DEATH RITUALS (Part 1): SKELETHAL, MASACRE, NIHIL KAOS, ASSUMPTION

 

I plowed through a lot of new songs yesterday and found a lot to like. Most of it happened to be death metal, though not quite all. So I decided to skip the “Seen and Heard” title for this round-up in favor of a more descriptive lead-in. Also, I found so much to recommend that I’ve divided the round-up into two parts. The second one will come a bit later today.

SKELETHAL

I loved this French band’s previous 2014 EP Deathmanicvs Revelation with an unholy love. I have little reason to doubt that I will experience similarly unnatural attractions to their new one, Interstellar Knowledge of the Purple Entity. Apart from my intense desire to obtain more knowledge about The Purple Entity (!), the advance song that became available for listening this weekend is like an aphrodisiac for the ears.

“Sabbatical Demonic Invocation” is grimy, corrosive, and ghastly to its core, with chainsaw riffs galore, jet-fueled energy, and the kind of stand-out guitar solo in the song’s eerie, crawling back half that made the last EP such a cut above most old-school death metal resurgences.

Interstellar Knowledge of the Purple Entity will be released by Iron Bonehead Productions on 12″ vinyl before the end of the year. It includes four new songs plus a cover of a Carnage song.

http://skelethal.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MASACRE

If you don’t know, Masacre are from Columbia and they’ve been kicking around since 1988. Their fifth album, Brutal Aggression, is coming out on October 28. They’re also going to be playing at the Maryland Deathfest XIII pre-party on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, at the Ottobar in Baltimore, along with Incantation, Disma, Funerus, and GATH ŠMÂNÊ. They recently released a video for one of the new songs, “Donde Habita el Mal”, which I caught yesterday.

Basically, they spray everything with blood and then burn it down, including the Columbian flag. And I’m not just talking about what happens in the video — because the music is full of blood, flame, bone shards, and the kind of compulsive riffs that drive manic headbanging. The song’s big, groaning chords and skittering note flurries are complemented by some shrill, delicious soloing, too. These dudes know what the fuck they’re doing.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/MasacreOficial/151283931612611

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NIHIL KAOS

I discovered this black metal band from Istanbul, Turkey, because the cover art for their new promo song “Dreadful Perdition” caught my eye. It was created by the awesome Daniel “Desecrator” Corcuera (Nekronikon). I was unfamiliar with the band, but now know that their previous discography consists of a 2005 spli, a 2006 demo, and a 2010 album named KaΏsatan.

The new promo song “Dreadful Perdition” is a big high-voltage shot right to the brain stem. Everything is moving at red-zone speed with impressive technical acumen, and the vocalist’s gravel-throated proclamations sound vehemently infernal. If you’re looking for something that will set your neurons on fire, this will do the job.

The new song is available on Bandcamp for $7, which is a steep price for one song. But you can hear it for nothing:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nihil-Kaos/343578665796625
http://nihilkaos.bandcamp.com/album/noxkult-2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASSUMPTION

Assumption are a Sicilian band who I discovered for the first time yesterday. Metal-Archives says they released a 2012 demo named Mosaic of the Distant Dominion, and now they have an EP on the way entitled The Three Appearances, which will be released on CD and LP by Elektroplasma Musik and Terror From Hell Records.

The one song from the new EP that’s available at the moment, “Moribund State Shift”, is obliteratingly heavy death/doom. The riffs are monolithic even when drilling like some enormous mining machine cracking basalt, the vocals are cavernous, and the shimmering ambience that floats around the song like a fog gives it a nice alien atmosphere as well. Very poisonous, and very good.

https://www.facebook.com/ElektroplasmaMusik
http://www.elektroplasmamusik.eu