(written by Islander)
I guess it’s obvious from the size of this weekend’s two-part Saturday roundup that I had more than the usual amount of NCS time yesterday and this morning, and therefore kind of lost my mind.
I have only a small amount of mind and time left at this point, so today’s SHADES OF BLACK is so brief it could be labeled a token effort. But I didn’t want to skip it altogether, especially because, although the recommendations are few in number, they still loom large in the remnants of my head.
ORDER OF THE EBON HAND (Greece)
At the risk of making it difficult for any other band to follow this first choice without their music seeming mundane, I’m leading with a breathtaking extravaganza from a new album by Order of the Ebon Hand.
The only thing subtle about “Charybdis” is the bass work, and only because its nimble nuances, though pleasingly noticeable, don’t seem to be devouring the world in fire and flood, like everything else about the song.
From the furiously writhing riffage, segmented by short stops and starts, to the vividly hammering drums and extravagantly detonations, the sweeping orchestral overlays, the piercing and feverishly flickering leads, and ravaging screams that sometimes go on for longer than you might think a flame-throwing voice could last, the song is a towering tempest. Or like its name, a vast, god-like whirlpool.
In the chorus, you might also be tempted to howl (at least in your head) “IA! IA!” right along with the band’s screaming and snarling ringleader.
The song is one of several singles that will be released in the lead-up to Order of the Ebon Hand‘s next album, which will be released in 2025 by Hydra Rise Media.
https://orderoftheebonhand1.bandcamp.com/track/charibdys
https://open.spotify.com/album/1XRB4Ruw8rwxxiZp7wuEYl
https://instagram.com/order_of_the_ebon_hand
https://facebook.com/orderoftheebonhand666
THY LEGION (Malta)
Rather than immediately try to do battle with the likes of a “Charybdis”, this next song begins with the eerily ringing tones of a sinister and surreal melody and a softly musing bass. But it does rise up, making that unearthly melody sound an order of magnitude more threatening.
The drums manically rumble, the guitars viciously sizzle as well as chime, and when bearlike growls cut loose the guitars start bursting in feverish spasms and whining like hungry hornets. The band also create their own sweeping (and chilling) overlays and make harrowing use of their various vocalists, who malignantly howl, growl, and scream as if possessed.
The well-made video that presents the songs is a scary one, though it’s hard to decide which is scarier — the lizards, serpents, worms, and demonic entities, and what they’re feasting upon, or the barbarically black-clad and black-spattered band members.
The song is “Dark Mother“, and it’s from this Maltese black/death band’s upcoming album Grand Cosmic Funeral, set to be released through Art Gates Records on November 29th.
https://artgatesrecords.com/store/en/pre-order
https://bfan.link/dark-mother
https://artgatesrecords.com/artists/thy-legion
https://www.facebook.com/thylegionmt/
TIME LURKER (France)
With the next song I’m pulling a similar trick to what happened when I put Thy Legion‘s song right after “Charybdis”, because “Cavalière de feu” immediately brings the temperature down.
It begins with slowly warbling and shimmering keys and a brittle ringing arpeggio that collectively create a haunting and otherworldly atmosphere. The picking goes faster and the synths become more ominous, and after a brief pause, the tornado spins up, drums hammering, the dense riffage roiling, and wild cries lacerating a larynx.
The change is harrowing, the sensations both bleak and unhinged, and the song stays bleak, even when the overarching intensity diminishes (though the drums really kick up a riot even then). But the swirling and gleaming sounds that then emerge sound bright and exultant, like the frolic of sprites — before they’re nearly swallowed in another outpouring of blasting, storming, and crazed cries. Then those guitar-sprites sound beleaguered and panicked, still swirling and glittering, still magical, but also distressed and wailing.
I have a feeling this marvelous song will stay with you. I had a hard time getting past it to the final item in this brief collection. It’s from a new Time Lurker album named Emprise that will be released by Les Acteurs de L’Ombre Productions on November 15th.
https://ladlo.bandcamp.com/album/emprise
https://www.facebook.com/timelurker
ZWIESPALT (Germany)
The final item in today’s collection is Des Nachts, a just-released four song EP by the German band Zwiespalt. They introduce it at Bandcamp with these words:
When the sun dies, the night rises to reign supreme. In the twilight, the line between the world and your mind becomes thinner and thinner.
There is something lurking in the darkness, hiding in the depths of your subconscious. There is a longing to dive deep down.
Tumbling, you fight against your own perception, against desire, because joy comes with suffering.
But all joy wants eternity. Deep, deep eternity.
This particular descent into darkness begins with “Sinister“, a hard-charging torrent of heavily galloping grooves, raw and rancorous riffing, and scorch-the-earth screams. The blurred but abrading and cutting riffing will rough you up as the bass and drums get your heart pounding, and that dominating riffage eventually seems to channel not only malignant ferocity but also terrible anguish and grim hopelessness.
The production isn’t prettied up, but sounds like it was recorded live in a rehearsal room, and that makes the song all the more immediate and honest, and it does dig deep.
That same “organic” sound follows through in the next three tracks, and so does the piercing emotional impact of the drilling and scouring riffage and the scalding screams. But “Tiefe” also brings to bear a feral, slugging and swaggering groove along with some huge bass-throbs and music that sounds like intense yearning and soul-chewing cruelty.
“Taumel” doesn’t loosen the EP’s grip, but instead comes across as even more deranged than before, even more carved by pain and confusion, though like all the other songs it also undergoes changes – all of them distressing, including the battering-ram blows that arrive near the end. The bass is quite noticeably nimble in this one, and the drumming (as always) does a lot more than shift the gears.
The last song, “Ewigkeit“, borrows its lyrics from Nietzsche, and they connect with the quotation that introduces the EP at Bandcamp. As for the music, the rhythms are again viscerally affecting, the vocals again hair-raising, and the raw-toned riffing, both vibratory and pulsing in its energies, is again piercing and potent, and once more distressing in its moods.
For music you might be tempted to characterize as relatively simple and “stripped-down”, this EP is really gripping, and (as I’ve said) emotionally very honest and powerful.
https://zwiespalt.bandcamp.com/album/des-nachts
https://www.facebook.com/TheTrueZwiespalt/