SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AL-NAMROOD, AORTES, BLACK SORCERY, COGNITIVE, CRYPT SERMON, DARKNESS EVERYWHERE, GRAND CADAVER, HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY, REZN, VÁSTÍGR, WARDRUNA, BATHORY

Saturdays after Bandcamp Fridays should be named just like hurricanes. I’m left staring hopelessly at the wreckage of the NCS in-box and the high-water marks left by the musical flood, which still hasn’t really receded.

In case you were wondering, an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization maintains and updates the annually rotating list of hurricane names, with one name for each letter of the alphabet, except for Q, U, X, Y, and Z. This year the list begins with Alberto. However, I see no reason not to use the letters omitted by the WMO, so let’s call this Saturday Quorthon.

Let’s listen to these 12 songs, all but the last of which breached the surface of the flood during the last week, while we wait (hopelessly) for the carpet to dry out.

 

AL-NAMROOD (Saudi Arabia)

“Lisan Al Nar” is a frightening djinn of a song, sonic sorcery and poison, shrouded in addictive vapors. It deserved a mysterious and frightening video, and it got one.

The song is from Al-Namrood‘s 10th album Al Aqrab. It will be released by Shaytan Productions on June 9th.

https://shaytanproductions.bandcamp.com/album/al-aqrab
https://www.facebook.com/alnamroodofficial

 

AORTES (Lithuania)

A song of steadily encroaching menace, haunting reflections, and burning agony. Dreamlike (a deleterious dream), but it coils the nerves like winding springs until it seems they’ll split apart, while also pounding the bones until they splinter too. With equally wrenching words, screamed until blood sprays. Skulls will rattle at the end.

“I’ve loved you all” is a new single from this powerful and punishing post-metal band.

https://aortes.bandcamp.com/album/ive-loved-you-all
https://www.facebook.com/aortesofficial

 

BLACK SORCERY (U.S.)

Time to turn up the heat (and with another vocal performance that sprays hot blood). Here, fevers run wild, drums run riot, desperation feeds like famished wolves on the slaughtered flesh of hope, leaving a mutilated carcass and anguished mourners behind. An electrifying but shattering song.

“World Demands Cruelty” is from Black Sorcery‘s new EP Plummeting Into the Hour of the Wolf, set for release on May 24th by Eternal Death.

https://eternaldeath.bandcamp.com/album/plummeting-into-the-hour-of-the-wolf

 

COGNITIVE (U.S.)

Furious and traumatizing fevers run wild in this song too, but of a different kind, like pistons manically pumping and acetylene fires burning, with voices madly howling. The raging derangement is palpable, even in the jackhammer-breakdown, and the video enhances the effect.

“Abhorrence” is the title track from the new Cognitive album. Metal Blade will release it on May 17th.

https://www.metalblade.com/cognitive/
https://www.facebook.com/Cognitivenj/

 

CRYPT SERMON (U.S.)

Now to down-shift the gears with a song of diabolical splendor and pulse-pounding groove, replete with demon vocals of wailing fervor and angry grit, sulfurously exotic melodies, and arena-ready soloing. Fiendishly lustful and hellishly epic music, with a video to match.

“Heavy is the Crown of Bone” is from Crypt Sermon‘s new album The Stygian Rose, due out June 14th via Dark Descent.

https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-stygian-rose
https://www.facebook.com/CryptSermon

 

DARKNESS EVERYWHERE (U.S.)

Let’s turn up the heat again and let the fires rage in this conflagration of rapidly darting notes, vehemently hammering drums, chorus melodies that exultantly swirl, and scorching vocals — some of which are expelled by the band’s guest Laura Nichol (of the beloved Light This City).

