AN NCS PREMIERE: DEATH COURIER — “AS HEAVEN BLENDS WITH ROT”

 

The name Death Courier has a history in the Greek metal scene that goes back to the first of their early demos in 1987, and with an extended break that began after the release of their 1992 debut album (Demise), that name is still alive. Their first studio after the band revived, Perimortem, was released in 2013, and now a long seven years afterward Transcending Obscurity Records has set June 5th as the due date for Death Courier’s third record, Necrotic Verses.

The first song released for listening off the new album was “Mourning Ecstasy“. It’s a fast death/thrashing escapade — an electrifying torrent of thunderous drumming, ecstatically vicious riffing that seethes and pummels, and vocals that sound like a rabid mastiff. It’s over almost before you know it, but the kind of song that leaves you hungry for more, which is why it made a good choice for the album’s first teaser.

But now it’s time for all you miscreants to be fed again, and we’re here to help stuff your head with graveyard nutrients as we premiere a song that reveals other dimensions of Death Courier‘s morbid and malevolent talents.

 

This newest song, “As Heaven Blends With Rot“, is a multi-faceted piece of death metal nastiness. We must first give a big round of applause to Billy Soulas‘ head-moving bass line and the gun-shot snare-and-tom work of Ilias Iliopoulos at the outset of the song. Their teamwork immediately sets up rhythmic resonance with the listener’s head, and that skull-bobbing momentum continues when the pulsating and swirling riffery of George Petousis arrives, lending a lively yet ghoulish feeling to this menacing death revelry.

The drum battery continues to have its way with your reptile brain, and the swarming guitar work that emerges sounds reptilian itself, though it becomes less vibrantly serpentine and more crazed, while Billy‘s guttural vocals bark and snarl like a savage pit-bull that’s the size of a horse. It’s a damned exciting song, but reaches a pinnacle of thrills in a shrieking and supernatural dual-guitar solo before a galloping race to the finish line that’s loaded with skittering, mind-scissoring fretwork.

 

Transcending Obscurity recommends Necrotic Verses for fans of Malevolent Creation, early Morbid Angel, Slayer, early Death, Morgoth, Asphyx, Obituary, Vader, and Skeletal Remains.

The haunting cover art was crafted by the hand of Misanthropic Art (Trench Warfare, Xpus), and the layout for the album was created by Turkka G. Rantanen (Paganizer, Revolting).

Transcending Obscurity will release the album on CD and digitally, along with related merch, and you should go here to take a look at those and place your orders:

PRE-ORDER:
https://deathcouriergreece.bandcamp.com/

DEATH COURIER:
https://facebook.com/Death-Courier-423460954403378/

TRANSCENDING OBSCURITY:
http://tometal.com/
http://facebook.com/transcendingobscurityrecords/