SEEN AND HEARD: ENTROPIA, WILD BEYOND, VANISHMENT, THE GRIFTED, MOROKH

As you can see, I was able to finish Part 2 of a mid-week roundup of new songs and videos that began here. Finish it I did, and I’m pretty happy with the musical twists and turns it will take you on, but I’ve still had to hurry a bit more than I’d like to get it wrapped up. Please leave typo corrections in the Comments.

ENTROPIA (Poland)

I’ve already written here about “Retox“, the first single from Entropia’s new album Total, and now there’s another one out in the world. This one is named “Final“.

Prepare to be seduced by intriguingly warped melodies that are both glittering and dissonant, a mercurial but bone-vibrating bass, larynx-lacerating screams, and whip-crack drums. The mood also grows darker and more grim, as well as more nerve-racking and unsettling, but a feeling of fire-borne resilience fights through. Another fascinating track from an always-adventuruous band.

http://entropia-total.pl/
https://orcd.co/24byyve
https://www.facebook.com/mourningentropia

 

 

WILD BEYOND (U.S.)

It’s impossible to resist checking out the music from any record that has Adam Burke‘s art on the cover, and so I did indeed check out “In the Footsteps of Mars” from this Philadelphia band’s self-titled debut album.

Prepare for rumbling and ravaging blackened thrash, but much more intricate and unpredictable in its maneuvers than much of what rips and races along under that genre banner. The music is vicious and ugly, but with a plethora of moving parts that are fascinating to follow. Thanks in part to weirdly mutating lead-guitar machinations, and all the rapid Rubic’s Cube twists and turns of the rhythm section, it also manages to create a bracing yet hallucinatory effect, and it becomes gloriously exhilarating as well. Definitely out of the ordinary….

Wild Beyond will be released on April 14th by Gates of Hell Records. The band’s lineup includes guitarist/vocalist Edward Gonet (Daeva, ex-Infernal Stronghold), drummer Evan Madden (ex-Woe and Woods of Ypees) and bassist/keyboardist/guitarist Jimmy Viola.

https://tinyurl.com/3uxwzuau
https://wildbeyond.bandcamp.com/album/wild-beyond

 

 

VANISHMENT (U.S.)

Now we’ll leap across the continent from Philly to the Seattle area and catch up with Vanishment and their new single “Door to Deceit“.

Prepare for the song’s ferocious pulse to kick your adrenaline loose while the vocalist screams old-school bloody murder in your face and the drums pop your vertebrae loose. The thing is brazen and blazing and catchy as chlamydia, with the kind of piston-pumping grooves of a freight train charging right outside your window, and some fast gallops in the mix too, plus big doses of glorious guitar fireworks.

This is unabashed old-school worship music — pulling inspiration from the likes of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, and Priest, and doing a damned fine job of it. The veteran lineup consists of vocalist Rob Ropkins (Deadly Light, North American Bison), guitarists Brian Johnson (Himsa, Trial) and Jeremy McAllister (Heiress, Wizards of Wor), bassist Nate Baker (Hell Promise, Formula One), and drummer Chris Wozniak (Lair Of The Minotaur, Earthen Grave).

The song is off Vanishment‘s new album No More Torture, due for release on March 5th hrough Dead Sage Records.

https://vanishment.bandcamp.com/album/no-more-torture
https://www.facebook.com/Vanishment.Seattle

 

 

THE GRIFTED (Sweden)

I continue to be very impressed and very pleased with how diverse the tastes of Personal Records are. Lots of labels are very well-defined in their genre affinities, but those of Personal Records range far and wide. With a forthcoming album by The Grifted, they’ve ranged into Swedish death metal that, while new, stays true to the sound of the early ’90s. Not such a shock, given that the members were previously in such groups as Treblinka, Tiamat, Septic Grave, and later Mr. Death. It was even engineered by Tomas Skogsberg at Sunlight Studio.

For this new song “Fractured“, which opens the album, prepare for massive, hard-charging chainsaw riffs; bursts of churning sandstorm guitar-chaos; rabid screams that scald; wild soloing that spirals sky-high; and the propulsion of punkish beats — plus a dose of fast-chugging groove that will get your head bobbing even harder. Veeery tasty…..

The song is from The Grifted’s new album Doomsday & Salvation, which will be released on April 7th.

https://personal-records.bandcamp.com/album/doomsday-salvation
https://www.facebook.com/thegrifted

 

 

MOROKH (Russia)

And now, to close this roundup, I have one more very big turn in the path of this collection, thanks to a new single from this formidable Russian band (whose latest album All the Darkness Looks Alive was reviewed here by Andy Synn).

“Omen” is the name of the new single. Prepare for music that heaves and churns, creating feelings of brooding and frenzy, but also includes clear magnetic guitar melodies that swirl and soar, along with spine-cracking drumwork, and torrid vocals that go low and scream high. The song manages to inflict jarring physical trauma, vocals of shattering emotional trauma, and melodic accents that are mystical and mesmerizing. That’s a lot to accomplish in less than 3 1/2 minutes.

https://morokh.bandcamp.com/album/omen-single
https://www.facebook.com/morokhband