Jupiterian
I’m in the same situation I was in yesterday, with my fucking day job squeezing the life out of my NCS time, except now I’m being squeezed on the east coast of the U.S. instead of the west coast. As a result, this post, plus one forthcoming premiere, will be the only ones you’ll see at our site today.
Before entering the Land of Nod late last night I spent about an hour listening to new music selected at random, and heard one more stunner this morning over coffee. And because time is short I’ve picked only three of those to write about.
JUPITERIAN
I’ve written about this Brazilian band frequently in the past. The last time, when the subject was a new EP of cover songs, I referred to the band’s ability “to club a listener senseless” and to channel “pure evil — cask-strength and undiluted”, the “stark, desolate, and devastating” sensations of their music, and the capacity of the vocals alone “to give any normal person a shivering case of the night terrors”.
Little wonder that I nearly spilled my morning coffee when I saw a bunch of exciting news this morning about their new album Terraforming — including the revealing of a new song.
Among other exciting disclosures about the new album is the cover art, once again created by the wonderful Brazilian artist Cauê Piloto. In addition, it was mixed by Maurice de Jong (aka Mories of Gnaw Their Tongues and many other frightening projects), who also added ambient textures to the music, and it was mastered by Stephen Lockhart (Svartidaudi, Tchornobog, Zhrine, etc.).
The new song, “Forefathers“, is stunning. The union of booming ritualistic drum beats, tinkling chimes, and other strange ambient tones provide an ominous introduction to the crush and clash of massive, dissonant chords and black, razoring riffs. The music jackhammers, claws, and crawls. It moans in hideous manifestations of doom, and it vibrates in frenzies of deranged anguish. Its desolate melodies cloud and frighten the mind, and its punishing rhythms compel movement. As expected, the deep, malignant vocals are preternaturally horrifying.
Jupiterian are once again showing their strengths — their ability to create vivid, immersive (and nightmarish) atmosphere and also to smash the life out of listeners with massive grooves.
Terraforming will be released on November 17 by Transcending Obscurity Records. Pre-orders are up now on Bandcamp.
Bandcamp:
https://jupiterian.bandcamp.com/album/terraforming-atmospheric-doom-sludge-metal
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/jupiteriandoom/
SISYPHEAN
The Lithuanian band Sisyphean is a new name to me. Metal Archives tells us that they released a debut EP in 2014 named Perpetual Cycle of Absolution, and on September 1 the French label Drakkar Productions will release their debut album, Illusions of Eternity, in digipack and vinyl formats.
The song below is “Epitaph To the Remnants“, a dynamic interweaving of atmospheric black and death metal that successfully summons sensations of violent chaos, oppressive gloom, and haunting otherworldliness. The heaving chords, scything leads, and eerie, dissonant melodies prove to be gripping, and the vocals are suitably ravenous.
The subdued interlude after the mid-point, which combines ringing guitar harmony and a massive bass line, enhances the song’s mystical currents, and the ebb and flow of the music’s pacing and intensity throughout the track are beautifully accomplished. A very impressive piece from an album I now need to hunt down.
Bandcamp:
https://drakkar-productions-official.bandcamp.com/album/sisyphean-illusions-of-eternity-2
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/sisyphean13/
NERGAL
The Greek black metal band Nergal trace their roots back to 1990, producing a handful of short recordings and one full album between then and 1995. After a hiatus of nearly a decade, Nergal released a second album in 2006 and one more in 2011, along with a couple of splits and compilations since then.
The band’s new album is entitled ΝΥΚΤΑ ΓΕΜΑΤΗ ΘΑΜΑΤΑ-ΝΥΚΤΑ ΣΠΑΡΜΕΝΗ ΜΑΓΙΑ, and it’s projected for release this fall by the Brazilian label Hammer of Damnation (pre-orders will become available on September 4).
The song below, “Nykta Sparmeni Magia“, is piercing and penetrating right from the start as Nergal introduce the chilling, sorrowful melodic core of the song, and they follow that with an explosion of head-jarring power thanks to a cataclysmic drum progression. The music intensifies, with that core melody beginning to seethe and burn (the barbaric vocals are damned scalding too), yet as the variations on the melody proceed, the song generates an aura of bleak, tragic majesty, as well as feelings of agony and fury, and at the end it soars skyward on the wings of a beautiful guitar solo.
It’s easy to get completely caught up in this dramatic, emotionally powerful, and sweepingly panoramic song.
One more song from the new album, “Mora“, is included below, though I’m in such a hurry to get back to my day job that I haven’t listened to it yet.
Bandcamp:
https://hammerofdamnation.bandcamp.com/album/-
NERGAL Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Nergal-Hellas-118240394936589/
HAMMER OF DAMNATION:
Webstore : www.hodrecs.com
Bandcamp: www.hammerofdamnation.bandcamp.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/hodrex