SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): CORPUS CHRISTII, DO SKONU, MERRIMACK, NYOGTHAEBLISZ, VAINA

 

This completes the two-part post I started yesterday, collecting music in a blackened vein that I sifted from my discoveries over the last week. Beginning yesterday and continuing today, the music is organized in alphabetical order by band name.

CORPUS CHRISTII

Delusion is the eighth full-length by the Portuguese black metal band Corpus Christii. It will be released on April 28 by Folter Records. In another one of these SHADES OF BLACK editions, I wrote about the album’s powerful first single, “The Curse Within Time”, and now a second one has appeared, which is yet another sign of this album’s excellence.

 

 

After hearing the first single, it struck me that for a band whose career is approaching the end of its second decade, Corpus Christii sound not merely experienced and self-assured, but full of unholy fire — not heartlessly going through the motions, glumly practicing some formula, but burning with conviction and creative energy. The same feelings come through on “Become the Wolf“.

The song swings and rocks, rumbles and rolls, seethes and slashes, but it has a sinister, insidious air throughout, and the vocals are demonically vibrant — to the point of explosiveness. Damned catchy, too.

Corpus Christii:
https://officialcorpuschristii.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/corpuschristii

Folter Records:
http://www.folter666.de
https://www.facebook.com/Folter-Records-167406606752748/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DO SKONU

As was true of Corpus Christii’s new album, the new one by Ukraine’s Do Skonu is the source of a song I wrote about in an earlier episode of this feature. The album was actually released in December (on vinyl by Forever Plagued Records and on CD by Thou Shalt Kill! Records), but it finally appeared as a digital download on Bandcamp last week. I don’t have a full review to give you, but I do encourage you to give it a listen. I’ll comment here about only one song as a sample, though I don’t mean to suggest it’s my favorite (because picking a favorite would overtax my feeble mind).

“Wormwood Star” surges with a kind of poisonous, reptilian energy, carried by the constant pulse of the drums and punctuated with vibrant cymbal crashes. The riffing absolutely rips, and together with the ugly, terrorizing vocals, they give the song an air of exultant but esoteric delirium.

Like “Wormwood Star”, every other song on the album is highly infectious… and although some are slower and more ominously mystical and ritualistic (for example, “Great Threshold”), they’re all shot through with sulfurous, infernal atmosphere.

http://fpr666.bandcamp.com/album/do-skonu-hell
https://www.facebook.com/do.skonu

 

 

 

 

 

 

MERRIMACK

Five years after 2012’s The Acausal Mass, the long-running French black metal band Merrimack are returning with a new album on the Season of Mist label. Entitled Omegaphilia, it’s set for release on June 9.

We had the pleasure of premiering the first single from the album, a multidimensional song named “Apophotic Weaponry” (also included below), and last week brought another advance track called “The Falsified Son“. Accompanying it was this statement by the band:

“Our will to create a record that is more rooted in the 90’s era of black metal becomes pretty obvious on ‘The Falsified Son’, which is a straightforward and simple track. Our typical lead guitars, the slightly dissonant end, the addition of a guitar solo, and the mid-tempo middle break make it a strong tune, which has proved to be very well received at our latest live performances. The lyrics deal with the way of life that we have chosen and its consequences -– with black metal (which is mentioned in the song) being an immense part of it.”

As the band’s comment indicates, “The Falsified Son” is grimly on the attack for nearly its entire length, with thunder in the low end, arcane fire in the scintillating leads, and throat-ripping vehemence in the vocals. A high-energy, charismatic song, for sure.

Pre-order:
https://shop.season-of-mist.com/list/merrimack

Merrimack:
https://www.facebook.com/merrimackofficial/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NYOGTHAEBLISZ

Nyogthaeblisz is a Texas duo whose resumes collectively include such names as Black Witchery, Helvetron, and Nexul. They’ve produced a trio of short releases beginning in 2003 (and two compilations), but they’re now at work on a full-length album named Abrahamic Godhead Besieged by Adversarial Usurpation that should see release before the end of the year.

“Ordnance for Adamic Holocaust and Cosmocidal Entropy” is first of the new songs to be made available for listening (that I know of). Before hearing it, I was unfamiliar with the band’s music. It left me staggered by the murderous ferocity of its attack.

The beginning of the song is a cacophony of distorted noise, monstrous roars, and terrifying shrieks — and the track becomes even more terrifying when it explodes in a non-stop volcanic surge, belching noxious, racing clouds of riff abrasion over earthquaking percussive rumbling, frenetic electronic pulses, and an asylum of bestial, distorted voices. It’s a frenzied, savage, inhuman assault on the senses — and you’ll either run from it or play it a half dozen times in a row because it’s such an adrenaline rush (as I did). Only one way to find out….

https://www.facebook.com/Nyogthaeblisz-878896662156591/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VAINA

Last but not least I want to recommend Viisikärki, the new album by the Finnish trio Vaina. It was originally released digitally on March 1, but I didn’t discover it until my friend Miloš linked me to the Bandcamp page of the Russian label Narcoleptica Productions, who will release it on tape on May 9 (the Mexican label Azermedoth Records will be releasing a CD edition).

The Narcoleptica Bandcamp includes two songs, and until shortly before posting this article I thought those were the only two tracks available for listening. But I’ve now discovered the complete digital release on Vaina‘s own Bandcamp.

I’ll make a few comments about the two songs I heard from the Narcoleptica Bandcamp, and hope you’ll feel inspired by those songs to listen to the rest of the album (which I definitely intend to do). I’ve included the full album stream below, in addition to the stream of those two songs: “Maanlyöjä” and “Antikristitty“.

“Maanlyöjä” begins in riveting fashion, with a sweeping keyboard melody that soars like an aurora borealis over the rapid pulse of the bass and the galloping of the drums, and an eerie, piercing guitar lead that comes and goes. As the song moves forward, the pace ebbing and flowing, it grows more and more dreamlike and haunting (the vocals themselves sound like the emanations of a deranged and dangerous phantasm) — and then it surges into a chilling and frightening frenzy, the vocals becoming terrifying in their shrieking intensity. The song proves to be both unsettling and mesmerizing.

That sense of falling into a hallucinatory experience persists in “Antikristitty”, though it’s more hard-driving right from the beginning. Killer, rocking riffs also surface in this song, surrounded with an air of menace and derangement, along with slower movements that create a blood-freezing and paranormal atmosphere. Eerie keyboards appear as well, gliding above pneumatic blasting. It’s an ever-changing and very dark piece of fascination, hellish and cosmic, feral and spectral… and definitely the kind of song that needs to be heard more than once.

I wonder whether listening to the entire album might threaten my sanity… but I do intend to find out.

https://narcolepticaprod.bandcamp.com/album/viisik-rki
https://www.facebook.com/vainaband/