SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AN EVENING WITH KNIVES, ARKAIST, HAVUKRUUNU, NOVARUPTA, SADIST, GOJIRA, THY CATAFALQUE

(written by Islander)

If you’ve been visiting us recently it’s obvious that we’ve dived into year-end LISTMANIA. Andy Synn just finished his week-long series, which always starts us off, and we’ve re-posted a few lists from sites much bigger than our own. But if that was the dive, we’re about to sink way deeper into lists, like someone who offended a crime lord and are now being pulled into a watery abyss with concrete blocks chained to our thrashing body.

To preview what’s coming, next week we’ll roll out DGR‘s week-long Top 50 list, a three-part list series from Neill Jameson, and a couple of year-end lists from other NCS writers, with a lot more to come in the weeks after that.

One of my jobs during LISTMANIA is to get all those lists ready for posting. That involves such things as cleaning up typos, breaking long blocks of text into shorter blocks, uploading and re-sizing album art, and embedding music streams. This takes a fair amount of time, and on top of that I’ll still be writing premiere features almost every day from now ‘til we all ring in the New Year.

Looking at what’s on my plate, I thought about abandoning this weekend’s usual roundups of new music and instead trying to get ahead on all those other chores. When the wind began howling outside this morning and we lost our internet connection here at my heavily forested island home, I thought the decision had been made for me. But, astoundingly, the internet came back on without an hours-long delay, so I had to make the decision for myself.

And you see what I decided. Fuck trying to get ahead of the game. Let’s keep leaving all the tasks to the last minute, as usual, and provide a reminder that year-end list season poses no apparent hindrance to the rollout of new releases. At the end I’ve also stuck on a couple things that aren’t brand new, for added happiness.

P.S. Given the continued howling of the wind outside, it’s inevitable that our power and the internet will go out again, and longer the next time, so I’m hurrying!

 

AN EVENING WITH KNIVES (Netherlands)

I didn’t know anything about this band other than their name, but with a name like this how could I resist?

The song below, “Voices,” eerily shimmers and enticingly throbs. It furiously hammers, manically clatters, feverishly gouges, and dismally wails, and the vocals are ragged, raw, and show some impressive range. Both ethereal and hard-hitting, both gloom-cloaked and frantic, it made a gripping first impression for a newcomer like me.

The song is from this Dutch post-metal band’s third studio album, End of Time, which will drop on March 15th via Electric Spark Records (vinyl) and Argonauta Records (CD).

https://www.facebook.com/aneveningwithknives
https://www.instagram.com/aneveningwithknives
https://www.electricsparkrecords.com
https://www.argonautarecords.com

 

 

ARKAIST (France)

I paid attention to this next song because it’s from an album of black metal (a debut album) that will be released by the Antiq label (they haven’t steered me wrong with their releases), and because I read that the lineup includes members of Azgarath, Hanternoz, and Créatures.

The first song from the album, presented through a lyric video (in French), is “Anachorète.” The volume builds gradually, and what gradually flowers is a swarming frenzy of riffage and a furious blast-beating, eventually joined by serrated edge screaming and feverishly swirling synths.

It sounds like a world-spanning extinction event, dense and intricate, with effusions of daunting grandeur rising above the firestorm, but the pacing also slows, deep spoken words arrive, and the music flows in shining waves of haunting grief, before spooling up again into sounds of calamity and despair, capped by the reverberating tones of a wailing, slithering, and soaring guitar solo that really seizes attention.

What a magnificent catastrophe this is! The name of the album is Aube Noire. It will be released on February 24th.

https://antiqofficial.bandcamp.com/album/aube-noire
https://arkaist.bandcamp.com/album/aube-noire
https://www.facebook.com/people/Arkaist/61556108906004/
https://www.instagram.com/arkaist.bm

 

 

HAVUKRUUNU (Finland)

For my next choice I turned to an official video for the first single and title track from Havukruunu‘s upcoming album Tavastland, which will be out via Svart Records on February 28th.

Even though I’m proceeding alphabetically, this song makes for a companionable follow-on to that Arkaist song, though it’s much more folk-influenced. It too is a furiously paced black metal firestorm, replete with rapidly writhing riffage, full-bore blasting, and scalding screams, and it too interweaves sensations of sweeping and swirling yet dire grandeur, but with accents of ancient music in the melodies.

The song also includes grunts and growls, jolting punches, brazen fanfares, gloriously soaring choral voices, and a guitar solo that sounds like the skirl of pipes. At times you might imagine lords and ladies elegantly dancing within castle walls, or their serfs indulging in their own dances. At other times you might imagine torches aflame and charging steeds, and at the end of the video the music becomes very ancient indeed.

