Tomorrow is another Bandcamp Friday, and I had enough time to get ahead of the game today with a few selections that might help drain your bank account tomorrow. Actually, it’s more than a few — new singles and videos from 11 bands, spanning a very broad spectrum of music.
GAEREA (Portugal)
We begin with an intense new stand-alone single from Gaerea. As the band explain, “‘World Ablaze‘ tells the story of a man who has lived all his life inside a cage. He knows that one day he will be set free and experience the world with its true colors. Unfortunately, he also knows that day will be his last hours alive. It’s a song about desire, hope and freedom. A dance between life and death, hope and despair”.
photo by FlavioAlmeida
In this song Gaerea bring together musical elements of hardcore and melodic death and black metal. It also features a new frontman screaming and gasping his way into the vocalist role for the band. The result is a combination of dark, slashing chords and glittering notes, of swirling and sweeping melodies and blasting drums, of emotional turmoil and furious defiance, and ultimately of uplift.
Gaerea have always had a significant visual component to their artistry, including their changing masks and costumes as well as other aspects of their videos. They’re not alone among modern metal bands in doing that (Imperial Triumphant quickly springs to mind), but they’ve been very effective, and the new video reinforces that impression.
The single is out now on Season of Mist.
https://orcd.co/gaereaworldablaze
https://gaerea.bandcamp.com/album/world-ablaze
https://www.facebook.com/gaerea
FUMING MOUTH (U.S.)
The next selection is a new single named “Daylight Again” released by Fuming Mouth today. It was produced by Kurt Ballou during the recording sessions for the band’s Last Day of Sun album and was originally intended to be the album’s closing track. It’s accompanied by the b-side track “Timeless,” an alternate version of “Out of Time” from Last Day of Sun. You’ll find lyric videos for both of them below, featuring artwork by sci-fi/fantasy legend Bruce Pennington.
The raw passion of the vocals, the massive rumble of the bass, and the squeal of feedback seize attention at first in “Daylight Again“, followed by pile-driving grooves and heavy mangling tones in the riffage, and roars as well as screams. It’s a truly pulverizing example of this band’s deathly hardcore.
“Timeless” is equally pulverizing and wrenching, but also channels the furious, desperate refusal to surrender that’s captured in the words, especially when a delirious guitar solo bursts onto the scene. The clock ticks down at the end… out of time indeed.
https://fumingmouth.bfan.link/daylight-again
https://fumingmouth.bandcamp.com/album/daylight-again
https://www.facebook.com/fumingmouth/
AKLASH (UK)
Very few metal lyricists use rhyming verse, and so when I see one who does, it tends to make a stand-out impression. That’s what hooked me into listening to this next song — reading the words at Bandcamp before then quickly diving into the demented whirlpool of the song itself. But I knew something about this band’s previous music, and that was an equally big factor.
This new single poetically tells a tale of ancient Babylon, and the professionally made video summons debauched imagery from the tale along with the band (including all three vocalists) throwing themselves headlong into the musical delirium.
And it really is a delirious song, a wild dervish-like whirl of racing riffage, rapid-fire bass-work, exultantly swirling leads, drums that variously pump like pistons and cut loose in electrifying blasts, and crazed screams.
But bell-like tones also entrancingly ring, and even when the sheer mania of the song subsides near the end, the drummer delivers an electrifying solo. (Feel free to join the chorus of the band in yelling out the title.)
“Babylon” was digitally released early today, and I’d already planned to include it here, but by sheer coincidence Aklash also released a video for the song just a few hours ago — so that makes this even more timely. You’ll find the video below.
“Babylon” is from a new Aklash album named Reincarnation that’s coming our way in June. That’s one I’m eager to hear in full.
https://aklash.bandcamp.com/track/babylon
http://www.facebook.com/aklashmusic
HYPERDONTIA (Denmark/Turkey)
Next up, Hyperdontia enfolds us in “Death’s Embrace“, the opening song off their next album Harvest of Malevolence.
