SEEN AND HEARD: AGELESS OBLIVION, METSATÖLL, DOMAINS, LIE IN RUINS, CORPSESSED

The creative juices are REALLY flowing out there in metaldom . . . SO much juice . . . So sticky, so pungent . . . You just want to smear it ALL over and massage it into your scalp and make fluffy merengue with it . . . and

Ooops, sorry about that.  Where was I?  Oh yeah, a lot of creative juicing going on. LOTS of new metal songs to be spread around, like. . . well, you know. Here’s just a small smear of what I found this morning (more of what I found over the last 24 hours can be seen and heard here).

AGELESS OBLIVION

In July 2012 our own Andy Synn reviewed the debut album by a band from Hampshire, UK, named Ageless Oblivion. Here’s a relevant excerpt:

“You may not have heard of this band, but doubtless you will be doing so more in the future. With a fresh take on the death metal dynamic, this, their debut album, provides a master class in modern death metal, shot through with unusual progressive impulses. . . . The playing throughout is deft and highly skilled, without veering into territory one could describe (often dismissively) as “tech”. While there is no doubt some complex fretwork going on here, it’s always done in service to the song and as part of an overall pattern of interlocking riffs, woven together seamlessly. Drums clatter and pound with impressive force, eschewing the simple blast-blast-blast approach in favour of punchy, jarring kick patterns and sharp, hammer-blow snare-beats, while the vocals favour a tormented, guttural howl that successfully captures an all-too-human sense of rage and despair, making a rare emotional connection with the listener.”

Ageless Oblivion now have a new album named Penthos that will be coming your way on March 18 (a day earlier in the EU) via Siege of Amida and Century Media. Yesterday brought the premiere of a new song named “Glacial Blood” and it’s a megawatt jolt to the system. Much of what Andy wrote applies here as well. The music wields together pile-driving rhythms, flash-fired guitar and bass work, and dark, writhing melodies (with an instrumental break that sounds like the bell of doomsday tolling) into a riveting whole. I’m really liking this.

https://www.facebook.com/agelessoblivion

 

 

METSATÖLL

“Tõrrede Kõhtudes” (“In the Bellies of Barrels”) is the new single from Estonia’s Metsatöll, and it began streaming today. According to the band, “‘Tõrrede kõhtudes’ is dedicated to the making of a very important Estonian beverage. Metsatöll leaves it for the listeners to decide which beverage it is, although the mentioned ingredients do not leave much room for guessing.” The lyrics are in Estonian, but the English translation mentions hops, malts, and juniper branches.

I have such fond memories of the one live Metsatöll show I attended (it was more fun than a barrel of greased monkeys). I have fond memories of the wonderful artwork for their last album (and its music), and am liking the art for this single as well — AND the artwork for the new album (the band’s sixth) from which the single comes, Karjajuht (“Pack Leader”), which is due on March 7:

I’m going to have fond memories of the new song, too, beginning with the tinkling notes of what sounds like a zither (but is probably a kannel) in the intro. It bounces and chugs and spins around like a beer-fueled dance with your best friends. If you can’t smile to this, you need treatment for tight-sphincter syndrome.

https://www.facebook.com/Metsatoll

 

 

DOMAINS

Domains are a Spanish band who I learned about through a recommendation from Tr00 Nate. Their debut album Sinister Ceremonies was recently released by Sinister Flame. Though I haven’t heard the entire album, two songs are available for streaming on Bandcamp — “Raped By Darkness” and the title track.

The music is murky, dank, and mercilessly heavy, as good ancient death metal should be, but these songs are infiltrated by highly insidious exotic guitar melodies that will get their hooks in your head. They’re wonderful, dynamic, compelling combinations of ominous oppression, galloping mayhem, and occult atmosphere. The title track features a riveting, evil solo, and the vocals in both songs are strikingly impassioned (and pleasingly ghastly). Fantastic!

http://domainsofdeath.bandcamp.com/album/sinister-ceremonies

 

 

LIE IN RUINS AND CORPSESSED

Colorado’s Dark Descent label scheduled two albums for release on February 4, but recently both of them went up for streaming and download on Bandcamp. I’ve only sampled both so far, but given how anemic I am in getting reviews done at the moment, I wanted to at least provide this note about them.

One of them (Abyssmal Thresholds) is by Finland’s Corpsessed, and I previously wrote about it when the first song began streaming last November. To crib from what I wrote then: “It’s a lumbering radioactive monster of grinding, ancient death metal that becomes an unstoppable force when it kicks into high gear. The echoing vocals are deep as ocean trenches and the guitar solo wriggles like a mass of feeding maggots.” Filthy, distorted, and expelling noxious fumes, the music kicks ass.

http://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/abysmal-thresholds

 

Lie In Ruins are another Finnish band that I discovered at the same time as Corpsessed and also wrote about last November when only one song was up on Bandcamp. Now the whole album, Towards Divine Death, is up there — and down below. It’s thoroughly morbid and thoroughly grimy, with sickening tremolo guitar melodies moving in distorted waves over hammering percussion. As in Corpsessed’s case, the vocals are of the deep, ghastly, and echoing variety. This is a superior example of grim, grisly, old-school death-doom and well worth checking out.

http://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/towards-divine-death
https://www.facebook.com/lieinruins/