SEEN AND HEARD: CONAN, EGO DEPTHS, CLOUD RAT, ESCUELA GRIND, NECRODEITY, BRAHMASTRIKA, ATMAHATYA, BLACK KNIFE, GRAVERIPPER

Today’s compilation presents a deluge of new songs and videos, so grab a life-preserver while there’s still time. You should probably continue wearing it, because I have plans for channeling another deluge tomorrow.

To get this done in the time available to me this morning, I’ve again dispensed with most of the cover art and have tried to be brief in my intros. But I did try to organize what’s coming in blocks of sound that companionably fit together, even though the blocks themselves collide with each other.

CONAN (U.K.)

I must begin with the new song and video from Conan (really, as an addict of this band I had no choice).

There’s a visit to a guitar store at the beginning of the video, but after a minute of that the primitive mid-paced bludgeoning begins — along with the oppressive moaning of the guitar, the bubbling and gouging of the bass, and the tormented wailing of the voice. Things get nightmarishly weird too, and then the tar pit sucks you into its suffocating maw.

According to Jon Davis, “Righteous Alliance” is “all about war, and the hopelessness of it”. “However,” he says, “a hero is coming and just as death is imminent, an unflinching saviour enters the fray and the day is saved, for now.” It’s from a new album named Evidence of Immortality, coming out on August 19th via Nuclear Blast.

https://lnk.to/Conan-EOI
https://www.facebook.com/hailconan

 

EGO DEPTHS (Canada)

As a companion (of sorts) to Conan‘s track, I chose a relatively brief “album sampler” released for a new album of ritualistic doom by Ego Depths. It’s just a collage of song excerpts, and I’m usually not a fan of such things, but this one was so scary it gave me goosebumps.

The album is entitled Elläkkairavertta, and it will be released on September 2nd by the Dusktone label.

https://dusktone.bandcamp.com/album/ell-kkairavertta
https://www.facebook.com/egodepths

 

 

CLOUD RAT (U.S.)

On stage, Madison Marshall rarely looks at the audience. She seems deep within herself, holding onto the place from which she can spray vocal napalm without distraction. You can’t really get a clear look at her (or her bandmates) through the distorted lens of this next video either, but you can feel the heat, and the battering, slashing savagery.

The song, “Inner Controller“, is off an album named Threshold, which will be released by Artoffact Records on October 7th.

https://cloudrat.bandcamp.com/album/threshold
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cloud-Rat/182492468498487

 

 

ESCUELA GRIND (U.S.)

Continuing with this female-fronted grind block, we have a video for “Cliffhanger” from Escuela Grind. Prepare to be furiously mauled and mangled, and to have your neck placed beneath a pile-driver. And then brutally stomped into jelly.

The song is from an album named Memory Theater, which will be available September 30.

http://www.memorytheater.co
https://www.facebook.com/escuelagrind/

 

 

NECRODEITY / BRAHMASTRIKA (India)

In metal circles the city of Kolkata has earned a reputation for unsettling musical violence, a reputation earned again by a new 7″ split named Praeternatural Commotions From Kolkata Maha Samshana.

In the first song, “Malignant Sempiternal Chaostotram (Pralayadoration)“, chanting voices yield to a maniacal convulsion of light-speed snare-work, corrosive riffing that bursts like a mangled siren, and bestial vocal barking.

The second song, “Circum-Sampurna Malevolent Yantram“, displays the nightmarish talents of Brahmastrika, who discharge a searing and frighteningly quivering blaze of sound above the pumping and pattering of the drums (which also erupt in crazed spasms) and hideous, cavernous growls.

Praeternatural Commotions… was released by Iron Bonehead on July 13th.

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/necrodeity-brahmastrika-praeternatural-commotions-from-kolkata-maha-samshana
https://www.facebook.com/KalikshetraRaktachakra

 

 

ATMAHATYA (India)

This “Kolkata block” continues with the opening track from a June 26th album released by Atmahatya. This death/groove song, “Andhaar Er Doshti Bochhor“, is a sonic war-zone. It delivers bone-smashing bass lines and start-stop bursts of mutilating percussion, coupled with feverish fretwork frenzies and imperious, gruesome gutturals. The band also bring in oozing tendrils of dismal melody and a spine-jolting breakdown, and end it with a jackhammering finale.

Eight more songs follow this one, just in case you didn’t have all your teeth knocked out by the first one.

https://atmahatyaofficial.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/atmahatyaofficial/

 

 

GRAVERIPPER / BLACK KNIFE (U.S.)

To close this big collection of new songs and videos I chose a pair of tracks from Faster Than the Fucking Devil, a forthcoming four-way split among Wraith, Black Knife, GraveRipper, and Unholy Night that’s collectively recommended for fans of Midnight, Motörhead, Bewitcher, and Sarcófago.

Kentucky’s Black Knife light off this two-track block with “Satanic Commander“, a fast, galloping attack in which the bass punches the pulse, the guitars blare, and the vocals come unhinged. There’s a break in the action, in which the pace slows and the music becomes an anthem of downfall, both undeniably bleak and yet somehow grand in its scale.

https://www.facebook.com/blackknifeband

 

That’s a tough song for anyone to follow, but Indiana’s GraveRipper are up to the challenge with “Mind Filled With Dread“, a high-octane hellfire riot of blackened speed metal. Backed by piston-like drums and fronted by berserker snarls and screams, the riffing rips and ravages, sweeps and soars, jolts and jars. In other words, the band pack a hell of a lot into a sub-four-minute track, and more than enough to get your blood pumping.

https://www.facebook.com/graveripperofficial

Faster Than the Fucking Devil is set for release by Wise Blood Records in a bunch of different formats on September 2nd.

https://wisebloodrecords.bandcamp.com/album/faster-than-the-fucking-devil