Mantar photo by Sonja Schuringa/Chantik Photography
I have my second miserable cold in two months, and how are you doing? I’ve been focusing on music that I thought would help blast the snot out of my head. I’ve included a lot of that below. I can’t tell that I’ve really come un-clogged, but it has made me feel better in other ways, including providing catharsis for being so pissed off that the virus has hit me again so quickly.
As you can see, I had time enough to do lots of listening and watching yesterday and this morning. As usual, the music from the 10 bands featured below isn’t all I heard and liked, but I had to draw the line somewhere. I moved some of my choices to tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK column, and others I hope I’ll get too somewhere down the road.
MANTAR (Germany)
Times change and minds change, and I’m selfishly very happy that Pain Is Forever and This Is The End wasn’t Mantar‘s last album despite hints that it might have been, including comments from the band that they almost broke up during the making of it. Earning money is never irrelevant, but Hanno and Erinc don’t seem like the kind of guys who’d just keep plugging away if they didn’t also enjoy making music, and each other’s company.
It seems they found that place again, because they’ve recorded a new album named Post Apocalyptic Depression that will be released by Metal Blade in February of the new year. Before hearing any of it, I got stoked reading Hanno‘s comments about the new album:
“We wanted to do EVERYTHING different from the last album…. Now we are trying to destroy what we’ve built up with the last album…. We didn’t even bring our own gear to the studio, and just used the equipment that we would find there. There was zero planning involved in the making of this album. We wanted to keep it as primitive as possible…. Very punk rock production and next to our first album definitely the most raw sounding one…. I took us back to the making of our first album ten years ago.”
To reinforce the point, the PR materials include this: “Further reconnecting Mantar with the spirit of their 2014 debut Death by Burning, the new front cover is again painted by renowned artist Aron Wiesenfeld, whose haunting aesthetic lends the band such distinctive and striking visual impact.”
“Halsgericht” is the first song from the new album. Pretty dark and dismal at first, it ramps up into a slasher and a bruiser — still not happy music, but a serious pulse-puncher and skull-buster, and both Hanno‘s voice and some of the riffing is searing in its impact.
The video, draped with nooses, gives you a sign of why (IMHO) Mantar are one of the best live bands currently operating. Just two of them, they still dominate a stage.
https://www.metalblade.com/mantar/
https://www.mantarband.com
https://www.facebook.com/MantarBand
https://www.instagram.com/mantarband
SAVAGE LANDS (Costa Rica)
Almost exactly one year ago I was halted in my scurrying tracks by a video for a song called “The Last Howl” from Savage Lands, a metal charity project whose goal was to help preserve the forests of Costa Rica and the creatures that live there.
Savage Lands and that song quickly gained a lot of attention, in part because of the people who participated in making it. The Savage Lands project was founded by drummer extraordinaire Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, Scarve, etc.) and musician-turned-activist Sylvain Demercastel (a current resident of Costa Rica). For “The Last Howl” they brought in guitarist Andres Kisser (Sepultura) and vocalist John Tardy (Obituary), as well as vocalist Poun and bassist Etienne Treton from the French band Black Bomb A.
I got so interested in the project that I reached out to interview Dirk and Sylvain as a way of helping to spread the word about a very worthy cause, and very worthy music. That discussion was published here.
photo by Gornoss
It turns out that since the founding of Savage Lands as a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, it has preserved 100,000 square feet of Costa Rican forest using the money from their music. That’s what’s reported in a press release last week which announced the organization’s debut album, Army of the Trees, which is set for release on February 15, 2025 on Season of Mist. Here’s more info from that press release:
On the ground, the organization partners with scientists, forest engineers, ecological parks, private businesses and other local non-profits. Their Green Alliance has led to more than 11,000 trees being planted in deforested areas along the Costa Rican coastline thanks to the help of 1,200 volunteers. They also partner with global conservation leaders like the Jane Goodall Institute.
As for the album, it includes participation by a lot of notable names, among them: Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy), Maria Franz and Kai Uwe Faust (from Heilung, who have also contributed money from their ticket sales to Savage Land), Julien Truchan (Benighted), Lord of the Lost, Steeven Corsini (Loco Muerte), Auré Jäger (Akiavel), David & Viber (Sidilarsen), Niko Jones (Tagada Jones), Stéphane Buriez (Loudblast, Sinsaenum), Nils Courbaron (Bloodorn, Sirenia, DDC), and Aurelien Ouzoulias (The Beat Factory, Mörglbl).
Along with all this news Savage Lands released a video last week for the album’s title song, “Army of the Trees“, which features a lot of those guests named above. It’s a fiery, furious, hard-hitting, but also broken-hearted and defiant song that will get the adrenaline flowing, and it includes a ton of passionate vocal variety (including rap, as well as singing, screaming, and roaring) and some glorious heavy metal soloing.
