SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (TOO MANY BANDS TO NAME IN THIS TITLE)

(written by Islander)

What’s a good metaphor for having too many attractive things to choose from? A kid in a candy store? Maybe, except a lot of the sweet things I’m looking at this morning are also poisonous.

Wandering the aisles of an animal shelter trying to make a connection with a small feline you might adopt? Yeah, but some of these small beasts I’m seeing will suddenly swell up and try to claw out my jugular.

How about a child wide-eyed at a pile of presents under a tree on Christmas Eve, wondering what to open first? Sure, except some of these gifts will explode when touched, or might break your heart.

Here’s what I chose to share from the array of musical delights and dangers I surveyed today. As you can see, I grabbed with both hands, pockets stuffed and both hands overflowing. Presented alphabetically, because trying to figure out how to organize this in any other way was too damn taxing.

(Like the kid in the candy store, today I erred on the side of grabbing things I already knew would probably taste good based on previous episodes of gorging on them, though I did pick a few bands I’d never tasted before. Because of the volume of sights and sounds, I’ve pared down the usual volume of words and left out the artwork.)

 

ABRAMELIN (Australia)

Prepare for maniacal hornet-swarm guitars, blistering percussive mortar fire, and imperious growls, coupled with bursts of jittery and jolting but head-moving riffs and a frantic, fire-breathing solo. This will get your blood pumping right fast.

The song is “Conflagration of the Dreamers“. The album from these Aussie vets is Sins of the Father. It will be released by Hammerheart Records on October 4th.

https://abramelin.lnk.to/sinsofthefather
https://hammerheart.bandcamp.com/album/sins-of-the-father
https://www.facebook.com/abramelinofficial

 

 

ADORIOR (UK)

Prepare now for a malicious spectacle of viciously writhing and insanely screaming and quivering fretwork, full-auto drum assaults, and rabid, barking howls. It sounds like ants swarming too, or maybe piranhas feasting on a fresh carcass found in frothing waters, but it hammers the neck too.

The song is “Scavengers of Vengeance“. The album is Bleed on My Teeth, the first full-length from Adorior in nearly 20 years. It will be released by Dark Descent on September 27th.

https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bleed-on-my-teeth
https://www.facebook.com/adorior/

 

 

AMIENSUS (U.S.)

Prepare for a turn in the path from today’s first two selections, a turn that will take you into grand and glorious yet also grievous chords backed by a variety of hard-slugging grooves and fronted by scorching screams and ferocious growls. Often sweeping and just as often warlike, the music is also edged with despairing and despondent moods, especially at the mournful end.

The song is “Decaying God Child“. It’s from the album Reclamation Pt. II, which will be released by M-Theory Audio on August 30th.

https://amiensus.bandcamp.com/track/decaying-god-child-2
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Amiensus/144403088951302

 

 

COMMON WOUNDS (U.S.)

The path turns again. Prepare this time for a big rumbling sonic bulldozer with an engine that’s desperately trying to do its job but seems to be failing and a wailing siren that cries out in pain, plus strident vocals that bring the pain too, especially in the chorus.

The song is “Broken Hands“. It comes from this Arizona-based post-hardcore band’s album All Night Blood, which will be released on October 18th by Protagonist Music.

Vocalist Ian Lanspeary states: “The title All Night Blood relates to the idea that the society and economic system we live in is unrelenting in what it takes from us to survive; as though we’re being constantly bled dry to live our lives.” (Who can argue with that? Other than the plutocrats who don’t give a rat’s ass about it.)

https://allnightblood.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CommonWounds/

 

 

DREAMLESS VEIL (Int’l)

It’s not hard for a band to catch wandering eyes like mine when their lineup includes Artificial Brain guitarist Dan Garguilo, Inter Arma/Artificial Brain vocalist Mike Paparo, and Psycroptic drummer Dave Haley (Haley‘s second appearance in today’s collection, with Abramelin being his first). What have they done together?

The first sign is a song called “A Generation of Eyes“. Prepare for blasting pistons driving a surge of sweeping, wildfire-like riffage that converts into a nest of writhing serpents mind-lost in agony, coupled with the echoing of mind-shearing screams. The music also swings, swirls, seems to yearn with the fervency of rapidly vanishing hopes, and becomes brittle and broken at the end.

The song is from this band’s debut full-length Every Limb Of The Flood, described as “a blackened concept album that follows the travails of Grief, a character who awakens from extended debauchery and begins the slow and torturous process of trying to disappear completely.” It will be released by Relapse Records on September 20th.

https://bit.ly/dreamlessveil
https://dreamlessveil.bandcamp.com/album/every-limb-of-the-flood
https://www.instagram.com/dreamlessveil

 

 

GOD DETHRONED (Netherlands)

This past week brought us yet another advance song from God Dethroned‘s new album The Judas Paradox, and it happens to be the title track, presented with a video. The band’s Henri Sattler describes it as “the most atmospheric and melody driven song on the album”.

Prepare here for God Dethroned leaning into their black metal inspirations, with music that’s both moody and seething in its ringing tones, furious in its screams and jolts, and fiery in its lead-guitar seizures — and with haunted singing and haunted brilliance in the soloing too.