This one song is itself a bounteous harvest of malevolence, pulverizing and maniacally violent, and absolutely bestial in the vocal department. But as fast and furious as it is, it’s also insanely intricate, and even though the production allows us to detect every one of the rapidly moving parts, it takes a lot more than one listen to comprehend it all.
Honestly, as savage as the song is, it’s so instrumentally extravagant that it’s hard not to think of it as jubilant — and it will give your neck a good workout too. On top of all that, it turns out to be damned catchy too, which is quite an achievement, given the riotous nature of all the whiz-bang fretwork.
Harvest of Malevolence will be released by Dark Descent on June 21st and features cover art by Wes Benscoter.
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/harvest-of-malevolence
https://hyperdontiaofficial.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/hyperdontia/
OMNIVORTEX (Finland)
Omnivortex released a very impressive sophomore album last year via Inverse Records, a record named Circulate. To remind folks about it, the band have released a video for the song “Harbingers of Cosmic Death“.
The song manages to be simultaneously eerie, sinister, and dissonant, but also a full-throttle blast of technically impressive and violent insanity. It also incorporates jolting grooves, furiously rumbling double-kicks, and a freaked-out solo, as well as distressing melodies that spin up like a whirlwind made of fire. Very cool to watch the band perform this adrenaline-fueled escapade.
https://omnivortexofficial.bandcamp.com/album/circulate
http://www.facebook.com/omnivortexofficial/
DYSRHYTHMIA (U.S.)
You may have noticed that unlike my usual practice I haven’t arranged the music in this roundup in alphabetical order by band name. Instead, I decided to play DJ, with some method to the flow. And beginning with this next song you’ll find the music beginning to detour into less ravaging and riotous assaults, a digression that continues for three more songs after this one.
I was alerted to this new Dysrhythmia track by a notice on starkweather’s Facebook page, where the music was described this way: “Melodic trip of tech prog threadlines having a dreamlike hallucinatory feel”. I also noticed additional favorable commentary in a roundup of new music this week at Machine Music, praising it as “Beautiful, weird, and beautiful again”.
And indeed, “No Breath After Beauty” is strange and sublime, a changing panorama of glinting, swirling, and ebulliently skittering notes, adventurous drum- and bass-work, and futuristic synths. Prepare to have your head spun like a top, and to be mesmerized. “Beautiful, weird, and beautiful again”.
The song is from a new Dysrhythmia album named Coffin of Conviction. It’s set for release on June 7th and features artwork by Viktor Timofeev.
https://dysrhythmia.bandcamp.com/album/coffin-of-conviction
https://www.facebook.com/Dysrhythmia/
ÖXXÖ XÖÖX (France)
Our drift into less abrasive music continues with this next song and an arresting video from the avant-garde French collective Öxxö Xööx. Copy-pasting is the only way I could provide the song’s name without having to type it 5 times to get it right: “Dïrïün(X)“. It’s from a new album that’s easier to type — “+” — though it comes with a parenthetical: “(The Opening of the Hypercube)“.
It’s easy to get pulled into the video, thanks to the unusual makeup and costumes of the performers. Easy to be captivated by the music too, by the harnessing of smooth and snarling voices, of bobbing beats and misty synths, of strident singing and clawing keys.
It’s a bamboozling, instrumentally multi-textured, and highly theatrical foray that continues to change, passing through phases of menace, pulse-pounding animation, primitive rituals, and chilling or inviting hallucination, and with continued unpredictable vocal variations too numerous to count.
The album + will be released on September 9th by Lïnï Music.
https://oxxo-xoox.bandcamp.com/album/the-opening-of-the-hypercube
https://www.facebook.com/OxxoXoox69
PRIMAEVUS (India)
Drifting even further away from metal barbarity, my next selection is a fascinating song by a Himalayan dark folk band named Primaevus, who were recommended by Shawn Haché from Mitochondrion, Auroch, and Night Profound (whose new dark folk label Small Offerings will be releasing the Primaevus album An Eldritch Odyssey on CD and cassettes).
The name of this song, “Into the Abyss“, tells you something about its moods, but the darkness isn’t delivered in the way most of us here are used to. It comes instead through brittle and rippling guitar arpeggios, big booming drums, and the stricken and haunting quaver of a voice.
