SEEN AND HEARD: ANTICHRIST SIEGE MACHINE, BOTANIST, COUCH SLUT, DEEMTEE, MASTIFF, THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT

At one time or another almost everyone has found themselves in this situation: You’re starving but too broke or incapacitated to go out and buy food so you throw together shit from your fridge or pantry that no one in their right mind would think belong together but you’re not in your right mind because you’re starving and broke or incapacitated and you devour what you made, consequences be damned.

At the moment I’m not starving, broke, or incapacitated, but the remembered scenario above might still fit the stew of sounds I compiled today, consequences be damned. At least none of this stuff is past its “sell by” date.

 

ANTICHRIST SIEGE MACHINE (U.S.)

Two people do not an army make, unless they are the two in ASM. In the opening song in today’s collection, the drums spit bullets at an overheating rate of speed, the riffing scathes as if mechanized hornets are swarming, and the vocals scream murder most foul. And then their battalion marches with imperious cruelty, the briefest of pauses before their warzone hell breaks loose again.

The song is “Sisera“. It’s from ASM‘s new album Vengeance Of Eternal Fire, due out on April 19th from Profound Lore.

https://antichristsiegemachine.bandcamp.com/album/vengeance-of-eternal-fire
https://www.antichristsiegemachine.com/
https://www.facebook.com/antichristsiegemachine

 

 

BOTANIST (U.S.)

Mystic chimes seem to swirl in the glittering hammered dulcimer tones of “Aristolochia“, and soaring vocals prove equally mesmerizing, though the groovesome rhythms and the percussive outbursts will kick your muscles into movement while the other spells take hold.

Other sounds buzz, musical ants busily feeding, and ragged growls want to feed too, but the liveliness of the bass sounds gleeful about the head-spinning spectacle it’s witnessing.

Those are my conceptions. Here’s what the song is really about (via Otrebor): “There are hundreds of species of pitcher plant, but the one that this song is about has been around since the Cretaceous period. It’s not a coincidence that it’s the biggest one, too (the name is Aristolochia gigantea). Giant creatures and giant plants went together!”

The song is from Botanist‘s new album Paleobotany, due for release by Prophecy Productions on May 17th.

http://lnk.spkr.media/botanist-paleobotany
https://www.facebook.com/Verdant.Realm.Botanist

 

 

COUCH SLUT (U.S.)

Lots of interesting looking personages in this next video, along with lots of filthy but narcotic riffing, bone-chewing bass lines, neck-snapping beats, shrill lead-guitar convulsions, and acid screams. It might get your leg bouncing. It might stir-fry your brain too.

“Ode to Jimbo” is from Couch Slut‘s new album You Could Do It Tonight. Brutal Panda Records plans to release it on April 15th. The song’s name is based on the Brooklyn watering hole Jimbo Slim’s, which is vocalist Megan Osztrosits‘ favorite bar and the place where the video was filmed. So it’s really a love song.

https://www.brutalpandarecords.com/collections/couch-slut
https://orcd.co/couchslut
https://linktr.ee/couch.slut
https://www.facebook.com/couchslut

 

 

DEEMTEE (Spain)

If you haven’t listened to Deemtee‘s December 2023 album Strange Aeons & Deliriums, you should. If you need more fulsome encouragement you could read my review which accompanied our full-album premiere here, or you could watch and listen to the new video for “Forbidden Fumes” from that album, even though it’s just one facet of an extremely multi-faceted record.

I’ll borrow from what I wrote before about the song: As “Forbidden Fumes” begins, a guitar dances like a lively sprite, the bass transmits a jazzy pulse with a fretless tones, and NHT continues to deploy his excellent singing voice, adding to the song’s engaging aura.

As that song proceeds, the music spins up into greater extravagance through a glorious guitar solo, and then NHT‘s soaring and somber singing begins to sound more demented, the music more jolting, the drumming more rambunctious, the surrounding music more… deliriously glittering. It becomes a fascinating dream, with a truly head-spinning crescendo.

The video is very cool too, as much of an extravaganza for the eyes as the song is for the ears.

https://deemtee.bandcamp.com/album/strange-aeons-deliriums
https://www.facebook.com/Deemteeblackmetal

 

 

MASTIFF (UK)

I can hear newcomers to our site complaining: “WTF! There’s been clean singing in these songs!” Not that I really care. Those imagined complaints have absolutely nothing to do with my choice of this next song. It’s pure coincidence that the vocals in “Void” are as bleeding raw as roadburn.

For a time the drums here might make you think think you’re on the back of a galloping thoroughbred, and the riffing might make you think there are weirdly wailing goblins on your back digging their claws into your shoulders.

And then your steed seems to collapse. You go head over heels but come up bouncing with the new grooves, and then into quicksand you go, feeling the abrading grit of the guitars sucking you under while the screams continue with harrowing intensity, lest any part of that larynx be left un-ruined.

“Void” is from Mastiff‘s new album Deprecipice. It will be released on March 22nd by MNRK Heavy.

https://mastiff.ffm.to/deprecipice.OYD
https://www.facebook.com/mastiffhchc

 

 

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT (Netherlands)

With our long history slavishly lapping at the feet of The Monolith Deathcult, you didn’t really think we’d overlook the fact that they have a new album coming out or that they’ve released its title track, did you? Perish the thought!

What have they done this time? We can’t draw too many profound conclusions from just one song, especially because TMDC aren’t prone to making everything on their albums sound just alike. What we can say from this title song is that you’d better fucking duck and cover.

Cannonades roar from the drumwork, and grooves come down like pile-drivers or air-burst detonations. The riffing discharges deranged darting fevers and gloriously blaring chords, like Hell’s own orchestra driven by the whip, but with exotically swirling and swaying melodies in the mix.

The words well up from guttural depths and explode into wolfish howls or growl like a feeding crocodile. Other tones flicker like firelight, squirm like maggots made of gold, and spasm in frantic bursts. Bombastic, brazen, baroque, and bizarre, the song is waaaay over the top, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Like the song, the album is named The Demon who makes Trophies of Men. It has a release date of April 5th on Human Detonator Records.

https://monolith-deathcult.bandcamp.com/track/the-demon-who-makes-trophies-of-men
http://www.facebook.com/monolithdeathcult