SEEN AND HEARD: WAKE, TEMPLE OF VOID, NIHILO, THUMOS, BASTIONS, CRUST

 

It’s another Bandcamp Friday today, when a bigger share of the money you spend on that platform goes to the artists and labels. So I made an extra effort to pull together a roundup of new songs and videos, even though I don’t have time to make it as extensive as I’d like. Here’s what caught my eyes and ears over the last 24 hours — and I’ll have more stuff to recommend on Saturday.

WAKE (Canada)

I’m starting with a new song and video for “Swallow the Light“, a track off these NCS-favorites’ new album Thought Form Descent. Its slashing and searing chords, electrifying drumwork, and torrid vocals will get your blood pumping, even as it creates moods of anguish, fear, confusion, and derangement. Often white-hot in its intensity, it will also give your neck a good workout.

Wake do not disappoint. They can be expected to continue evolving and to reach new heights with each new release, and with this song it sounds like they’ll do so again. The new album is set for release by Metal Blade on July 22nd.

https://wakegrind.bandcamp.com/album/thought-form-descent
https://www.metalblade.com/wake/
https://www.facebook.com/wakeyyc

 

 

TEMPLE OF VOID (U.S.)

Detroit’s Temple of Void also have a new album headed our way, one entitled Summoning the Slayer. The second advance track dropped yesterday, and it’s my second pick for today’s roundup.

“Hex, Curse, & Conjuration” is its name, and it’s a sinister menace that builds into a jolting, swarming, and roaring assault of savagery, while preserving that aura of eerie peril. It also locks into a pile-driving groove, so be prepared to move your addled noggin’.

The album is set for release by Relapse Records on June 3rd.

https://templeofvoid.bandcamp.com/album/summoning-the-slayer
https://orcd.co/templeofvoid-sts
https://www.facebook.com/TempleOfVoid/

 

 

NIHILO (Switzerland)

Next up we have a new video for a song off this Swiss band’s fourth album Resolution, which was released this past February by Iron, Blood and Death Corporation.

The track is “Chaos Within“, and it’s well-named. Launched by start-stop bullet-spitting bursts, it takes off in a torrent of maniacal riffing and howling vocal vitriol. Those jolting bursts reappear, along with slashing chords, crazed soloing, and imperious melodic motifs. It doesn’t last long, but long enough to keep your adrenaline in high gear.

https://ironbloodanddeath.bandcamp.com/album/resolution
https://ibdclabel666.bigcartel.com/product/nihilo-resolution
https://www.facebook.com/nihilometal

 

 

THUMOS (U.S.)

Thumos are returning with a new album named The Course of Empire that’s pegged for release on July 4th through Snow Wolf Records. Conceptualized as a musical recreation of the Thomas Cole painting series “The Course of Empire”, it’s a collaboration with “prog-electronic storyteller” spaceseer, and the first sign of those efforts is an advance track named “Arcadian“.

A longer than average song, it takes us on a trip. Mystical and mysterious at first, it begins to transform into a towering edifice of fear and then explodes in a ravishing attack of furiously battering percussion, swaths of incendiary riffing, and the ring of a lead guitar that’s pure sorcery. There’s an ebb in the torrent that takes the music in beguiling directions, and the bass work in that interlude is wonderful.

The music rings and rumbles again in electrifying fashion, with the melodic lead soaring over an earthquake, building into a maelstrom of searing chords and off-the-chain drumming, but the song’s glorious central melody continues to burrow ever-deeper into the mind. Stupendous stuff!

https://thumos.bandcamp.com/album/the-course-of-empire-thumos-spaceseer
https://snowwolfrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-course-of-empire

 

 

BASTIONS (UK)

Next up is a song called “Acres of Love“, but don’t expect anything gooey or sappy. This track is a burly, bruising, and unnerving experience. It’s capable of punching you so hard your fillings will loosen, and the discordance of the melody and the screaming intensity of the vocals will bring trauma to your comfort zones. Get some body armor on now, and have sedatives at hand for later.

The song is off the band’s new album Majestic Desolation, which will be out on July 29th via Church Road Records.

https://bastions.bandcamp.com/album/majestic-desolation
https://bfan.link/acres-of-love
https://www.facebook.com/bstns

 

 

CRUST (Russia)

We’ve been banging the drum for this Russian band for a while now, and have a new chance to do so, thanks to a single released a couple days ago.

“Until Our Swords Get Blunt” is a high-intensity and highly addictive affair. The bludgeoning drums, vicious tremolo’d riffing, and scalding vocals make the music as mean as a junk-yard dog surging against its leash, and then the rabid beast gets free and charges in a flurry of hammering percussion and feverishly pulsing chords. Whirring tones of misery course through the battering and burning torrent, and the mood of agony and anguish deepens when the stampede relents and a guitar solo wails, backed by sounds of tragic grandeur.

This new song is from the album Wanderers, which will be released on vinyl in autumn 2022 via Rotting Misery.

https://crustband.bandcamp.com/album/until-our-swords-get-blunt
https://www.facebook.com/crustsludge