SEEN AND HEARD: SELBST, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT, EXITIUM SUI, DEEMTEE

 

This has been a weird week: Until now, I haven’t managed to assemble a single round-up of new music and videos. I have written a dozen premieres, some of those full albums or EPs, as well as getting other people’s writings ready to post, so it’s not as if I’ve been a complete slug. But even with all that, in a normal time I’d still manage to curate a collection or two of new things.

Instead, this week I’ve noticed that after mid-day I tend to fall into a malaise, and find it difficult to do much of anything except force myself to tend to the occasional demands of my increasingly not-very-demanding day job. I think I know why this is happening, and might explain it tomorrow. But for now I’ve roused myself enough to get this round-up completed before giving up again. I’m way behind and hope to do more tomorrow.

SELBST

In this first kaleidoscopic selection, you’ll be engulfed by riotous drumming and cascades of harrowing and blazing guitars, whose multi-textured sounds channel feelings of grim devastation and flashes of feral ebullience. The deep roaring vocals have a tormented countenance, and the dense sounds that surround them have a sweeping quality, creating a mixture of mayhem and extravagant brilliance.

 

 

The riffing writhes in turmoil and whirls in despair. A scintillating guitar bridge, punctuated by thumping bass notes and the jarring effect of percussive pounding, leads into the reverberation of majestic chords and boiling leads, and the harrowing sounds of a completely unhinged voice.

The song is “The Depths of Selfishness“, the first advance track from an album I’ve been eager to hear — Relatos De Angustia, the second full-length by the black metal band Selbst (born in Venezuela and now based in Chile). It will be released by Debemur Morti Productions on August 7th.

PRE-ORDER:
https://selbst.bandcamp.com/album/relatos-de-angustia

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT

The opening minutes of this next song (which is presented through a fascinating video) build tension and a feeling of fear, which mounts until a blend of heavy bass, sparkling guitar, battering drums, and shimmering keys create a feeling of hallucinatory menace. Deep, rough growls add to the music’s mind-warping effects, which become increasingly deranged through bursts of hyper-speed drumming, bubbling bass notes, and twisted, flickering arpeggios.

The music continually mutates, dissonantly screeching with delirious fervor, seductively rippling, wondrously chiming, and becoming cruelly threatening. It’s a mind-bending sonic labyrinth that ends in the bright sheen of organ chords.

The song is “Rotted Futures“, and it will appear on the new album Alphaville (there’s a very interesting old movie of the same name) by New York’s Imperial Triumphant, due for release by Century Media on July 31st. The eye-catching artwork is by Zbigniew M. Bielak.

PRE-ORDER:
https://bit.ly/3gDqBj8
https://bit.ly/2ZNAyUZ

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXITIUM SUI

“Eviscerate My Withered Soul“. That’s a plea I’ve been making lately, though I don’t know to whom. It’s also the name of this harrowing next song.

It begins with ominous booming drums with a ritualistic resonance and by moaning horns, accompanied by a deep, mind-gouging miasma of distorted chords and distant ghastly screams. The drums shift into a reverberating rhythmic crack as the guitar slashes and heaves and the voice becomes a blend of strangled snarls and eviscerating screams. Waves of febrile keys wash over frightening and increasingly crazed fanfares of melody and momentous drum blows. The tension mounts as the melody pulses and the gargantuan vocals issues their tormented proclamations — but the tension never breaks. The video is a match for the atmosphere of degradation and desperation in the music.

Exitium Sui is the solo project of Chris Gebauer, the vocalist of Australia’s Deadspace, who released their swan-song album earlier this year. I reviewed an earlier EP, Nuclear Sundown, here in March. This new song is from an upcoming full-length named Ad Personam. It was orchestrated, mixed, and mastered by Déhá. I haven’t seen a pre-order link yet.

(Thanks go to Andy Synn for pointing me in the direction of this new song.)

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

BANDCAMP:
https://exitiumsui.bandcamp.com/releases

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEEMTEE

And to conclude, here’s a drum play-through video for a song by the Spanish avant-garde black metal band dEEmtEE, whose debut album Flawed Synchronization with Reality was released in June of 2019. I reviewed and premiered that album here, and if you haven’t yet listened to it, I strongly urge you to do that soon. It was one of the most fascinating albums I heard last year.

The new song in this video isn’t identified, and there are no vocals, but it includes lots of interesting instrumental interplay. At the start you’ll hear a vibrant, syncopated drum rhythm, subtly murmuring bass, and an almost playful riff — a riff that twists itself further into dissonance and gloom before the drummer kicks his kit-steed into a gallop and the guitars begin to flicker and flare in a semblance of dementia. Further changes lie ahead, as the music morphs into a sound that’s both menacing and mesmerizing, and then devolves into madness

Thanks to Rennie of starkweather for leading me to this video. He wrote: “very Ved Buens Ende/Virus in terms of guitar work… oddball jazz chords in a black metal setting”.

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