SEEN AND HEARD: BEHEMOTH, PESTILENT HEX, DEIVOS, SOUL DEVOURMENT, CKRAFT, SOULSKINNER, TALES OF BLOOD, THORNLORD

“BC Friday. Go spend money.” That’s what a fellow metal writer posted early this morning in a chat group I’m part of, populated by a bunch of other metal writers from print and on-line spaces. From my observation, they do that every Bandcamp Friday, sharing in the group what they’ve bought, proving they did it and suggesting spendy ideas to the others, even though all of them get free promos of most records they’re interested in.

Well, I’m not going to exhort all of you to go spend money on Bandcamp today. Ends must be made to meet, and for some, the ends don’t include paying for music you can listen to for free. But for those who do like to take advantage of these Fridays and shove a few extra coins across the table to needy metal bands and labels (which is about 95% of them), I’ve got a few more ideas for you — in addition to the gazillion other ideas we’ve offered up on every one of the 28 days since the last Bandcamp Friday.

By way of preview: Two days ago I compiled a rare mid-week edition of these roundups and sub-titled it “Headspin Edition”, because everything I included in that collection made my head spin in different ways. If I hadn’t already used that sub-title this week, I’d have used it for this column.

I wouldn’t contend that all the songs below are as unconventional as the ones from two days ago (though some are), but they still cause the grey matter to whip around like a centrifuge — including the big curveball I’ve stuck more or less in the middle of this lineup.

I’ll have another roundup tomorrow in its usual Saturday place, too late as a wish list for this Bandcamp Friday, but in plenty of time for the next one, which will arrive on December 6th.

P.S. Starting off with a new Behemoth video is obviously out of step with everything I just wrote: Everyone knows about them already; I’m guessing they’re in that 5% that don’t need extra coins on Bandcamp Fridays; their new live album isn’t on Bandcamp anyway (not yet); and the song in the video isn’t really as head-spinning as others — it’s more like red meat for the carnivores (e.g., christians to the lions).

So why am I including it here? Well, apart from the fact that I dig the song and the video, there’s the chance that putting their name at the front of the list will act as live bait for some people to come here, and then stick around to see what else is in the collection.

 

BEHEMOTH (Poland)

This Behemoth video is the latest extract from a new album named XXX Years Ov Blasphemy, though it’s not entirely a new experience because the album and the film capture performances totaling 90 minutes that were originally streamed online from three different locations during the pandemic lockdowns in 2021.

The song here is “The Thousand Plagues I Witness“, which was originally released on Behemoth‘s 1998 album Pandemonic Incantations. The professional video is a hell of a lot of fun to watch, with a great setting, cool face-paint and costumes, a diabolical creature, and of course a fast-paced song that’s devouring, demented, and infernally imperious.

XXX Years Ov Blasphemy is being released by Nuclear Blast on October 25th, as 3CD + BluRay, 3LP, and digitally.

https://behemoth.bfan.link/xxx-years-ov-blasphemy
https://linktr.ee/behemothofficial
https://www.facebook.com/behemoth

 

 

PESTILENT HEX (Finland)

Now we begin the real head-spinning, with a song called “Sciomancy and Sortilege” from this Finnish band’s forthcoming second album Sorceries of Sanguine & Shadow.

As you’ll discover here, multi-instrumentalist L. Oathe (Desolate Shrine, Convocation, Ordinance) and vocalist/lyricist M. Malignant (Corpsessed, Tyranny, Profetus) have whipped up an electrifying whirlpool of blasting and booming percussion, freaked-out fretwork, gut-busting bass-throbs, scorching snarls, malignant roars, and grand symphonic waves, further enlivened by elegant piano keys.

The song is explosively breathtaking from start to finish, albeit with plentiful rhythmic variations and episodes that are more grim and heaving, as a contrast with the high-flying guitar-and-keyboard delirium that consumes most of the minutes.

