen is a two man collaboration consisting of Norway’s Stein Akslen, who is better known to NCS readers as a member of the fantastic black metal band Blodsgard (as well as V0id & Khaos), and an American named V, whose Morgh, project I last wrote about (here) late in 2011; he is also a member of another two-man project named Þurs). Vakslen’s debut album is entitled Crucifucked, and yesterday I finally got around to listening to one of its songs — “Nordisk melankoli”.

Bird song and a low drone begin the track, followed by skull-splitting drum beats and dark, depressive riffs. The music shimmers, the vocals whisper, the music shifts into a rhythmic stride, the percussion pounds like the heavens falling, the melody continues ringing after the song ends. Very cool…

Three more songs are available for streaming via the Soundcloud link below, and you can acquire the album by messaging the band on Facebook (their page is linked below).

https://soundcloud.com/vakslen/sets/from-crucifucked-2013
https://www.facebook.com/Vakslen

 

 

KALL

I first wrote about Sweden’s Kall last July. It was formed by three former members of Lifelover — vocalist/guitarist “( )” (Kim Carlsson), guitarist “H” (Henrik Huldtgren), and bassplayer Fix — following the death of Lifelover’s principal songwriter Jonas “B” Bergqvist. Last summer Kall released the first track from a debut EP, “Då, nu – Jag och Du”, and now they’ve made a second track available on Bandcamp.

The new song is named “Varelsen”, with lyrics by Johan Gabrielson. In many ways it’s the least extreme of the songs collected in this post, but it’s at least as memorable as any of them. It has a hypnotic guitar melody, a mix of morose clean vocals and cracked, scarring ones, and the bleak atmosphere it creates becomes increasingly searing. Listen below.

https://kallofficial.bandcamp.com/track/varelsen
https://www.facebook.com/kallofficial/info