(written by Islander)
As usual, I had an enormous number of things to choose from for today’s collection. As usual, I had no preconceived idea how to do it. I just put one foot in front of the other, stumbling along until I ran out of time.
As I sit here and look at what I chose, I see that I defaulted to some old favorites but also went with debuts from some bands I’d never heard of. (I also siphoned off a few that will make good shades for the usual blackening of the Sabbath tomorrow.) I also added a couple of live-performance videos at the end, one of which is a genuine brain-scrambler.
AMENRA (Belgium)
Leading with one of the old favorites, here’s a stunning video made by Samson G Balfour Smith for the 12 1/2-minute title song from a forthcoming Amenra EP, De Toorn (Talisman), which should not be confused with their last album, De Doorn.
A classic slow build, “De Toorn” is gentle and darkly mysterious — until it very much isn’t. As a woman dramatically walks along a dramatic seashore, the music moves with a slowly ringing arpeggio, subtle rhythms, and subdued spoken words. Strange images appear, the woman eerily swathed in an unearthly fabric and wading into the waters, and the music gradually grows more animated, then drifts away.
The bass murmurs, the kick-drum thuds, the guitar moodily twangs, the haunting spell builds again and deepens. The woman appears distressed, holding out her hands, and then Amenra detonate the spell they’ve made into shards of agony, with punishing blows, sizzling guitars, and shattering screams.
Unclothed, the woman writhes, and the music writhes too (and rings and stomps and crashes), creating nerves-on-edge tension. Both the imagery and the music create a sense of frightening menace, as if something terrifying is about to become manifest.
De Toorn is one of two Amenra EPs that will be released by Relapse on March 28th. The other one is With Fang And Claw. The De Toorn EP includes one other song, a long one named “Heden” that you can stream at Bandcamp. One of the two songs from the other EP is also up at Bandcamp.
https://amenra.bandcamp.com/album/de-toorn
https://amenra.bandcamp.com/album/with-fang-and-claw
https://www.facebook.com/churchofra
NECHOCHWEN (U.S.)
Moving to another old favorite, the next song (in the vein of neo-folk rather than metal) is from a new album by Nechochwen curiously named spelewithiipi — which apparently refers to “the Big Turkey River”, the Ohio River. (I found an interesting article here about indigenous names for the river; the Shawnee called it “Pellewaa Theepee” or “Turkey River”).
Like the Amenra song above, “Precipice of Stone” begins with a gently ringing and wailing guitar melody, wistful and perhaps melancholy in its mood and spellbinding in its effect, accented by the gleaming slash of chords. Eventually, a bass hums and subtle tribal beats join in, and those ringing and wailing tones grow more beautifully vibrant, climbing higher.
Nechochwen gave this comment about the song: “‘Precipice of Stone‘ is a tribute to medicine songs that have helped me through difficult times. When troubled or in mourning, I envision a rock outcrop on which one can sit and work out problems, be it by screaming out, silently meditating, or singing a song.”
Concerning the album as a whole, they say: “spelewithiipi is an invitation for the listener to take a walk with us in the woods and experience the essence of our home region. We hope that you will feel the spirit of the land that inspired these songs and embrace the stories they tell.”
spelewithiipi will be released by Nordvis on May 9th.
https://nechochwen-nordvis.bandcamp.com/album/spelewithiipi
https://silentfuture.ffm.to/precipice-of-stone
https://www.facebook.com/nechochwen/
BLOOD CHARIOT and STONE CROWN (U.S.)
I think it’s time to turn the page into a chapter of more assaulting musical extremity, and to explore a couple of those bands I mentioned at the outset that I’d never heard of.
I paid attention to these two because of a Facebook post by Falls of Rauros, introducing people to a Maine collective (or I guess a label) called Hidden Dawn that encompasses “an insular constellation of bands and artists devoted to the raw and mystical hidden depths of metal.”
Blood Chariot‘s March 21 release is a fantastic two-song debut EP named Chariot of Blood. The first track, “Absolute War“, mysteriously shimmers (not a bad segue from the first two songs in today’s collection) but then swarms and boils, batters and howls, blisters and screams.