Sorceries of Sanguine & Shadow will be released on November 29th by Debemur Morti Productions.

https://pestilenthex.bandcamp.com/album/sorceries-of-sanguine-shadow
https://www.facebook.com/PestilentHex/

 

 

DEIVOS (Poland)

This past week brought us (via a Decibel premiere) the latest single from a new Deivos album named Apophenia. This one, “My Sacrifice“, doesn’t even clear the two-minute mark but it’s still a head-exploder.

Here, Deivos move like they have to take a city apart on a very tight deadline. The speed is ultra-fast, making fanatical demands on their technical skills, which they easily satisfy. The drumming is lights-out; the fret-leaping riffage is ravenously deranged; the squirming and screaming soloing leaps across the channels like a feeding bat; and a beast barks the words just as fast as everything else.

Apophenia will be released on October 18th by Selfmadegod Records. You can probably guess who made the painting on the album cover.

https://selfmadegod.bandcamp.com/album/apophenia
https://deivos.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/deivos_official
https://www.facebook.com/Deivos

 

 

SOUL DEVOURMENT (U.S.)

Next up we have a lyric video for a song called “Tenebrous Ingestion” by this LA band. It’s the title track from a Soul Devourment split with the Japanese band Anatomia.

Like that last Deivos track, Soul Devourment go very fast in this song, furiously hammering and cutting, but without warning they also pull back to brutishly slug and fiendishly slash, urged on by a delirious yet dismal solo. After that they hit the gas again in another HM-2-toned but also shrill paroxysm, with the snare chopping like a big madman with an ax. Through it all, the guttural words are vomited up from abyssal depths.

The split is being released today on limited edition 12″ vinyl LP with an exclusive comic book via Gurgling Gore and Sewer Rot Records. And it’s available digitally too!

https://www.gurglinggore.com/product/soul-devourment-anatomia-tenebrous-ingestion-split-12-vinyl-lp-with-comic-book
https://gurglinggore.bandcamp.com/album/tenebrous-ingestion
https://souldevourment.bandcamp.com/album/tenebrous-ingestion-w-anatomia
https://www.instagram.com/soul_devourmentdm/

 

 

CKRAFT (France)

And now for the promised curveball, which is very much an enormously distinctive headspinner in its own way.

The PR pitch for their sophomore album Uncommon Grounds describes it as a melding of “metal, jazz, and medieval music”. As I listened to the first single “All You Can Kill” I got flashes of Meshuggah, King Crimson, Gojira, and Miles/Coltrane. If I thought longer and harder, I might pull up even more reference points, and you’ll probably pull up different ones of your own.

As you’ll see and hear in the excellent video for the song, this group deploys synth-accordion, saxophone, guitar, bass, and drums as their tools, and they display both impressive virtuosity and considerable eccentricity in doing so. Even more interesting, as suggested above, this song (along with many others on the new album) was inspired by medieval music. Here, the specific inspiration was the Gregorian chant “Dies Irae.”

What a wild trip this is, a trip that features off-kilter rhythmic interplay, bits of weirdly mewling and wailing accordion melody, an actual drum solo that seems to expire, brutish stomping chords, a seductive yet mysteriously meandering sax solo, and an even dreamier instrumental phase — rudely interrupted by demented saxophone-blurts and spastic grooves. And there’s more that I’ll leave you to discover for yourselves.

Ingeniously, for a song that includes so many bizarre and unexpected permutations, and places such intricate demands on the performers (we see them doing this live!), the song holds together very well — unexpectedly well.

CKRAFT‘s members are: accordionist/composer Charles Kieny, saxophonist Théo Nguyen Duc Long, guitarist Antoine Morisot, bassist Marc Karapetian, and drummer William Bur. The album will be released on January 17, 2025. (Despite my Bandcamp Friday focus today, this one isn’t yet on that platform, and I don’t know if it will be.)

https://bfan.link/uncommon-grounds
https://ckraft.bigcartel.com/product/album-pre-order
https://www.cdandvinyl.cdetvinyle.fr/
https://www.facebook.com/ckraft.band/

 

 

SOULSKINNER (Greece)

I’m now picking up more or less where I left off before throwing that CKRAFT curveball at you. What’s up next is the first advance track from this Greek death metal band’s new album (their sixth overall), Glorified by the Light.

