SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): DAWN OF DISEASE, LJOSAZABOJSTWA, DIRE OMEN

 

For the last four days running, I’ve been engaged in an attempt to catch up on new song and video premieres and recent full releases. The first three posts were devoted to black(ish) metal, and then yesterday I posted the first part of a Seen and Heard collection devoted to other corners of the underground.

My original plan for this Part 2 was to include a lot more music than you will actually find here, but I forgot about something I had agreed to do this morning with Ms. Islander, and so I’ve had to cut this short. Which means there will be a Part 3, probably tomorrow (along with another Shades of Black post), but maybe Monday.

DAWN OF DISEASE

Germany’s Dawn of Disease have a new album named Worship the Grave (which features cover art by Mark Cooper) that’s coming our way via Napalm Records on June 24. A couple of days ago, they revealed an album track called “The Sky Is Empty”, which is a real ass-kicker.

 

 

But in addition to jolting your ass with hard-hitting grooves and vibrating your teeth with grinding tremolo riffs, the song turns out to have a seductive melody — downcast and bereft, but memorable. Dawn of Disease goes melodic death metal!

In addition to this newest song, I’m also embedding below two previously released tracks from Worship the Grave, “Through Nameless Ages” and “The Saviour’s Tomb”. The album can be pre-ordered here.

https://www.facebook.com/DawnOfDisease/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LJOSAZABOJSTWA

This next release took me by surprise only two days ago, when I spied a Facebook post about it on the page of Poland’s Hellthrasher Productions. Now, I later discovered that Hellthrasher had sent us a promo for the album in late April, and unfortunately I wasn’t paying close enough attention when it arrived (which I’m afraid is true more often than not when it comes to our e-mail in-box). Thankfully, I did investigate the music yesterday and again this morning, and holy hell, is this good!

I have no idea how to form the sounds necessary to pronounce this Belarusian band’s name — Ljosazabojstwa (which means something like ““murder of fate”) — or the name of their debut EP, Staražytnaje licha. I can tell you that it was originally released in digital form last December and was reissued in May on CD by Hellthrasher (with a bonus track, the 9-minute opener “Struk u horła chrysta”).

In describing the music, Hellthrasher invokes names such as Necros Christos, Archgoat, Mortuary Drape, and Mystifier, and those are good guideposts for the three tracks on this EP.

The music has a bestial, marauding, supernatural quality — dark, predatory, and terrorizing. The reverberating vocals are monstrous and ghastly, the savage, sulfurous riffs have primal appeal, the turbocharged drumming is top-notch, and the songs are embedded with dismal, barbed melodic hooks that can get deep under your skin. And as a bonus, there’s a beautiful acoustic guitar instrumental at the close of the second track (which makes for a well-timed break before the ripping, tearing, and rampaging that begins the final track).

This is a very, very strong debut with high re-play value that ought to get your head moving (along with the rest of your body).

To order the digipack CD edition, use the Hellthrasher Bandcamp link below. To get it in digital format, use the Bandcamp link below that one.

https://hellthrasherproductions.bandcamp.com/album/stara-ytnaje-licha
https://lszb.bandcamp.com/album/stara-ytnaje-licha

 

 

 

 

 

 

DIRE OMEN

When I last wrote about Dire Omen from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (back in November 2014), it was to premiere a song from their powerful debut album Wresting the Revelation of Futlity. In less than a week, the band will be launching a North American tour, which includes their first excursion into the United States, and to help commemorate the beginning of the tour, they released a new song yesterday.

Entitled “Malkuth“, it’s a rough mix of a track from a forthcoming EP. It’s swarming, chaotic blackened death metal with hoarse bellowing roars that’s dense, dissonant, and destructive — but in which you can detect bounding bass notes, somersaulting guitar arpeggios, deranged riffs, and acrobatic drumwork. In other words, it’s as technically interesting as it is storming and oppressive.

Dire Omen’s tour will begin at Vancouver’s Covenant festival on June 16th, and come to a close July 9th when they play Edmonton with Begrime Exemious and the recently reunited Rites of Thy Degringolade, who will also be joining them the day before in Calgary. For more news about the tour, go here.

http://direomen.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/direomen/