A BYZANTINE UPDATE (AND NEWS OF SOME FULL-ALBUM STREAMS BY ABYSMAL DAWN, DECAYING, ATRIARCH, AND EINHERJER)

Byzantine, celebrating

Here are a few things that caught my eye yesterday.

BYZANTINE

There aren’t many bands that all the long-tenured writers at this site like, but West Virginia’s Byzantine are one of them. Their 2013 comeback album got loads of praise here and elsewhere, and so we were stoked to find out that the band had launched a crowd-funding campaign to help finance production of a new album — To Release Is To Resolve.

That campaign surpassed its goal (though contributions can still be made here, which will get you a pre-order of the album), and yesterday brought the announcement that the band have now finished recording all the music for the new record, with only Chris “OJ” Ojeda’s vocal tracking left to be done. But one thing will happen first — and that’s the second piece of Byzantine news we want to spread around: Beginning today, the band are embarking on a tour that will run through the end of October, with Thy Will Be Done and IKILLYA. The dates are after the jump…

 

 

Oct 22 @123 Pleasant St Pub – Morgantown, WV
Oct 23 @ The Studio at Webster Hall – New York, NY
Oct 24 @ Mac’s Bad Art Bar – Syracuse, NY
Oct 25 @ Oddbody’s – Dayton, OH
Oct 26 @ The Stache – Grand Rapids, MI
Oct 27 @ 5th Quarter Lounge – Indianapolis, IN
Oct 28 @ Thompson House – Newport, KY
Oct 29 at Ground Zero – Spartanburg, SC
Oct 30 @ Riff House Pub – Chesapeake, VA (with Goatwhore)
Oct 31 @ The Blue Parrot – Charleston, WV

I’d love to see this band live, though the Pacific Northwest is a bit of a hike for this group of working men.  If you’re within striking distance of any of these venues, though, you should definitely turn out for this.

And now for news about some full-album streams that premiered yesterday or this morning…

 

 

 

 

ABYSMAL DAWN

The fourth album by California’s Abysmal Dawn is due for release in one week by Relapse Records, and yesterday Metal Sucks began exclusively streaming the whole thing. I’ve not yet listened to all of it myself, but based on what I’ve heard so far, I couldn’t agree more with the MS summary: “Obsolescence might be the band’s finest work to date, a perfect blend of technical prowess, memorable songwriting, and sheer fucking savagery.” Go here to listen (physical copies can be pre-ordered at this location, and digital editions are available on iTunes and Bandcamp):

http://www.metalsucks.net/2014/10/21/exclusive-full-album-stream-abysmal-dawns-obsolescence/

 

 

 

 

DECAYING

Earlier this month we had the pleasure of premiering a track from the new album by Finland’s Decaying: One To Conquer. Yesterday DECIBEL began streaming the whole thing. This is really good, old-school, doom-encrusted death metal that’s pulverizing and melodically seductive. Especially if you’re a fan of bands such as Asphyx and Bolt Thrower, you can and should check out the full stream here:

http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/streaming-decayings-one-to-conquer/

 

 

 

 

ATRIARCH

On October 27, Relapse Records will release An Uneneding Pathway, the new album by Portland’s Atriarch. The music is a real kaleidoscope of styles, with fragments of doom, death rock, black metal, sludge, and exotic drone all spinning around to form a fractured and skull-fracturing tapestry. Yesterday Pitchfork launched a full-album stream, which I recommend, and which you can find here:

http://pitchfork.com/advance/576-an-unending-pathway/

Atriarch will soon be embarking on a West Coast tour, so I’ll add those dates right here:

11/07/2014 Chop Suey – Seattle, WA
11/08/2014 Obsidian – Olympia, WA
11/10/2014 Slabtown Records – Portland, OR Release Show w/ Usnea, Muscle, Marrow
11/12/2014 Wandering Goat- Eugene, OR
11/13/2014 Cafe Colonial – Sacramento, CA
11/14/2014 First Church Of The Buzzard – Oakland, CA w/ Dispirit
11/15/2014 Black Castle – Los Angeles, CA w/ Cough, Invdrs, Sorxe
11/16/2014 Tower – San Diego, CA w/ Crowhurst
11/17/2014 Sweet Springs – Santa Barbara, CA w/ Crowhurst
11/18/2014 The Knockout – San Francisco, CA
11/19/2014 Catalyst Atrium – Santa Cruz, CA w/ Plague Widow
11/20/2014 Club 66 – Ashland, OR
11/21/2014 Wisp House – Salem, OR

 

 

 

 

EINHERJER

This last item is a late-breaking piece of news that I discovered thanks to a timely tip from Norwegian NCS reader eiterorm.

Norway’s Einherjer trace their roots back to the mid-90s and are now on the verge of releasing their sixth album, Av Oss, For Oss (Oct 27 in most of Europe) via Indie Recordings. Today, Metal Hammer Norway and RockHard (Germany) began streaming all of it. I’ve only just begun listening to this, but I sure like what I’m hearing. Below are the links for the album stream.

Av Oss, For Oss can be pre-ordered from Indie Recordings here.

http://metal-hammer.no/einherjer-av-oss-for-oss/5337/

http://www.rockhard.de/news/newsarchiv/newsansicht/39076-einherjer-streamen-ihr-neues-album-av-oss-for-oss.html