SEEN AND HEARD: PIG DESTROYER, BURIAL HORDES, AGELESS SUMMONING, MARDUK

 

I had hoped to prepare a massive round-up for today, given how many excellent new tracks have been thrown at us this week, and how many fine new things I’ve recently discovered that appeared in previous weeks. Alas, other distractions have prevented me from making this post as gargantuan as I’d hoped. But there’s always tomorrow….

PIG DESTROYER

To begin, I have only a teaser… but what a titillating teaser it is.

 

Photo Credit: Joey Wharton

 

To cut to the chase, Pig Destroyer have a new album named Head Cage that’s now set for release by Relapse Records on September 7th. One can only hope the world lasts that long, or at least that I last that long, and I know you’ll join me in at least one of those wishes.

For now we have only the following musical teaser, but the press release we received indicates that a full new song will be provided on July 10th, which is when pre-orders will launch. I usually don’t devote space to teasers in these round-ups, but this is Pig Destroyer, and in their case exceptions must be made.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BURIAL HORDES

I’ve become a devoted fan of Burial Hordes since discovering their 2012 split with Enshadowed, although the band’s discography began long before that split (and I had some very pleasurable catching up to do). Their last album was 2014’s Incendium, and now they have a new full-length named Θάνατος Αιώνιος (“The Termination Thesis”) that the respected Folter Records plans to release in September of this year. To my delight, it’s adorned by the artwork of Vergvoktre, whose creations have made frequent appearance in the near-daily artwork posts on our Facebook page.

Earlier this month Burial Hordes revealed the new album’s second track, “Thrownness and Fallenness of Being“, though I only discovered it earlier today. It made an immediate and strong impression.

Both ice cold and boiling, blood-heating and skin-chilling, the track is like a thick roiling fog cloaking the approach of powerful forces from the realms of death. The music’s dissonant, warping chords and shards of shining notes give it an otherworldly cast; the deep, grinding riffs portend suffering and doom; the imperious, guttural roars and ritual drum booms raise visions of looming disaster. What a mesmerizing and merciless piece this is….

Burial Hordes:
https://www.facebook.com/BurialHordesOfficial/

Folter Records:
http://www.folter666.de
https://folterrecords.bandcamp.com

TRACK LIST:
1) Human Condition
(Isolation-Meaninglessness-Mortality) 5:16
2) Thrownness and Fallenness of Being 5:06
3) Lurk in the Shadows 5:14
4) Erkenntnis 5:49
5) Death is Omnipotent 4:48
6) From Synthesis to Aposynthesis 16:50
part1. Synthesis (0 – 4:16)
part2. Destruktion of Alethia (4:17 – 8:02)
part3. Aposynthesis (8:03 – 16:50

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AGELESS SUMMONING

The UK group Ageless Summoning are a new discovery for me, and I suppose for almost everyone else since this is their first demo and it only appeared on June 22nd as a “name your price” download.

There are two tracks here, and when I heard them the music hit me between the eyes like a sledgehammer, and in the gut like a heavyweight punch, and in the back of my neck like a rhythmically applied crowbar (the head goes up and down, the neck gets sore, the mouth breaks open in a crooked grin).

With a growling horror behind the mic, a demented demon in charge of the white-hot soloing, and a brutish rhythm section manipulating your neck and chopping at your spinal chord, Ageless Summoning discharge an array of morbid, twisting and braying riffs and peals of freakish, fanfare-like melody, creating a dank, choking, hallucinatory atmosphere of gloom and infernal grandeur.

Speaking of freakish, this is a freakishly impressive debut, which is perhaps not surprising, given that the band’s members (spread among Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Bristol) come from the ranks of  Abyssal, Inculcator, Of Spire and Throne, Haar, Úir, Scordatura, Laceration, Neuroma, and Omnipotent Hysteria. Put Ageless Summoning high on your radar screen right now.

Bandcamp:
https://agelesssummoning.bandcamp.com/album/demo

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARDUK

To close this hurried round-up, I have a drum-cam video. It’s Fredrik Widigs at Germany’s Rock Hard Festival on May 19th of this year. Somewhere almost out of sight the rest of Marduk are riffing and roaring “Into Utter Madness“. Widigs‘ drumming is utter madness itself.

Utter.

Madness.

This is the kind of thing you could show your square friends (with the sound turned down, of course) to give them a certain kind of pop-eyed appreciation for the technical and physical demands of metal extremity.

Marduk:
http://marduk.nu
https://www.facebook.com/Mardukofficial/