AN NCS PREMIERE: AKURION — “BEDSORES TO THE BONE”

 

(We welcome back our old friend and former NCS writer Austin Weber, who introduces our premiere of a song from the forthcoming debut album by the formidable death metal band Akurion, as well as a bass-and-guitar playthrough video for the track featuring performances by Rob Milley and Oli Pinard.)

After many years in development, the upcoming debut album Come Forth to Me by Montreal-based death metal supergroup Akurion is finally nearing its release. The album will officially drop on Friday, April 10th, via Redefining Darkness Records.

Although I’ve already helped with a premiere for Akurion — “Year of the Long Pig” at Metal Injection — once it came to my attention that certain premiere partners fell through for today’s item, I felt a need to step in and make the official launch of “Bedsores to the Bone” happen on time.

Akurion has an immediate appeal to me as an uber death metal nerd due to its member’s multi-decade lineage spent playing in Cryptopsy, Cattle Decapitation, Neuraxis, Coma Cluster Void, and many more. That in and of itself is impressive, but honestly wouldn’t mean a lot if the current project we’re highlighting didn’t rule, but Akurion does indeed kick a tremendous amount of ass.

 

 

Even when you stack up and try to perceive the music within Come Forth to Me as a whole based on the line-up, and even what each single has to offer thus far, you’ll still come up short. There are undoubtedly frequent sonic hints that could be compared to the line-up’s collective output elsewhere, yet this is an album and a project that feels more like a multi-decade love letter to all of death metal, particularly focused on forward-thinking experimentation.

To share some background information about “Bedsores to the Bone”, Akurion vocalist Mike DiSalvo told us the following:

“I had been thinking a lot about the months, weeks, days and minutes spent before you die. Sitting in a hospital room, contemplating about who will show up to say their obligatory goodbyes, for them to shed their own tears of both sympathy for the sick and thankfulness of their own fortunes. Fearing which nurse’s aide would come in and practice sticking 15 needles into your skin trying to find a vein and turning you into black and blue stew. As the great Townes Van Zandt once poetically wrote, ‘just waitin’ around to die’.

“My perspective on this was based on witnessing many people I cared for who went through this same process, as we all do. At the time I wrote it, I had no idea what was in store for my family. This song became very poignant indeed with the learning of my wife’s illness, the last days we spent together in hospice, and ultimately her untimely death. Somehow this tune took on a life of its own and brought a pound of truth from an ounce of fiction. Rob went through it also with the passing of his Dad. I still get shivers reading these lyrics.”

All of that is one of the reasons why “Bedsores to the Bone”, the previous singles (including “Year of the Long Pig”), and the album as a whole, makes for a powerful listening experience that is eclectic and unique on a large scale and rewards your attention and desire for something fresh every time you hit play.

In my estimation, after numerous listens, I have no doubt that Come Forth to Me will be one of the most original and multi-faceted death metal albums I’ll hear all year. I urge you to check out “Bedsores to the Bone”, which we’re premiering today — and we’re also revealing a bass-and-guitar play-through video for the track.

You can pre-order Akurion’s Come Forth to Me HERE. You can follow the group over on the Akurion Facebook Page.

AKURION is:
Mike DiSalvo – Vocals (Coma Cluster Void, ex-Cryptopsy)
Rob Milley – Guitars (Neuraxis, Necrotic Mutation)
Oli Pinard – Bass (Cryptopsy, Cattle Decapitation, Neuraxis, Vengeful)
Tommy McKinnon – Drums (Conflux, ex-Neuraxis & ex-Augury)