AN NCS PREMIERE: A TRIO OF TRACKS FROM THE DISTURBING WORLD OF SLAGMAUR

 

The gestation of Thill Smitts Terror continues, but now we have a birth date: On March 30, 2017, Osmose Productions will release this new album conceived by the twisted imaginations within Slagmaur. We have for you today streams of three songs to disturb your peace of mind.

Thill Smitts Terror is the third album by these masked Norwegians, separated from its next-oldest sibling Von Rov Shelter by roughly six and a half years. Almost three years have now passed since I first began writing about the album. My intrigue began in the summer of 2014, when I came across pre-production versions of two songs, “The Drummer of Tedworth” and “Werewolf”, and promptly wrote about them. Two years after that, versions of two more songs appeared — “Kom Igjen Norge” and “Bestemor Sang Djevelord” — and I wrote about them, too.

Those tracks have disappeared from the place where they were once available for streaming, and what we have now are the finished album versions of three of those four tracks — “Drummer of Tedworth“, “Werewolf“, and “Bestemor Sang Djevelord“.

 

Slagmaur in previous guises. Who knows what visages they will present next?

 

Now, if this happens to be your first encounter with these songs or with Slagmaur, you should know that nightmares await you. It seems that nightmarish conceptions spawned these creations, and that nightmarish mutations of children’s nursery rhymes and fairy tales form the thematic structure of the album. The music itself won’t let you sleep easy either — but it’s undeniably fascinating, and demonically ingenious.

The three tracks available below appear in sequence on Thill Smitts Terror after the introductory track “Innferd”. The big percussive opening of “The Drummer of Tedworth”, backed by grinding riffs and spooky ambient sounds, seizes attention immediately, and the band then tighten their grip, ratcheting the tension with a buzzing swarm of rapid-fire guitars and strange melodies. Demented piano arpeggios join forces with extravagantly unhinged vocals to push the music even further into an ominous and surreal place.

“Werewolf” also makes compelling use of booming drums and eerie ambient sounds in its introduction, joined by equally eerie clean vocal harmonies. As the song continues, the aura of ominous darkness becomes more intense, but the driving rhythms and heavy riffs will likely succeed in getting your head moving emphatically, while unbalancing what’s inside your head.

Bombast and bizarreness greet the ears immediately on the last of these three tracks we have for you, “Bestemor Sang Djevelord”, with spine-shaking drum blows, hallucinatory melody, and a mix of enraged goblin snarls and howling cries. Swarming riffs and freakish piano melodies complete this twisted vision of a carnival midway in Hell… or the kind of storytime depicted in the image at the top of this post.

 

MORE SLAGMAUR NEWS: Assuming the immigration lords are cooperative, Slagmaur will be making their first U.S. appearance next month as participants in Stardust VI – Dark Knights of the Soul, which will take place from February 2 – 5 at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, NY. Slagmaur are one of 22 bands scheduled to perform, including the likes of Absu, Aluk Todolo, Obliteration, Dispirit, Lluvia, Lycus, Blood Incantation, and Hail. Further information about the event can be found HERE.

And in addition, Slagmaur will be bringing their hellish circus to the Inferno Metal Festival in Oslo for the second time in April of this year, about which more information is available HERE.

 

 

 

To keep abreast of further developments leading to the release of Thill Smitts Terror, watch these spaces:

https://www.facebook.com/slagmaurofficial/
https://osmoseproductions.bandcamp.com/album/thill-smitts-terror