LABEL FOCUS: LAMECH RECORDS (WITH LVXCAELIS, SAPIENTIA, MYSTRUIN, HETROERTZEN)

As explained yesterday, I impulsively decided to write a weekend series on labels whose releases I have rarely (if ever) written about. As in the case of Ektro Records (featured yesterday), I happened upon the songs in this collection at Soundcloud. All of them are by bands whose music has been released by an underground Swedish label named Lamech Records, whose web site is here. I was unfamiliar with all four bands featured here before checking out these songs, but I really like what I’ve heard.

LVXCAELIS

LvxCaelis are from Santiago, Chile. It appears they have released a 2010 demo named Nigredo – The Dead Head and an album in 2012 entitled Mysteria Mystica Maxima XXIII. The song I stumbled across on Soundcloud is “Darkening Sun. Evolving Chaos”, which will apparently be included on a forthcoming four-song Lamech release called Slaughtering of the Lamb.

The song is aptly titled. It is the sound of the sun being eclipsed, and chaos does indeed ensue as murky, eviscerating riffs vibrate ominously and the drums blast and rumble. As grim and frostbitten as the melody is, the music nevertheless has the power to set a hook in your head, even though the vocalist is trying to tear it off at the same time. A really good fusing of black and death metal.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/LvxCælis/234104389943005

 

 

 

 

 

SAPIENTIA

Sapientia are a Swedish band whose sole output seems to be a debut album named Through the First Sphere of Saturnus that Lamech released in 2012. The song I heard is named “Sphere”. Sapientia operate behind a moving wall of torrential riffs, crashing cymbals, double-bass thunder, and attention-grabbing drum progressions.

The music generates an oppressive, lightless atmosphere, made all the more grim by truly cavernous vocal excretions, yet a rippling guitar melody beckons seductively through the poisonous fog….

https://www.facebook.com/Sapientia109

 

 

 

 

 

MYSTRUIN

Mystruin are a Stockholm band who released demos in 2007 and 2013 leading up to their debut album released by Lamech earlier the year — Gånget äro ljuset. The song I heard on Soundcloud is “Förkastelse av ljuset”.

Where the first two tracks in this post could perhaps best be characterized as blackened death metal, Myruin unleashes pure black metal savagery. The riffs sound like a buzzsaw revving in the red zone, or a swarm of titanic hornets. The drumming is furious — and technically very impressive. The vocals are frighteningly venomous. But the music isn’t a non-stop storm. Before the song ends, it drops down into a few doom-drenched dirges.

The music has a very heavy low end, which enhances the apocalyptic quality of the melody. Ravaging stuff, and very well-executed.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mystruin/155493637858286

 

 

 

 

 

HETROERTZEN

Last, we come to Hetroertzen, a black metal band originally from Puerto Varas, Chile, but apparently now located in Sweden. According to Metal Archives, they have four full-length albums to their credit. Their most recent release, on the Lamech label, is a four-song 2014 split with Norway’s Dødsengel named Capax Infiniti. One of Hetroertzen’s two tracks is “Ardetha”, and that’s what I heard in my wanderings through the Lamech Soundcloud page.

At more than eight minutes, this is the longest song in today’s collection. Hetroertzen use the time wisely, gradually pounding out an anthem both dark and searing, building the kind of atmosphere in which the listener feels like a participant in an obscure, occult ritual. It begins at the pace of a monastic chant and then catches fire, generating dense, oily, tremolo-picked smoke. The furious drumwork is also impressive, often following unusual progressions at unusual times.

I want Capax Infiniti.

https://www.facebook.com/HETROERTZEN