As you can see, we’re premiering a demo today, the first two songs to be revealed from a Seattle band named Homunculus, a word that most dictionaries define as “a very small human or humanoid creature”. It’s an interesting choice of name because, as you’ll soon discover, the music is anything but small, though it most definitely is inhuman.
To begin our introduction of the demo, we’ll share some of the evocative words provided by Cestrum Nocturnum Recordings, which will release the demo on May 1st and brands it “experimental black/death”:
HOMUNCULUS expands upon some of the ideas and motifs of its spiritual cousin HISSING, while also exploring forbidden new depths.
Furious and unhinged drumming interweaves with sinister guitarwork, bolstered by eerie synths, inhuman howls, and whispers from inverted dimensions beyond mortal comprehension.
The sound of HOMUNCULUS recalls tortured echoes of ANTEDILUVIAN, VIRUS, IMPRECATION and ALUK TODOLO melded together into a malevolent, hallucinogenic nightmare. A mockery of music and life violently birthed from another reality into this one. Not recommended for those teetering on the lucid edge of sanity.
As those words convey, there is a connection between Homunculus and the Seattle band Hissing (whom we’ve written about more than once), though all the details of the connection aren’t completely known by us.
As the label’s introductory comment strongly suggests, the two songs on this demo are indeed malevolent, hallucinogenic, and nightmarish.
First up is “Vomited Between Stars (Altered Emergence)“. Extending past the eight-minute mark, it leads the listener through an eerie and undulating portal into a vortex of malignantly writhing and grime-coated riffage, magma-like low-end turbulence, rabid howls, and unhinged screams.
The layered guitars whir and squeal, sizzle and swarm, dissonant and demented in their venomously vibrating sound; small breaks occur in which percussive bombs detonate, but the drum tempos and patterns twist and turn in other ways as well, just as destabilizing as everything else; no hint of sanity ever emerges in the macabre vocals.
The moods change too, though all the moods are damaged. These include sensations of cruelty and pain, of fear and frenzy, of lethal exultation and cancerous infection. And in every respect, they’re shrouded in an otherworldly atmosphere, as if manifesting horrors among the stars.
That first nightmare flows right into the second one, “The Unclean Ascent I – Nuclear Apex“. It’s not quite as long as the first track, but it too has an almost improvisational feel in its many unpredictable twists and turns, and it’s every bit as twisted and traumatic — and even more experimental in its permutations.
The riffing is again scathing, a macabre tremolo-fed swarm of deviancy that shape-shifts repeatedly. Shrieking strings again pierce through the diseased miasmas, along with hideous voices and rumbling upheavals in the low end.
But this song takes an even more unexpected turn, hallucinatory in a different way, announced by drums that ritualistically tumble. The tumult vanishes; a guitar languidly rings (though the sound still isn’t clean); and the rhythm section segue into jazz-like patterns.
Of course, the ruinous vortex spins up again, but ringing notes still maneuver and jazzy beats still recur, preserving the music’s hallucinatory aspects. In this long instrumental phase, the music is intricate and thoroughly head-spinning — but there’s one more surprise to come, when the music moves into a mysterious cosmic drift near the end, warbling and woozy. Something is hammering on sheet metal too, or so it sounds.
This new demo was recorded, mixed, layout by Zach Wise, who was also responsible for the layout. It was mastered by industry veteran Dan Lowndes, and it features art and logos (including CNR‘s sigil) by BMS/Bryan Maita.
Cestrum Nocturnum Recordings will release the demo on tape, and it will be available digitally as well.
We’re told that some material on this demo will be featured on the band’s forthcoming full-length release. The idea of a full-length dose of anything like what’s on this demo is both frightening and intensely intriguing.
PRE-ORDER:
Tape: cestrumnocturnum.bigcartel.com/product/homunculus-promotional-demo-mmxxiv-cs
Digital: https://cestrum-nocturnum.bandcamp.com/album/promotional-demo-mmxxiv
CESTRUM NOCTURNUM:
https://www.instagram.com/cestrum_nocturnum_recordings/