SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): ULCERATE, VADER, KINNEFRET, KUNSTZONE

 

DGR volunteered for round-up duty while the oaf who usually does this was furiously scribbling introductions to premieres over the last 48 hours. Said oaf is now working on his own round-up contribution, which will become Part 2 of this post later today. Meanwhile, here are DGR’s picks for noteworthy new songs and videos that emerged in recent days.

ULCERATE — EXTINGUISHED LIGHT

If you heard an immense boom recently and had to look around and wonder what the fuck was that?, it was likely due to the release of a new song by abyss-dwelling death metallers Ulcerate, from their October 28th album Shrines Of Paralysis.

 

 

Whenever a new Ulcerate song hits, you tend to be able to hear the impact from just about anywhere on the planet. Ulcerate are one of the few bands who could announce their songs via universal smoke signal, because the conflagration they typically leave behind tends to be the type where you can see the smoke from space.

“Extinguished Light” is going to be very familiar to Ulcerate fans. It’s the sort of song that Ulcerate do best, a muddy, sodden monster that thrashes around at almost inhuman speeds, creating a nightmarish soundscape that is at times both suffocating and frighteningly fast.

Ulcerate continue to sound like a war recorded in a cave. The song runs over eight minutes in length, and by minute three is already an immense and impressive track. Not only that, but the vocals are sharp and clear this time. The band still echo like hell and ring like they’re playing in the room with you, with their amps all cranked up as high as they can go, but the experinece this time is actually kind of understandable from the first round — not that going five or six more would hurt you any.

It probably would – but that’s what we’re here for.

Shrines Of Paralysis is due out via Relapse this fall.

https://www.facebook.com/Ulcerate/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VADER – PRAYER TO THE GOD OF WAR

Vader released an EP on August 12th called Iron Times, which contains two new tracks and two cover songs. The EP itself, like Vader in general, is a blindingly fast listen. Both original tracks clock in at a hair over two and a half minutes each, and the two cover songs, a Panzer X and a Motörhead cover, are both four minutes long.

Also of recent note; Vader uploaded a lyric video for the song “Prayer To The God Of War” — a track from the EP that has Vader getting thrash-metal as all get-out. The group have been high-speed death and thrash luminaries for some time, but “Prayer” specifically has the band almost bombing out of the death metal genre entirely — save for the vocal performance — and going for the breakneck speed of a thrash track.

Iron Times may be a pretty good teaser of what the band are up to on their next album, The Empire. If you were to go off of “Prayer” and the songs the group chose to cover for Future Of The Past II last year, I’d hazard to say that Vader are in a speed-favoring mood, and songs like “Prayer To The God Of War” are a delicious and headbang-heavy taste of what is coming next.

The Empire is tentatively scheduled to be released November 4th via Nuclear Blast.

https://www.facebook.com/VADER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KINNEFRET – VICTIM EYES

It feels like it’s been ages since we checked in with Oakland-based death metal band Kinnefret. We had the premiere of a song called “Salvation” last year along with a featuring of their video for “Losing Grips To Gain Grips”, and since then the band have released the full album known as The Coming Of Age that those songs are on — which I’ve been tempted to review, since I don’t think we’ve done one yet and I’m curious to see if people are interested, It is really good…

…and now the band have filmed another music video. This time they’ve laid visuals to the song “Victim Eyes”, which is the track that precedes “Losing Grips”. “Victim Eyes” is a quicker and more melodeath-leaning number than the straightforward furnace that was “Losing Grips”, but it also shows off vocalist Chelsea Rocha’s tremendous talent to just rip through a song with a scream that cuts like a knife whilst the band themselves rumble through the track in the background.

The video itself is also particularly well-shot. It features the band trying to fight for survival during a good ol’-fashioned zombie apocalypse, the band themselves contributing their fair share to the overall bodycount when all is said and done. The video even opens up with a wide shot of San Francisco in flames before zooming in more on the group’s hometown across the Bay.

If you haven’t gotten the chance to check this band out, you need to do so. Kinnefret are the sort of band that are built to be huge and I would not be shocked to see them picked up and pushed hard — The Coming Of Age is a strong enough album to justify that. “Victim Eyes” is a great intro to what the band are all about.

https://kinnefretmetal.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/kinnefret.band

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KUNSTZONE – THE GREAT DREAD

Speaking of groups that we haven’t touched bases with in ages, the gentlemen in Kunstzone have been able to re-assemble themselves from the digital morass they disappeared into and have recently announced a full-length disc entitled The Art Of Making The Earth Unihabitable.

For the uninitiated, and a quick explainer of why I like these guys so much: Kunstzone are an industrial death metal band, as best as I can describe it, whose music is intentionally as abrasive and noisy as they can get it, whilst still allowing it to retain some semblance of form. The messaging is hostile, and the music itself nihilistic — perfectly content to drown in swathes of electronic white noise while the guitar and drums behind them fall into a maelstrom of sound.

“The Great Dread” is the newest song released from The Art Of Making The Earth Uninhabitable and it is a solid demonstration of what I’m talking about. The vocals come through clearly, but they’re unapproachable at times, hinting at some malign intent. Basically from the moment they come in until about two mintues into the song, they’re a nightmarish contribution on top of some already intense music behind them.

“The Great Dread” is a song built to be blasted at max volume. Just make sure to peel yourself off the wall behind you when the song wraps up.

https://www.facebook.com/kunstzone/