This makes the sixth time we’ve written about releases by the Norwegian band Diskord since discovering them in 2013 and the third time we’ve premiered music from one of those releases. In straining to describe their methods, we’ve previously used such words and phrases as “bizarre”, “chaotic”, “mind-shearingly abrasive”, “disorienting”, “unpredictable”, “avante-garde-filtered and technically played”, and “a source of considerable fascination and continuous thrills”. As one of our writers wrote about their 2014 EP Oscillations:
[T]hey seem to have transcended not only genre boundaries, but the confines of flesh as well. They exist among the cracks in reality, guided by hidden horrors unknown to most in a realm where few have dared to venture. Oscillations is bestial discomfort refined, progressive while residing in primordial murky depths, an oasis for those who thirst for ghastly evil sounds, memorable riffs, and strange batshit insanity.
And as another writer wrote in the context of their next album in 2021:
Degenerations ties so many different genres together in service of chaos that it’s impossible to try to latch on to one thing. It’s something special when you’re left with the sense that you have no idea how the hell you’re going to describe something, other than that you feel like you’ve been sandblasted into dust by the time it’s done. Degenerations is constantly knocking you over, again and again….
Fortunately we haven’t had to wait so long between releases for the next Diskord discharge, nothing like that 7-year gap between Oscillations and Degenerations. What now looms ahead of us is a split release between Diskord and the UK band Atvm (and hey! we’ve written about them too!). Entitled Bipolarities, it will hit the streets on July 12th via Transcending Obscurity Records.
The new split includes four tracks from Diskord, ranging in length from about 3 minutes to about 4 1/2 per track, and two much longer songs from Atvm, one at about 9 minutes and the other almost reaching 12. What we have for you today is the premiere of the second song by Diskord to be revealed so far from the split, and for an extra treat we also have a bass playthrough video for the same song.
The name of that song is “Onward! To Nowhere“. What a great name that is, capturing the heroic determination to blunder ahead even though we have no clue about the destination, or even if one exists (well, that’s how we interpret it).
As for the music, it is predictably mind-boggling. It stops and starts, heaves and squirms, batters and crashes, writhes and screams, and convulses in bursts of swarming and hammering madness. Thoroughly vicious, to be sure, but equally adventurous in all of its thankfully detectible instrumental maneuvers, once again rendered with a level of technical skill that’s eye-popping – though the band prove they’re just as capable of sounding brutishly thuggish. And once again, all of the band’s three members contribute to the bestial vocal pandemonium.
We mentioned an added treat, and it takes the shape of a playthrough video featuring the performance of Diskord bassist Eyvind. It’s a fascinating thing to watch, and because the sound of the fretless bass is prominent in the video, it provides even stronger evidence of what a vital role his music is to the success of the song as a whole.
To put a finer point on it, just focusing on the bass and all its beautifully morphing tones makes it clear that the bass track could have fit very comfortably within a dazzling prog-metal song or a piece of free jazz. (Some very appropriate visual morphing goes on too.) Wouldn’t it be excellent if we could get a playthrough video for this same song, or one of the others, from each of the other two members?
DISKORD is:
Hans Jørgen – Drums and vocals
Eyvind – Bass and vocals
Dmitry – Guitar and vocals
ATVM is:
Tom – Guitars
Fran – Drums and percussion
Luke – Bass and percussion
H – Vocals
Bipolarities was mixed and mastered by Colin Marston, who knows a thing or two about mind-bending music, and features eye-catching cover art by Will Sweeney. It’s available for pre-order from T.O. in a variety of formats along with related merch. They recommend it for fans of Demilich, Defect Designer, Xenosis, Disharmonic Orchestra, Carcass, and The Chasm.
Along with relevant links, we’re also sharing streams of two other previously released songs from the album — Diskord‘s “Shivering, As We Shed Our Hides” and Atvm‘s shape-shifting “Cancer“. Make time for these too!
PRE-ORDER:
https://diskordband.bandcamp.com/album/bipolarities
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/