On January 3 of this year I saw the remarkable artwork you’re now looking at, a piece named “The Cold Steps To Solitude” by the Australian artist Chris Cold that was then destined to appear as the cover of an album by a band from Perth named Wardaemonic. I remember the date because I wasted no time in posting it on our site’s Facebook page. And I thought to myself, if the music turns out to be as good as the art, the album is going to be an eye-opener, too.
The name of the album is Obsequium, it’s due for release on March 13, and we have the pleasure of premiering its first advance track, “Endless War”.
That’s a fitting title for this song, because it’s a full-force black metal blitzkrieg of blasting drums, storming tremolo riffs, and razor-edged shrieks. The boiling conflagration is punctuated by bursts of dual-guitar jabbing and it subsides in the closing minutes to make room for a slow, sinuous passage of atmospheric melody, moving like poison fog across the blasted battlefield.
photo by Stephen Miles
The music becomes eerie by the end, though no less ominous or unsettling. And although the song is a brazen assault on the senses for most of its duration, the melodies that the band succeed in infiltrating throughout the attack make the song memorable as well as an adrenaline rush.
It’s only one song, but it’s a promising sign that, yes, this album really could be as eye-opening as the cover art.
Obsequium will be available for order on Wardaemonic’s Bandcamp page, linked below.
http://wardaemonic.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.facebook.com/wardaemonic
Chris Cold: www.facebook.com/dramargu
8 Responses to “AN NCS PREMIERE: WARDAEMONIC — “ENDLESS WAR””
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This is fucking awesome.
Glad you dig it!
this is really, really good! 🙂
and that artwork is gorgeous!
Great track and all, but DAT ARTWORK.
Well I’m awake now. Thanks Islander.
The artwork is indeed scintillating, and projects every amount of tepid fear and darkness one could “wish for.” At first listen, the track is indeed extreme with its martial drums pounding the life out of the listener’s skull as Wardaemonic decides to nix any intro, and begin by reigning rhythmic blows from the moment the needle drops. Sadly, the drums were the most interesting piece of the song. The vocals, while strongly characteristic of old school black metal, do not easily find any undercurrent of melody. Now, don’t get me wrong…I love EXTREME, but I take my EXTREME with a lump of variation for flavor. The somewhat monotonous vocals, while strong, seem to be missing direction, per se. Interestingly, the melodic work of the guitars is similarly unvaried, but for the bridge section in the middle of the piece. I do not find either of these characteristics bad, but I could not help wonder what such a blackeningly malign voice would sound like wrapped in the tattered shreds of even the slightest of melodic direction – please do not read this as hoping for Emporer incarnate, only that the repetition lacked a bit of direction. That said, both the guitar and vocal work is strong, and is a tribute to the practiotioners’ skill in their black craft. That aside, the drum work is deafeningly thunderous, and purveys a chaotic imalgum of rhythmic changes from start to finish. The immediate blasts and double kicks crush the air from the speaker cones within the first 3 seconds of the cut, and never let up until the fading darkness of the song’s end. Waves of heavy, furious thunder are complemented by subtle rhythmic shifts, especially between single and double base thrombosis wrapping each breathe around the entire head of the sound. The alternating work between driving madness and chaotic underpinning are phenomenal, and are only surpassed by the recapitulation of mind numbing pulsation as the drums arrive at the song’s conclusion. All in all, not bad. A very positive first impression…one that certainly lends itself to a second listen. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for the adjectives, Mike!
We hope you’ll find what you’re after in the rest of the album.
so. this shit flays flesh from bone.
thats certifiable. keep em comin!