Here is vocalist/guitarist Stefas‘ statement about the themes of the album:

Tavastland tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in a rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die. Tavastland reveals our fathers’ centuries old sins and lies of consolation. Tavastland speaks of him, who has become a prisoner of his home, alienated from the land of the forest and is now afraid of the dark with all lights on, surrounded by his smart devices. Tavastland tells about the freedom we lost. Tavastland haunts its listener to the grave, and I will personally open that grave one bleak night and steal the fading light of your sempiternal soul.

https://orcd.co/tavastland
https://www.svartrecords.com/en/product/havukruunu-tavastland/13004
https://www.instagram.com/havukruunuband
https://www.facebook.com/havukruunu

 

 

NOVARUPTA (Sweden)

The alphabet led me to a big change with this next song, “Endless Joy,” which doesn’t sound joyous at all.

One could make a pretty strong argument that there’s no modern instrument as capable as classical strings for giving voice to grief. The heart-breaking start of “Endless Joy” is evidence of that. But where do those slow, mournful tones take us?

They take us to spine-jolting drums, a gut-rumbling bass-line, braying and glittering guitars, and strident singing with a raw edge, which latter becomes a shattering harmony.

It’s a head-bobbing, muscle-moving, and emotionally intense experience, downcast and wistful in its mood, though there’s mystery and beauty in the pulsating ring of the guitars, and a resurgence of sorrow when the strings reappear. Near the finale, the guitar melody sounds like the wailing sorrow of a saxophone, giving those strings a run for their money in the department of loss.

“Endless Joy” is from a new Novarupta album named Astral Sands. It’s set for release by Suicide Records on February 14th. This song includes a guest performance by Per Stålberg (Division of Laura Lee, Child) and string arrangements by Johannes Björks.

https://suiciderecordsswe.bandcamp.com/album/astral-sands
https://www.facebook.com/novaruptaband/

 

 

SADIST (Italy)

Two years on from their last album Firescorched, the long-running and always interesting progressive death metal band Sadist will bring us a new five-song EP on December 20th via Nadir Music. Its name is Jugular Bells, a title that made me thing of Mike Oldfield‘s Tubular Bells album, though I don’t think Sadist intended to make that allusion. I think they had a different meaning in mind through their play on words, given the impending Christmas season and the lyrics to the EP’s title song, which debuted last week with a video.

As usual for Sadist, those lyrics are fascinating — and frightening. The narrator is a serial killer, a wolf that has lost “its white fur but not its claws,” come to prey on Christmas revelers in “the land of tulips, mills and wind,” accompanied by the church bells of the night. You can see the lyrics at YouTube.

The music matches up well with this tale. In the song, the narration comes in vicious screams and monstrous gutturals, while the riffing savagely slashes and freakishly squirms. The song also inflicts brutish jackhammer beatings, goes wild with blasting fusillades, delivers elegantly swirling melodies, undergoes rapid fretwork seizures, and darts about like swallows in flight.

In other words, it’s a heart-pounding and head-spinning romp, and we would expect nothing less from Sadist as they help usher in the Christmas season.

Sadist have announced that the EP will be released in a limited edition box set that will include a Jewel Box CD, a band sticker, a wool hat, and a band patch.

P.S. Sadist will be releasing a new album through Agonia Records in the spring of next year. The songs from the EP won’t be on the album.

https://www.sadist.it/
https://www.facebook.com/sadstofficial

 

 

GOJIRA (France)

Gojira aren’t on anyone’s year-end list this year, because they didn’t release a new album or EP in 2024. But they still managed to do something spectacular this year, by performing in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, providing their rendition of “Ah! Ça Ira,” a song popularized during the French Revolution, eventually joined by opera singer Marina Viotti sailing by on the Seine (and nearly 300 classical musicians).

I wrote about this milestone very quickly after it happened. I couldn’t embed a video of it then because NBC Sports kept ordering YouTube to take down all the unofficial videos that had surfaced from the TV broadcast. But last week Gojira finally did post the video, which I’ve embedded below, and they also released the recording digitally. Enjoy!

https://gojira.lnk.to/MeaCulpa
https://www.facebook.com/GojiraMusic

 

 

THY CATAFALQUE (Hungary)

I have a social media acquaintance who’s an American of Hungarian descent. Yesterday she made a post about her frustration with people she has encountered who incorrectly try to tell her how to pronounce Hungarian names and words. She gave one example using the Hungarian word “Fekete,” which means “black.” The first thing that popped into my head was Thy Catafalque‘s song “Fekete mezők” (“black fields”) from the 2011 album Rengeteg.

I put that song on my list of 2011’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs (yeah, I’ve been doing that list for a really long time). As I explained at the time, it was one of my favorite songs of that year from one of my favorite albums of that year. If I ever struggled to make a list of the most infectious metal songs of the last 15 years, this one would be on it, and I wouldn’t have to struggle to include it.

My mind still holds the whole song, without need for a reminder, but of course I did listen to the song a few times after seeing that FB post. And if you haven’t ever heard it, you’ll find it below (the lyrics are quite fascinating, and you can find an English translation of them here).

Unlike Gojira, Thy Catafalque do have an album out this year that’s appearing on year-end lists — XII: A Gy​ö​ny​ö​rü Álmok Ezut​á​n J​ö​nnek.

https://thycatafalqueuk.bandcamp.com/album/rengeteg
https://www.facebook.com/@thycatafalque