SEEN AND HEARD BY DGR (PART 3): NECROPHOBIC, THE ATLAS MOTH, THE ABSENCE, SAMAEL, LONG DISTANCE CALLING

Necrophobic

 

(DGR has stepped into the round-up void left by our editor this past week and has produced a three-part collection of recent songs and videos. Parts 1 and 2 are here and here.)

 

Three weeks into January, and judging by the handful of massive Seen and Heard and Overflowing Streams posts we’ve had to put up, you could say that we’ve managed to the get ourselves into gear as our beloved musical genre has already offloaded numerous news bits upon us in the new year.

I, your ever-faithful servant, have also been doing my best to go along with my ragged fish net and catch everything that might’ve slipped by us — which in the case of this post dates back to last week and then some.

 

 

 

Necrophobic – Mark of the Necrogram

NOTE: This is the only item in this three-part round-up that DGR did not write, though he did ask that it be added to what he previously selected.

Late last week Necrophobic revealed the title track to their new (eighth) album, Mark of the Necrogram. Some bands amass decades of experience, and sometimes the experience shows in a powerful way, and sometimes what they know is buried beneath the weight of years.

Here, the band’s experience meshes with their talents in a brilliant display of chaos melded with primal head-moving hooks. The first part of the song leading up to the deep, drilling riff that surfaces at the 2:30 mark is wild and electrifying and catchy as hell, but that change in the middle of the song is even more irresistible. And the completely poltergeist-like solo that comes soon after is fantastic. A great song from end to end.

Mark of the Necrogram will arrive on February 23rd via Century Media.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Atlas Moth – Galactic Brain

The Atlas Moth marks the second group in this three-part post who will be making an appearance at the 2018 edition of Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle, Washington (lineup announcement and info here, since we’re kind of involved in the thing) with fellow lineup cohorts Of Feather And Bone appearing further up. The Chicago-based slow-grooving sludgier metal group premiered their new song “Galactic Brain” from their upcoming February 9th  album Coma Noir over at Decibel’s page and we’re doing our part to spread the word.

Embracing the experimental psychedelia of their sound, the melodic leads deployed by The Atlas Moth in “Galactic Brain” are markedly different from the death metal hammerings in this post, letting the band fully drift into an atmosphere enveloped in smoke and haze. “Galactic Brain” is even a vastly different song from the quicker moving and heavier title track of the album, which the band released a music video for late last year. “Galactic Brain” is a slower and more meditative groove by comparison.

If you want near-six minutes of solid, sludge-driven chug, The Atlas Moth have you covered here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Absence – A Gift For The Obsessed

Tampa, Florida’s The Absence are finally returning to us in 2018. With a tremendous gap of time having passed since the group’s last album Enemy Unbound — almost eight years! — and only two singles — 2013’s Oceans and 2016’s Septic Testament — to keep us in the loop, The Absence have kept pretty quiet on the recorded music front.

All of that changes on March 23rd when M-Theory Audio will release the group’s new album, A Gift For The Obsessed. Just recently, the band unleashed the music video for its title song. Powered by vocalist Jamie Stewart’s mighty beard, “A Gift For The Obsessed” shows that The Absence will be continuing the path of the American melodeath band, launching full force into some quick-moving riffs that have the band standing side-by-side with their Swedish genre cohorts.

However, special attention must also be paid to that excellent intro segment, which sees the group going from hair-metal arena rock ’80s guitar riff to Carcass in its solo in the span of thirty seconds. It is glorious and almost worth the price of admission on its own. Of course, it returns in part for the actual solo bit of the song, but man, that first taste is great.

“A Gift For The Obsessed” is an excellent look at the new album and does makes March seem like an eternity away from now. That said, goddamnit does it feel good to know The Absence are back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samael – Rite Of Renewal

Since I enjoy writing news posts that make it look like I’ve lost my goddamned mind, barely connecting songs together thematically within this post, masonry line strung between photo-after-photo like a whacked conspiracy theorist continually chanting ‘Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left’, why not add to the Homerian epic of videos and streams contained within by including the new music video from Samael with their song “Rite Of Renewal”?

Released a few days ago, the song in the live-shot video hails from the group’s latest album Hegemony, released in October of last year. “Rite Of Renewal” continues Samael down the path of the big-stomping riff backed by a massive layer of electronics, the band bouncing between goth and industrial metal at the drop of a hat.

Way less blast- and gallop-heavy than everything else in this post, “Rite Of Renewal” is the big, glorious-in-its-headbanging-groove, pop song of this news post. With a thudding verse groove and a massive double-bass-drum-driven chorus segment, “Rite Of Renewal” keeps things on the heavier side for Samael and is one of those songs that worms its way into your subconcious to make you nod along.

You can see why the band chose the live treatment for the song, noting themselves that it is one of the first songs from Hegemony that they debuted live. It’s a song perfectly built for it, easily understandable and rhythmic, built on big arena-rock metal guitars and enough double-bass chug and keyboard stings to up the dramatic flair of the song tenfold. They’re also keeping Sybreed’s guitarist Drop busy, which is nice to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long Distance Calling – Ascending

Because the “No Clean Singing, well Haha! What about no singing at all?!” joke will never get old around these parts, we once again check in with instrumental group Long Distance Calling, whose newest album Boundless will be out on February 2nd.

Previously, the group released the scenery-porn-heavy hiking video Out There and last week the band released a second video for “Ascending” that you can view below. The video is shot in the studio with the group all facing each other and playing the song; the band have stated they tried to capture the atmosphere in which the album was written for said video. “Ascending” is a shorter track than its predecessor “Out There” and a more straightforward rock song as well.

Long Distance Calling have always differed from their peers in the instrumental scene in that they don’t often stray into the echo-effect, shoegazing territory that so many groups in that genre inhabit and have often written songs that would be perfectly accompanied by a vocalist. The group themselves have had guest vocalists and even done albums with a singer, but Boundless sees the band returning to their instrumental roots.

“Ascending”, like its sibling music video from Boundless, also does an excellent job breaking up the massive slab of metal that we’ve just unleashed upon you.