SEEN AND HEARD: THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT, UNEARTH, OCCULTATION, WORMWOOD, 1349, IN DREAD RESPONSE

I’ve fallen behind in completing some reviews (one in particular) that I had planned to post on Monday of this week. Partly, this is the result of how many new music premieres and press releases of interest I’ve found this week. The last 24 hours have been no different. What follows is a sextet of such things.

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT

One of this site’s favorite bands made this statement yesterday:

“We have some exciting news! To bridge the gap between TETRAGRAMMATON and our forthcoming album we decided to record some tunes from our first album The Apotheosis. This because The Apotheosis is sold out and we simply aren’t in for an ordinary repressing. We will release it as an EP+ some cool rare recordings we collected through the years. The title of the EP will be BLOODCVLTS & DEATHCVLTS.

At the moment we have no idea how and who will release this EP. Maybe it will be on vinyl, maybe on CD or maybe only on Itunes and Spotify. Stay tuned!”

That reference to a forthcoming new album was certainly titillating. So was the news about the EP. So was the following song from the EP that the band released for streaming at the same time as that statement. And by “titillating”, I mean it’s a storm of knives capable of cutting off your… well, you know.

Here’s “THE MALLEVS MALEFICARVM MANVSCRIPT MMXIV”:

https://www.facebook.com/monolithdeathcult

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNEARTH

I remember when those dudes looked like teenagers. Uh, probably because they were teenagers. No longer.

It seems like the foundational bands of metal core have been dropping like flies lately, but Unearth are still going strong. They’ve got a new album named Watchers Rule that’s coming out October 28 on the eOne label. The very cool cover art is below:

 

 

Yesterday Revolver premiered the first advance track from the album — a little ditty named “The Swarm”.

If you name a song “The Swarm” and you’re Unearth, the music better be a hive of blood-pumping carnage, and that’s what this is. These gents can still bring it hard. Listen for yourselves. (The new album is available for pre-order here.)

https://www.facebook.com/unearthofficial

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OCCULTATION

The cover art created by Portland’s Adam Burke (Nightjar Illustration) for Silence In the Ancestral House is still one the year’s best. And the music I’ve heard from this new album by New York’s Occultation is proving to be excellent as well. I featured one new track back in August, and another one premiered yesterday at Metal Hammer Norway. The new one is named “The Dream Tide”, and man, you can surf these riff tides all day long. You don’t even need to get high before riding these waves either — the music and the vocals will take care of that for you.

Silence In the Ancestral House will be released by Invictus Productions and Profound Lore on October 14.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occultation/127574070630828

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORMWOOD

Wormwood are a new Boston band whose lineup consists of Doomriders guitarist Chris Pupecki and former Doomriders drummer Chris Bevilacqua. Their self-titled debut album will be released by Patac Records on October 11, and one of the songs from the album is available for listening on Bandcamp.

This dark, doomy beauty is named “Hollow Black Eyes”. It rocks, rips, and glides on narcotic thermals. A fucking sweet teaser for an album that’s vaulted onto my “must listen” list (and yeah, it’s another Exception to our Rule).

http://patacrecords.bandcamp.com/album/wormwood
https://www.facebook.com/Wormwoodboston

 

 

 

 

 

 

1349

Indie Recordings is on the verge of releasing the latest album from Oslo’s 1349 — Massive Cauldron of Chaos will be out on September 29. All the advance tracks that have premiered so far have been ravaging, and the new one that debuted yesterday at Metal Hammer is no different (thanks to eiterorm for tipping me to it).

This latest track is named “Mengele’s”, named in reference to the barbaric Nazi “scientist” whose experiments at Auschwitz gave him the nickname “Angel of Death”. According to the band’s frontman Ravn, the song is “a story about the horrors that happen when you give people power. It is not something that should ever be forgotten.”

Go here  to stream the song. You’ll be glad you did — the riffs are golden.

https://www.facebook.com/1349official

 

 

 

 

 

IN DREAD RESPONSE

In Dread Response are an excellent New Zealand metal band that we’ve mentioned several times in the past. TheMadIsraeli reviewed their debut album From the Oceanic Graves in August 2011 (here). We failed to review their second full-length, Embers In the Spiritless Void, but our NZ blog sister Steph Metal did name that release as one of the 10 best 2011 metal albums from Down Under in a guest feature we published in January 2012. They’ve now completed their third album, which is entitled Heavenshore, and yesterday they unveiled a song from it named “Earthen Bonds”.

Listening to “Earthen Bonds” is like being hosed down by a melodic death metal flamethrower and then fed through a meat grinder — and somehow the charred hamburger that is now you is smiling. Excellent!

www.facebook.com/indreadresponse
www.facebook.com/dreadstormmedia