SEEN AND HEARD: CORPSESSED, SKELETHAL, NARTHRAAL, SKALLBANK, THE HU, TENGGER CAVALRY

 

I know there was a ton of new music released yesterday. I can tell just from rapidly scrolling through the 130 e-mails that hit our in-box between 12:55 a.m. and 10:35 p.m. yesterday (yes, I counted them). But (with two exceptions) I had already decided what I wanted to put in this round-up before any of those e-mails arrived, and I decided to just go with these and defer figuring out what Monday might have brought until another day.

The first of the two exceptions is one of the five recommendations I received yesterday from my Norwegian friend eiterorm. I suspect at least a few of the other four will also find their way into another round-up later this week. And that one exception led to a second. Most of the the rest of what I’ve collected below came out late last week or I discovered them last week.

CORPSESSED

More than four years ago, our former contributor Leperkahn introduced his brief comments about Corpsessed’s Abysmal Thresholds with these words: “I’ve been seriously hungering for some absolutely cavernous death metal, the kind of stuff that sounds like it was recorded in a Lovecraftian studio at The Mountains Of Madness”. And he found what he was looking for in this Finnish band’s debut album: “To put it succinctly, these guys play death metal that sounds straight out of the abyss. Since putting it on I’ve had to check a few times to make sure Cthulhu isn’t looming behind my back”.

 

 

Four years on, and Corpsessed are returning with a new album named Impetus of Death (so named because, as Matti Mäkelä says, death is “the very thing that gives your life a meaning or the power to do anything… death gives birth to something new”). It will be released on November 23rd by Dark Descent. The song I’ve chosen to begin this round-up is an electrifying horror from this new album.

“Graveborne” is a massive, toxic juggernaut of mind-warping sound, churning and battering, roiling and wrecking, discharging flurries of twisted melody over a brutally destructive onslaught by the rhythm section, with roaring vocals that are imperious, heartless, and blood-freezing in their ferocity. It hits like an overpowering shock-and-awe campaign mounted by legions from hell, with a kind of wide-screen scale and scope.

When you’ve finished listening to this song, look at the cover art again, created by Mattias Frisk from Vanhelgd, and think about these words concerning the direction the band gave him:

“We told him to do what he felt would fit the music, but devoid of the usual clichés like mystic figures in robes, goat-headed priests and nude girls on altars. We also wanted it to be in colors this time around as all our previous covers were in black and white.”

Impetus of Death will be released by Dark Descent Records on CD, digitally, and on vinyl in the Americas, and by Me Saco Un Ojo on vinyl in Europe.

PRE-ORDER:
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/impetus-of-death
https://www.mesacounojo.com/

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/Corpsessed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SKELETHAL

I was so excited when I heard that Skelethal would be bringing us something new. I had a very diseased and perverted kind of affection for their 2017 debut album, Of the Depths…, and I felt that queasy yet heated yearning again when I learned they would be participating in a split with Cadaveric Fumes, the title of which is Heirs of Hideous Secrecies. And so, while asking your pardon for my confessions of deviant lusts, I’m very happy to report that this split kicks mountainous amounts of ass.

Both bands recorded two tracks for this 7″ split, but the Skelethal track I’ve chosen is the only one you can hear (so far). And hellfire and damnation, the song title says it all: “Torrents of Putrefying Viscosity“.

OK, it doesn’t really say it all. A few more things could be said, such as: The music is indeed torrential, the kind of furious, HM2-powered, snare-fueled gallop that gets the blood pumping, and it is indeed putrescent in its atmosphere, the corrosive riffing laced with eerie filaments of melody and augmented by vicious howling behind the mic. Guaranteed to give you an adrenaline boost in short order (and it comes with a suitably creepy video, too).

BANDCAMP:
https://skelethal-france.bandcamp.com/album/heirs-of-hideous-secrecies

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/skelethal/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NARTHRAAL

An atmosphere of evil hung heavy about my head after listening to the first two tracks in this collection, and this latest single and video by Narthraal fit the mood very, very well, even though it represents a stylistic turn in the road.

Narthraal are from Hafnarfjordur, Iceland, but this isn’t black metal (the genre most extreme music fans now associate with that island nation). As displayed in the lyric video you’re about to experience for a song called “Baptized In Blood”, Narthraal weave a supernatural nightmare from elements of doom and death metal, mixing the wail of clean vocals with the incipient violence of bestial growls, and inflicting thuggish physical punishment while also putting the frighteners on you through an array of eerie, skittering leads and a scary solo that’s woozy at first and becomes convincingly deranged.

The song was recorded at Biggistudio. Birgir Halldórsson from Alchemia mixed and mastered the song. The artwork was created by Þorvaldur/Skaðvaldur from Urðun. And the lyric video was made by Hannar Sindri Grétarsson, also from Úlfúð.

BANDCAMP:
https://narthraal1.bandcamp.com

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/Narthraal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SKALLBANK

The next item I’ve picked for this collection is a video for “Denim Demon“, originally recorded by Turbonegro but performed here by the Swedish band Skallbank (from Karlstad). It seems the song is a staple of their live sets, and so they decided to put it out in recorded form, with additional vocal contributions by members of the punk band Rotten Foxes.

I think you’d have a tough time figuring out what kind of music you’re about to heat just from looking at the performers in the video with the sound off; there’s quite a potpourri of grooming and fashion statements on display. But it’s a hell of a lot of fun both watching the video and listening to the song.

Skallbank rock damned hard, kicking out the punk chords and neck-snapping rhythms with infectious vibrancy, and their frontman discharges the lyrics in a mix of furious screams and growls, with some excellent throat-shredding accompaniment by the band’s guests. If you like Kvelertak, The Hellacopters, or of course Turbonegro, you’ll get a megawatt charge out of this.

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/skallbank/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE HU

Okay, now I’m turning to one of the five recommendations I received yesterday from my Norwegian friend eiterorm. I’ll take the liberty of quoting his message about this particular song (which comes packaged with a wonderful video of the band’s members performing the song in some stunning natural settings):

“Mongolian folk rock. That label, by itself, should be enough to convince you. If you like early-and-mid-era Tengger Cavarly (I know you do!) or Nine Treasures, this is a must-hear”.

And so it is. The song is “Yuve Yuve Yu“, and it seems to be one that will appear on a forthcoming album named Gereg, though it’s available now as a digital single at these locations. The song isn’t metal, of course, but it’s highly infectious, and the exotic ingredients of traditional folk instruments and throat singing add to the song’s addictive appeal.

“What a strange, what a strange… Oh Black Banner be awakened… Hey, this order is forever valid.” I’ll buy that.

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/HUNNUROCK/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TENGGER CAVALRY

Coincidentally, having been turned on to (and turned on by) that single from The Hu, I happened to notice a Bandcamp alert that the afore-mentioned Tengger Cavalry also released a new digital single yesterday in advance of their forthcoming North American tour. “Moment” isn’t the typical Tengger Cavalry gallop across the high plains, but is instead (as the band say) a “calming meditative track”. But it seemed a nice way to conclude today’s collection, and a suitable contrast to what The Hu are doing.

And with that, I’ll leave you to the music. As always, enjoy the rest of your fucking day.

BANDCAMP:
https://tenggercavalry.bandcamp.com/album/moment-single

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/tengger0cavalry/