The first link below is for pre-orders. I’ve also included a link for donations.
https://orcd.co/savagelandsarmyofthetrees
https://savagelands.org/donation/
https://savagelands.org/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100081754354224
https://www.instagram.com/savagelands_project/
FRONTIERER (Scotland)
Last week DGR messaged me about the detonation of a new Frontierer song (and lyric video): “I appreciate that the Frontierer crew came out and said ‘this is basically where we were heading with Sectioned’ because holy hell is that new single some face-smashing chaos”.
That new single is named “The Skull Burned“. And consider the name of the forthcoming Frontierer EP that will include it: The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept. (That title stitches together the names of all four songs on the record.)
Yes indeed, face-smashing chaos it is. Unhinged, high-boil vocal vitriol; skull-rattling and gut-busting drumwork; and acetylene-torch riffing that chars the listener’s brain. Even when the rhythm section start hobbling and staggering, the sound burns, and the larynx-lacerating vocals are still utterly deranged.
The new EP will be released on December 20th.
https://frontierer.bandcamp.com/album/the-skull-burned-wearing-hell-like-a-life-vest-as-the-night-wept
https://www.facebook.com/frontiererband/
ASS TO MOUTH (Poland)
Having been put in a certain kind of mental frame by that Frontierer song, I thought it made sense to follow it with a video for a new song from Polish grinders Ass To Mouth.
Vocalist/bassist Jarek says that this new track, “The Underdog,” is “probably one of the most brutal & intensive songs we ever did. Pure Grind Armageddon.” That’s truth in advertising, because “The Underdog” inflicts a lot of take-no-prisoners punishment, from the lead-weighted brutishness of the riffing to the bursts of percussive automatic weaponry and the raging panoply of yells, roars, snarls, and screams — capped by a strong dose of head-hooking chugs.
“The Underdog” is taken from the band’s new album Enemy Of The Human Race, which is scheduled for release on November 29th by Selfmadegod Records.
https://www.selfmadegod-store.com
https://www.selfmadegod.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/assgrindsystem
https://assgrindsystem.bandcamp.com/
ROTTEN SOUND (Finland)
Before I get out of that mental frame I’ve been in for the last couple of songs, let’s have one more grindy bloodbath, this time courtesy of the great Rotten Sound.
This song, “Doom“, isn’t a new one. It originally appeared on the band’s pivotal third album Murderworks in 2002, but the excuse I’ve got for including it in this roundup is a new head-spinning video for the track, which was released to help spread the word that on January 3rd Time To Kill Records is reissuing Murderworks on CD, double gatefold LP, MC, and digital editions.
Prepare for turbocharged bludgeoning and violent evisceration, replete with madhouse screams and ravenous growls.
https://timetokillrecords.com/collections/rotten-sound-murderworks-reissue-2025
https://rotten-sound-murderworks.bandcamp.com/album/murderworks-reissue-2025
https://www.instagram.com/rottensoundgrind/
https://www.facebook.com/RottenSoundOfficial
RITUAL FOG (U.S.)
Shifting gears, I’d like to help draw attention to But Merely Flesh, the debut album by Tennessee’s Ritual Fog that’s coming out later this month on Transcending Obscurity Records.
So far, T.O. has made three songs available for streaming from the album: “Desolate Chasm“, “Demented Procession“, and “Nocturnal Suffering“. What they reveal is a changing amalgam of ghastly and gruesome death metal, ranging from high-speed, circle-saw viciousness to bouts of lurching thuggery, crawling putrefaction, and jumping delirium, all of it capped by bleeding-raw howls and cut-throat screams, plus gut-rumbling double-bass turbulence and snare-work that feels like ball-bearings rocketing around your skull.
T.O. will release But Merely Flesh on November 29th. They recommend it for fans of Morgoth, Asphyx, Skeletal Remains, Laceration, Malevolent Creation, Death, and Leper Colony. The fantastic cover art is the work of Juanjo Castellano Rosado.
https://ritualfogdm.bandcamp.com/album/but-merely-flesh
https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
https://eu.tometal.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ritualfog
SKAPHOS (France)
I decided to follow one band on the Transcending Obscurity roster with a second one. Skaphos (a black/death band whose music I’ve written about in the past) is a relatively recent T.O. signing, and the song below (with a video) is the first to be revealed from their third album, Cult of Uzura.
Primitive occult chanting and hand-drumming open the video and the song like an invocation of a dark spirit — and then the music erupts like Vesuvius, in a torrent of blistering drumwork, diabolically writhing riffage, and horrid growls.
