AN NCS PREMIERE: VALDUR — “BLESSINGS OF THE GOAT”

The mammoth Valdur from Mammoth Lakes, California, have a new album on the way entitled Pathetic Scum. Ten days ago we heard (and wrote about) a brief sample from one of the new songs, a track named “Blessings of the Goat”. Even those precious few minutes were a demonstration of Valdur’s skill in delivering massive, grisly, gruesome death metal with a thoroughly morbid and diseased atmosphere. And now we’re in the fortunate position of bringing you a stream of the entire song.

Pathetic Scum follows the band’s 2013 full-length, At War With, and features the addition of new guitarist Vuke. The band have relayed this message from their catacombs:

“Guitarist/vocalist Samuel is still with us so to speak, but he is so busy with personal/family matters at the moment. Vuke, new guitarist, is not a replacement, but a full time member of VALDUR. And for live dates this spring, Roskva will be on vocals again. And we have William on bass and Matthew on drums. We all appreciate anyone who takes the time in this world to have a listen to our music. It is built and molded by our own hands to the form and shape that we like. With these new songs, we give you something different yet again along the obscure VALDUR timeline…”

It is indeed true that Valdur have tended to dwell in obscurity, though their name is well-known among aficionados of powerful underground black/death. But if “Blessings of the Goat” is representative of what lies within Pathetic Scum, this new album is going to elevate their profile significantly.

The drums roll like an avalanche, the riffs vibrate with poisonous radioactivity, the roaring/howling vocals exude an aura of ravenous hunger and fury. But as overpoweringly ominous as the song’s atmosphere is, it also strikes with the impact and energy of a lightning bolt (or a hundred of them), and its doom-shrouded central melody is capable of saturating the mind and staying there. If the four horsemen of the apocalypse need a soundtrack as they ride us into the dust, they don’t have to look further than “Blessings of the Goat”.

Pathetic Scum will be officially unveiled digitally and in digipak format via the band’s own Bloody Mountain Records on June 30, 2015. Here’s the track list, followed by our premiere:

Pathetic Scum Track Listing:
1.Tank Torture
2. Impending Doom
3. Blessings Of The Goat
4. Pathetic Scum
5. Incantre Pt. II
6. Morbid Emanations

http://valdur.bandcamp.com/album/pathetic-scum-sample
https://www.facebook.com/pages/valdur/54163319709
http://www.bloodymountainrecords.com
http://www.bloodymountainrecords.bandcamp.com