Here’s the way today’s collection of music goes: The first four choices include two albums and two singles that I thought fit well together. The music by all four bands is unmistakably harsh and hostile, but it’s also adventurously inventive and head-twisting, laced with the kind of unpredictable and unexpected elaborations that might invoke in some people’s minds the amorphous label “avant-garde”, or at least the term “unorthodox”.
After that I’ve included four other individual songs as bonuses. Later I’ll explain why I used that word to explain their presence here, if you make it that far (and you damn well should).
MISOTHEIST (Norway)
To begin, I have Misotheist‘s new album Vessels by which The Devil is Made Flesh, which was released by Terratur Possessions on the last day of February. As they did on their first two remarkable albums, Misotheist have included some very long pieces on this new one, with the third of the three nearing the 20-minute mark.
Beyond the sheer length of the compositions, they aren’t the kind of songs you can fully absorb by listening to them just once. Instead, they reveal more details the more you listen to them, and The Devil really is in the details here.
The layered guitars, well-defined in the production, create episodes of sinister sorcery capable of creating chilling visions, dervish-like whirls in which you can imagine the delirious participants levitating with their eyes rolled back in their heads, violent convulsions of blazing and blaring splendor, and daunting yet still wondrous panoramas of death expanding to the horizon. In the midst of the longest song, slowly meandering keys and scratchy notes also create a seductive but perilous dream.
Backing all that, but quite prominently, Misotheist‘s rhythm section brings in plenty of punchy grooves and head-rattling flurries, and in front of it are vocals as ugly and enraged as a bloody-mouthed beast maniacally warning you away from its kill lest your throat be ripped out next, as well as (briefly but notably) a quavering voice that sings high and shivers the skin.
With each release Misotheist raise the bar for themselves and for many other bands, and now have done it again. This stupendous new album makes me wonder how the hell they could top it, but I sure hope they will try.
https://terraturpossessions.bandcamp.com/album/vessels-by-which-the-devil-is-made-flesh
DEATHLIKE DAWN (Poland)
The next full-length I picked to recommend today is Among the Graves of the Archetypes, the second album by the Polish band Deathlike Dawn (the solo work of Hyperborean this time, with session lead vocals by J.). It was released by the band and by Putrid Cult on February 27th.
Not having heard the first Deathlike Dawn album, I didn’t know what to expect before listening to the first song, but the first song hooked me and reeled me in for the full ride. “A Monument I Shall Raise in Flame” is a jaw-dropper from the very beginning, as the guitars blare like the pulse of a siren and then warp and wail, joined by a vocal convocation of demon beasts.
The sound of the guitars is so piercing and intense, yet so frighteningly hallucinatory, that you might barely even notice the impressive dynamism of the bass and drums. And as mentioned at the outset of this column, the music’s riveting mutations are elaborate.
With a song like that at the opening of the gates, you might well wonder whether the band can continue meeting its high standard — but they do. Every one of the remaining songs is its own well-plotted adventure across a constantly changing soundscape, every one of them with its own signal features lying in wait, whether it be the flute-like wail that infuses the grim passage across the Styx named “Plutonic Ether“, the horn-like fanfares that accompany the blood-lusting war-delirium of “Forked Tongues of Eternal Fire“, or the strange harmony of ethereal keys and abrasive guitar spasms that launches “Darkly Treads the Twilight” and the gleaming arpeggios that follow (before sonic wildfires run before the wind).
The moods of the music change as often as the instrumental maneuvers, and so “In Tenebrous Depths, a Transfiguration” sounds very much like what its title portends, an experience of agony bordering on derangement, like a hideous ritual, but one that leads to chilling celestial splendor as the pinging keys arrive, while “Dew and Blood” pitches the music toward a plateau of hellish and haunting magnificence, again marked (like all the songs) with dire yet gripping melodies and in this case with a stunning solo too.
In a word, the whole album is stunning. Makes me wonder whether I could have seen this coming if I’d listened to Deathlike Dawn‘s first album. I will definitely find out.
https://deathlikedawn.bandcamp.com/album/among-the-graves-of-the-archetypes
https://www.putridcult.pl/deathlike-dawn-among-the-graves-of-the-archetypes-cd-pre-order-p-7160.html
https://www.facebook.com/deathlike.dawn
GLYPH (U.S.)
I’ve been fascinated by everything this solo project has created so far, and have done my best to help spread the word through other writings, but Glyph is still a band that far too few people know about, even with the previous backing of such labels as Fiadh Productions, Snow Wolf Records, and WereGnome Records. So I will keep banging the drum, and today I have something new to bang on about. The occasion is a March 1 single named “Where He Wandered, Now He Lies.”