“Mighty Titans” starts in the fast lane, with the drums pumping away and fingers flying, but the lead riff is a peculiar pulsating and squirming thing. Even when the chords go off like fanfares, they sound a bit mad.

And from there, after the growled tirades make their appearance, the changes keep coming. As the music quivers, throbs, and brays, and the drums pound and blast, a melancholy throughline begins to emerge through the dementia, especially in the melody of the slithering and soaring dual-guitar solo.

Overall, the song struck me as an expression of sadness, even with the stirring vividness of all the notes and beats, which is a very interesting achievement. And on top of everything else, the well-constructed song turns out to be very catchy too.

Glorified by the Light will be released by Xtreem Music on November 26th (CD and digital). This one isn’t up on Bandcamp for pre-order yet, but I’m sure it will be eventually.

https://xtreemmusic.bandcamp.com/
https://www.xtreemmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Soulskinnerband

 

 

TALES OF BLOOD (France)

I’ve been tucked into death metal for a lot of the songs in this roundup, and as you can tell from the cover art up there, I’m not getting un-tucked yet.

This next song, aptly named “Boiled to death” is a brutal and ravenous musical beast, especially brutal in the song’s percussive bludgeoning and meaty growls, but it’s also packed with crazed riff-mutations, none of them lacking in savagery but expressing it in different blood-letting patterns — swarming, spasming, darting like meat-eating swallows, rapidly undulating like big famished serpents. And the drumming really is fantastic too.

The track is the opener from Tales of Blood‘s new album Breath of Repugnance, which will be released on December 6th by Great Dane Records. If you let the Bandcamp player below keep running, you’ll also hear two more songs from the album, both of them just as ruthless but attention-grabbing as the opener (and one of those, “Storm of maggots“, is now on my list of “Most Infectious Song” candidates too – though tomorrow I might pick one of the other two instead).

https://greatdanerecords.bandcamp.com/album/breath-of-repugnance

 

 

THORNLORD (U.S.)

To close out this Bandcamp Friday roundup I’ve chosen a new EP that I thought would fit very well in the company of other head-spinning death metal selections above — and trust me, this self-titled EP Thornlord is a serious brain-twister — in addition to being seriously savage.

If you’re unaware, Thornlord is a California-based duo consisting of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Jake Vossler and drummer Danny Walker (a name you’ll probably recognize from his work with such bands as Exhumed, Phobia, Hirax, Intronaut, and Murder Construct, among others).

What they’ve whipped up here is a nerve-jangling, hair-raising, gob-smacking hybrid of technical death metal, progressive metal, and black metal, with a remarkably intricate and adventurous approach to songwriting and lights-out instrumental skill.

Knowing who’s behind the kit on this EP, it will come as no surprise that the drumming is a marvel, jaw-dropping at high speed but inventively mercurial too, constantly changing — just as the other instruments do.  And yes, the fretwork is a marvel too, a fast-changing kaleidoscope of sensations and styles, sometimes just viciously ripping or mauling, sometimes evocatively melodic, and often proggy and jazzy. Hell, the chameleon-like extravagance of the soloing alone justifies the time spent listening.

Every song, even the shorter ones but especially the longer ones, is packed to the brim with a plethora of head-spinning patterns and permutations, turn-on-a-dime tempo changes, and dramatic changes in mood, punctuated with bone-busting grooves. The vocals are the least variable part of these equations (because how could they be equally variable in this context?), but the array of ravenous growls, crazed howls, and unsettling wails is still very (savagely) expressive.

Honestly, I’m left stunned by this EP. Even in the context of a lot of other head-spinning music in today’s collection, this one takes the prize. These days, $12 is a lot to ask for a digital EP, much less an album, but this thing is such a rare accomplishment that I’m buying. And there’s so much exhilarating stuff packed into these minutes that it seems twice as long as it actually is.

https://thornlord.bandcamp.com/album/thornlord
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61562459218829