Within the wide-ranging expanse of death metal some bands devote themselves to music of monstrous, primeval power, ruthlessly savaging the mind with the sounds of violence, oppression, and horrifying degradation. The Australian band Ignivomous are within that lineage, and have been honing their evil craft for more than a decade. Their growing mastery is on full display in their new album, the first one since 2012’s Contragenesis. Entitled Hieroglossia, it will be released by Nuclear War Now! Productions on November 15th.
For this ravaging new album the band’s core membership of Sean Hinds (guitar), Chris Broadway (drums), and Jael Edwards (vocals) has remained in place, augmented by the recording debuts of guitarist Lewis Fischer (Altars) and bassist Chris Jordon (Inverloch, Eskhaton). Thematically, we’re told, “Heiroglossia continues Ignivomous’ investigation into topics of Philosophical pessimism, influenced by the works of Thomas Ligotti and E.M. Cioran, and Gnostic concepts of the fallen and hostile nature of the material world.”
Today we’re presenting a new song from Heiroglossia, but before we get to today’s premiere, let’s first consider a previously released song from the album, because you’ll encounter it first in the Bandcamp player below.
That previous song, “Thalassophobia“, viciously gouges at the eardrums in a roiling mass of distorted riffage and a thunderous percussive earthquake. The guitars seethe and boil in a sickening frenzy, oozing poison and putrescence from every whirring chord, as a mutated monster slowly roars and growls his blasphemies. The drumming slows from time to time, and the caustic blizzard of pestilential notes becomes more desolate and degrading. However, the band make time to drive giant pile-drivers into your brain, anchoring a slithering (and diseased-sounding) solo, and they also spin themselves into a fiery frenzy, driven to heights of savage ecstasy by shrieking guitar torture.
And then you’ll come to our premiere of “Shackles of the Demiurge“. Shrieking string mutilation again pierces the ears, but at first the song drags its weight like an encapsulation of remorseless, suffocating oppression. But here too the band explode in maniacal chaos, mauling the senses with fret-leaping miasmas of sound. This sadistic churning storm is almost overwhelming in its intensity and in the unhinged nature of its violence, though it’s punctuated by big booming drum grooves, like bombs going off within the fast-veering madness of a cyclone, and by shrill, unnerving solos. Methodically, the vocalist utters long, slow bellows that chill the skin while his bandmates bombard the listener with ever-increasing levels of madhouse destruction.
For music of such paralyzing murderousness and obliterating intensity, the songs also portray a spine-shivering kind of delight, like the brazen, blazing glory of demons in their element.
Nuclear War Now! will release Hieroglossia on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats. Its release is preceded by a full European tour by Ignivomous, which is now in progress. A limited tour-edition digipack CD of the album will be available for purchase on the tour, in advance of its general release by NWN. Check the Ignivomous Facebook page for the remaining schedule of dates on the tour, which includes stops in Germany, Poland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
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IGNIVOMOUS:
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