Blood Chariot also brazenly rock and rumble, send out swirls of quivering and yowling guitar melody, stomp hard, and cause the music to soar, sweep, shimmer, and squall in displays of frightening magnificence. The multiple vocals are particularly striking, because they’re so insane.
The voices are no less insane in “Horsemen of the Black Divine“, and it’s a multi-faceted song too, like the first one. The beats get muscles jumping as the music flows in grim swaths; the drums thunderously blast and the music sounds like wailing sirens of terrible calamity; the drums cavort and catapult, and the music blares and expands, like aural visions of the apocalypse.
Rhythmic battering rams come out, furiously jolting through electrifying drum-fills; and a disturbing guitar bridge leads the way into a closing phase of daunting grandeur riven by the whir of a captivating solo.
What we have from Stone Crown is its own two-song debut EP entitled Fear Not the Sea of Eyes. In the first track, “The Gate“, we have yet another slow, eerily twanging arpeggio at the start (it’s becoming something of a hallmark in today’s collection), but it begins to wail in the face of immense boulder-like booms and whiplash cracks.
Vividly twinkling guitars add a different and more ecstatic dimension to the music’s grim wailing tones and gut-punching beats, but craggy growling vocals and wrenching screams add to the music’s heaving and harrowing grimness. The lead guitar writhes and roils in pain, adding its layer to the multi-layered experience, along with darting strings.
Then comes “A Tomb for Chronos“, and you might want to brush up on that legend here, the personification of time. Stone Crown moves even slower than on the first song, in a stalking cadence. But this time male-and-female choral voices rise up above the dire, doomed march, joined again by harrowing growls and howls and a vividly ringing and rippling lead guitar.
The music dramatically and massively heaves like a lumbering leviathan as the drums lower the boom over and over again, but it also suddenly becomes soft and poignant, matched with somber and soulful singing, and then surges again with dreadful and doomed intensity on an even more expansive scale.
Like the EP of Blood Chariot, this is a very impressive piece of work.
BLOOD MONOLITH (U.S.)
Well, we’ve had a Blood Chariot, so how about a Blood Monolith?
This new band caught my eye because it was formed by guitarist/vocalist Shelby Lermo (Nails, Ulthar) in 2023 after his exit from Vastum, with the lineup completed by guitarist Tommy Wall (Undeath), bassist Nolan (Genocide Pact, Shitstorm), and drummer Aidan Tydings-Lynch (Deliriant Nerve, Brain Tourniquet).
The first song off their debut album The Calling of Fire is “Prayer to Crom“, and it’s a spine-tingling and head-spinning delivery of chaos. Abyssal roars slowly and malignantly vent the words while the guitars pulsate in mad fevers, the bass rumbles like subterranean earthquakes, and the drums go nuts.
Sharp stops and starts punctuate the frenzied mayhem, as do brutish pile-driving stomps, swirling fretwork spasms, and a freaked-out guitar solo. Both guitars freak out in tandem too, with a spoken-word conversation at the end (which I can’t make out).
The Calling of Fire is set for release by Profound Lore on May 15th. The startling cover art is a 1980 piece (“Black Eyed Baby”) by Rudimentary Peni frontman Nick Blinko.
https://bloodmonolith.bandcamp.com/album/the-calling-of-fire
THE GREAT SEA (Germany)
Continuing along the path of new bands I’d never heard before, next up is a video for a song named “Upright in Nothing” from Noble Art Of Desolation, which is the debut album of The Great Sea.
Momentous beats, lurching bass notes, and abrasively frothing guitars open the affair, soon accompanied by excruciating howls, horn-like tones that flow in vast, haunting waves, and a vividly trilling guitar. Collectively they create a mood of despair and mourning.