As the song proceeds, other instrumental accents emerge, bringing with them musical traditions from another land, as well as gasped words, adding to the song’s air of mystery. The feeling of sorrow is inescapable, but it’s nonetheless very engaging, a shadowy spell in which hearts pound and musical lights glitter.
Primaevus is Ankit Sinha (vocals, lyrics) and Harul Vinay (steel-string guitar, bass, composition). “Into the Abyss” also includes performances by Alex Pfister (Exire) on Irish bass flute, mandolin, and percussions; by Edward Longo (Sunken Basilica) on pipe organ; and by Shawn Haché (accompanying vocals).
As mentioned, the song is from an album named An Eldritch Odyssey. You can find a lot more background info about it via the first link below. It’s set for release on May 3rd — tomorrow!
https://harulvinay.bandcamp.com/album/an-eldritch-odyssey
https://smallofferings.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/menelvegor
PERCHTA (Austria)
The last song in my small block of less-assaulting music arrived via a video from a live performance by the Austrian band Perchta at the House of the Holy MMXXIII festival on the Neudegg Alm in Abtenau, Austria on June 17, 2023 — and as you’ll discover, it also provides a segue back into metallic intensity.
This performance was the premiere of the song “Hebamm” (“Midwife”), which will be included on Perchta‘s new album D’Muata (“The Mother”). In its opening phase it’s a beguiling experience rooted in folk music and augmented by both Lady Perchta’s soulful singing and instruments that include mouth-harp, hammered dulcimer (perhaps a hackbrett?), and ethereal whistling tones.
But there’s a second phase, and there the band’s black-metal proclivities arise, including furious riffing, furious blast-beats, and acidic rasps. But you’ll notice that the original melody doesn’t vanish, but survives within the turmoil, and the original phase also reappears. Lots of other things add to this mythic experience, but I ought to shut up and let you discover them for yourselves.
D’Muata will be released by Prophecy Productions on June 14th.
http://lnk.spkr.media/perchta-dmuata
https://www.facebook.com/perchta.band
DEMERSAL (Denmark)
Now it’s time to continue forward with the musical intensity, and to do that I’m sharing two tracks from this Danish band’s new self-titled album, their second full-length.
The first of them, “lys i natten“, is a quick song but it seizes attention quickly too, thanks to ringing and writhing guitar melodies, heart-pounding grooves, mercurial bass maneuvers, and scorching screams. A quick song, but a dynamic one, both feral and fraught, viscerally punishing and ethereal. A musical hybrid, of which hardcore and black metal are among the ingredients, but not the only ones.
The second song, “androide identiteter“, stretches out the experience, but again creates a hybrid of styles and sensations, creating moods that are beleaguered and anguished, gradually building toward an outburst of frantic drums, searing riffage, and screamo vocal intensity — but with an eerie bass-led digression that then feeds into wild yells and greater turbulence, as well as an instrumental finale that hints of post-punk.
P.S. I’ve just seen that Invisible Oranges premiered a video today for yet another song from Demersal‘s album, “Som Et Barn Mod Dit Bryst“. You can check that out here.
https://demersalband.bandcamp.com/album/demersal
http://facebook.com/demersalofficial
DOWNCROSS (Belarus)
And last, but certainly not least, I have the opening song from a new album by the formidable Belarusian black metal band Downcross.
“I Am Entropy” displays much of what has made this band’s music so worthy of continued attention. It’s fierce and fiery to be sure, principally in the barbaric snarls of the vocalist, but also relentlessly elaborate.
It includes waves of melody that in this case are distressing, as well as prog-influenced bass mutations, interesting and continuous drum variations, and kaleidoscopic shifts in the guitar patterns and melodic moods. It seems both earthy and supernatural, broken and blazing — and ultimately breathtaking.
The song is from a new Downcross album named White Tower. It will be released on May 10th by Cavum Atrum Rex.
https://downcross.bandcamp.com/album/white-tower
https://www.facebook.com/downcrossofficial