SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): BODYFARM, SORCERY, COFFINS, DEVOURMENT

 

Today’s round-up of new music and videos again comes in two-parts, which is more a statement of optimistic expectations than a present reality, since I haven’t started work on Part 2 yet. As for the present reality of Part 1, it’s focused on the deathlier side of the metal spectrum. As I did earlier in the week, I’ve also inserted an announcement unaccompanied by music, which I rarely do, but again couldn’t resist.

BODYFARM

I’m beginning with that announcement. Even though there’s no music yet to share from Bodyfarm’s new album, I couldn’t resist adding it to this collection because Dan Seagrave‘s cover art is so spectacular (this series, after all, is called SEEN and heard for a reason). There’s also the added attraction of this Dutch band’s previous releases, which provide solid reasons for expecting good things from the new one.

 

 

The new Bodyfarm album is entitled Dreadlord, and it’s set for release on September 27th in the tenth year of their existence by No Dust Records. The album was mixed and mastered by Dan Swanö. The band’s line-up on the album is unchanged — although in March Bodyfarm sadly announced that founding vocalist/guitarist Thomas Wouters has had to leave the band due to serious health issues, so it appears this album will be his last in the Bodyfarm line-up. The numbered picture-disc and green marbled vinyl editions look very nice. And beyond that, I don’t have anything else to tell you.

Oh, what the hell, I’ll add a blast from the past which is a clue to why I’m pretty excited about this new Bodyfarm album. Here’s an official video for a track called “Storming Revolution”, which appeared on Bodyfarm’s Battle Breed album. The footage in the video was shot at the band’s performance in the summer of 2015 at Dynamo Metal Fest in The Netherlands and the Carpathian Alliance Festival in Ukraine. Get ready for some high-energy thrashing death that’s Grade A mosh fuel — and make sure you your neck muscles are nice and loose before you get to the 2:00 mark. The mid-section of this thing hammers so hard you could drive nails with your head.

UPDATE: On August 6, five days after this post was originally published, Thomas Wouters passed away, his life taken by cancer.Our hearts go out to his family and friends.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SORCERY

It seemed entirely fitting to follow that Bodyfarm announcement with another new track off the next album by Sorcery, in part because the cover art for their new one (by Juanjo Castellano) is also fantastic and makes for a good pairing with Dan Seagraves‘ work at the top of this column. The lyric video for this new song, which is the second one released so far, makes good use of Castellano’s handiwork.

That new song, “Death Is Near“, is also fuckin’ lethal. Listening is like shoving your head in front of a flamethrower. Almost everything about it is scorching, from the vicious, blistering riffs to the utterly maniacal vocals and the bullet-spitting impact of the drumming. The slithering melodic lead isn’t scorching, but it is delightfully morbid. Fantastic track.

Sorcery’s new album, Necessary Excess of Violence (great title), will be released on August 20 by Xtreem Music (on CD and vinyl).

PRE-ORDER:
http://www.xtreemmusic.com/

SORCERY:
https://www.facebook.com/sorcerydeathmetal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COFFINS

The excitement spawned in these quarters by the release of new records by Bodyfarm and Sorcery is at least equaled by the thrill of learning a couple days ago that Japan’s Coffins will also have a new album coming our way in September. This new one is called Beyond the Circular Demise, and Relapse Records has tagged September 20 as the release date.

Coffins are one of those bands who just never seem to disappoint, even though they’ve been at it for more than 20 years. And based on the new song that accompanied the album news, this fifth full-length in their career isn’t going to disappoint either. “Forgotten Cemetery” throws both sides of Coffins‘ capacities at you — the side that’s a vicious rampaging mauler, and the side that’s a lumbering, doom-stricken behemoth. The pulverizing slower movements are laced with gruesome, spectral leads, and the cavernous, grunting gutturals are monstrous at all times. It’s a great blending of merciless, mosh-inducing destruction and miserable atmosphere. Did we expect anything less?

The cover art for this one was created by Chris Moyen.

PRE-ORDER:
http://bit.ly/coffinsbtcd
https://ffm.to/coffinsbtcd
https://coffins.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-circular-demise

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEVOURMENT

So far in this round-up we’ve witnessed three different varieties of death metal, and now we come to a fourth, with a new song by the legendary brutal death metal band Devourment. The song in question, “A Virulent Strain of Retaliation“, is off their new album Obscene Majesty, the band’s first one in six years. It features the reunion of drummer Brad Fincher and vocalist Ruben Rosas, a line-up only heard previously on the band’s 1999 album Molesting the Decapitated.

I need to give you two warnings. First, the video for the song, which concerns “a vision inside a mind utterly consumed with bloody revenge… and the terrible cost that demands”, is a graphic, blood-soaked depiction of torture. It is definitely NSFW, and frankly I have such a weak stomach for this kind of thing that I found it tough to keep my eyes glued to the screen. And second, the music itself is a goddamn overpowering armageddon of sound.

Ruben Rosas‘ gutturals are truly abyssal and foul. The drumming, when it goes at high speed, is a reasonable facsimile of a heavy-caliber automatic weapon. The riffing is utterly maniacal and sadistically vicious. The grooves are pulverizing. The detonations near the end sound like the triggering of megaton devices. Put it all together and you get the sounds of mechanized war machines run rampant. “Breathtaking” isn’t an exaggeration. And the little wisps of miserable melody are icing on the cake.

Obscene Majesty will be released by Relapse on August 16th. The fantastic artwork for this one was created by Khaos Diktator Design.

PRE-ORDER:
http://relapse.com/devourment-obscene-majesty/
https://ffm.to/devourmentom
https://devourment.bandcamp.com/

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