This new song, which arrived with an inflamed video, is “The Architect Of Misery.” It’s from Darkness Everywhere‘s new album To Conquer Eternal Damnation, out on May 10th from Creator-Destructor Records.

https://creatordestructor.com/
https://darknesseverywhere.bandcamp.com/album/to-conquer-eternal-damnation
https://www.instagram.com/_darknesseverywhere_/

 

GRAND CADAVER (Sweden)

Strange ghost-figures wander through hallucinatory realms in the lyric video for this next song, which is a mid-paced mind-mauler. The music brutishly staggers and viciously rakes with clawed chords and goblin snarls, pulsates with devilish lust, and soars in episodes of chilling luciferian splendor.

“Terminal Exit” is from this Swedish super-group’s new two-track single, set for release by the band and Majestic Mountain Records on May 3rd. The other song is “Skinless Gods“.

https://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/grandcadaver
https://grandcadaver.bandcamp.com/album/terminal-exit-skinless-gods

 

HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY (Sweden)

One good dose of demonic Swedish death metal deserves another, and so next I’ve chosen “Cadavers Emerge“, brought up from their stinking earth through the horrifying proclivities of Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, ex-Bone Gnawer, Massacre, etc) and Mike Hrubovcak (ex-Monstrosity, Azure Emote, ex-Vile, etc).

Prepare for grisly riffs that roil and rise, scissor and skitter, plus muscle-snapping beats and vocals as ugly as freshly disemboweled guts. The song is from the band’s new album The Mortuary Hauntings. It will be released by Pulverised Records on May 31st.

https://pulverised.bandcamp.com/album/the-mortuary-hauntings

 

REZN (U.S.)

We’ve already had some scary songs and scary videos, but this next one might be the scariest pairing of them all.

Significant credit for the frightful video goes to the people who made it, and especially actor Bruce Brown, the unprepared school janitor who’s caught up in the encroachments of some hellish forces (don’t go down those stairs!).

As for the music in “Chasm“, it’s primitive and hulking, bowel-loosening and bone-scraping. Rob McWilliams‘ wailing vocals are strongly reminiscent of Ozzy’s, and thoroughly transfixing, especially matched against the staggering, scarring, and moaning brutishness of the music and the psychedelic freakishness of the guest guitar solo by Mike Sullivan when he steps forward.

The song is from REZN‘s new album Burden, which will be released by Sargent House on June 14th.

https://found.ee/rezn-burden
https://rezzzn.bandcamp.com/album/burden
https://found.ee/rezn-chasm
https://www.facebook.com/reznband

 

VÁSTÍGR (Austria)

Now it’s time to take the plunge into “Plunge“, and to become stunned by where your dive brings you, thoroughly immersed in brilliantly ringing guitars that seem like massed chimes and then swarm and swirl like a stellar vortex.

Harrowing howls echo from some distant place within the blinding shroud of glittering and blazing guitars. The drums thump and hurtle, the changes creating much of the music’s dynamism at first, though the music also changes, becoming more ethereal and elegant, more turbulent and deranged, and more dissonant, dismal, and distraught.

The song really is extraordinary, and it’s from Vástígr‘s sophomore album, The Path of Perdition. It will be released by Avantgarde Music on May 24th.

https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-path-of-perdition
https://www.facebook.com/vastigr/

 

WARDRUNA (Norway)

A heart beats in “Hertan“, beginning to usher us back to a distant age. The music also throbs, and sizzles and wails with mystery. The reverent and fervent voices are wondrous and propel the song into a heart-bursting extravaganza of grandeur. Fabulous video too.

In the words, a lot of deep thoughts, and then “I hibernate with bears!”

Einar Selvik explains: “Hertan is the proto-Scandinavian word for heart and that is exactly what we explore in this in this song and film. The duality of the heart with the rhythm, flow and pulse we can see, hear, and feel in nature and in all forms of life – and the more abstract idea of the heart, The rudder on the ship of emotions, our decisions, and our true desires.”

The song is a taste of Wardruna‘s next album, though I haven’t seen its name or a release date.

https://wardruna.lnk.to/hertan
https://www.facebook.com/wardruna

 

BATHORY (Sweden)

In honor of this hurricane day.