DEATH RITUALS: NEW MUSIC FROM DYSCARNATE, ARCHSPIRE, ORACULUM, ANTIVERSUM, CASKET ROBBERY, BLACK BLOOD INVOCATION, SACROSCUM, MORBITORY

 

Although I put together a round-up of news and new music yesterday, I still had a lot of new stuff I wanted to spread around today. As I began picking through a very long list of newly revealed tracks, it dawned on me that a big chunk of what I found attractive fell within the realms of death metal. And that’s what I’ve got for you below — new (or newly discovered) deathly music from 8 bands.

DYSCARNATE

Five years after their superb last album and with a new bassist/vocalist (Al Llewellyn) now in the three-person line-up, Dyscarnate are returning with their third full-length, With All Their Might. Yesterday DECIBEL premiered a new song and video from the album, and it’s  fittingly named “Iron Strengthens Iron“.

 

 

There might be a way to make this song more jolting and crushing for the listener, but short of actually hammering you in the neck with a crowbar while you listen, I’m not sure how they could do that. They also insinuated a few strands of eerie, drifting cosmic melody into the bludgeoning, too, which proves to be a nice touch.

Look for With All Their Might on September 15th via Unique Leader Records.

Pre-order:
https://www.indiemerch.com/uniqueleader/band/dyscarnate

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Dyscarnate/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ARCHSPIRE

Man, I do love Eliran Kantor’s artwork. The one above is his creation for the cover of the new album, Relentless Mutation, by Vancouver’s Archspire, a band we’ve been writing about here since late 2010. They’ve come a long way since then, and deservedly so. Their new album will be released by Season of Mist on September 22.

Yesterday Lambgoat delivered the premiere of a track from the album named “Remote Tumour Seeker“. Like the first song in this collection, it’s a jolting track, but also maniacally fast — and I’m speaking mainly of the hyper-speed snare eruptions and the equally hyper-fast verbal eruptions, though there’s plenty of freakish fret-burning and nail-gunning riffage going on here, too.

Pre-order:
http://smarturl.it/ArchspireRelentless

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Archspireband/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ORACULUM

September 15th is also the release date for a new EP by the Chilean band Oraculum. Like their last EP, 2014’s Sorcery of the Damned, it will be released by Invictus Productions. Always Higher is the name of the new one.

Check out the advance track “Lex Talionis” through one of the players below. If you try to imagine what it might be like to teleport into the middle of a cyclone, that’s a decent reference point for the song’s ravaging and chaotic destructiveness. Yet this isn’t pure chaos; there are killer riffs and doses of rhythmic variation within this maelstrom, too.

Bandcamp:
https://invictusproductions666.bandcamp.com/album/always-higher

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/oraculum.chile/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANTIVERSUM

The next song in this collection, “Antinova“, also comes from a forthcoming release by Invictus Productions. It’s the debut album, Cosmos Comedenti, by the Swiss band Antiversum and follows their 2015 debut demo, Total Vacuum. The release date is September 29.

The first three songs collected in this post are fast and adrenaline-fueled. At the outset, this one is catastrophically crushing and as cold and alien as the voids between the stars. But even in the slow opening of the song, you get hints of the volcanic explosiveness to come — yet the music never loses the atmosphere of otherworldly terror that begins building from the first seconds, and indeed it becomes more and more harrowing as the deep grinding riffs, staggering rhythms, and monstrous vocals burrow into your skull.

Bandcamp:
https://invictusproductions666.bandcamp.com/album/cosmos-comedenti

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/antiversum/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CASKET ROBBERY

I thoroughly enjoyed the head-ramming, head-bobbing, adrenaline-triggering metal displayed on this Wisconsin band’s 2016 album, Evolution of Evil. I didn’t expect they’d be back so soon, but here they are with a new three-track EP named The Ascension, which will be released on August 18. Earlier this week Metal Underground premiered a lyric video for one of those tracks, “Lilith“.

I think the drum and bass assault in this song loosened the fillings in my molars. I think the vocalist set himself on fire before grabbing the mic in the studio. I think the guitarists jammed live power lines into their necks when they cooked up these riffs and solos. When you listen, you might think you’re having a seizure. And who doesn’t enjoy that?

Bandcamp:
https://casketrobbery.bandcamp.com/album/the-ascension

Facebook:
http://facebook.com/casketrobbery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLACK BLOOD INVOCATION

“Occult Bestial Black/Death Metal from Greece in the vein of Archgoat, Demoncy and Von“. Those are the first words emblazoned at the top of an e-mail we received from Deathrune Records, informing us of the self-titled EP by Black Blood Invocation, which Deathrune has just released on CD (and which was released on tape earlier this year by Vonfrost Records). Needless to say, with that kind of come-on, I went for it.

I haven’t yet listened to all four songs, but the two you can hear on Bandcamp are very strong — primal and stripped-down, to be sure, but primally appealing, too.

Following its intro, “Blood Black Invocation” is all swarming guitar distortion, relentless percussive piston-drive, and roaring vocal monstrosity until the double-bass and tumbling toms kick in about three-and-a-half minutes in, and with a minute left this barreling machine takes a turn into something like a funeral dirge, complete with the tolling of a death bell.

“Ceremonial Worship of An Ancient God” is a dismal, lumbering, stalking beast at first, and then surges into a furious high gear, with the orgiastic riffing and pummeling drumwork punctuated by demonically anthemic strummed chords.

Bandcamp:
https://deathrunerecords.bandcamp.com/album/black-blood-invocation-black-blood-invocation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SACROSCUM

Drugs & Death is the debut album by the hateful German scum Sacroscum, whose debut demo Stillbirth emerged last year. It will be released on October 28 by Unholy Prophecies. “Waste, Horror & Degradation” began fouling the internet yesterday.

At times, the song reminds me of the beloved Goatwhore, which I mean as high praise, but it jumps around — it rocks, it gallops, it thrashes, it seethes, it subsides into an eerie void, there’s crust/punk and a bit of blackening mixed in along with the death — and it’s damned infectious and damned vibrant.

Bandcamp:
https://unholyprophecies.bandcamp.com/track/waste-horror-degradation

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/sacroscum666/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORBITORY

Last, we come to an EP by Morbitory from Hamburg, Germany. The EP, Into the Morbitory, was released by Bret Hard Records in December 2016, but I only discovered it yesterday thanks to an e-mail from the band. One track from the album (“Screams of Horror”) is streaming at Bandcamp and on YouTube, and YouTube also has one more single (“Tales of the Dead”) plus a full stream of the EP.

I’ve installed all these streams below, though so far I’ve only immersed myself in “Screams of Horror” — which is booming and bombastic and berserk. The vocals are a tandem of blood-lusting growls and boiling shrieks, and the song as a whole is a mix of furious grinding riffs meshed with decimating drumwork, on the one hand, and irresistibly headbang-able hammer blows on the other. Highly infectious stuff, and a very enticing appetizer for the rest of this EP.

Bandcamp:
https://morbitory.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-morbitory

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Morbitory