AN NCS PREMIERE: BEAST OF REVELATION — “LEGIONS”

 

Last month I was induced to listen to the title track from the debut album of Beast Of Revelation (entitled The Ancient Ritual of Death) by the names in the line-up:  drummer Bob Bagchus (Hellehond, Infidel Reich, ex-Asphyx, Grand Supreme Blood Court, Soulburn, and more); guitarist/bassist A.J. van Drenth (Temple, Throne, ex-Beyond Belief), and vocalist John McEntee (Incantation).

On that title track McEntee‘s vocals are demented and disorienting, an expression of roaring and wailing wretchedness that raises goosebumps. And the music is absolutely crushing and authentically disturbing, heavy enough to pound your cranium into splinters and weird and woeful enough to fracture your sense of well-being too. Listening to it risks sore-neck syndrome and mental mutilation.

Given the resumes of the band’s members, none of this should come as a shock, even if the music itself creates shockwaves. And we have more of Beast of Revelation‘s merciless and morbid doom-death devastation for you today as we premiere the song “Legions” in advance of the album’s March 6 release by Iron Bonehead Productions.

 

 

John McEntee‘s vocals on this new song are every bit as terrifying as on the title track, a mind-mangling combination of cold-blooded abyssal roars and ghastly, blood-freezing wails. No less frightening are the warped leads, which themselves wail like apparitions in a vast netherworld. No less crushing are the methodical, spine-shivering drum blows and the harrowing chords that slowly rain down like anvils or slither and groan like a titanic python gradually encircling the world and squeezing the life from it.

The combined impact of these ingredients is apocalyptic — a sonic vision of desolation and degradation, accented by the peal of funeral bells. And just when you think the song can’t get any more obliterating, it does, as the band engage in slow-motion chug-fests near the end whose titanic rhythms are crippling.

The whole album is crippling. And compelling. And so masterfully composed and executed that it’s damned hard to escape from once you’ve heard it.

 

The doomsday clock is ticking toward March 6th, when the album will be released on LP and CD by Iron Bonehead. The cover artwork is by Manuel Tinnemans/Comaworx. For more info, check these locations:

IRON BONEHEAD:
http://www.ironbonehead.de
https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com

BEAST OF REVELATION:
https://www.facebook.com/officialbeastofrevelation/