I have for you a big selection of new and newly discovered songs and videos that I’d like to recommend. As you can tell, I got tired of using the “Seen and Heard” title for these round-ups, at least for today. Also, the riffs really are the kings and queens of most of these songs (but not all). I’m presenting all this stuff in alphabetical order by band name. Genre-wise, the music is all over the place….
APE CAVE
Ape Cave are from Portland, Oregon. At the end of May they released what I think is their debut EP, named Primordium (with the eye-catching cover art above). I found out about it through a link posted by a Facebook friend.
When you press “play” on the Bandcamp stream below, you’ll hear the EP’s final track first. It hooked me hard, and the other two songs are just as good. Ape Cave blend thick, heavy riffs and gut-rumbling percussion with psychedelic lead guitar machinations and raw, wretched vocal vituperation, creating a bleak and often disorienting atmosphere while punching hard enough to rattle your bones.
They also spice up this EP with contrasts, throwing in some interesting proggy instrumental work and clean vocals on the opening track before it goes off in a more poisonous direction, and rocking hard on the second track without sacrificing the undercurrent of gloom and fury (that second song also includes an awfully cool guitar solo).
Primordium is a “name your price” download at Bandcamp.
https://apecavepdx.bandcamp.com/album/primordium
https://www.facebook.com/apecavepdx
BLACK EARTH
The Spanish band Black Earth seems to be a three-piece, though a large number of other people are credited as session musicians and guests on their debut album A Cryptic Howl of Morbid Truth. That album appeared on Bandcamp in February, but (again thanks to a post by a Facebook friend) I didn’t find out about it until yesterday.
From what I’ve heard of it so far, this is an album that deserves a complete listen and a full review, but I’m so short on time that I doubt I’ll manage to do the latter. But I do want to at least mention one of the songs I’ve heard so far and encourage you to explore the album further if you like it as much as I do.
That song is the title track, which sets as its foundation a heavy, repeating bass-toned beat that becomes increasingly frenetic and unstable, something like a prolonged earthquake. With that undependable foundation in place, the band proceed to surround it with a harrowing squall of terrifying noise and crazed yells.
I found the song fascinating… and it may just suck you right into the rest of this hallucinatory, nightmarish album, because there aren’t sharp breaks between the tracks. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
https://blackearthband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/adnigredo
BLOOD RED THRONE
Back in February of this year, in an installment of our THAT’S METAL! series, I wrote about an over-the-top (and very metal) trailer for a video game called Hatred. Yesterday, Norway’s Blood Red Throne released a video for a new song named “Patriotic Hatred” from their forthcoming album Union of Flesh and Machine, which is scheduled for released in November 2015 by Candlelight Records. And it turns out that the video for the song is that same Hatred game trailer I wrote about in February.
It further turns out (according to the note accompanying the YouTube clip for the song) that Blood Red Throne “will also be featured as the soundtrack for Hatred’s survival mode, which will be released August 2015″.
“Patriotic Hatred” is a vicious death metal assault that does just as good a job splitting skulls with big grooves as it does going straight for the guts with eviscerating riffs. Gruesome vocal bestiality, too.
The Hatred game can be explored further here:
http://www.destructivecreations.pl/
And this is BRT’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/BloodRedThroneOfficial
CLANDESTINE BLAZE
Finland is home to Clandestine Blaze, the solo project of Mikko Aspa (who has been the vocalist for Deathspell Omega for more than a decade and has been involved in many other projects as well). Although the band’s discography is substantial and dates all the way back to 1998, I managed to remain ignorant of it until yesterday, when I began exploring the most recent full-length, New Golgotha Rising, which appeared in April of this year via Aspa’s Northern Heritage Records (with official U.S. distribution through Hells Headbangers).
This is another instance of an album that deserves a complete listen and a full review — but I’m afraid I won’t be able to manage the latter, given how short I am on time for such things. So, once again, I’ll only offer a few words about one song — “Evocation Under Starlit Sky” — and then encourage you to check out the rest of the album below.
That song’s jet-fueled drumming gets the adrenaline pumping from the start, and the writhing, unorthodox riffs are damned attention-grabbing, too. But the song also turns out to be a real headbanger, and the vocals are suitably ugly and inflamed.
P.S. There are plenty more killer riffs in the songs that follow the first one.
New Golgotha Rising is available on Bandcamp.
http://clandestineblaze.bandcamp.com/album/new-golgotha-rising
MOTÖRHEAD
Motörhead released a cool animated lyric video for a new song today. The name of the song is “Electricity” and it comes from their forthcoming album Bad Magic, due for release on August 28. It’s Motörhead, and the song rocks, and do I really need to say anything else?
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMotorhead
OBESE
My first thought after seeing a link to this next video was to wonder why the hell this Dutch band picked a name like Obese. And then I heard the riffs in the song, and it all became clear. Goddamn, they are so fat and heavy that it would take a forklift and some serious door-widening to get them out of the house. The drums and the bass and the throat-bursting vocals are just as fucking destructive, too.
The name of the song is “Red As The Sun” and it comes from an album entitled Kali Yuga, which was released in June by Argonauta Records.
I learned from the video that there’s no activity, no matter how deranged, that can’t be improved by dousing it with red liquid. That discovery was so eye-opening that I even forgave the band for wantonly destroying a perfectly innocent bass drum that no doubt had been a good and loyal friend.
https://www.facebook.com/obeseofficial
VALDUR
Yesterday CVLT Nation premiered a new video for a song from Valdur’s latest album Pathetic Scum, which is out now via Bloody Mountain Records and is available on Bandcamp. The album is an excellent offering of black/death slaughtering, and so is this song — “Blessings of the Goat” — which we ourselves premiered earlier this year. Because I’ve already spilled a lot of words about the song in that earlier premiere feature, I’m just going to let you watch the video without further introduction — other than to remind you that these riffs are goddamned lethal.
