SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (PART 2): THY CATAFALQUE, GRAVEYARD, SKELETAL REMAINS, BLACK ROYAL, OUTER HEAVEN

 

Still playing catch-up after a week devoted mainly to premieres, I picked the following five tracks to conclude this two-part Saturday round-up. I’m definitely not caught up yet, but this will have to do for now. More catching up will happen tomorrow, with the usual Sunday focus on black metal.

THY CATAFALQUE

Tamás Kátai has recorded a new Thy Catafalque album, and I could hardly be more excited to hear it. If perchance you haven’t discovered Thy Catafalque, carve out some time this weekend and go explore the Bandcamp page, which I’ve linked below. I think you’ll find the music distinctive and enthralling.

The new album (the eighth one) is Geometria, and Season of Mist plans to release it on May 4. Tamás explains that this one includes violins, electronica, occasional saxophone, trumpet, and fretless bass, plus the voices of Martina Veronika Horváth (Nulah, Niburta) and Gyula Vasvári (Perihelion), in addition to his own. Viktoria Varga also provides narration.

 

 

The first advance track appeared last week, a marvelous song called “Szamojéd Freskó“. Tamás describes it as “basically a mythical narrative of physical decomposition”. I’ve left the lyrics below, translated from the Hungarian.

Musically, it bolts from the gate in a blazing, battering, blood-pumping rush, and although the pace stays in the red zone until the very end, the melody swirls and sparkles.

Lyrics (translated)

Nothing else exists
only cone and pyramid.
Fear breaking forth
from the ambush of the body.

Knowledge is worthless,
I am of nothing.
My dry seeds tumble
down the black mud.

In the mirror of immense spaces
and silent halls
beyond the Moon.
That’s where you’re standing.

Pre-order:
https://shopusa.season-of-mist.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=thy+catafalque
https://thycatafalqueuk.bandcamp.com/album/geometria

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/thycatafalque/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GRAVEYARD

Here’s another band you definitely need to know about if you don’t already — the Spanish death metal band Graveyard.  To celebrate their tenth anniversary this year they’re releasing a new five-track EP named Back to the Mausoleum on April 27th through War Anthem Records. It features eye-popping cover art by Matt Carr (aka Putrid).

“An Epiphany of Retribution” is the multi-faceted song from the EP that just appeared last week. A gruesome lumbering monster it is, but also a seething viper nest, and there are both fluid, spectral guitar melodies and a scorching solo in the mix, as well as an eerie haunted house of an outro.  Good stuff!

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/deathmetalgraveyard/

War Anthem:
http://www.war-anthem.de
https://www..facebook.com/WarAnthemRecords

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SKELETAL REMAINS

I loaded up my iPod with the new Skeletal Remains album last Sunday during a very rare trip to the gym. I listened to it twice, straight through. It made me feel like Superman, which explains why I overdid the workout to the point that every muscle in my body burned with a fiery pain for the next four days. It really is an outstanding album. Just be careful what you’re doing when you have a chance to hear it, so you don’t hurt yourself or others.

The name of the album is Devouring Mortality, and it’s set for release on April 13th by Dark Descent in North America and by Century Media everywhere else in the world. It was mixed by Dan Swanö at Unisound, and the cover art was rendered by Dan Seagrave.

Below you’ll find a stream of the first single, “Seismic Abyss“. I’ll hold my thoughts about the song (other than what I said about the album in the first paragraph), because I hope to have a lot more to say about the album as a whole — which is as much of a full-throttle rush as this track it.

Bandcamp:
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/devouring-mortality

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SkeletalRemainsDeathMetal/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLACK ROYAL

The Finnish band Black Royal are two-for-two. In another Saturday round-up earlier this month I included a song and video named “Cryo-Volcanic” from their debut album Lightbringer, which will be released on March 9 by the Swedish/Finnish label Suicide Records. Now they’ve come out with another song and video, this one named “The Chosen“, and it’s another powerhouse song.

Lightbringer is a concept album that Black Royal believes is best heard straight through. Idiot that I am, I haven’t yet done that. But this song, like the first one, really punches lots of my buttons. It’s a massive, gut-rumbling, head-moving behemoth, dark as night and immediately addictive, with an atmospherically occult melody that soars.

Pre-order:
https://suiciderecordsswe.bandcamp.com/album/lightbringer

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/blackroyalmusic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OUTER HEAVEN

I’ll make my verbiage for this final item very short — because I already wrote about this track, “Into Hellfire”, when it first appeared last fall in the form of a lyric video. Back then, it just served as a teaser for a new album that’s still projected for release this year. But in the last day or two Outer Heaven released it as a stand-alone single on Bandcamp, though I assume it will still be on the new album.

Just listen to it… I think you’ll be glad you did. And, as always, enjoy the rest of your fucking day. I hope you’ll drop by again tomorrow.

Bandcamp:
https://outerheavenpa.bandcamp.com/track/into-hellfire

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/OuterHeavenPA/