SEEN AND HEARD: ÄRA KRÂ, CLOUDS TASTE SATANIC, EVENT RELENTLESS, GOATCRAFT, INFERNÄL MÄJESTY, NO MORE ROOM IN HELL, OUBLIETTE, STURMOVIK

 

There’s a ton of new music in this round-up that I really like, most of which I discovered over the weekend. I thought about dividing up this post and leaving some of the songs until tomorrow, especially since we’ve delivered so much other music to you on this Monday. But I’ve learned the hard way that when I defer something I want to do, sometimes it doesn’t happen at all. So I’m including music from eight bands in this post, and to make it somewhat less daunting I’ve tried to minimize my own linguistic spewing.

I’m presenting the music in alphabetical order by band name. I do hope you’ll find time at least to sample everything.

ÄRA KRÂ

I’m cheating on this first song — because I’ve already written about it, back in May to be precise. But this talented band have just established a Bandcamp page for the self-titled EP on which it will appear, and that gives me an excuse to repeat what I said before (and yes, I’m already going back on what I promised about minimizing linguistic sewage):

 

 

Four years have passed since I last wrote about Berlin’s Ära Krâ, reviewing their powerful debut album Ferne Tage, and then interviewing the band not long after that. Until May they hadn’t released anything new since then, but then came this new song named “Strang und Schwert”. It begins in intense fashion, a black metal flash flood of basting drums and swarming riffs with howling hardcore-styled vocals. And then it changes dramatically…

…with a piano interlude, a Chopin piece (Prelude for Piano in E-Minor op.28 no. 4) recorded by Johannes Willnecker, the father of one of the band’s members (this is the first of three songs in today’s collection that features the piano as a key instrument). The band then build from that back to a final storming finale. And both pieces of music actually work well together — there is a unifying sense of melancholy in both parts of this recording, despite the dramatic differences that otherwise exist between them. And as I remember from Ferne Tag, that ability to blend the intense and the beautiful together is one of this band’s talents.

The EP will be released on December 4, digitally and on vinyl (pre-order on Bandcamp).

https://aerakra.bandcamp.com/album/ra-kr
https://www.facebook.com/aerakra

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLOUDS TASTE SATANIC

This Brooklyn-based instrumental band released their second album on September 1 (CD, vinyl, and digital). The entire album is very, very good and deserves a complete review. But given the risks I won’t manage that, I at least want you to sample the album, by listening to the song “Beast From the Sea”.

I’m so stuck on this song that I suspect it’s coated with glue. The riffs are ridiculously magnetic — so much so that you won’t miss vocals. It’s a rumbling, rolling juggernaut of stoner/doom anchored by a bruising rhythm section and laced with insidious guitar leads. And those riffs….

I hope you won’t stop with “Beast From the Sea”, because the rest of the album is delicious, too.

https://cloudstastesatanic.bandcamp.com/album/your-doom-has-come
https://www.facebook.com/CloudsTasteSatanic

 

 

 

 

 

 

EVENT RELENTLESS

Event Relentless come to us from Pori, Finland. Their debut EP — appropriately titled Cold Black November — was released on September 2. As in the case of the last item in this collection of new music, it deserves a thorough review but because I may not manage that, I encourage you to listen for yourselves.

And I especially want to urge that you listen to the opening track “Duality” — which is the second song in this post to make prominent use of keyboards (though I don’t know who the keyboardist is). It’s a fast-paced, highly infectious whirlwind of recognizably Finnish melodic death metal that melds vocal savagery and lots of instrumental flash.

https://eventrelentless.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/eventrelentlessband

 

 

 

 

 

 

GOATCRAFT

San Antonio’s Goatcraft released a new single to YouTube over the weekend. If you’re unfamiliar with Goatcraft, it’s the brainchild of pianist/keyboardist Lonegoat, who specializes in twisting and turning neoclassical music in fascinating (and infernal) directions.

The new single is named “Flagellation For Atonement”, and as Lonegoat explains:

“The title is inspired from the flagellants (religious zealots) who traveled town to town beating the snot out of themselves to cleanse themselves from sin. During the times of the plague, it is rumored that they helped spread the deadly disease in their wake.”

My only complaint about this entrancing new song is that I easily could have continued listening to it for much longer than its actual track length.