The guitars snarl, gnash, and convulse in frenzies. The abyssal growls trade off with demented screams and gagging snarls. The guitars also emit eerie pealing tones and viciously slithering outbursts, enhancing the song’s supernatural aura — and the band put a battering ram to work against your spine too.
The well-made video gives us views of the band that are just as demonic, barbaric, and possessed as the music.
The news about the new Skaphos album is so new that I don’t yet have a release date, and the album art hasn’t been revealed — though I read that Paolo Girardi is the chosen artist. Looking forward to seeing that, and to hearing the rest of the songs.
https://linktr.ee/skaphos
https://www.facebook.com/skaphosofficiel
THE SWORD (U.S.)
Shifting gears again….
Jethro Tull‘s “Locomotive Breath” is a great song. It was great when it came out on the Aqualung album in 1971 and it’s still great. Various rock and metal bands have covered the song, and I usually check ’em out when they surface, as reminders of a great song and also to see how the hell they’ve done it without Ian Anderson‘s flute. If you don’t know why that’s a challenge, watch this.
The latest cover of “Locomotive Breath” is one that the reactivated Texas-based The Sword did for the Magnetic Eye label’s Aqualung Redux project, and they nailed it. One reason is that they brought on Steve Moore (Zombi) to do the piano intro and Jason Frey (Hard Proof, Doom Side Of The Moon) for the flute solo. Yes! An actual flautist!
But the cover is also excellent because of the trippy wail of the guitar-leads, the booming heft and raking blare of the train-like chugging grooves, and the faithful strength of the vocals, which really do bring that mad genius Ian Anderson back to mind.
Aqualung Redux includes 9 more cover songs from Aqualung by lots of artists whose names you’ll know, and two more of those covers are up for streaming at Bandcamp. The album has been scheduled for release on December 6th. Magnetic Eye is also releasing a companion album entitled Best of Jethro Tull Redux, which contains 8 other cover renditions of Jethro Tull deep cuts classics.
http://lnk.spkr.media/jethrotull-redux
https://reduxrecords.bandcamp.com/album/aqualung-redux
https://www.facebook.com/theswordofdoom
SOLIPSISM (Slovakia)
The introductory phase of this next song, “On Facing Outwards“, cleverly combines a sad, dreamy, and tonally glistening melody with a contrasting drum performance that’s quite animated. And given the dreaming nature of the melody, it’s a shock (which I’m now spoiling) when wrenching screams and monstrous roars explode, the drums start blasting, and the high-toned riffage sizzles and swarms.
The guitars still gleam and sweep in the upper reaches of the range, but they sound more despairing. Solpsism also bring in some hard-slugging, bass-level jolts and low-frequency moans, as well as swirling (but still sorrowful) lead guitars, plenty of changes in the drum patterns, and a gentle piano interlude before the song’s final heart-racing measure of desperation and darkness.
The song is out as a single now, but it’s from a new Solipsism album, their second one, that’s headed our way sometime in 2025.
https://solipsismband.bandcamp.com/album/on-facing-outwards-single
https://www.facebook.com/solipsismband/
PLAGUEFEVER (U.S.)
As you can tell from the last song, I’ve drifted into black metal here at the end of today’s collection, and I’m staying with that drift in this final choice, though what Virginia’s Plaguefever do is a hell of a lot different from Solipsism‘s moody “urban black metal”.
The two songs that are up for streaming now from this band’s new album Flail Of Pestilence are summed up pretty well by Jack Control, who mastered the record: “Barbaric Blackened Thrash in the true old school tradition”.
“A.M.N.D.” is sheer racing savagery, propelled by a punk gallop, laced with berserk guitar delirium, and voiced with serrated-edge screams. The riffage slashes and boils, frantically scissors and swarms, and gets the blood frothing.
“Taste the Chain“, which is the album closer, is more than twice as long as “A.M.N.D.” Mid-paced and jolting at first, it comes off like a brutish beast venting ugly snarls, around which sulfurous and psychedelic musical vapors swirl. It’s both leg-moving and head-twisting in that phase, and proof that Plaguefever have got more up their sleeves than a talent for feral, full-bore riots.
But they show that talent again before “Taste the Chain” is over, accelerating the pace and discharging blazing thrash riffage and jaw-dropping, white-hot soloing (aided by their guest Nick Poulos from Municipal Waste and Bat).
That segment is really fucking glorious, but the band don’t stop there. They follow it by jackhammering the listener’s neck and then converting the song into the audio equivalent of a piston-pumping freight train from hell trailing flame and smoke.
Flail of Pestilence will be released on November 29th.
https://plaguefever.bandcamp.com/album/flail-of-pestilence
https://www.facebook.com/plaguefever
https://www.instagram.com/plaguefever