SEEN AND HEARD: NIGHTBRINGER, BEYOND CREATION, INHUMAN REMNANTS, MORDBRAND, MARTYRDÖD, AND ERLING BRONSBERG

Here’s a typically random and diverse collection of recommended new music and metal news that I came across over the last 24 hours. It ranges from highly anticipated black metal to a metal banjo cover, with all sorts of different musical trajectories in between.

NIGHTBRINGER

The fourth album by Colorado’s Nightbringer is entitled Ego Dominus Tuus (I Am Your Lord), and it’s due for release by Season of Mist on September 20 in NorthAm (September 26 elsewhere). Yesterday, SoM revealed the cover art by David Herrerias (above), which is wonderful. At the same time, the first advance track from the album began streaming at various sites around the globe. Its name is “Et Nox Illuminatio Mea In Deliciis Meis”, which refers to a line from Psalm 139. According to the band:

“The lyrics draw heavily upon this psalm, which we feel, via a perhaps more heretical approach, elucidates symbols relevant to the ‘midnight sun’ and the ‘night of light’. Furthermore we touch upon the Greek melancholia and the sovereignty of Saturn over those of us who are born with his mark and our relation to the former concepts as well as the significance of the ‘black light’ of our Lord. It speaks much of the ecstatic furor one may enter in which wisdom is imparted both from above, below and within, via a state of ‘divine madness’. “

Should you be interested in reading the 139th Psalm, you can do so here (the song’s title refers to the phrase “and night shall be my light in my pleasures”). Whether you do or don’t peruse the psalm, I strongly recommend listening to the song (it’s streaming at Stereogum here).

It’s a nine-minute track, and an incredibly powerful one.  In part, the music is a torrential storm of rocketing riffs, rapidly escalating guitar leads, and thundering percussion — through which a dramatic and ominous melody moves like a giant python in a black, gale-blasted forest. In part, it’s an almost stately processional, with an air of infernal majesty. And in part it’s an alien symphony of eerie keyboard orchestration. And I’m not even sure we’ve heard all the song has to offer, because the Soundcloud stream ends very abruptly.

The album is available for pre-order here.

https://www.facebook.com/NightbringerOfficial

 

 

 

BEYOND CREATION

It’s been a long wait for new music from this Montréal band since the 2011 release of their stunning debut, The Aura. But about an hour ago Season of Mist revealed the cover art (above) and the first advance track from their new album Earthborn Evolution, which is now due for release on October 24, 2014.

The new song is named “Elusive Reverence”, and it’s a real mind-bender of swarming, warping, channel-shifting guitar leads, bounding fretless bass acrobatics, complex drum rhythms, and canine snarls, growls, and shrieks. It also includes a guitar solo that will singe your eyebrows. In a word, it’s electrifying.

Earthborn Evolution is available for pre-order here. Go here (among other places) to listen to the new song.

https://www.facebook.com/BeyondCreationOfficial

 

 

 

 

INHUMAN REMNANTS

Inhuman Remnants is a horror-inspired death metal band based in Canberra, Australia. You can tell they are horror-inspired by watching the video that they premiered late yesterday. The video is for a song named “Once Sent From the Outer Realms” off their debut EP Anathema, which was released in December 2012 (the band released a second EP this past March named Inattentional Blindness).

At first you may wonder why the people in the video seem so upset and frantic over a bit of car trouble, but you find out soon enough: ZOMBIES ARE ON THE LOOSE! And their flesh-eating fury is matched by the jolting bestiality and pestilential melody of the music — and by the disgusting grunts and squeals of the band’s vocalist, who himself seems ready, willing, and able to feast on your fleshy parts.

Both of the band’s EPs are available via the Bandcamp link below. Here’s the new video:

http://inhumanremnants.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/inhumanremnants

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORDBRAND

Now we come to a couple of welcome news items.

In March of this year we had the pleasure of premiering a new song (“That Which Crawls”) from the then-forthcoming debut album by Sweden’s Mordbrand, which is entitled Imago. Though Imago is the band’s first full-length, Mordbrand’s members are Swedish death metal veterans and their experience and knowledge of the genre shows in spades on the album (I had a blast listening to two of Mordbrand’s members — Björn Larsson and Per Boder — perform at Maryland Deathfest this past May because they’re also in God Macabre). It’s one of the best I’ve heard this year, in large part because each song has its own identity and vitality while still being rooted in hallowed traditions. As I wrote in my review accompanying hat premiere, “Listening to Imago is like spending time with an old friend you thought you knew inside and out, and then being surprised by something you hadn’t noticed before.”

The news is that Imago is now available on Bandcamp for streaming and ordering, via the link below — and that Mordbrand plan to record a new 7″ entitled Vastation for release by To The Death Records sometime this coming autumn.

http://mordbrand.bandcamp.com/album/imago
https://www.facebook.com/officialmordbrand

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARTYRDÖD

The second bit of news is that the Southern Lord label has just released the new album, Elddop, by this Swedish blackened crust punk band. I’ve written about advance tracks from the album before, but I have to emphasize that the album as a whole is fantastic. It’s a striking blend of metal and punk styles that’s completely galvanizing and not quite like anything else I’ve heard this year. The whole album is streaming exclusively at Stereogum (here), and it’s really worth a thorough listen.

Eldopp can be pre-ordered here from Southern Lord.  A special European version of the vinyl will be released by La Familia and D-beat Raw Punk. I’ve included streams of two tracks below.

http://martyrdoedsl.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/martyrdod

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ERLING BRONSBERG

And now to that banjo metal cover I promised. It’s by Erling Bronsberg from Örebro, Sweden, a talented banjo player who performs with an acoustic group named Six String Yada (they play old-time American mountain music — with some metal and punk in the mix as well). I’ve featured some of Erling’s other banjo metal covers in the past, but his latest one is timely because it’s a recording of a Martyrdöd song in celebration of the release of Elddop. The song is “Antagonisten”, and it originally appeared on Martyrdöd‘s LP In Extremis. I’m including the original below Erling’s video. Enjoy.

https://www.facebook.com/sixstringyada
http://www.sixstringyada.com