SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): ÆVANGELIST, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, VHÖL, CRUCIAMENTUM, HORRENDOUS, NIGHTFELL

 

I haven’t been able to pull together a round-up of news and new music in five days, and you know what that means: I’ve got a backlog that’s so big I’ll never catch up. But instead of just uttering a big sigh and looking ahead instead of behind, I decided I should at least pick some of what interested me out of the last five days’ discoveries (in the hope that they will interest you, too).

The entries in this first part of a two-part post are almost all news items — and they include a ton of great cover art — but since this feature is called Seen and HEARD, I’ve tacked on one new song at the end that you can stream right here. Part 2 will be all music.

ÆVANGELIST

This interests me greatly: Through 20 Buck Spin, Ævangelist will release their fourth album on October 9 in the U.S. and October 23 in Europe. A vinyl edition is projected for December. The name of the album is Enthrall To the Void of Bliss. I have to find out who created the cover art, because it’s very good. (UPDATE: I’ve learned that the wonderful art was created by Stephen Wilson [FB page here], and more of his work will appear in the digipak of this album.)

Having heard none of the music yet, I’ll simply quote what appeared in yesterday’s announcement:

Cycling through recent years Aevangelist have mercilessly assaulted listeners via audial deformation and twisting sepulchral composition. 2013’s Omen Ex Simulacra brutalized with punishingly dense yet accessible riffs in the Murk, and this specter looms large on ‘Enthrall…’, whilst layer upon layer of ghoulish keys and madness-stricken vocals act as flesh bricks to shape a hellish tower of the damned. Smeared with a warm, wet production, the inherent chaos of ‘Enthrall…’ becomes omnipresent.

That sounds enticing, doesn’t it? Here’s the track list:

1. Arcanæ Manifestia
2. Cloister Of The Temple Of Death
3. Gatekeeper’s Scroll
4. Alchemy
5. Levitating Stones
6. Emanation
7. Meditation Of Transcendental Evil *

* Meditation Of Transcendental Evil will not be included on the vinyl release, but will be as part of the included full album download.

And for those who haven’t caught the two singles that the band recently released — “Abstract Catharsis” and “Dream An Evil Dream”, I’ve included the streams below.

https://www.facebook.com/aevangelist.official
https://www.facebook.com/20buckspin
https://aevangelist.bandcamp.com/album/abstract-catharsis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABIGAIL WILLIAMS

Yesterday also brought the official announcement that on October 30 Candlelight Records will release Abigail Williams’ first new album in three years, The Accuser. The line-up for this album is: founding vocalist/guitarist Ken Sorceron (ex-Lord Mantis), guitarist Jeff Wilson (Wolvhammer, Chrome Waves, Doomsday, Le Chant Funebre), and drummer Charlie Fell (Cobalt, ex-Lord Mantis, ex-Avichi), with recording bassist Will Lindsay (Indian, Lord Mantis, Anatomy Of Habit). The album also includes a guest appearance by Neill Jameson (Krieg, Twilight). The wonderfully distinctive cover art was created by Stevie Floyd (Dark Castle, Taurus).

Here’s what Ken Sorceron had to say about the album:

“It took three years to make this because I’m an indecisive bastard and I didn’t want to make the same record again. It felt unnatural to try and reproduce what I did on [2012’s] Becoming, which, up to that point I felt was our strongest album. So once again we are covering new ground with this release. The songs are the most personal to date with the themes mostly being about living shitty, addictions, sex, loss and failure all through the eyes of a nihilistic occultist shithead.”

We reported most of the above details last November after a conversation with Sorceron, and at that time we also premiered early versions of two songs that will appear on the album — both of which were fantastic. Really looking forward to this album. Here’s the track list:

Path Of Broken Glass
The Cold Lines
Of The Outer Darkness
Will, Wish And Desire
Godhead
Forever Kingdom Of Dirt
Lost Communion
Nuummite

I’ll also mention that Abigail Williams will be touring North America with Today Is the Day in September and October. Here’s the schedule:

9/11/2015 Metro Bar – Salt Lake City, UT
9/12/2015 Roxy Theater – Denver, CO
9/13/2015 Fubar – St. Louis, MO
9/15/2015 The Social Room – Columbia, MO
9/16/2015 Hideout Bar – Appleton, WI
9/17/2015 Red Line Tap – Chicago, IL
9/18/2015 The Pike Room – Detroit, MI
9/19/2015 Iggy’s – Toledo, OH
9/20/2015 The Foundry – Lakewood, OH
9/22/2015 Mohawk Place – Buffalo, NY
9/23/2015 Hard Luck – Toronto, ON
9/24/2015 Maverick’s – Ottawa, QC
9/26/2015 Brighton Bar – Long Branch, NJ
9/27/2015 Bowery Electric – Brooklyn, NY
9/28/2015 Club Orpheus – Baltimore, MD
9/30/2015 Ziggy’s – Winston-Salem, NC
10/01/2015 Ground Zero – Spartanburg, SC
10/02/2015 Epic Problem – Tampa, FL
10/03/2015 O’Malley’s – Margate, FL
10/04/2015 The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
10/05/2015 Handlebar – Pensacola, FL
10/07/2015 Korova – San Antonio, TX
10/08/2015 Rail Club – Ft. Worth, TX
10/09/2015 Dirty Dog Bar – Austin, TX
10/10/2015 Rose Park Activity Bldg. – Abilene, TX
10/11/2015 Blu Phoneix Venue – Albuquerque, NM
10/13/2015 Joe’s Grotto – Phoenix, AZ
10/14/2015 The Whiskey – W. Hollywood, CA
10/15/2015 Dive Bar – Las Vegas, NV
10/16/2015 DNA Lounge – San Francisco, CA

