SEEN AND HEARD: WOLFHEART, ENSLAVED, DEVATHORN, COLISEUM, MINSK, BINARY CODE, CRETIN

Tuomas Saukkonen (Wolfheart)

It’s the same old story. Metal is such an over-boiling cauldron of creativity that if you have to wait a few days to go exploring for new things, you find yourself up to your neck in hot water. Or at least that’s what happened to me yesterday.

Having failed to compile a round-up of new music since last Sunday, I felt overwhelmed when confronting how much I wanted to write about today. I had to make some hard choices about what to recommend, and even then I had to stifle my usual verbosity — time is a harsh mistress, and not in a good way. So, with a regrettable (to me) minimum of introductory comments, here’s a selection of what lit me up over the last 24 hours, presented in the order in which I saw and heard them. I’ll have a few more new items to share with you on Saturday.

WOLFHEART

Earlier this month Spinefarm Records re-released Winterborn, the fantastic album by Wolfheart that we praised to the skies (repeatedly) when it was first self-released by the band in 2013. The re-issue comes with two bonus tracks (“Isolation” and “Into the Wild”). Two days ago Wolfheart premiered a music video for the album’s first track, “The Hunt”, which shows scenes from the recording of the track. It’s a wonderful song (it was on our list of 2013’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs), and any excuse to hear it again is welcome.

The release of the video was also accompanied by the most welcome news that there will be another Wolfheart album coming our way before the end of this year.

https://www.facebook.com/WolfheartRealm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENSLAVED

The new album by Norway’s Enslaved — In Times — is due for release in North America on March 10 by Nuclear Blast. Yesterday, an official lyric video for another new track, “One Thousand Years of Rain”, premiered at Terrorizer, and you can see and hear it below. You can also read Andy Synn’s NCS review of the album here.

Andy praised “the impressive agility” of Cato Bekkevold’s drumming on this track, “driving the song’s every twist and turn – from gloriously folk-inflected Norse gallop, to juddering frost-giant riffage, to Viking hymnal grandeur — with his own passionately percussive style”. But there’s a lot more to admire about this song as well — find out for yourself below.

https://www.facebook.com/enslaved

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEVATHORN

Earlier this month we premiered a powerful song named “Doctrina Fide” from the ferocious new album (Vritra) by the Greek black metal band Devathorn — which is being released by the World Terror Committee today (order it here). Earlier this week WTC premiered an official lyric video for another new Devathorn song, “Cathedral of Set”. The song is built around a memorable Eastern melody that conjures vistas of Egyptian deserts, ancient gods, and the descent of the great serpent, wrapping its coils around the world. The riffs in the song are magnetic, and the inflamed howls of the vocalist enhance the music’s fiery occult atmosphere. Very cool song from a very cool album.

https://www.facebook.com/DevathornOfficial

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COLISEUM

Coliseum’s new album, Anxiety’s Kiss, will be released May 5 on Deathwish Inc., and earlier this week SPIN premiered the video for the first single “We Are The Water.” I fuckin’ love this band, and their videos have never disappointed. This one is no exception. The music is a hooky-as-hell post-punk rocker, and although it’s another performance-in-a-warehouse video, it’s beautifully filmed (the billowing sheets and muted colors are nice touches).

Coliseum are touring now. They had to cancel in Vancouver last night because of canceled flights — I sure as hell hope they make their Seattle date at The Crocodile tonight.

 

https://www.facebook.com/coliseumsoundsystem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MINSK

The Illinois band Minsk have completed work on their first new album in six years. The new one is named The Crash & The Draw, it was recorded by Sanford Parker, and it’s coming this April from Relapse Records.

Yesterday we got the premiere (on YouTube and Bandcamp) of the album’s first advance track — “To the Garish Remembrance of Failure”. It’s a dismal, demented, insidious piece of music that’s heavy as lead and dangerously disorienting — a blending of post-metal and psychosis that’s nonetheless damned infectious. Tim Mead’s vocals are as raw as an angry wound that won’t heal, the riffs hit like crowbars, and the guitar leads seethe like ants under the skin. Very cool cover art by Orion Landau, too (which is a reinterpretation of original artwork by contributing artist, Corinne Reid).

The album can be pre-ordered via the Bandcamp link below.

http://minskband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Minsk

 

 

 

 

 

BINARY CODE

This Northeastern band who we’ve been following since early days have a new album on the way. Recording (at Audiohammer Studios with Eyal Levi), mixing, and mastering have been completed, and the band have also shot a performance video for one of the new songs, “Immersion”. For those who will be in the vicinity of Brooklyn on March 19, the band will be playing the whole album at St Vitus bar (as you can see from the cool show flyer up above).

In the meantime, Binary Code have just released a teaser for the new video, which I’ve embedded below. It’s not long, but it’s tasty.

https://www.facebook.com/binarycodemusic/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CRETIN

Cretin’s latest album Stranger was a late-2014 standout. Although it didn’t hit until December, it still made a slew of year-end lists, and rightfully so.

Yesterday Metal Injection premiered a video of the full set of Cretin’s performance on the 2013 Decibel Magazine Tour in Oakland, and goddamned, it’s vicious — a death/grind rampage that really does come vividly alive in this film.

https://www.facebook.com/Cretanic