NEW ALBUM NEWS: PSYCROPTIC, BELL WITCH, BLOTTED SCIENCE

 

While wading through the interhole yesterday I discovered quite a few gems floating shining like tiny beacons of light in the ever-present fecal flow. To avoid over-taxing your attenuated attention spans I’ve divided this collection of nuggets into two posts, this being the first.

PSYCROPTIC

Psycroptic and Prosthetic Records announced their union yesterday. Prosthetic will be released the band’s new self-titled album worldwide next spring (EVP Recordings will be handling the release in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan). And once again we can begin scratching our heads about the decision of a band with a full and widely admired discography to self-title an album. What do that mean?

Although next spring is very far away, yesterday’s announcement also included the news that on November 4 the band will release a digital single from the new album, a song named “Echoes To Come”. And there’s a teaser of music from this single as well — which you can hear right here (all 19 seconds of it):

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/psycroptic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BELL WITCH

I’ve been longing for more Longing ever since Seattle’s Bell Witch released that sublime album in 2012. Fortunately, I’ve periodically been able to feed that need with live Bell Witch shows, and the album really never wears out its dismal welcome. Still, it was exciting to see this post on the band’s Facebook page yesterday:

“We are proud to announce that we will be hitting the studio this December, and working with Billy Anderson to record our second full length record!”

If perchance you’ve never explored the staggering mysteries of Bell Witch before, I recommend that you visit their Bandcamp page and listen to Longing. Or, you could check out the video below, which is a recording of their full live set performed in Fullerton, California, on August 18, 2014.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bell-Witch/136264673108884

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLOTTED SCIENCE

I don’t know how Blotted Science are going to top their last release, 2011’s The Animation of Entomology, or the videos that came with it. The music was jaw-dropping, and the idea of creating the music as a score to clips from bug movies was equally inspired. But the band are rising to the challenge: Yesterday they announced that they will begin recording their third album in December. Here’s the statement by guitarist Ron Jarzombek:

“Our last release, 2011′s The Animation Of Entomology was scored to bug movies, this time around the concept is viruses. No song titles have been locked up, but Virology likely will appear in the CD title. As of now, we have 37 minutes of completed material and bits of other tunes on which we are working at the moment. So we are well on our way to having enough music for a full-length CD.

“We are taking a bit of a different approach in terms of song writing, and production on this CD. The tech and brutality will still be there, but we are distributing the writing and production duties more evenly between band members. So Hannes‘ (Grossmann – ex-Necrophagist, Obscura) and Alex‘ (Webster – Cannibal Corpse, Conquering Dystopia) writing input on our next release will be more present, adding a bit of a different element to our sound. We will also have some drastic changes in our production, so we’re pretty stoked about this next release.”

And in other Blotted Science news, Jarzombek further announced that he is releasing an instructional DVD, in segments, called Dissecting Bugs on which he will play all of the guitar parts on The Animation Of Entomology and “explain in theoretical, animated detail the 12-tone system that was used to write the EP.” The first segment is A Sting Operation – I. Human Barbequed, which is track 5 on The Animation Of Entomology. You can get details here, and there’s a preview below the link:

http://ronjarzombek.com/dissectingbugs.html