SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GOD DETHRONED, TRIBULATION, AGRYPNIE, WORMED, VAFURLOGI, RÖTUAL

Last weekend I didn’t pull together new music for a Saturday SEEN AND HEARD or a Sunday SHADES OF BLACK. I was away from home at a Pacific Northwest beachfront on a short vacation with family and friends. That led to late nights and late mornings and a desire to pay attention to physically-present human beings instead of communing with headphones and computers.

The consequence is now staring me in the face: Two weeks’ worth of new songs and videos to choose from for today and tomorrow, instead of one, when even one week’s worth is usually overwhelming. I made lists of links but of course could only listen to a small fraction of them. I was first drawn to some familiar justified names and then just threw mental darts, though the aim was not completely random. Here’s the result:

GOD DETHRONED (Netherlands)

No matter how deafening the racket or how urgent the whispers around the mouldering halls of the NCS HQ, we’ll always make time for new God Dethroned, and count ourselves lucky that Henri Sattler & co. are still alive and kicking.

The new album from the band is named The Judas Paradox, and yesterday we got a video for a second single from it, following “Asmodevs” (which is now 18 months old). What can we say about “Rat Kingdom“?

We can say that it begins with a melodic phase of haunting and somewhat sinister grandeur, and then the band lean into their black metal side, assaulting the senses with an eruption of battering drums, shrill and demented guitars, and ferociously savage growls.

The music deliriously spins and whirls, soars and descends, gallops and flows like perilous waves, fronted by vocals of unrelenting malice and capped by a frantic, flame-throwing guitar solo. This one’s designed to get your adrenaline surging.

Here’s what Mr. Sattler had to say about the song:

“This song is about the Vatican and the many secrets that are being kept there, away from the eyes of the world. And he who speaks will disappear in the shadows down below. Musically, it’s a song that starts with a classic pile of melody lines, making it both hymnic and bombastic, followed by a blast of fury with a black metal vibe and the Serpent King’s very own style of guitar solo—one which stands out from the masses inspired by the late Jeff Hanneman.”

The Judas Paradox is due out on September 6th through Reigning Phoenix Music.

https://goddethroned.rpm.link/ratkingdomPR
https://goddethroned.rpm.link/judasparadoxPR
https://goddethroned.com/
https://www.facebook.com/goddethronedofficial

 

 

TRIBULATION (Sweden)

I consider Tribulation, like God Dethroned, an established commodity whose music will always be worth checking out, though stylistically they’ve remained much less steadfast over time than those Dutch destroyers. As my pal DGR likes to say, as you make your way through their evolving discography “your mileage may vary”.

With respect to Tribulation‘s new single “Saturn Coming Down” they advise that it represents “the next stage” in their ongoing process of musical growth and change. That made me somewhat anxious but also curious.

My first impression, apart from the solid rocking grooves, is that the jittery and gleaming (but sinister) guitar lines introduce some post-punk and psychedelic stylings into the music, and while cutting growls and snarls come first, singing comes next (which in its style also spawns post-punk and gothic memories).

It’s a bouncy song, and a big ear-worm, and makes not much connection to metal apart from the uglier of the vocal styles and the music’s sinister and supernatural connotations. I can’t say I’m surprised by this further evolution in Tribulation‘s sound, which seems like a natural progression, and I can’t say I’m disappointed either.

In other Tribulation news, they’re supporting one other than Opeth on a North American tour this coming October.

https://tribulation.lnk.to/SaturnComingDown-Single
https://www.tribulation.se/
https://www.facebook.com/TribulationSweden

 

 

AGRYPNIE (Germany)

Continuing to have my choices guided by a band’s past successes, I next moved to the first single off a new album from these German post-black explorers. The name of the song is “Aus rauchlosem Feuer“, which might mean “From Smokeless Fire”, though a German speaker would know better.

Because the song’s German lyrics are available at Metal-Archives (here), I was able to decipher them with the aid of a computerized translator. They are poetical, mysterious, haunting, and harrowing. Indeed, they seem to conclude with the end of the world.

The song as it’s available for listening on YouTube now is an edited version of what will appear on the album and other streaming platforms — an intro to the song has apparently been cut away, and so it begins immediately like a raging sonic typhoon, made of riotous drumming, furiously throbbing bass-lines, overwhelming waves of searing riffage, and unhinged howls.

As the guitars ring and warp, the mood grows distressing and agonized, feverish in their pain. But of course Agrypnie make a detour, quelling the tempest in favor of punchy rocking grooves and ethereal music that’s soft and mysterious. That beguiling phase doesn’t last; gradually the band begin building intensity again through sounds of power, ferocity, and wrenching torment — with only the briefest moments of reflection at the end.

The song also includes a guest appearance by Phil Jonas of Secrets of the Moon.

Agrypnie‘s new album is named Erg. It will be released on September 13th by AOP Records.

https://save-it.cc/aop/erg
https://www.facebook.com/agrypnie.official

 

 

WORMED (Spain)

One more choice from a band whose past successes attract attention to anything new they do. In the case of Wormed, we’ve already highlighted one song from their new album Omegon (“Automaton Virtulague“), which reinforces the merit of attention, and now we have another single from last week to crow about.

