Despite its stunning physical beauty, New Zealand has long been an ominous fortress of black/death supremacy, and Heresiarch have defiantly stood on the battlements ever since the release of their Hammer of Intransigence EP in 2011, with their looming presence growing even more formidable after the release of 2014’s Wælwulf. Given the strength of those EPs, we have been eagerly awaiting their debut album, Death Ordinance, which will be released by Dark Descent Records on July 7th — and now we finally have music from the album to share with you.
The song we’re premiering today is “Storming Upon Knaves“. It’s the second track in the running order of Death Ordinance. It follows the opener “Consecrating Fire”, which is a slow, stunningly bleak decree of doom that evolves into a militaristic march. You get the sense near the end of “Consecrating Fire” that things are ramping up… and sure enough, all hell breaks loose when “Storming Upon Knaves” begins.
Each song on Death Ordinance serves a deliberate purpose, not only in the album’s lyrical narrative but also in summoning visions of events through their sound, and “Storming” is indeed the operative word for the track you’re about to hear.
It’s a brutal, black paroxysm of furiously pummeling drums and barbaric, swarming riffs with a deep, grinding tone and a maniacally surging thrust. You can imagine bone splinters and smashed skulls piling high in the wake of this juggernaut war machine.
The fury is segmented by bursts of sledgehammer pounding, even more frenzied and eviscerating riffs, and a completely deranged solo, while the savage words come in a torrent of tyrannical roars and bestial howls. The penultimate line of the song’s murderous lyrics proclaims, “Those who flee the hammer, shall abide the forge”. True enough — you can run, but you can’t hide from the force of this raging assault.
Photo by Jake Skipper
Misanthropic-Art is responsible for the stunning cover for Death Ordinance. You can now pre-order the album from Dark Descent at this location:
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/death-ordinance
In other Heresiarch news, they will be coming to the U.S. and Canadian west coasts for a tour with Ritual Necromancy in June. The events page for that is here, the tour flyer is below, and the schedule is set out here as well:
June 1st – San Diego (Til – Two Bar)
June 2nd – Los Angeles (Complex)
June 3rd – Oakland (The Golden Bull)
June 4th – Sacramento (Starlite)
June 6th – Portland (Twilight)
June 7th – Seattle (The Highline)
June 10th – Vancouver (Covenant Fest)*
*Heresiarch only
Heresiarch on Bandcamp:
https://heresiarchofficial.bandcamp.com
Heresiarch Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/heresiarchcult/
15 Responses to “AN NCS PREMIERE: HERESIARCH — “STORMING UPON KNAVES””
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Have heard rumors for years about these guys having NS ties. Hope it isn’t true cuz the music kicks ass!
Not sure where you’re getting those rumors, but I don’t think there’s any truth to them in the case of this band.
It all stems back to the fact that their first demo was released by Satanic Skinhead Propaganda. Never seen or heard the band say anything about being NS, but they have been branded that by Antifa and their allies because antichrist kramer released their music.
The black sun on their ‘Obsecrating the Global Holocaust’ demo is also a little dubious.
Honestly starting to wonder if the members of Anitfa are capable of finding their own assholes, let alone an actual fascist band
Been following these guys since that debut EP and I’ve never heard that rumor
…also this damn full length is long overdue
Who really gives a fuck. Would that turn you off of their music? This isn’t to be played in safe spaces. You vile little curs.
Well, someone’s been triggered…
Nice one.
You know gives a fuck? I do. And, yes, it would turn me off their music. Metal doesn’t need safe spaces, fuck that, but it does need discerning listeners. As a believer in individual liberty, I have the individual right not to support NS related bands.
Than don’t, but quick talking about it and acting like some fucking hero.
Acting like a hero? I was just looking for a confirm/deny.
Besides, silence = support or didn’t you know?
And you’ve been given a pretty categorical answer.
The bottom line is, no they’re not a bunch of Nazis. The extent of their association with the NS scene is as already stated- SSP released their first demo, and there’s a black sun type design on the cover of said demo. Nothing in the lyrics, nothing in statements from the band, nothing on any of their subsequent releases to indicate they’re an NS band. And knowing NH personally (though not closely, I’ll grant) I can’t say I’ve ever got that impression from him either. If you don’t want to associate yourself with NS music then understandable (I personally won’t touch bands like Arghsolent on principle either) but Heresiarch’s association to that seen is IMO too tangential to be of any consequence or to earn them that tag.