Actually, these days are only indirectly named for an animal up here. The term “dog days” of summer came from the Romans, in the hot days that coincided with the sun’s rise and set alongside the dog star, Sirius. This time was referred to as diēs caniculārēs, or “days of the dog star.”
What comes next? Well, I read this in an e-mail from a seller of wine (same e-mail I cribbed from above):
Late August marks a transition from dog days into a period known as ‘cat nights,’ a little-known Irish legend involving roaming witches turning themselves into cats… we’ll spare all the details! In any case, the timing is associated with a season of nocturnal prowling, earlier nightfall, and an instinctual, impending cool on the horizon.
Well, you can’t say you never learn anything at NCS. You might also learn something from the music I picked for this Saturday’s roundup as you get ready for some cat nights ahead.
I can’t say there is any coherent theme to what I chose today. Each song is very different from the others. I just liked them all, and they seem like the kinds of things a lot of people might overlook without a little help.
MONDOCANE (Sweden)
I’ve become reflexively interested in the work of this Swedish solo black metal project as it continues to evolve, a point that would be obvious if you remember all the times I’ve written about Mondocane‘s music in a relatively short period of time.
The most recent occasion was last December, when Mondocane released its excellent third album Ultima, but thankfully Mondocane has continued to work on music, and the most recent sign of that is a single named “The Unclean” that was released to YouTube a couple days ago.
Mondocane puts a vital emphasis on vibrantly ringing melody in this new song, melodies that soar yet have a stricken aura nonetheless, and become more stricken as the song unfurls.
The words come forth in deep and gritty growls; with just a few breaks, the propulsion is hard-charging and pulse-pounding; and the layering of the guitars create layered sensations, of grim travail and wailing grief. This one gets its dark hooks in the head too, and continues resonating long after it ends.
https://mondocaneofficial.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/Mondocaneofficial
LILJEVARS BRANN (Germany)
I found this next long song very sad, but far from dull.
The sorrow begins to lap at the listener like the gentle waters of a stream at your feet, but soon becomes much heavier and crashing, though the drums boom, and whistling ambient tones vibrantly flicker in the upper reaches. The vocals themselves, which scrape and snarl, add to the song’s mounting agonies.
The music does become gentle again, drawing upon acoustic tones that sound like a call-back to ancient days, as well as solemn harmonized singing which creates a grieving spell. When the intensity builds again, the vocals sear, yet the reappearance of piano keys and timpani-like pounding reinforce the song’s mystical aura.
The track continues crossing over different waters, both placid and turbulent, and eventually it rides a high crest, becoming gloriously expansive and immersive, pulling together all of the song’s ingredients in ravishing fashion, though in its finale it again creates a passage of dolorous, haunting beauty.
“Brannstjerningen” is the second single from Liljevars Brann‘s debut album Helja Kor, which is set for release on September 27th via Octopus Rising (an imprint of Argonauta Records).
https://www.argonautarecords.com/
https://ingrv.es/brannstjerningen-vrd-u
https://www.facebook.com/liljevarsbrannofficial
https://www.instagram.com/liljevarsbrann
INVERNOIR (Italy)
I’m staying in gloomy territory with this next song, but like the one above, this one is far from dull. And if you’ve heard either of Invernoir‘s previous releases, you wouldn’t expect it to be.
“Shadow Slave” rings, shimmers, and beckons at first, quickly creating a mood of gothic mystery, but then Invernoir bring the hammers down with titanic stalking detonations, and cover them with a broad sea of shining melody. The vocals take the form of scarring howls and blistering screams, but also plaintive singing (and so we have the second of today’s exceptions to the “rule” in our site’s title).
The song seems to stride and shake the earth like a brooding giant of old, and the recurring vocal contrasts (which are quite striking) and expansive melodies continue adding to the song’s grip, though the piercing, wailing, and warping extended guitar solo at the end might be the most striking aspect of the song overall.
This is the first track to be revealed from Invernoir‘s second album, Aimin’ For Oblivion, which is set for European release on September 27th (October 4th for North America and the rest of the world) via Aural Music‘s code666.
https://invernoir-band.bandcamp.com/album/aimin-for-oblivion
https://www.facebook.com/invernoir
UNHEALED (U.S.)
I discovered this next song of vicious metallic hardcore thanks to a recommendation by Neill Jameson near the conclusion of his end-of-summer column at Invisible Oranges. He wrote: “[I]f you’re into heavy and nasty throat punching music then here’s your new favorite band.”
