SEEN AND NOT COMPLETELY HEARD: WOLFHEART, URSINNE, GLOSON, PALE DIVINE, BLACK THERAPY, THRON, HORROR GOD

 

Happy Monday. Through the miracles of modern technology, I’m writing this at roughly 38,000 feet above the earth, somewhere across the deserts of northern Utah, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and the barren panhandle of Texas. Under duress from my fucking day job, I’m bound for Houston for the next couple of days.

Actually, it’s not exactly a miracle, not something like turning water into wine, more like turning water into weak tea — because although I can get online, the service isn’t good enough to stream music or videos. So some of the items I’m including in this round-up are things I can see but can’t hear.

WOLFHEART

I’m beginning with an item that I could have heard over the weekend if I had known it was out there. Unfortunately, I discovered it only today after boarding this jet I’m on. It’s a video for a new song by Finland’s Wolfheart named “Boneyard“.

 

 

The song is a single from a new Wolfheart album named Tyhjyys (“Emptiness”), which will be released on March 3 and can be pre-ordered HERE. The track list is below.

Tyhjyys – 2017
1. Shores of The Lake Simpele
2. Boneyard
3. World on Fire
4. The Flood
5. The Rift
6. Call of the Winter
7. Dead White
8. Tyhjyys

Please check out tho single and tell me how good it is. Given the source, I’ll be surprised if it’s not excellent.

https://www.facebook.com/WolfheartRealm/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

URSINNE

Ursinne is the name of a new death metal project from Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath, Ashcloud, Henry Kane, SYN:DROM) and Dave Ingram (Hail Of Bullets, Echelon, Down Among The Dead Men, ex-Bolt Thrower/Benediction). Their debut album will be released in the coming months by Transcending Obscurity Records.

2017 promises to be a busy year for both of these talented gentlemen, because they seem to be participating in multiple projects, and I don’t think we’ve even heard about all of them yet. Ursinne is certainly one I’m executed about based on the medley of song excerpts from the album that I’ve embedded below.

And yes, i did manage to listen to this before boarding my airplane. In fact, it’s the last music I heard before starting this long trip. It was a hell of a good send-off. The music has a huge sound and is massively destructive, a real pile-driving monster, alternately rampaging and crushing. And the vocals are vibrantly voracious and horrifying.

https://www.facebook.com/UrsinneBand/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLOSON

My inability to stream music at the moment isn’t a problem for this next item, since there’s no new music yet. But there will be, because the excellent Swedish band Gloson has announced that their new album Grimen will be released on February 13 via Art of Propaganda. As you can see, the artwork has also been revealed.

In September the band released a single from the album named “Cringe”, which I wrote about then. But it doesn’t hurt to put it up here again. And this is the track list for the new album:

01. Prowler
02. Fabulist
03. Antlers
04. Cringe
05. Specter
06. Embodiment

https://gloson.bandcamp.com/album/cringe
https://www.facebook.com/Glosonswe/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PALE DIVINE

This next item was written by Grant Skelton, and so my temporary deafness has no effect on the thoroughness of this write-up:

My friend Billy Goate of Doomed & Stoned filmed a recent live performance by Pale Divine, a band from Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. They played a new song called “Shades Of Blue,” which is expected to appear on their upcoming album to be (hopefully) released in 2017. Of the performance, Mr. Goate wrote:

Pale Divine was definitely among my very favorite sets out of the mix of 24 bands that invaded the little 5th Quarter Lounge in Indianapolis over the weekend of November 18/19, 2016. They’re one of those bands you just want to keep playing and playing and playing.

“Shades Of Blue” starts at 17:28.

 

 

Pale Divine have been churning out dark, psychedelic, blues-infused doom since 1995. A 2011 article on Invisible Oranges (here) referred to Pale Divine as “Doom Metal’s Missing Link.” And I could not agree more. You know that sensation you get when you listen to a band and think, “This is amazing! Why haven’t more people heard this?!” Put Pale Divine in that category. For their two decades of existence, to date they’ve only released four albums, each of which builds remarkably upon its predecessor.

Pale Divine’s current lineup consists of vocalist/guitarist Greg Diener, drummer Darin McCloskey, and Ron McGinnis handling the low end. When their first album Thunder Perfect Mind was released, the music blogosphere (especially the kind of blogs devoted to this type of music) was only in its infancy. Since then, Thunder Perfect Mind has become an iconic diadem for modern doom. I have yet to see it available anywhere digitally, but you can purchase a physical copy from Shadow Kingdom Records here.

If you’re new to Pale Divine, I’d recommend starting with their third album, 2007’s Cemetery Earth. The legacy of the “third album” among metal bands is true in Pale Divine’s case. Their first two albums (the aforementioned Thunder Perfect Mind and the 2004 follow-up Eternity Revealed), I would call “very good.” But Cemetery Earth (along with their latest, 2012’s Painted Windows Black) is “great.” Each track is an overdose of hefty, smoky, riff-dense devilry.

Pale Divine on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/serpentspath/

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLACK THERAPY

I’ve written about the Roman band Black Therapy on several occasions since discovering them in 2014, most recently in mid-October after I heard a song called “Stabbed” from their new album (their second) named In The Embrace Of Sorrow, I Smile. Now I’m happy to report that the album was released on Friday by Apostasy Records and can be streamed in full.

I’m including the Bandcamp player below, as well as the link to the Bandcamp page where you can pick this up if you like what you hear as much as I have.

https://blacktherapy.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/blacktherapyband/

 

 

 

 

 

 

THRON

Now we get back to things I can’t listen to yet.

Thron is the name of a German black metal band whose self-titled debut album will be released on January 20 by Clavis Secretorvm. I heard a brief teaser reel of music from the album last week and made a mental note to watch for more from the album, because I liked what I heard. And this morning I got a press release announcing that the band had released a video for the album’s opening track, “Purified In Fire”.

Check it out below, and again, if you feel like it leave a comment and let me know what I’m missing. I have high hopes for this one.

https://www.clavisecretorvm.com
https://www.clavisecretorvm.bandcamp.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HORROR GOD

Horror God is described in a press release I received earlier today as an “experimental death metal band” from Russia who have signed with Lavadome Productions for the release next year of a split CD with fellow Russian band named Techne. A Horror God track called “Dust” is the first track from the split to be released so far, and I’ve included it below.

I’m including it in this round-up despite the fact that I haven’t yet heard the song because of a recommendation I received from starkweather, who compared the music to a style I like a lot. Anxious to hear this….

https://lavadome.bandcamp.com/album/horror-god-techne
https://www.facebook.com/horrorgod