(As you might expect if you’re familiar with the song, the video includes some disturbing imagery, so be careful who’s looking over your shoulder.)
https://valdur.bandcamp.com/album/pathetic-scum
https://www.facebook.com/pages/valdur/54163319709
14 Responses to “RIFF POWER: APE CAVE, BLACK EARTH, BLOOD RED THRONE, CLANDESTINE BLAZE, MOTÖRHEAD, OBESE, VALDUR”
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Really liking Obese. But the “Patriotic Hatred” video made my day!
All Hail Apecave !!!!!!!!
the new Blood Red Throne is killer!! 🙂
Obese is an awesome new discovery, and it’s always good to hear new things from Valdur and Motorhead.
Re: Obese. My, that William Blake engraving is all over the place these days, isn’t it? I’m sure I’ve seen it on other covers too.
ah yes Obese!
Speaking of Clandestine Blaze, I just found this video the other day, where Mikko joins Mgła on stage to perform two Clandestine Blaze songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAGKV3oyqo0
What is concerning about Clandestine Blaze, Mikko Aspa, et al is that they are racist. They make no qualms about it and its troubling to see metal publications glossing over this fact. I recently discovered Mgla and am enthralled with their latest release as well as their previous work. It is beautiful, powerful music that moves the spirit. But, they are associated with scumbags like Aspa, which leads me to believe they too are racist/facist. I am not white, but I dig this music. I see the rise of nationalist/facist bands infiltrating the metal scene and promoting their ideology. When interviewed, most of these bands continue being crypto stating they don’t have an ideology and hate everyone, blah blah blah. BS. Just state your beliefs so those who do not want to support this type of ideology can make the decision to spend their money elsewhere. I see Mgla will be coming to Northern CA. I would like to see them but is my money going to fund racist causes? Does Mgla and their followers reject non whites from coming to their shows?
Am I the only one who is in this quandary or concerned that this is an issue? I find myself scouring the web for indications if I band I like is racist/facist. Its a pain in the ass. Just state your beliefs openly.
As I wrote in my post, I was unfamiliar both with Clandestine Blaze before discovering this album and with Mikko Aspa’s beliefs. I don’t know much about the association between him and Mgla other than the fact (noted in a previous comment) that Mgla once did live covers of Clandestine Blaze songs with Aspa and that Northern Heritage has released all of Mgla’s albums, so I can’t comment on whether there is an ideological connection. I would add that based on my reading lately, Clandestine Blaze seems to hate almost all people, all religions, all political ideologies (including National Socialism), and all forms of nationalism.
Thanks for reply Islander. My comments were in no way pointing to your article or NCS specifically, apologies if it came across that way. I found this CB interview from 2001 that makes it pretty clear as to where they stand: http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/articles.aspx?id=1-335.
I would like to see more dialog around this matter. I realize BM is rooted in nihilism etc that some of these artists hate everyone no matter what their religion or race is. I can’t help but think this allows their ideology to become more “mainstream” while providing a cover for racism/fascism.
I wish bands were more transparent quite honestly. I wouldn’t want to support an artist with my money who hates me based on my color or religion. Also, I don’t want to be faced with the threat of violence for attending a show.
My take, I think bands take this we hate everyone ideology so that their music can be promoted better. Mgla played MDF. It allows them to reach a bigger audience. If they came out as supporting racist/fascist ideology, I doubt they would get the exposure as they are now. Cheers!
From my understanding Signature Riff wouldn’t be booking Mgla across the US if they were proven to have racist idealogies, at least based on the Riff’s reaction to the Deiphago situation (which is different in some senses, but is also likely indicative of how the Riff would react if Mgla were proven to be racist in some way.
Thanks for the reply Leperkahn! I wasn’t aware of the Deiphago situation, but from I gather it looks like a possible assault of a woman by one of the members. Is that what you are referring to?
Ok – well that is positive to hear Signature Riff doesn’t condone violence against women. If that is what really happened.
I don’t know what Mgla stands for ideologically. We probably will never know. All I have is that they are associated with a some dubious characters and label. Is that enough for Signature Riff to book them? Probably not or they don’t really care.
A documented assault on someone by a band you promote might have caused SR to take immediate action to avoid
litigation or bad publicity. But its different from a promoting a band whose ideology is cloaked.
Anyway, thanks for the dialog!
“I would like to see more dialog around this matter. I realize BM is rooted in nihilism etc that some of these artists hate everyone no matter what their religion or race is. I can’t help but think this allows their ideology to become more “mainstream” while providing a cover for racism/fascism.”
—
You don’t seek dialogue. You seek the equivalent of the “national conversations” that the mainstream media is always talking about. Said “conversations” amount to nothing more than being preached at and being told to uncritically accept certain so-called truths.
I encourage metallers to be very aware of SJW entryism. SJWs ruin everything. They have no respect for any prior art and all they care about is labeling this and that “problematic” or worse. We don’t need call out culture in metal. We don’t need the progressive stack in metal. We don’t need feelings centric culture. We don’t need trigger warnings. Go away.
Who are you to say what people can talk and what people can’t? Who made you the spoke person for metal heads? Its always good that we do have these sort of discussions. It’s good to critically think. For me Metal is about freedom. For different individuals it might be something else. We should respect peoples rights to freedom of speech. There are stupid people in all groups of society. We are not sheep. Stop telling us what to do and what we should think. We should leave that dirty work to un-evolved politicians or religious leaders. Stop being a fascist.