The new album will be released by Reigning Phoenix Music on September 6th.

https://goddethroned.rpm.link/judasparadoxYT
https://www.facebook.com/goddethronedofficial

 

 

NAILS (U.S.)

Eight years after their last album, Nails are roaring back with a new one named Every Bridge Burning, which is set for release by Nuclear Blast on August 30th. The song below, which surfaced last week, is “Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy“.

Well, “surfaced” is too mild a word. More like some violent earthquake-induced upthrust from the earth’s mantle. Prepare for fast, full-spasm riffage, piledriver grooves, murderous screams, and a general sense of being thrown about the floor in a moshpit with an emergency room as its end point.

https://nails.bfan.link/every-bridge-burning.yde
https://www.facebook.com/nailsoxnard

 

 

NYTT LAND (Russia)

As you may know, I’m a fan of the Nordic folk band Nytt Land from Siberian Russia. When I saw that they’d chosen to cover a Slipknot song (“Wait and Bleed“) I thought maybe hell had frozen over. Skeptical, I still checked it out… and found myself captivated and innervated.

I’m absolutely positive that Slipknot never expected this song to be performed with throat singing and the vibrant dancing of a taglharpa, or with quavering singing and pounding hide drums — but it works! Prepare to get your legs jumping. As usual, Nytt Land brought it with a cool video too.

https://nyttland.bandcamp.com/album/wait-and-bleed-slipknot-cover
https://www.facebook.com/nyttland

 

 

SATAN’S SATYRS (U.S.)

The well-named Satan’s Satyrs are returning with their first full-length since 2018’s The Lucky Ones, and Invisible Oranges premiered the first single from it last week, a song named “What the Winds Brought“.

Prepare for a hammering, hard-rocking gallop, growling and throbbing bass-lines, and deliriously broiling and punk-fueled riffage, wailing vocals, and potent doses of fretwork psychedelics.

The band’s new album is After Dark. It will be released by Teepee Records on August 30th.

https://teepeerecords.com/products/satans-satyrs-after-dark-lp-evergreen-vinyl-out-8-30-2024
https://www.instagram.com/satanssatyrs/

 

 

SÓLSTAFIR (iceland)

Next up is Sólstafir‘s video for another new single, the second one they’ve released this year. The first was “Hin helga kvöl” (The Holy Suffering), which is the title song from their next album. The name of this next one is “Hún andar“.

Vocalist Aðalbjörn Tryggvason has commented: “’Hún Andar’, meaning ‘She breaths’ is an obituary to a living person whom I love very much, but the mind is gone due to mental illness and drug abuse.”

The song is very different from the band’s previous single this year. As presaged by its back-story, it’s a heart-aching lament at first, and even when it begins to run, the vocals transmit heartache and torment and the flowing waves of gleaming melody cascade and crash in sorrow. Simultaneously pulse-punching, enthralling, and shattering….

Both singles have been released by Century Media. Century Media will release the new album on November 9th.

https://solstafir-band.lnk.to/HinHelgaKvol
https://www.centurymedia.com/artist/solstafir
https://www.facebook.com/solstafirice/

 

 

SWALLOW THE SUN (Finland)

Just by the luck of alphabetization we follow one lament with another, though of a different kind.

In the case of “What I Have Become“, prepare for bone-bruising beats, chords that rake and scar like knives, and inflamed growls — but also fervent singing and mysteriously ringing and shimmering keys that seem to hold some kind of promise of a brighter day. In other words, prepare for Swallow the Sun.

The song is taken from the album Shining, which will also be out via Century Media, this one on October 18th.

https://swallowthesun.lnk.to/Shining
https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun

 

 

1349 (Norway)

I’m nearing the end, and because I’m following a rule of alphabetization that says you should locate numbered titles in a list by how they would be spelled, the next song brings another sharp turn in today’s musical path.

The song is “The God Devourer“, and it sure as hell is. Prepare for an outburst of feral demonic fury propelled by whipcrack drums, utterly vicious tremolo’d riffing, and fierce snarls, all of it plentifully punctuated with pneumatic jolts. It’s capped by a berserk fret-melter of a solo coupled with a blasting fusillade.

The track comes paired with a video that shows the demons in action. It’s from 1349‘s new album The Wolf and The King. It will be released by Season of Mist on October 4th.

https://orcd.co/1349thewolfandtheking
http://1349som.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/1349official

 

 

WOLFHEART (Finland)

Well, at last we’re at the end, with one more selection (backed by a performance video) from a band that’s been a long-term favorite around here. What you’re in for here at the end is a “Trial By Fire“. It seems appropriate to quote what Tuomas Saukkonen has said about it:

“‘Trial by Fire‘ is not just the heaviest song on the new album but definitely the heaviest song of the whole Wolfheart career, so as a celebration for this pinnacle of massiveness it had to be one of the singles”.

Hyperbole? You be the judge. The blazing whir of the riffage does feel like it’s trying us by fire, though it also stitches like some industrial sewing machine, and the drums chop like an executioner’s axe. We also get mighty roars and whirls of orchestration, lending an air of godly grandeur to this full-bore onslaught.

“Trial By Fire” is from Wolfheart‘s new album Draconian Darkness. It will be released on September 6th by Reigning Phoenix Music.

https://wolfheart.rpm.link/draconiandarknessYT
https://www.facebook.com/wolfheartrealm