(written by Islander)
Sadly, this week’s collection of the blacker arts will be brief, not just smaller than yesterday’s Tyrannosaur-sized collection but smaller than the weekly average for this column. I’ve got to get out of the house with my spouse and join up with some other hooligans this morning for day-drinking and ping-ponging words (yes, even people just a stone’s throw from assisted-living age can act like hooligans).
So that’s all the intro I’ve got. I better get to it or this will be even shorter that projected.
ISOLERT (Greece)
I spilled a lot of words about the “devastating magnificence” of this Greek band’s last album, 2020’s World In Ruins — words such as “soaring”, “sweeping”, “near-celestial”, “blazing”, and “tumultuous”, but also “crushing”, “stately”, “dolorous”, and “sublime”. It created ruinous maelstroms but also reached epic heights of glory.
It’s therefore quite exciting to see that Isolert have a new album on the way, the work of a lineup that now includes new guitarist George S. (Kosmovorous, Herald) in addition to Panagiotis T. (vocals), Nick S. (drums, vocals), and Apostolos K. (guitars, bass). The first single from it is also damned exciting. It’s called “Where Dreams Die“, which is a clue to what happens, but Isolert also spell it out for us:
“‘Where Dreams Die’ is the all consuming void. Ever thirsty, ever hungry, satiated by naught. It reaches deep in granite mazes and pitch black caverns. And as everything else turns to noise, it reverberates with deafening silence and spreads like a virus. Alas nothing stands no more. Nothing but ash.”
Isolert have also characterized the new album as one that “marks a shift in sound for us as this is the most complex, demanding and ferocious material we have recorded so far”. I haven’t yet listened to the whole album, but in the case of this first advance song that’s accurate.
The riffing is a writhing blaze, the rhythms a thunderous turbulence, the vocals a scorching fury, the leads a boiling spiral, all combining to create delirious incineration.
But the song also mutates, the rhythms thumping, the guitars darting and magically swirling in a manifestation of sprightly jubilation. And as we’ve come to expect, the music also flies high in a breathtaking display of glorious and sparkling exultation, propelled even higher by an extravagant cry.
Yes, you can imagine some physical counterpart of the music, some ravenous and fiery hunger that leaves the world in ash, but the process would be electrifying to watch, wouldn’t it?
The name of Isolert‘s new album is Wounds of Desolation. It’s set for release on September 13th by the band’s new label Non Serviam Records.
https://song.link/wheredreamsdie
https://non-serviam-records.bandcamp.com/album/wounds-of-desolation
https://isolert.bandcamp.com/album/wounds-of-desolation
http://www.facebook.com/isolert
https://www.instagram.com/isolert_bm/
DRAGSHOLM (U.S.)
The next song. “Sorrow Hexen“, is the closing track and the title song from a new EP by the New Jersey band Dragsholm. It proves to be a multi-faceted affair, and it stuck its hooks in me immediately.
On the one hand, it includes gloriously gleaming synths and a chiming arpeggio that seems to fervently yearn toward the heavens over a big throbbing bass. On the other hand, it also includes ferocious, fang-bared snarls, punishing blasts, and the glitter of feverish guitar-convulsions.
Those chiming notes also begin to sound more despairing and distressing, more hopeless in their yearning, and the overarching mood of the song becomes more grim and threatening as rough vibrating chords gouge and drill. But at the end, the band reprise the song’s opening section, and that lodges its big pleading hook even deeper in the mind.
Sorrow Hexen will be released by HPGD Productions on September 6th. Not for naught does the label recommend it for fans of Dissection, Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Sacramentum, and Vinterland.
https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/sorrow-hexen
https://www.facebook.com/Dragsholmband/
SERVANT (Germany)
Speaking of hooks, this next song has a big one too — a trilling clean-guitar riff that creates an air of intriguing mystery at first and then catches fire as the rest of the band join in, building from the momentous boom of drums and throbbing bass toward an outburst of battering percussion, searing chords, and mad-goblin snarls.
The riffing also swirls, throbs, and soars, intersected by a brief melodious diversion that rings and pings. Those seductive pinging tones persist even after the band storm again and the vocals go utterly mad.
The song is gripping, and the sinister video that accompanies it is also gripping to watch.
The name of the song is “Temple“. It’s from an album named Death Devil Magick (the band’s third one in three years) that will be released by AOP Records on September 20th.
https://linktr.ee/aoprec
https://artofpropaganda.bandcamp.com/album/death-devil-magick
https://www.facebook.com/servantmagick
https://www.instagram.com/servantmagick
FIRTAN (Germany)
I must be quick in introducing this last selection; the sands in my hourglass are about to drain out.
So, prepare for music that rings and gleams but is also massively crushing and crashing. It ruthlessly stomps and screams, boils and jolts, races and roils, fronted by shattering vocal intensity. And still more happens in this elaborate song (the name of which is “Komm herbei, schwarze Nacht“), but I’ll leave you to discover that for yourselves.
Like the penultimate selection today, this one comes with a gripping video. Like that penultimate selection, this one is also from an album being released by AOP Records. The album title is Ethos, and the release date is September 13th.
https://linktr.ee/aoprec
https://artofpropaganda.bandcamp.com/album/ethos
https://www.facebook.com/firtanofficial
https://www.instagramn.com/firtan.official