The decibels soften and the notes glisten, fashioning an interlude of loneliness and grief, but still with an edge of torment in the backing sonic vibrations. When the music swells and intensifies again, a scream goes on and on, out on the fracturing edge of sanity, and those vast horn-like tones seem to carry us out to sea (or maybe up toward the stars) as the rest of the music crashes and boils against the rocks on-shore.
Noble Art of Desolation will be released by AOP Records on April 25th. AOP details that “The Great Sea was founded in 2022 by JR (Long Distance Calling) and SH (Ordeal & Plight) with the ambition to create an atmosphere that can keep up with the majesty of the mountains and the horrible depths of the seas, with a glimpse into the never-ending darkness that is behind and before us.” The album includes guest appearances by Phil Jonas (Crone, ex-Secrets of the Moon) and Azathoth (Gràb, ex-Dark Fortress).
https://artofpropaganda.bandcamp.com/album/noble-art-of-desolation
https://www.facebook.com/thegreatseaofficial
WARFIELD (Germany)
And finally (before we get to the live videos I promised), one more band whose music I don’t think I’ve heard before. But they’re not making their debut: Warfield have been around since 2013 and have an EP and an album to their name, with a new album named With the Old Breed headed our way.
So far, two songs from the album have been released. “Soul Conqueror“, which arrived with a lyric video, “explores ‘Operation Wandering Soul,’ a psychological warfare tactic used by American troops to persuade Vietnamese soldiers to surrender during the Vietnam War.”
In making that exploration, Warfield surge into a rumbling gallop and deploy wild thrashing riffage with a feverish pulse and gritty, berserk screams. They also infiltrate a slower flow of miserable melody and brightly whirling guitar leads. It’s an electrifying experience, but the band make it as distressing as the subject matter calls for.
“Lament of the White Realm” also arrived with a video, with this one focusing on the performance of the band as they throw themselves into another hard-charging thrash attack. This song will also kick your heart-rate into high gear, and the vocals are again pleasingly cut-throat, snarling the words with the kind of high-speed viciousness that can’t help but make the song sound more dangerous.
But the song is pretty diabolical already, like the delirium of a demon horde loosed from whatever incantations bound them. The band also switch up the rhythm and make the fast-swirling music sound even more sinister, and give us an ecstatic black-magic solo out in the midst of a snow-field after the band stomp on the gas one last time.
With the Old Breed will be released on April 4th by Napalm Records.
https://lnk.to/WARFIELD-WithTheOldBreed/napalmrecords
https://warfieldthrash.bandcamp.com/album/with-the-old-breed
https://www.facebook.com/warfieldthrash/
ENLIVEN YOURSELVES
Now for the pair of live videos I promised.
SLIDHR (Ireland)
The first one is the entire live set by the Irish black metal band Slidhr at Debemur Morti‘s Servants of Chaos festival in Oberhausen, Germany in October 2024. Here’s the setlist, which follows 5 1/2 minutes of synthesized scene-setting:
01. Sentient Flames Consume
02. Wall of the Reptile
03. Belief Burned as Incense
04. Hex
05. White Hart!
06. What the Gauntlet Bestows
07. The Paupers’ Bones
Filmed from multiple camera angles and with good sound, the video shows us what Slidhr is — damned dark, damned desolate, damned vicious, a plague-storm in sound.
https://slidhr.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/slidhr
JACK QUARTET (U.S.)
And last is a mind-bender I was introduced to be Rennie Resmini (starkweather). It’s a performance by JACK Quartet, an astoundingly talented string quartet consisting of cellist Jay Campbell, violist John Pickford Richards, and violinists Austin Wulliman and Christopher Otto. The video was filmed on December 19, 2024 in New York at the Mannes School of Music at The New School.
What they’re performing is a piece called “Literatura Oscura” written by Jeanne Artemis of Coma Cluster Void — and I guess that’s a metal connection for you, but beyond that the composition is (as Rennie remarked) “as out there as CCV.” It may lull you at first, but then wild discordant and discombobulating things happen, as well as things that are anguished and haunting.
https://www.jackquartet.com/
https://www.facebook.com/jackquartet
https://www.instagram.com/jackquartet