We hardly ever actually “plan” anything around here. Impulse is in the driver’s seat most of the time. But sometimes a pattern develops despite the absence of design, and this week our content has been heavier than usual with videos and album art. Yesterday I saw even more eye-catching artwork for forthcoming albums, so I’m collecting them here (along with some music, of course).
BORKNAGAR
This long-running avant-garde Norwegian band is one I learned about through readers on this site back in the early days of NCS. What with all the clean singing, I didn’t immediately love the music, but I’ve developed an appreciation for what they do, and so I’m interested in the new studio album they recorded with Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios (Opeth, Paradise Lost, Katatonia) in Örebro, Sweden. The album is titled Urd and will be released on March 26 in Europe and March 27 in North America via Century Media Records.
The eye-catching album art was designed by Brazilian artist Marcelo Vasco, who did the cover for this band’s previous Universal album. He has also created album art for many other bands, some of which we’ve featured here, including Belphegor, Einherjer, Dimmu Borgir, The Faceless, Noctem, and Keep of Kalessin.
The cover for Urd captures the look and feel of a Nordic wood carving. More info about the design and the album can be found on a post at Borknagar’s official site, here. As for the clean singing, the new album will feature three pretty talented vocalists working together – Vintersorg, Lars Nedland, and ICS Vortex. One of the heavier tracks from the band’s last album comes right after the jump.
Borknagar: “Havoc”
[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/01-Havoc.mp3|titles=Borknagar – Havoc]The next cover is for an album from a band I first heard in a live set in Seattle last year when they opened for Rotting Christ.
LECHEROUS NOCTURNE
This band is based in South Carolina. Their debut album, Adoration of the Blade, came out in 2006, and a second album — The Age of Miracles Has Passed, followed in 2008. That live performance I saw immediately turned me into a fan: It was decimating — tight, fast, and technical, and charged with the passion of unmitigated fury. Their last album was a fucking head-wrecker, delivering brutal, atonal tech-death in the vein of Hate Eternal. I was looking forward to seeing them again on that Dark Funeral-Abigail Williams-Inquisition tour that got cancelled earlier this week, but they tour like fanatics, so I’ll get to see them soon anyway: Along with Abigail Williams, they’re on that Deicide tour that begins March 1.
It appears they’ve now finished recording a new album, Behold Almighty Doctrine, which will be released later this year via Unique Leader Records. The album cover was revealed yesterday. I haven’t yet discovered the identity of the artist (why isn’t this kind of info always included in press releases?), but I do like it. It’s strange — I presume it has some connection to one or more of the album’s lyrical themes — but it’s also cool.
Lecherous Nocturne has a Facebook page here, and this is a video for a song from the band’s last album. I’ve featured it previously at NCS, but one good turn deserves another.
With that, let’s turn to the final eye-catching cover I saw yesterday:
ENSHADOWED
This Greek band is a new name to me, but I got interested in them yesterday for two reasons: First, the album cover (obviously), and second, because of the news that they’ve signed with Pulverised Records for the release of their third album, which will be named Magic Chaos Psychedelia. Pulverised is a cool label — and their name is a good description of the kind of metal bands whose music they release. I figured that if they signed Enshadowed, then Enshadowed is worth some attention.
I was expecting some eviscerating death metal, given the kind of albums that Pulverised released last year, but the press release I received describes Enshadowed’s new music as “the ultimate combination of orthodox black metal with experimental grotesquery parts . . . Chaos, ritualism, paranoia . . . .” Okay, so maybe not death metal, but that description sounds good, too.
Enshadowed has put up a YouTube clip with excerpts from songs on the new album. I do like what I hear. Check it out:
7 Responses to “EYE-CATCHERS: NEW ALBUM ART FROM BORKNAGAR, LECHEROUS NOCTURNE, AND ENSHADOWED”
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The Lecherous Nocturne song was so fast that sounded as if they taken what was originally a 6 minute song and forced down into a 3 minute something play slot. BECAUSE THEY LIKE TO TORTURE MUSIC. And I fucking salute them for that.
Enshadowed is kinda making my earholes pant a bit. I’m not sure if black metal of the avant garde variety will ever really do much for that particular erogenous zone though.
Maybe you just need more ear-hole lube.
Well, I’ve enjoyed about 50% of the black metal you’ve posted in the last two months or so, so I think I’ve had my ears properly lubed up for black metal. I think sometimes they just can’t find my g-spot.
For proper ear-hole pleasuring with black metal, you need foreplay. I suggest putting on corpsepaint,
stripping naked, going outside on a full moon, then chanting at the moon while dancing in a circle around
a decaying goat head..
Be sure to pose your hands like you are gripping someone’s nads.
This process works for me every time.
That Enshadowed artwork is fucking beautiful though.
According to this interview, which I just found, the cover was created by the band’s guitarist N.E.C.R.O and an unnamed friend who did the design for the Lucifer figure:
http://subexistance.com/interviews/enshadowed
BORK BORK BORK