The new song, “Pleoverse Omninertia” feeds you what you come to the Wormed off-world diner to feast upon — a combination of depth-charge detonations, brute-force atonal pounding, maniacally clattering snare-work, a bizarre panoply of strangely mutating and authentically alien fretwork, and gruesome gurgling gutturals (with some abyssal muttering in the mix).

Prepare to get your bones pulverized and your head spun into slurry, and be grateful we’re only speaking figuratively.

Omegon is due for release by Season of Mist on July 5th. There’s one more single from the album that we failed to write about — “Protogod“. You can check that out here.

https://orcd.co/wormedomegon
http://www.wormed.net/
https://www.facebook.com/wormed

 

 

VAFURLOGI (Iceland)

Now I’ll pull away from well-known and well-proven groups and spend what’s left of this column on newer and more obscure creators, beginning with Iceland’s Vafurlogi.

Well, it wasn’t a complete shot in the dark, because Vafurlogi is a creative vehicle for guitarist Þórir Garðarsson of Sinmara and Svartidauði, who also takes on vocal and bass duties in Vafurlogi. For a forthcoming debut album he was joined by drummer Ragnar Sverrisson, whose resume includes Helfró, Ophidian I, Abyssal, and Valkyrja. So, what those two have done elsewhere draws attention to what they’ve done here.

This is probably a good time to remind people (I’ll be doing it again) that I’m going to Iceland on Monday for Ascension Festival and won’t get back home until a week later. My NCS writing during that week will be scarce (among other things, I didn’t agree to do any premieres while away).

Not coincidentally, Vafurlogi will play their first live show at Ascension this year, and last week they released a first song from that debut album, a song from named “Helgrindur“.

The immediately piercing tones of the guitar create a writhing and reptilian sensation, but one that gloriously glitters and glows, mesmerizing and beckoning yet unearthly and dangerous. Vibrantly skipping beats and throbbing bass notes keep things on course, and malignant reverberating growls add to the music’s perilous atmosphere.

As the song progresses, so do the apparent and otherworldly dangers in these sounds. The guitars still ring, though you’ll notice the slightly corroded edge, and the writhing in the melody becomes more manic and unsettling, but also more hallucinatory and ill. When the guitar soloing arrives, it’s the most frantic and desperate manifestation of all, a spurting of delirium through a cut vein in the mind.

The song provides a transfixing introduction to Vafurlogi. Can’t wait to hear more at Ascension, where I understand Garðarsson and Sverrisson will be joined on stage by Eysteinn Orri Sigurðsson of Nyrst and Úlfúð on guitars, and Samúel Ásgeirsson of Volcanova on bass.

We have this further insight from Þórir Garðarsson about the conception of Vafurlogi:

“Vafurlogi is Icelandic for ‘flickering flame’, but the name can also be literally translated as ‘wandering light’ – and therein lies the key to the project’s thematic essence. Vafurlogi explores man’s incessant and despairing search for meaning and the ever-elusive sacred light while condemned to roam spiritual wastelands.”

Vafurlogi’s debut album, entitled Í vökulli áþján, will be released in September 2024 under the alliance of NoEvDia and Oration Records.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561034315803

 

 

RÖTUAL (Canada)

In closing, here’s one more obscurity, at least as compared to the bands I chose at the beginning of this column. Like Vafurlogi, the choice wasn’t completely random — it was recommended to me by episodic NCS contributor KevinP, who himself seems to have stumbled across the music by accident, attracted by the cover art.

Rötual is an Ottawa-based quartet composed of members who’ve recorded with many other groups. They released their debut EP Wörms on May 31st. It was mixed and mastered by Topon Das and features eye-catching artwork by Remy Cooper (Headsplit Design), and those are other signifiers of quality.

Rötual explain that the EP “includes the single ‘Worms‘ and two alternative versions of songs to be found on the forthcoming full length album.” In these three, psychedelic and sinister deathly doom is the name of the game.

In the opener “Worms“, Rötual‘s music lumbers and lurches, the drums punishingly pounding and the bass maliciously growling, but the riffing also seethes and severs veins, and feverishly throbs. The grooves are monstrous (and monstrously infectious), and the well-rounded and cavern-deep growls are also a horror.

That song is primitive and primal in its appeal, gruesome and gargantuan, but it also proves that Rötual are damned good song-writers, because it’s very damned catchy too.

“Mycélium“, in which the slightly corrosive musings of the bass play an opening role, is also a catchy beast. Yes, it’s still a hulking beast, and even more menacing and be-gloomed than the opener, but the rapidly darting and diabolically swirling lead guitar, bright in its tone and psychoactive in its effects, injects the infection again.

It’s further proof that this band really do know how to write a good song — and have settled on production qualities that give the music a powerful gut-punch but with an equal place for vibrant clarity.

Last comes “Ultime voyage“, and I’ll just say it reinforces all the foregoing impressions, allowing appreciation for the fuzzed-out bass; the drummer’s ability to deliver methodical haymaker punches while rocking out with mid-paced groove; the vocalist’s bestial growls, crazed screams, and menacing pronouncements; and the kook-laden, opium-laced, and devilish qualities of the guitar melodies.

The prospect of getting an album’s worth of this kind of music down the road is delicious. (Thank you Kevin.)

https://rotualdeathdoom.bandcamp.com/album/w-rms
https://www.facebook.com/RotualDeathDoomBand/

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