AN NCS PREMIERE: ADVERSARIAL — “CURSED BLADES CAST UPON THE SLAVESCUM OF CHRIST”

 

The last two releases by Adversarial have been short ones — a split with Paroxsihzem last year (Warpit of Coiling Atrocities, reviewed here) and another one with Antediluvian in 2012 (Initiated In Impiety As Mysteries, reviewed here). Both of them were stunningly good — and so I’ve had supremely high expectations for the band’s second full-length, Death, Endless Nothing and the Black Knife of Nihilism. As high as they were, those expectations were elevated even further after I saw the band’s obliterating set on the final night of this year’s Maryland Deathfest.

Sometimes, perhaps most of the time, when you have such high hopes for a new release, you find yourself at least somewhat disappointed when it finally arrives. Not this time.

Death, Endless Nothing and the Black Knife of Nihilism will be essential listening for fans of black/death. It’s Adversarial’s best work to date, which is saying something — a journey into a vortex of lightless chaos that’s both terrifying and somehow entrancing. Today we are privileged to unsheathe this black knife as we premiere one of a very strong album’s strongest tracks, “Cursed Blades Cast Upon the Slavescum of Christ“.

 

 

“Cursed Blades…” is a torrent of warping riffs, jet-speed percussion, and heartless roars. The song’s eerie, dissonant melody coils like a giant python, an implacable reptilian thing that heightens the tension as it tightens its grip on the senses. When the hyper-blasting drumwork slows after the song’s cyclonic start, the ghastly atmosphere of the music becomes even more dire and dismal, though one final explosion of head-whipping frenzy is still to come, a paroxysm of discordant riffs and vicious percussive power that brings the song to a close.

Like the album as a whole, the song is hellishly atmospheric, both vibrant and venomous. Don’t be surprised if those otherworldly riffs continue to reverberate in your head long after the track has run its savage course.

Death, Endless Nothing and the Black Knife of Nihilism will be released by Dark Descent Records on August 21, 2015, on CD, vinyl, and digital formats, and it can be pre-oredered at the label’s web store, linked below.

We’ll have a full review on Monday. The track list is as follows:

01 – Dissenting the Waking Shell
02 – Intro
03 – Immersion Void Paragon
04 – Eonik Spiritual Warfare
05 – Interlude
06 – Cursed Blades Cast Upon the Slavescum of Christ
07 – Old Ruins Slumber in a Crushing Hatred of Man
08 – Lone Wresting Hymns to the Warmoon of Chaos
09 – Death, Endless Nothing and the Black Knife of Nihilism

The album’s fourth track, “Eonik Spiritual Warfare,” is featured on the Dark Descent Records New Release Sampler 3, and in case you missed it, I’ve included a stream of that song below our premiere of “Cursed Blades…”

www.adversarial.ca
www.facebook.com/AdversarialOfficial

www.darkdescentrecords.com
darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/DarkDescentRecords