AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DAWN OF AZAZEL — “VASSALPLASTY”

Six years after 2009’s Relentless, New Zealand’s long-running Dawn of Azazel are poised for the release of their fourth album, The Tides of Damocles, via Unique Leader Records. To give you fair warning of the death metal devastation to come, we bring you the premiere of a lyric video for the new album’s third track, “Vassalplasty“.

The new album was recorded, mixed, and mastered last year at Mana Recording Studios (Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal, Goatwhore) in Tampa, Florida by Brian Elliot and J.J. Hrubovcak, and they did a superb job capturing the band’s raw ferocity without obscuring the intricacy of their compositions or their technical skill as performers. And as further icing on the cake, the album cover features the typically striking artwork of one of our favorite metal artists, New Zealand’s Nick Keller.

The lyric video, produced by Scott Rudd Film makes full use Keller’s dramatic creation, which captures the album’s conceptual theme — “the ocean as a metaphor for the forces of life that constantly assail and erode the will of those who seek power”.

The song is itself a raging, storm-lashed assault, driven by blistering riffs, highly weaponized drumming, and raw vocal vitriol. It’s a tightly controlled frenzy, the kind of murderous outburst that somehow manages to be both chaotic and machine precise. The song is laced with inventive instrumental excursions and packed with grooves that are powerful enough to crack skulls. Both viscerally powerful and technically eye-opening, it will awaken the predator in you while simultaneously re-wiring your brain.

Tides of Damocles will be released on April 27 and you can pre-order it, along with related merch, via the Bandcamp page linked below.

http://www.facebook.com/dawnofazazel
http://dawnofazazel.bandcamp.com/album/the-tides-of-damocles