SEEN AND HEARD: INQUISITION, INSOMNIUM, NAILS, SHATAAN

Here are a quartet of things I saw and heard over the last 24 hours that I thought might peak your interest as they did mine.

INQUISITION

Yesterday Season of Mist revealed details about the new album by Seattle-based Inquisition as well as a new song. The name of the album is Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith, it includes 13 tracks, and it will be released on August 26. Here’s a statement about the album by guitarist/vocalist Dagon:

 

 

“Bloodshed Across the Empyrean Altar Beyond the Celestial Zenith represents a multi layered theme beginning with the universe as an infinite space of war between the cosmic gods of our creation, transcending into the spirit of our inner space which is an extension of the gods, and the connection between our species, our spirit, and the absolute universe as a whole as a result from the interstellar warfare. Inspired by the forces before creation, its mechanics and the ancient question/reason as to what placed us here as the most recent ruling species in such an instantaneous window of time.”

The song that premiered yesterday is “Wings of Anu”, and it too was accompanied by a statement from Dagon:

“Anu is the god of all gods, the cosmos, the all. His seeds were dropped to the soil of earth and life was spawned. His wings represent those who came here and seeded the earth. Still today those wings continue to return and are at times seen in the skies in various forms in the most unnatural forms transcending through interstellar portals to earth.”

“Wings of Anu” is deep, dark, and grinding, driven by malevolent riffs and pummeling drums. It seems to simulate the earth shaking, speared by dissonant chords that sound like blasts from an infernal trumpet. And while Dagon’s vocals have often sounded like gruesome croaks, here he voices the lyrics in a low, spiky growl (until the very end). Savage and surreal, it’s a compelling herald for the new album.

The album is available for pre-order here.

https://www.facebook.com/inquisition.official/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INSOMNIUM

Today Century Media announced details about the next album from Finland’s Insomnium. The title is Winter’s Gate, and it’s a concept album made up of a single 40-minute song. I’ll quote the description from the CM press release we received:

The album is built around a short story, Winter’s Gate (Talven portti in Finnish), written by vocalist & bassist Niilo Sevänen, recipient of numerous Finnish awards and nominations. The compelling short story is about a group of Vikings who set out to find a fabled island west of Ireland, despite the treacherous winter drawing near. The full story will be released together with the album as a book with translations in English, Finnish and German, and illustrated by the artist Teemu Tähkänen.

The album is currently being mixed by Dan Swanö at Unisound in Sweden and will be released on September 23, 2016. I’ll be curious to find out how (or whether) Insomnium’s sound has changed as compared to Shadows of the Dying Sun.

https://www.facebook.com/insomniumofficial/

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAILS

As I suppose everyone already knows, Southern California’s Nails have a new album named You Will Never Be One Of Us that’s due for release on June 17 via Nuclear Blast Entertainment. Today, the band debuted a music video for the track “Savage Intolerance” at Rolling Stone, along with an exclusive interview.

The new song is a jolting, jarring, romping slug-a-thon that becomes a jack-hammering punisher before it ends.

You can pre-order the album in CD or vinyl format, with or without several bonus items, from the Nuclear Blast web shop. It’s available digitally on iTunes and Amazon.

I’m also embedding the previously released video for the album’s title track. It’s a head-wrecker too.

https://www.facebook.com/NAILSoxnard/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHATAAN

Shataan is one of the many like-minded groups within the famed SoCal black metal collective known as The Black Twilight Circle. After releasing their War Cry Lament demo in 2011 and a powerful track for last year’s Desert Dances and Serpent Sermons compilation,  Shataan now have their debut album on the way. Entitled Weigh of the World, it will be released on cassette by Crepúsculo Negro, on CD and LP in North America by Indifferent Nightmare (the label of vocalist/guitarist Shataan), and on vinyl in Europe this July by Iron Bonehead Productions.

Today, Iron Bonehead revealed a track named “Eulogy” via Soundcloud (I missed its previous appearance on Shataan’s Soundcloud in April), and I encourage you to give it a listen below. Low-slung and thundering, it’s a black storm pierced by wailing yells and the shimmer of cymbals — which then transforms into a dissonant rocker. The music moves back and forth between these two states, never losing the violent aura of peril and passion that surrounds the song. Vibrant and fascinating music… this album should be a good one.

http://crepusculonegro.blogspot.com
http://www.ironbonehead.de
https://www.facebook.com/WarCryLament/