P.S. If you haven’t heard Goatcraft’s last full-length, do yourself a favor and click the Bandcamp link below.

https://www.facebook.com/goatcraft.texas/
http://goatcraft.net
https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-blasphemer

 

 

 

 

 

 

INFERNÄL MÄJESTY

Vancouver’s Infernäl Mäjesty trace their roots back to the mid-’80s. Their releases have been sporadic, with their last full-length appearing in 2004 and their most recent EP in 2007. Over the weekend they released their first single in that 27-year history, a “Raw and Uncut” song called “Another Day In Hell” — which is a real adrenaline trigger (and it sounds evil as hell and catchy as fuck, even in its rough and raw state).

The band say that the finished, mixed/mastered version of the song will appear on a new album entitled No God. They further explain the song’s concept as follows:

“The song is about seven days and seven nights for the soon to be bride of Satan. Conscious but unable to scream or move, trapped in a deep state of Phantomania (sleep paralysis), her mind and body are relentlessly defiled by Demons. Father Satan sits upon his thrown directing the attack as the outcome will decide the fate of humanity. ‘Another Day In Hell’ takes the listener on a journey into a world beyond Dante’s Inferno.”

To check out teasers from all 10 songs on the new album and scenes from a forthcoming video for the track “House Of War” (which will be the band’s next single), explore their YouTube channel linked below.

https://www.facebook.com/infernalmajestyofficial
http://infernalmajesty.bandcamp.com/track/another-day-in-hell
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjvs4nX6rOvnxBzjAkGTwRw

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO MORE ROOM IN HELL

The next item in this collection is an official video for a track track named “The Warmest Place To Hide”, which appears on the self-titled debut album by No More Room In Hell. The band consists of the prolific Anil Carrier (Throes, Binah, Towers of Flesh, The Solemn Curse, Theoktony) on drums and guitars and vocalist Mark Gleed (Amputated).

As will be quite evident from the song and this video, the band was spawned by the members’ mutual love for death metal and classic horror movies. The album also features a slew of guest appearances, and on this particular track you’ll hear guest vocals by Dan Benton (Kataleptic).

No More Room In Hell was released on October 5, both on CD (via Morbid Generation Records) and digitally via Bandcamp.

http://nomoreroominhell.bigcartel.com/
https://nomoreroominhelldeathmetal.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/NoMoreRoomInHellDeathMetal/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OUBLIETTE

Oubliette are a Tennessee-based melodic black metal band whose members include guitarist Mike Low of Inferi and his spouse Emily Low (vocals), plus bassist Vincent Jones (Æther Realm) and drummer Doug Mesich. Apart from the fact that I’m a fan of Inferi and Æther Realm, I was really impressed by their 2014 debut album Apparitions (available on Bandcamp).

Over the weekend they released a new single — a cover of “Thorns of Crimson Death” by Dissection, to honor the forthcoming 20th anniversary of Storm of The Light’s Bane. I’m a huge Dissection fan, and Oubliette more than do this song justice — and the cover also features a guest guitar solo by the enormously talented Malcolm Pugh (Inferi, A Loathing Requiem), which is one of the track’s highlights.

The single is now available for streaming, but not download, on Bandcamp. Hopefully Oubliette will enable us to get the track in some way in the future.

http://oubliette.bandcamp.com/track/thorns-of-crimson-death-dissection-cover
https://www.facebook.com/oubliettemetal/

 

 

 

 

 

 

STURMOVIK

To wrap up this round-up, I present the opening track from a debut album named Destination Nowhere by the Polish d-beat/crust band Sturmovik.

This band (which includes two members from a band I’ve praised at NCS before — The Dead Goats) is being recommended by their label to fans of Disfear, Wolfbrigade, Genocide SS, Victims, Hellshock, and Martyrdöd. Based on this first song, “Matters Not”, I would second those comparisons. It’s a real blazing, marauding ass-kicker, and as icing on the cake it includes a little pulsating melody that’s a sharp, barbed hook.

Destination Nowhere is set for a November 16 release on CD and via digital download, and it can be pre-ordered at the Selfmadegod’s webstore here or on Bandcamp (see below). CDs will be available in the US via Earsplit Distro on November 27 (stateside preorders can be placed here).

https://selfmadegod.bandcamp.com/album/destination-nowhere
https://www.facebook.com/sturmovikpunk/
https://www.facebook.com/Selfmadegod/