Seventeen is a prime number, and seventeen is the number of years that the savage Swedish band Feral have lived so far. Their music has also proven to be prime, prime cuts for carnivores of massive and mauling but also dynamic and addictive death metal.
On October 18th Transcending Obscurity Records will add to an already impressive Feral discography by releasing the band’s fourth album, To Usurp the Thrones, and today we’re premiering a song from the album fittingly named “The Devouring Storm“.
In the music they make, Feral are proven crushers, armored with tank-like heaviness in their tones and bone-smashing brutality in their grooves. But they open “The Devouring Storm” with a slowly slithering and wailing dual-guitar harmony that sounds simultaneously sinister and anguished. However, with a pungent grunt they open up their titanic pile-driver and set it to work on listeners’ spines.
The opening harmony doesn’t vanish, but continues to surface, like a dismal pleading figure in the midst of a war-torn land. But there’s nothing pleading about the barbaric roars, howls, and screams coming from behind the mic, and nothing merciful in the band’s acceleration into a battering and roiling tornado of destructive violence.
The dynamism of Feral‘s songwriting is on vivid display in the song, which continues to move in different directions, allowing the bass to muse and moan, the guitars to swivel and whine, and the drums to engage in a multitude of acrobatic fills. The tempos also continue changing, and in the song’s closing crescendo the band set loose a delirious, channel-shifting guitar solo that’s as electrifying as it is demented.
When you hear the song you’ll never forget that Feral know how to crush granite and fracture bones, but you’ll also re-discover how deftly constructed and multi-faceted their music is.
FERAL is:
David Nilsson – Vocals
Viktor Klingstedt – Bass
Markus Lindahl – Guitar
Sebastian Lejon – Guitar
Roger Markström – Drums
Transcending Obscurity will release the album on multiple formats — gatefold vinyl LP, digipak CD, cassette tape, and digital downloads — along with lots of apparel and other related merchandise. All of it features the extravagantly bizarre cover art of Costin Chioreanu that you saw at the top of this article.
The label recommends the album for fans of Dismember, Carnage, Entombed, Autopsy, Murder Squad, Fleshcrawl, Bloodbath, and Grave.
Below you’ll also find streams of three more previously released songs from the album — “Stripped of Flesh“, “Phantoms of Antiquity“, and “Bound to the Dead“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://feralsweden.bandcamp.com/album/to-usurp-the-thrones
https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
https://eu.tometal.com/