(written by Islander)
We have written frequently over the last seven years about the music of the Italian band Thecodontion, whose primeval and prehistoric thematic interests have been as interesting and erudite as their guitar-less but ever-evolving formulations of death metal. And so we were highly intrigued to learn last year that Thecodontion vocalist G.E.F. had started a new band named Clactonian, joined by Thecodontion drummer V.P. (also in SVNTH), Finnish bassist K.H.P.K. (from Ashen Tomb), and Italian guitarist B.Z. (Spell of Decay).
Like Thecodontion, the thematic interests of Clactonian are rooted in prehistory, and particularly the Paleolithic Age. The name itself is a term given by archaeologists to an industry of European flint tools made by an extinct species of archaic humans who lived hundreds of thousands of years ago. (You can find more about here.)
Last summer we premiered Clactonian‘s debut demo, Dea Madre, whose cover art you won’t have forgotten if you saw it. The music followed a path of early bestial black/death metal that drew strong influence from Beherit but also should appeal to fans of Archgoat, early Bathory, and some bass-driven bands like Barathrum or early Necromantia for the slower sections.
And now we’re bringing you Clactonian‘s second demo, Everlasting Paleolithic, in advance of its official release on March 28th. Prepare for… PALEOLITHIC BLACK METAL OF DEATH!
The new demo includes two songs, half as many as on the first one, but if anything they’re even more catastrophically violent. Clactonian sound like they’re trying to single-handedly turn back the clock on civilization, reducing survivors to making flint tools again.
“Blood Red Petroglyphs” is hulking and brutish, but also berserk. As the rhythm section club the listener and thunder against them, the grit-infused riffing churns and whines, dense and decimating in its effects, and the vocals veer from crazed and caustic screams to grunting gutturals.
Clactonian continually shift the tempos, thuggishly pounding and then savagely eviscerating what’s in front of them. In two of the accelerated passages they also throw in absolutely maniacal guitar solos. Shrill and shrieking, those sound like fret-melting seizures, as frantic and unhinged as the rhythms are prehistorical.
And then comes “Paleolithic Black Metal of Death“. Here again, the bass is a heavily thudding and rumbling menace, the drums a clobbering punishment, and the riffing is dense and ruinously abrasive, like a blizzard of sharpened flint — though the band also come together to lurch and stomp. And here again, the tandem vocals and the soloing are insane.
True to form, both songs sound prehistorically primitive, but both of them also sound like blood-spraying derangement.
PRE-ORDER:
https://clactonian.bandcamp.com/album/everlasting-paleolithic
CLACTONIAN:
https://www.facebook.com/clactonian.metal
https://www.instagram.com/clactonian.band
https://open.spotify.com/intl-it/artist/7HAPcCXdn5XkzeXhQRP2lK