In naming the song, this Philadelphia duo put a twist on the old saying about the month of March: “In Like a Lion, Out Like a Corpse“. After it ended I thought maybe I should call an ambulance and take advantage of Seattle’s Level 1 trauma hospital.
Seriously, “In Like a Lion…” is a ruthless musical wrecking machine, operating with massively heavy and brutally pulverizing bass-lines, astonishingly explosive percussion, and pure red-eyed screaming fury in the vocal department. The riffing scrapes like steel wool on flesh as it roils and rakes, boils and blares, sizzles and screams. And so the song proves to be a mood-mangler as well as a bone-breaker, a lethal discharge of unfettered rage.
The song is the first single off of Unhealed‘s upcoming full length, Failings. Not sure when it will be released, but I’ll be looking forward to it. Maybe I’ll be out of the hospital by then.
https://unhealed.bandcamp.com/track/in-like-a-lion-out-like-a-corpse
FABULAE DRAMATIS (Belgium)
Although this Belgian collective have two albums to their name prior to the new one that’s on the way, I don’t recall ever encountering their music before today. On the other hand, it’s been seven years since their last album, so that may have something to do with it.
Their new album, Violenta, is described as a chronicle of vocalist Isabel Restrepo’s childhood during the drug war in the ’90s in Aranjuez, Medellín, Colombia. I was drawn to the next song in today’s collection, “The Jungle of Ego“, because of the cover image accompanying the lyric video for it. The band explain that it’s “the picture of ‘The Huitoto Indian Woman’ by Felipe Noriega | Studioblanco, taken in 2016 in the Macuna community of Macedonia at the Colombian Amazon riverside”.
The song itself begins with a tribal chant in Spanish — “Mundo de maldad, mundo de vanidad”, which means “World of evil, world of vanity”. From there, the music unfolds in very interesting ways. The inspiration for “The Jungle of Ego” is described as follows:
With this song, the band brings a social critique, expressing discontent with how modern society has become overly focused on superficiality and disconnected from reality due to the influence of digital technology and media. It is a call for introspection and a return to more authentic, meaningful values. Vanity, deception, loss of reality, ego and isolation are the themes that the band addresses.
photo by Gustavo Adolfo Valderrama
Following those partially growled opening rhythmic chants, the song begins thrusting and writhing and we get our first taste of Isabel Restrepo‘s soaring voice. The chants continue, and so do the tribal rhythmic grooves, but the riffing also darts, jabs, and whirls like a dervish.
Other tones whistle and wail, and Isabel continues unfolding a dramatic array of vocal variations, both clean and harsh, as the rhythmic patterns and fretwork continue elaborately changing as well, head-spinning but visceral in their permutations, and capped by an exhilarating guitar solo.
Violenta will be released for streaming platforms on September 5th, and on CD and digitally on September 7th.
https://www.fabulaedramatis.com/
https://fabulaedramatis.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/fabulaedramatis
KILLING SPREE (France)
I discovered this next duo through their fascinating cover of Morbid Angel‘s “Rapture“, which arrived in the company of a great video of their performance filmed in the historic trenches of the Maginot Line in Alsace. I went on and on and on about the song and the video in a previous edition of these Saturday roundups.
Now I’ve had a chance to see what drummer Grégoire Galichet and saxophonist/vocalist Matthieu Metzger can cook up on their own (though truth be told, that cover song is far from a straight-forward copy of the original). What you’ll find below is yet another video, also filmed in the Maginot Line tunnels, for the title song from their upcoming album Camouflage!.
I’m a fan of the saxophone and have always enjoyed hearing its participation in metal music. But even if you’re not a fan, don’t worry, because for the most part Matthieu Metzger contorts and distorts its sound so that you’d have trouble guessing what should be held accountable for all the savagely mangling, mercurially swirling, monstrously blurting, and crazily bleating sensations. (Before the end, in some of the song’s most freaked-out passages, I started thinking of King Crimson‘s “21st Century Schizoid Man”, which is intended as high praise).
Grégoire Galichet is also one hell of a good drummer, and more than holds his own in this wild ride (he makes the ride even wilder). There aren’t many vocals in this track, but they’re authentically bestial. And just in case you think the song is just a bizarre head-spinner, Killing Spree also pick their moment to sledgehammer the listener six feet into the ground.
I won’t say anything about the video so as not to spoil all the strange fun you’ll have when watching it.
Camouflage! is set to be released on September 13th via Klonosphere/Season of Mist.
https://orcd.co/killing_spree_camouflage
https://www.facebook.com/killingspreetrio