The first thing that seizes attention in this song is the beautifully murmuring bass melody that opens it in tantalizing fashion against a rolling backdrop haze of glittering guitar abrasion. The second thing are Glyph‘s fanatical vocals, which always seize attention; the crazed screams and wild cries here send shivers down the spine.
But the music doesn’t relinquish its grip either, continuing to proceed through phases both marauding and mesmerizing, both kicking adrenaline into high gear and beguiling the mind, with some jolting flurries in the mix for added thrills. And you’ll be happy to know that Glyph reprises the fantastic opening phase before the song ends. I’d have been happy if that had gone on for minutes more. It’s so damned alluring and so damned catchy….
https://keeperoftheglyph.bandcamp.com/album/where-he-wandered-now-he-lies
https://www.instagram.com/keeperoftheglyph/
DARK PLAGUE (France)
I jumped on the Dark Plague bandwagon plague-wagon with their fourth album Be More or Fade Away, which was released in 2019. They now have a fifth one named The Threshold of Death which is slated for release on April 14th by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Fetzner Death Records (Germany). For the new one, the band’s core trio enlisted Kévin Paradis (Benighted, Mithridatic) as session drummer.
One song from the new album, “Beyond the Threshold of Death“, is streaming now. Fans of high-speed percussive pyrotechnics will find the song worthwhile, as another sign (as if more were needed) of Kévin Paradis‘ talents. But that’s far from the only reason to embrace the song.
Like Glyph‘s song above, this one features an alluring bass line at the outset, and an even more alluring riff that rings, one that’s both sinister and glorious. And then you may be startled (though less startled now) that a solemn singing voice arises, but it’s one that morphs into scalding goblin-screams and beastly snarls.
As the song proceeds, its key motifs burrow deeper into the listener’s head, but the band also switch them, altering the tempo and the moods, with a rapidly flickering lead that accelerates the movement into delirium, propelled further by hyper-speed drumming and the frantic immensity of the bass. And the band give you a chance to bob your head and shake your leg before the end too, and to spin around a bonfire with all the levitating witches.
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat368-dark-plague-the-threshold-of-death-2024
https://darkplague.bandcamp.com/album/the-threshold-of-death
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064130074753
BONUSES
To complete this week’s Sunday roundup of charred music I picked four new songs to spin out in rapid succession. I called them bonuses because I didn’t think I would have time to write about them, and so decided not to include them, and then humbled myself enough to understand that my words are really never essential, and certainly of secondary importance to making choices and providing the music streams. So, the words of my impressions will be somewhat fewer in number.
So, here are the songs. And unlike most things the advertising industry calls a “bonus”, you didn’t have to buy a damned thing to get the bonus experience (though you definitely should consider financially compensating the labels and bands responsible for this music if you enjoy it).
BLESTEMAT (Sweden)
This band’s debut EP Poisonous Metal is described as “an homage to the black metal renaissance of the 2000s, the so-called orthodox current – resonating with the spirit of notable acts like Malign, Watain, and Ofermod”. It will be released on March 22nd by Silent Future Recordings, a partner of Nordvis. The first single is “Blestemata“.
Prepare for the extravagant push and pull of music that’s haunting and sinister, gentle and brutally gouging, damned heavy and harrowing, and also blistering.
https://silentfuture.lnk.to/blestemat
https://blestemat.bandcamp.com/album/poisonous-metal
BEHOLDER (Canada)
The Québécois black metal band Beholder will release their second album Dualisme through Avantgarde Music on April 26th. The first single, “Le Vassal De La Profanation“, is the track that opens the new album.
Prepare for a battering and blazing race — electrifying barbarism in action — with a full panoply of pernicious but catchy riffing, bowel-loosening bass heaviness, scalding vocal tirades, and lights-out drumming.
https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/dualisme
https://www.facebook.com/Beholderqc/
VALRAVNE (U.S.)
People who’ve been religiously following this Sunday column for a while know about Valravne, because I’ve written something about nearly every one of the releases by this North Carolina solo project. The song below is a new single named “The Night is for Listening“.
Prepare for an amalgam of humming and glittering keys and haunted gasping, and then throat-ruining shrieks and dark slashing chords backed by potent beats and electric fills, and then grim muttered words and simmering fretwork. Eventually, the simmering boils over into the vulcanism of furious yet dismal madness, and then this multi-faceted song ends with another amalgam of intriguing sounds.
https://valravne.bandcamp.com/track/the-night-is-for-listening
https://www.facebook.com/valravnenc/
PÂLEFROID (France)
L’Appel is a new album by this French black metal formation, and it’s slated for release by Antiq Records on March 25th. The opening song “L’Impie” is streaming now.
Prepare for an avalanche and a flood, vibrantly trilling guitar-leads and flute-like melodies that bespeak defiance and glory, crackling snarls that bespeak savage rage, and theatrically fervent spoken words. Deep breaths required for this one.