http://www.facebook.com/abigailwilliamsofficial
http:/www.candlelightrecordsusa.com
http://www.facebook.com/candlelightrecords

 

 

 

 

VHÖL

One more recent album announcement worth noting: On October 23, Profound Lore will release the second album by VHÖL. Entitled Deeper Than Sky, the record again features the stellar line-up of vocalist Mike Scheidt (YOB), guitarist John Cobbett (Hammers Of Misfortune, ex-Ludicra), bassist Sigrid Sheie (Hammers Of Misfortune, ex-Amber Asylum), and drummer Aesop Dekker (Agalloch, Worm Ouroboros, ex-Ludicra). The cover art (also very cool) is by Brandon Duncan, based on sketches and concepts by Cobbett.

The band’s self-titled first album was really excellent, and that makes this announcement very exciting. Here’s an excerpt from the press release:

“We recorded this album at Light Rail Studios, in a huge room on a beautiful 1970 Trident console onto Jerry Garcia’s 2″ tape deck. One cannot escape the Grateful Dead in San Francisco recording studios — their gear is all over town,” elaborates the band of the recording process. “The mixing was rather primitive with no plug-ins and all effects were done by old pedals, tape echo, and large reverb plates. Another thing that was large and huge during recording was our bass player who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant at the time.”

Here’s the track list:

1. The Desolate Damned
2. 3AM
3. Deeper Than Sky
4. Paino
5. Red Chaos
6. Lightless Sun
7. The Tomb

 

https://www.facebook.com/vholisvhol
http://www.profoundlorerecords.com
http://www.facebook.com/profoundlorerecords

 

 

 

 

CRUCIAMENTUM

We didn’t manage to publish a review of the new Cruciamentum album Charnel Passages, but I’ll tell you it’s really, really good. And you can now hear it for yourselves because the entire album is streaming at The Quietus (the release date on Profound Lore is September 4, with vinyl to follow in late October or early November in cooperation with Me Saco Un Ojo Records.

Listen here:

http://thequietus.com/articles/18625-listen-debut-cruciamentum-album

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cruciamentum/285239791946

 

 

 

HORRENDOUS

Brian Smith’s cover art for the new Horrendous album, Anareta, simply floors me. The band’s last album, Ecdysis, was so damned good that I’m expecting Anareta to floor me, too. It’s set for release on October 27 by Dark Descent.

Yesterday, Decibel premiered the first advance track from the new album, a song called “Sum of All Failures”. I probably would have been quite happy had the song’s acoustic introduction just carried straight through to the end of the track, but the racing, darting, diving, soaring death metal that follows it is just as seductive. The neuron-twisting lead guitar progressions in the song are fascinating as well as acrobatic, and they’re nearly matched by the artful exuberance of the bass and drum work.

Listen to the song here:

http://decibelmagazine.com/blog/2015/8/24/exclusive-premiere-horrendous-sum-of-all-failures

This is the track list:

https://www.facebook.com/HorrendousDeathMetal

1. The Nihilist
2. Ozymandias
3. Siderea
4. Polaris
5. Acolytes
6. Sum of All Failures
7. Stillborn Gods
8. The Solipsist (Mirrors Gaze)

 

 

 

 

NIGHTFELL

Okay, now for some music you can listen to right here at our very own putrid site (it premiered at CVLT Nation about five days ago but is now up on Bandcamp).

The name of the song is “Rebirth” and it comes from Darkness Evermore, the second album by Portland-based Nightfell (Tim Call and Todd Burdette), whose 2014 debut album The Living Ever Mourn was super-strong. The new album is set for release on September 11 (CD and digital) by 20 Buck Spin, with vinyl coming on October 23. The cover art and interior paintings are by Carl Auge.

“Rebirth” is a long track, and a very tough one to pigeonhole. The drum and bass rhythms and the riffing in the extended instrumental introduction are irresistible, and as the song continues to unfold it grows even more intricate and infectious. The music pulsates with vitality — until a break in the action when the pace slows and Julia Kent’s cello joins an acoustic guitar performance that turns the music’s atmosphere in an increasingly dark and disorienting direction.

A grinding bass line and trilling tremolo guitar melody shift the gears again, and the song really begins to rumble and roll on the back of a galvanizing drum performance straight through to the end. A great song, and a tempting teaser for this highly anticipated album.

http://listen.20buckspin.com/album/darkness-evermore

https://www.facebook.com/nightfellpdx