AN NCS PREMIERE: BARING TEETH — “DRIPPING SUN”

(Austin Weber wrote the following introduction to our premiere of a song from the forthcoming second album by Baring Teeth.)

While Willowtip continues to churn out releases by forward-thinking bands like it’s no big deal, Baring Teeth still stand out as a singular creative force on their roster. Their exponential growth and talent for exploration displayed on their soon to be released sophomore album, Ghost Chorus Among Old Ruins, prove that their path is a rich and multifaceted one, albeit one that’s highly unsettling in the best way possible.

Their last album, 2011’s Atrophy, cemented the band as pioneers in the art of stretching boundaries and seeking out different methods and manners of interpreting death metal, creating new and inspired forms of the genre, giving it a new canvas on which to rot, and painting with a more sophisticated palette than mere straightforward aggression and simple headbangable riffs. They infuse their output with an alien presence that wanders amidst chaotic rhythms and moody peaks and valleys.

Photo credit: Courtney Scholari

Although Baring Teeth bring to mind the haunting and abstract nature of Obscura-era Gorguts, they’ve run with that point of reference and crafted a new paradigm that does far more than exist as mere homage; it strikes new ground entirely — new ground capable of burying you in seconds, yet the band’s mission stretches far beyond primitive goals and cliched methods of torment. With “Dripping Sun”, the band put you into a psychological choke-hold and force you to re-think old boundaries and accept that new forms of death metal torture and wizardry exist.

Ghost Chorus Among Old Ruins does more than throw a fresh coat of paint on an old style; it seeks to question and re-define the depths and mission of death metal. In the process, the album submerges you in a haunting despair that brings a cold clinical chill to your bones and its mesmerizing effect lingers long after the music ends.

Feeding you misanthropy that blooms kaleidoscopically, it teaches that walls exist only to be mutated and destroyed until the newly scarred forms resemble nothing the mind can grasp with comfort. Instead, you get segments like the beginning of “Dripping Sun” that wouldn’t be out of place at all stylistically on the genius and madness of Ephel Duath’s Pain Necessary To Know. If there is a paramount purpose to “Dripping Sun”, it’s to say fuck you to any and all preconceived notions of “been there, done that”, and to dispel the incorrect adage that there is nothing new under the sun.

Ghost Chorus Among Old Ruins will be released on November 25 and can be pre-ordered via the Bandcamp link below.

https://www.facebook.com/baringteeth
https://willowtip.bandcamp.com/album/ghost-chorus-among-old-ruins