SEEN AND HEARD: ALUSTRIUM, FLUISTERAARS, JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS, SERMON OF FLAMES, SEEDS OF PERDITION, SHED

 

If a blogger like me could pull together roundups of recommended new music on a daily basis, it would be a lot easier to keep my head above the constantly rising musical tides. But sadly I don’t have enough time for that, and so I wind up doing things like this and this as the week ends and the weekend begins. Which is to say that what you’re about to embark on has become a rarity — a roundup early in the week. And this one, again arrangd alphabetically, turns out to be a real roller-coaster ride. Enjoy!

ALUSTRIUM (US)

The lead-off item is a new video (with a message) for a song that’s a head-spinner, one that melds barking growls and caustic screams, darting symphonics and scintillating drumwork, feelings of jolting hostility and jittery tension, a jazz-like interlude, and abundant flurries of flickering and fret-leaping guitar. Deep drilling tones give the music a cold, grim, and desolate mood as the song draws to a tragic and haunting end.

This is from the album A Monument to Silence, which was released in June by Unique Leader.

https://uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-monument-to-silence
https://www.facebook.com/Alustrium

 

 

FLUISTERAARS (Netherlands)

Immediately the drums hurtle, a voice scathes the senses with torrid snarls and sky-high yells, and the music soars and scintillates. Those vibrating panoramic sounds are bursting with fiery energy, but a gleaming and enticing tonal spirit wails and beckons through the blazing tumult and then quivers in electrifying fashion above a murmuring bass and pounding tom drums. The glittering, celestial aura of the music is intoxicating, even though the vocals are shattering, but the song ends nightmarishly, in a way that will put your teeth on edge and leave a wet chill on your skin.

“Brand woedt in mijn graf” is from the eagerly anticipated album Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking, set for release on August 27th by Eisenwald.

https://fluisteraars.bandcamp.com/album/gegrepen-door-de-geest-der-zielsontluiking
https://www.facebook.com/Fluisteraars

 

 

JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS (US)

The drumming in the next song is riotously tumultuous, in contrast to the mystical but menacing shine of the stratospheric synths and the perilous feverishness of the guitars. The song has a pronounced theatrical quality, which comes through not only in the feelings of dread induced by the haunted organ-like chords and the lunacy transmitted by calliope-like arpeggios but also in the call-and-response of the adamant barking growls and the extravagant screams and cries in the vocal department. The music generates a thoroughly diabolical atmosphere as it twists and turns….

From the album Infinite Universe Infinite Death, set for release on September 10th.

https://journeyintodarkness-us.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/JourneyIntoDarkness/

 

 

SERMON OF FLAMES (Ireland)

Next up is a mauling, mind-mangling discharge of extremity. Horrid roaring and maniacally yells accompany constantly mutating fretwork, breathtakingly destructive percussive assaults, and unpredictably varying tempos. Dissonance and discord reign, as the music screams, yowls, and lacerates. It’s all exhilarating, though completely berserk.

This is the first single from I Have Seen The Light, And It Was Repulsive, an album that will be released by I, Voidhanger Records on September 3rd.

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/i-have-seen-the-light-and-it-was-repulsive

 

 

SEEDS OF PERDITION (US)

You know what time it is? It’s time to thrash your reproductive organs off, thanks to the hard-charging, head-wrecking, hormone-pumping new song by this Philadelphia band. They do briefly ease up on the gas in order to present an exotically slithering guitar solo and a dose of darting fretwork to go along with savagely braying vocals and pummeling drums.

From the album Suffering Of The Dead, which will be released by HPGD Productions on September 10th.

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/suffering-of-the-dead
https://www.facebook.com/seedsofperdition

 

 

SHED (US)

How could I resist investigating a metal band that boasts electric cello, trombone, bass trombone, and tenor and baritone saxophones in their instrumental line-up? Obviously, I couldn’t.

What the band do with those instruments in “Pus of Man“, in the company of boisterously battering drums and spine-slugging bass, is simply wild. They create an intriguing cacophony of brawling, blurting, and brazen sounds with an almost improvisational quality, compiling richly embroidered sensations of ebullient mania and marauding mayhem — but joining together just enough to keep this roller-coaster ride from completely leaping off the rails.

The second song below, “The Shadow of Totality” is somewhat more restrained, creating hallucinatory moods of mystery and menace. You’ll still feel the rhythm section in your gut and spine, but the rest of the instruments induce a kind of narcotic trance as they twist, turn, and mutate. The track’s mid-section really gets deep into the weed (not weeds), setting the stage for a languid and luxurious saxophone solo, eventually joined by other brass instruments that make the experience even more magical (as in mushrooms). When the music gradually ramps up again, the instrumental interplay is completely enthralling (and increasingly mad).

I found both songs below to be thrilling. Both are from this Chicago band’s self-titled debut album, set for release on August 19th.

https://shed-official.bandcamp.com/releases
http://facebook.com/shedofficial