SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (TOO MANY NAMES TO PUT IN THIS TITLE, AGAIN)

 

The usual torrent of new music continued this past week, culminating in the expected high tide on Friday. Harried by my day job, I couldn’t keep up with what happened yesterday, though my compatriot DGR did, and he again funneled a lot of the new stuff my way. Five of the selections you’ll find below came from him, though I did manage to add eight more advance tracks that I scoped out this morning, to create a lucky 13.

As in other instances of gigantic round-ups such as this one, it includes a lot of bigger names, but I’ve infiltrated some lesser-knowns. It’s like putting out honey to attract flies, and then hoping something they weren’t expecting bites them. Welcome aboard flies! Here we go in alphabetical order:

1914 (Ukraine)

It’s exciting to see an underground favorite such as 1914 (whom we’ve been writing about since their early days) getting picked up by a big label such as Napalm, for the simple reason that it will expose their prodigious talents to a wider audience. The fact that Nick Holmes makes a guest appearance on the song/video that leads off this collection will help as well.

The lyrics you’ll see in the video for “…And A Cross Now Marks His Place“, delivered in vicious snarls that briefly veer into singing, were taken directly from a handwritten letter sent by a British officer during World War I to the mother of soldier who died in action, left unburied in a soldier’s grave, “another victim of the massacre between Empires” (to quote the band). The music is grim, desparate, harrowing, furious, and (in keeping with the subject matter) unremittingly bleak in all its phases.

From the album Where Fear And Weapons Meet, in which all the songs are based on historical events, set for release by Napalm on October 22nd.

https://smarturl.it/1914-WFAWM
https://www.facebook.com/1914band

 

 

THE ABSENCE (US)

The next song isn’t new, but the animated video is, and it’s a fascinating thing to watch (credit for it goes to Tony Simone at ZenBeast Media) as the music kick-starts your pulse and keeps it racing, even though it includes eerie and ominous fluid melodies within the blazing gallop.

“Faith in Uncreation” is the closing track from the band’s most recent album Coffinized, which was released in June by M-Theory Audio.

https://theabsenceofficial.bandcamp.com/album/coffinized
https://www.facebook.com/theabsenceofficial

 

 

ABORTED (Belgium)

To quote DGR: “New Aborted video for the round-up party over the weekend, tries to be funny given the current times, very sophomoric, I kind of roll my eyes at any sort of vaccine jokes so seeing a Magneto crack followed by something making fun of Epstein shit made me groan. Song’s fun though”.

The song definitely is fun, and I thought the video was fun too, but of course a little creepy since we all know there are people out there who believe some of the nonsense you’ll see in the headlines, which I guess might have been the point. Aimed&Fraimed gets credit for the visuals.

The track is the title song from ManiaCult, which will be out on September 10th courtesy of Century Media.

https://abortedband.lnk.to/ManiaCultID
https://www.facebook.com/Abortedofficial

 

 

CENTENARY (US)

As a persistent fan of this Detroit-area chainsaw-metal band, I was happy to receive a Bandcamp alert that they’ve got a sophomore album on the way, and the next track is the first one revealed from it.

“Liquefied Rot” is a high-powered, high-speed rampage interspersed with episodes of neck-ruining chugs and accented by slithering, squirming, and freaked-out lead-guitar machinations and a cornucopia of gruesome and grotesque vocals, all of which sound insane. It’s the kind of macabre musical horror show that, thanks to its visceral energy, simultaneously gets your heart pumping harder.

The song is from Death… The Final Frontier, due for release on September 10th by CDN Records.

https://centenary.bandcamp.com/album/death-the-final-frontier
https://www.facebook.com/detroitchainsawmetal

 

 

CHURCHBURN (US)

Cvlt Nation had the premiere of this next song by a band whose music many of us here greatly admire. The song is “Swallowed By Dust” and it’s presented through a transfixing and viscerally frightening video made by Chariot Of Black Moth.

Unsurprisingly, the song is a heavy and harrowing experience, turbulent and tormented, skull-crushing and emotionally unnerving. The extended guitar solo is as enthralling as it is haunted, but afterward the song becomes even more terrifying and apocalyptic.

From the band’s third album Genocidal Rite, which drops on November 5th via Translation Loss.

https://orcd.co/genocidalrite
https://www.facebook.com/CHURCHBURNDOOM

 

 

EXODUS (US)

This next video, which combines news footage and a graphic portrayal of beatings and torture by agents of the state, isn’t for the faint of heart. In fact, it’s age-restricted and so you’ll have to go to YouTube to see it. The message is just as in-your-face. The music will get your motor running and provides a cathartic discharge for the anger.

