Yesterday I had collected a handful of excellent new songs for a “Seen and Heard” post today. And then today began, and our in-box rapidly filled up with notices of still more song premieres from bands I like (along with one that invited me to “Have Fun Tonight With Asian-Grils”). I’ve decided to save my earlier collection for tomorrow — though there’s an equal chance that tomorrow will bring still more new stuff — and devote this post to music that’s a bit more “hot off the presses”.
THE WRETCHED END
As all connoisseurs of fine metal should know, The Wretched End is the collaboration between former Emperor and Zyklon guitarist Samoth, Mindgrinder/Windir vocalist/guitarist Cosmo, and Dark Funeral drummer Nils “Dominator” Fjellström. They have a new album coming out on April 22 via Indie Recordings named In These Woods, From These Mountains.
“Dead Icons” is the name of the song that premiered today. It will spin your head all the way around, so make sure you’ve loosened the bolts in your neck. I’m pretty sure I could just listen to the drum track alone and be happy… but the off-world dissonance of the guitars, the nimbleness of the bass, and the howling, growling madness of the vocals (and the singing parts) are damned nice, too. Electrifying stuff!
To pre-order the album, go to this location.
https://www.facebook.com/thewretchedend/
MOONSORROW
Today, Moonsorrow gave us a video (the band’s first ever) for a track called “Suden Tunti” (The Hour Of The Wolf) off their new album Jumalten Aika (reviewed here). It tells the tale of the battle between Fenris and Odin from a new perspective.
The song is also the shortest song Moonsorrow have done in ten years, but it’s an epic mid-paced stomp that does justice to the epic tale that inspired it — and the animated video is a feast for the eyes.
Jumalten Aika comes out on April 1 via Century Media.
http://www.moonsorrow.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Moonsorrow/2347409964
MISTUR
This seems to be a day for epic Viking metal.
After that Moonsorrow video, the next item is a lyric video for the second advance track from In Memoriam, the new album by Norway’s Mistur, scheduled for release on April 29 by Dark Essence Records. The video was made by Marte Ø Kornerud, for the track “Distant Peaks”.
The song really does sound like the majestic soundtrack to a mythic saga — it’s panoramic, sweepingly powerful, and warlike, and the guitar and keyboard hooks are sharp as scalpels. When the storming pace slows, the music becomes heart-aching, but no less compelling. The tale told in the lyrics fires the blood, too.
http://mistur.bandcamp.com/track/downfall
https://www.facebook.com/Mistur-334339291694/
SKINLESS
Well, it’s time to bid Scandinavia a fond farewell and leap the ocean into New York for a new video by Skinless. The music in the video is the song “Flamethrower” from the band’s 2015 album Only The Ruthless Remain. The video was created by Chris Delano and features battle footage from movies such as Aliens and Stalingrad mixed with a slightly less bloodstained performance by Skinless at Hellfest 2015.
The song is a massive ass-kicker (to be clear, I don’t mean to suggest that you have a massive ass, only that whatever quantity of ass you have will be kicked massively). The bleak, dismal melody is also actually entrancing, and the breakdown is a goddamned bone-smasher.
via Metal Sucks
https://www.facebook.com/Skinless/
FUNERAL WHORE
To wrap up this round-up, here’s a new video for a song called “The Graveyard Silence”, which appears on Phantasm, the new album from the Dutch death-dealers in Funeral Whore.
It seems that the three apparently telekinetic ladies in this video have no damned use for priests and monks. It’s also quite evident that Funeral Whore haven’t lost their capacity for churning out morbid, meat-grinding, thoroughly headbangable death metal since their last album in 2012.
Phantasm was just released and can be purchased from FDA-Rekotz here. I’m kicking myself for having slept on this one — but “The Graveyard Silence” is a good wake-up call.
5 Responses to “SEEN AND HEARD: THE WRETCHED END, MOONSORROW, MISTUR, SKINLESS, FUNERAL WHORE”
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Hadn’t heard of The Wretched End until today, and it’s great to hear solid new stuff from Moonsorrow and Mistur.
Moonsorrow song is cool (but I like the their rotting Christ cover much more). However, Funeral Whore video is probably the funniest video I’ve seen in a while 😀
Wow, I’m excited to hear more of the new Wretched End. I own and like their first two albums, but at least with this song, it seems they’ve finally unleashed Fjellstrom to do what he does best. I’d have to listen to them again, but I’m pretty sure there isn’t a blast beat to be found on the other albums, at least nothing like what we’re hearing here. I think the approach of the band was supposed to slower and more thrashy, but this is brutal and fast in a way that reminds me of the first Zyklon album, which was my favorite from that band.
Alright, scratch that about the blast beats on previous albums, I was mistaken. But this new song is still faster and more brutal.
I’m kicking myself for not replying earlier, but I’ve been busy (and now I have more than ten NCS pages to go through).
The Wretched End have kicked ass before. Looking forward ro this new one,
That Moonsorrow video reminds me of the first attempt at filming LOTR, with combined cartoon/motion picture.
Funeral Whore… has it really been six years since Step Into Damnation?
PS (If anyone still reads here after this post left the NCS front page)…
I bought the 3 Phantasm movies on VHS a long time ago, but never got around to see them.
Anyone know if the Phantasm films are any good?