A DOUBLE PREMIERE: DOMINANT (“VACANT SOUL INVASION”) AND INFESTUM (“MONSTRA TE ESSE BESTIAM”)

 

We have not one, but two, premieres for you in this post, each of them drawn from forthcoming albums that will be released on the first day of 2018 by Lacerated Enemy Records. The first one is a track off the debut EP of the Norwegian death metal band Dominant, and the second comes from the fourth album by the Belarusian band Infestum.

DOMINANT

Dominant’s first release, which will be discharged on January 1, is named The Summoning. Although Dominant may be a new name, the band’s lineup is composed of members of such groups as Hideous Deformity, Necrotic Disgorgement, Conjuration, and Dauden. The track you’re about to hear is “Vacant Soul Invasion“.

 

 

This is one of those songs that I think probably needs to come with a public health warning, because it’s pure rampaging decimation right out of the gate — a furious, high-speed attack of slashing, jabbing, pulsing riffs, skull-battering drumwork, and horrid roaring vocals (which are also paired with incinerating shrieks). Seriously, it’s electrifying, and electrocution-ing. And if the song consisted of nothing but that, it would be excellent… but there’s more to it than just that.

There’s a moment in the first half of this blistering assault when the full-throttle drumming slows, and a seductive, atmospheric guitar melody surfaces, and a place in the second half when the band make room for an absolutely brain-twisting solo.

But mainly, this is a mauling, technically impressive rocket ride. So you’ve been warned… now enjoy the acceleration of your life.

 

The Summoning includes cover art by Vladimir “Smerdulak” Chebakov. To pre-order the album, check the links below.

Dominant is:
Jimmy Javins – Vocals
Robin Larsen – Guitars
André Bjerring – Bass
Tapir – Drums

PREORDERS:
Bandcamp:
https://laceratedenemyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dominant-the-summoning
BigCartel:
http://laceratedenemy.bigcartel.com/artist/dominant

DOMINANT ON FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/DominantNorway/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INFESTUM

Unlike Dominant, Infestum isn’t a new name around here. In 2014 we premiered a track from their last album, Monuments of Exalted, and then followed that the next year with a feature on their Digitus Dei EP, which was their last release before this forthcoming album — the name of which is Les Rites De Passage. The band (who are now operating as a two-piece consisting of musician Wrathtodd and vocalist/lyricist Ion the Saint) tell us this about the new album:

“This album is dedicated to the Man as a lifelong Path through a maze of transformations from an animal into a Demigod. Each gate on this Path is the end point of something being sacred before and at the same time a starting point of another universe of new kinds of truth and illusions. Each Rite of this Passage is an ordeal, and you always have to pay the price for the right to keep moving. Hail to all who breaks on through! Hail to all who fell down trying! Oblivion for all who stays aside.”

 

 

The song from the new album that we have for you today is “Monstra Te Esse Bestiam“. It makes a fine pairing with that Dominant track, because it too will take your breath away. But like Infestum’s previous music, it’s a thoroughly kaleidoscopic track, one that blends black metal, death metal, and industrial metal into an intoxicating concoction.

On the one hand, the drumming fires faster than automatic weaponry, the riffing is one hard jab after another delivered at lightning speed straight to the solar plexus (augmented by some powerful bass-drum gut punches too). On the other hand, there are equally fast, rippling keyboard arpeggios that sound otherworldly (and are amazingly catchy because of their simplicity), as well as episodes of gliding ethereal melody, deep electronic pulses, and a plethora of other fascinating accents. The vocals are also intense — mainly raw, rancid, and livid, the sound of a fractured sanity, though also including a kind of gloomy, gothic spoken-word section.

I should add that the song is seriously addictive.

 

The stunning cover art for the new album is a painting called “The Mausoleum of Pain” by the Ukrainian artist Vladislav Cadaversky. Pre-order via the links below.

TRACK LIST:
1. Fire Be My Name
2. The Earth To Devour
3. Leper Carnivores
4. Descant Of Yore
5. Digitus Dei
6. Monstra Te Esse Bestiam
7. Mounting The Profound
8. Prometheos
9. Les Rites De Passage

PREORDERS:
Bandcamp :
https://laceratedenemyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/infestum-les-rites-de-passage
BigCartel :
http://laceratedenemy.bigcartel.com/artist/infestum

INFESTUM ON FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/ordo.infestum/