When the Ukrainian black metal band Lava Invocator released their debut album Mörk in March 2017 Russia had already illegally “annexed” Crimea, and pro-Russian “separatists” had declared “independence” in the eastern region of Donbas, leading to persistent fighting that had killed thousands. But at that time Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was still five years away. Now, of course it is a brutal reality.
And it was in the midst of that brutal reality that Lava Invocator wrote and recorded their second album, and gave it a name inspired by what was happening around them and in the world at large: Signs Of Apocalypse.
You can imagine the harrowing destruction of modern warfare when listening to the album’s music, and you’d expect nothing less from a band named Lava Invocator. But their music is far more multi-faceted than that. There’s a fascinating dynamism in the songwriting, a compelling use of melody, and the generation of mood-changing atmosphere, not to mention a lot of attention-seizing instrumental inventiveness.
We have an excellent demonstration of all this in “Psycho-Terror Worldwide“, the song we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s April 20 co-release by Satanath Records (Georgia) and The Ritual Productions (Netherlands).
“Psycho-Terror Worldwide” is undeniably vicious, thanks to scorching vocal belligerence, riffs that harrow like a sleet-storm of razors, hammering drums, and a lava-like bass whose fascinating permutations repeatedly seize attention.
Yet the song is also strange and psychedelic (or perhaps psychotic), thanks to grumbling bass tones and the guitars’ eerily chiming emanations. And even in the midst of the song’s most brutalizing moments the music’s melodic currents surface in ways that sound desperate, and even forlorn. The vibrating chords and vivid bass lines seem to cry out in agony and grief, and the lead guitar seems to scream in madness.
At the end, when words are uttered in sinister tones, an atmosphere of gloom and mystery descends, simultaneously ominous and diabolically magical.
Signs Of Apocalypse will be released in a jewel-case CD edition (limited to 500 copies), with a 4-page booklet, and it’s available digitally as well. More info about that is accessible via the links below, and after those you’ll also find streams of two previously released songs from the album, the title track and “Welcome To Hell“.
PRE-ORDER INFO:
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat358-lava-invocator-signs-of-apocalypse-2023
https://www.facebook.com/theritual.prod/
LAVA INVOCATOR LINKS:
https://lavainvocator.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/lavainvocator.official