ACT OF IMPALEMENT: “PIERCING THE HEAVENS”

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Jan 312025
 

(written by Islander)

The musical trajectory of Nashville’s Act of Impalement has been intriguing (and scary) to observe. Their 2018 debut album Perdition Cult (released by Unspeakable Axe) quickly proved they could pull off a whole lot of monstrous magic acts, veering from one parcel of extreme influences to another without losing their footing.

Their second album Infernal Ordinance (their first one on Caligari Records), was more focused, less likely than their debut to throw listeners off-balance but still packed with thrilling and chilling variations. As one writer put it, that album was “akin to a morbid melting pot of Cianide, Bolt Thrower, Prophecy of Doom, and Archgoat.”

And now we have Act of Impalement‘s third album Profane Alter on the way, again to be ushered toward us by Caligari Records. It’s introduced on behalf of the label with these reference points:

Though still drawing from the likes of Autopsy, Incantation, and of course Cianide, Act of Impalement‘s third album is a filthy & finely honed assault of bestial death metal, drawing more inspiration from the likes of Belgium’s Possession, Finland’s Belial, and ever more Archgoat.

What we have for you today is the second song to be disgorged from Profane Altar, the vividly and accurately named “Piercing the Heavens“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ACT OF IMPALEMENT — “ATOMIC HECATOMB”

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Jan 102023
 

 

If you had managed to catch Act of Impalement‘s 2018 debut album Perdition Cult, you’d know that this Nashville trio could have gone in many different directions with a follow-up full-length. They pulled from a lot of different heavy and extreme genres and succeeded in keeping listeners perpetually off-balnace. As one especially vivid review put it, they proved themselves capable of “churn[ing] out vile heaps of grinding crust one minute and the next cough[ing] up a doomy, death metal cyst of drudgery,” creating an experience where “sodden waves of sludging doom marry up with guttural death metal nuances before a sudden tide of black-cum-death thrashing interrupts”.

There were so many highlights on that first album, so many hideous thrills and chills, that it wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world for this hydra-headed world-ender of a band to just do it again, giving fans another discombobulating tour through a hideous netherworld labyrinth of sound. But the second album that is now about to emerge after a five-year hiatus gives us a different plan, no less thrilling and chilling but more focused in its monstrosity. And oh hell yes, that second album Infernal Ordinance is a monster. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CRAFT, ACT OF IMPALEMENT, LURK

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 142018
 

 

Well, it seems I had a little free time I didn’t expect to have this morning after completing the writing and editing of posts planned for this Monday, so I thought I’d compile this small round-up of new discoveries, two of which appeared today and one of which arrived last week. Brighten (or darken) your fiendish hearts with these three tracks:

CRAFT

White Noise and Black Metal is the name of the new album by the long-running Swedish black metal cult Craft, their first one in seven years. The release date, through Season of Mist, is June 22nd. In April the label released the album’s first single, “The Cosmic Sphere Falls“, and today brought us another one, and it represents something of a switch from the first. Continue reading »