SEEN AND HEARD: INCANTATION, SLIDHR, AND DEER CROSSINGS

I’m a little off my game at the moment, out of town and with not much time to call my own, so our posts will be a little more sporadic than usual this week. But I wanted to throw a few items your way before the day ended, and they are as follows:

A calamitous new track from Incantation (U.S.), two intriguing new songs from Slidhr (Ireland), and your wtf? moment for the day straight from Fargo, North Dakota.

INCANTATION

I assume this band need no introduction, and therefore none will be provided. Their ninth studio album, Vanquish In Vengeance, is due for release on November 26 by Listenable Records. About 10 days ago I found out that the band had recorded a song for DECIBEL’s Flexi-Disc series and included that exciting news in a post despite the fact that the song hadn’t yet been released for streaming. Well, as of today, we can now hear it.

The song is ”Degeneration,” which originally appeared on the self-titled 1989 demo of John McEntee’s pre-Incantation band, Revenant. Incantation’s dynamic version of the track is completely devastating — disemboweling guitar grinding, ghoulish vocals, skull-smashing percussion, and a couple of guitar solos that are the equivalent of throwing open the door to a blast furnace. In other words, everything a death metal fanatic could want.

At the moment, the song is streaming exclusively at Metal Sucks, and I highly recommend you go there to check it out.

SLIDHR

Slidhr is a one-man black metal band from Dublin, Ireland. Following releases of a demo, and EP, and a split, Slidhr has recorded a debut album that will be released at some point in the future by Debemur Morti.

Two songs are now streaming on Soundcloud, the newest one (“Last Days of the Second Sun”) appearing earlier today, and the previous track (“Hex”) premiering last summer. Both songs radiate an eerie bleakness even when they’re cutting to the bone with sharp-edged riffs and sledgehammer drums. The vocals are pleasingly horrific, though you’ll hear some dismal clean vox in the more recent track.

“Last Days of the Second Sun” is the more doom-heavy of the two tracks, “Hex” the more ripping of the two. Both are very promising to these ears. Check ’em out (both tracks can be downloaded for free via the Soundcloud players):
 

 

 

UH . . . WE NEED TO RE-ROUTE THE DEER

I’m afraid this has nothing to do with metal. A friend of mine sent it to me without explanation. It’s a recording of a phone call placed by a woman named Donna to radio station Y94 in Fargo, ND, to voice her complaint about deer-crossing signs. At first, I thought this had to be trolling. But sadly, I concluded that it was probably genuine.

At least as amazing as Donna’s complaint is the restraint showed by the two hosts at the radio station. I kept waiting for the bombs to fall, and they never came.

Mind-boggling. All of it.