From the new Exodus album Persona Non Grata, due for release on November 19th by Nuclear Blast.

https://exodusattack.com/site/
https://www.facebook.com/exodusattack

 

 

EXTREME COLD WINTER (Netherlands)

This trio of Dutch metal veterans, fronted by Pim Blankenstein from Officium Trieste, are returning with a debut album of death/doom after a debut EP in 2015. The first song revealed from it, “Animals In Wintertime“, is an earth-shaking, soul-scavenging march, tremendously bleak in its grief-stricken moods. Blankenstein‘s abyssal growls are spine-tingling, and the dismal main riff, in all its variations, is as much of an ear-worm as it is a tremendously haunting hymn of desolation, which synths elevate to an experience of tragic grandeur.

From the album World Exit, set for release by Hammerheart Records on October 15th.

https://extremecoldwinterhhr.bandcamp.com/album/world-exit
https://www.facebook.com/Extreme.Cold.Winter

 

 

HATE (Poland)

Every time Hate return with a new album, it spawns a bit of intrigue in these quarters, a bit of curiosity about what they’ve done to tweak and twist their well-established brand of black/death metal. In the first advance track below, the music quickly generates a sinister and occult atmosphere, a layering of tension and peril. That feeling of frightening menace persists even after the band surge into a savage assault and a solo kicks it into a seizure. Increasingly frenzied and delirious, the song builds and builds upon a feeling of fear.

The song is the title track from Hate’s new album Rugia, which features new drummer Nar-Sil (Neolith, Virgin Snatch, Embrional). It will be released by Metal Blade on October 15th.

http://www.metalblade.com/hate
https://www.facebook.com/HATEOFFICIAL

 

 

INFERI (US)

Decibel premiered the next video for the title track off Inferi’s newest album. The eerie and menacing opening of the song turns out to make a nice segue from that song by Hate, and the sweeping keyboards carry the feeling forward even as the band begin jolting your neck and kicking your heart into overdrive with a panoply of scintillating guitar flourishes and rabid, fast-paced vocal duets of beastly origin. (You’ll have a chance to catch your breath before the song ends, when it casts a seductive spell….)

Vile Genesis will be released by The Artisan Era on September 10th.

https://ffm.to/inferi.oyd
https://www.facebook.com/Inferimetal

 

 

LASCAR (Chile)

Now, with yet another selection by yours truly, this round-up turns in considerably darker directions, even though you might not immediately guess that from the song title alone. A little further contemplation about the title, particularly in the context of the music, reveals the shadows.

This new single, “Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids“, is a combination of bleak, abrasive riffing and shimmering, heart-broken synths, of stately drumbeats and blistering blasts. The terrorizing vocals and feverishly rippling leads add to the feeling of delirium that erupts like a volcano of pain. The emotionally ruinous intensity of both the music and the vocals is shattering, but they chained me in place, unable to escape.

https://lascar.bandcamp.com/track/nip-the-buds-shoot-the-kids-single
https://www.facebook.com/lascarmusic

 

 

LIFEBLOOD (Japan)

Falling deeper into darkness, I’ve followed Lascar’s track with one from the forthcoming second album by the depressive doom-shrouded Japanese band Lifeblood. The music is unmistakably hopeless, melding raw sounds of distortion, skull-crushing rhythms, and gleaming, grieving, gossamer-light chords, as well as cavernous roars and gargoyle shrieks. A gravel-throated bass gets a chance to rise, clawing at the mind in its own way, and when the pace picks up, heads will move.

This is the title track to Lifeblood’s second album Melancholic Euphoria, which is set for release by Weird Truth Productions on September 19th.

https://weirdtruth.jp/releases/wt070.html
https://www.facebook.com/Lifeblood.jpn

 

 

OBSCURA (Germany)

To quote DGR again: “New Obscura song out there and it is the title track from the new disc. Never would’ve guessed I’d hear an Obscura song open with ‘let’s go!’ but its 2021 and the world is fire. Even though both this one and ‘Solaris’ before it jam-pack the song with guitar shred, check out how much emphasis they put on the bass in this one”.

From A Valediction, set for release on November 19th by Nuclear Blast.

https://bfan.link/Obscura
https://www.facebook.de/realmofobscura

 

 

VOMIT SPELL (Germany)

Well, we made it to V, though we haven’t left Germany. To conclude I chose “Necrotonic“, a track off this death/grind band’s self-titled debut album, set for release by FDA Records on October 19th. It is indeed a tonic for the necro’s among you.

This one is a neck-snapping, gut-gouging juggernaut of death metal that becomes increasingly crazed, in both the snarling madness of the vocals and the roiling feeding-frenzy of the riffing.

https://fda-records.com/de/vomit-spell-vomit-spell-cd-t-shirt-bundle-spezialpreis-29-10-2021.html
https://www.facebook.com/vomitspell