WHERE DOOM MEETS DEATH (PART 1): NEW MUSIC FROM XORESTH, UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES ME, ATAVISMA, SEDATION THERAPY, AND THRONE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 092018
 

 

Through a happy coincidence, I’m drowning in despair this morning. I have a collection of new tracks that I thought would be worthy of a Monday round-up, and most of it comes in varying flavors of doom.

Of course “doom” as a genre label doesn’t tell you very much because the genre has subdivided so many times over so many decades. As the title of this post suggests, you’ll find flavors of death/doom metal in this collection, but the title is meant to have a second meaning — a hint at the atmosphere to be found in the songs that are less closely connected to death metal. And as the title further suggests, I’ll have a Part 2 either later today or tomorrow.

XORESTH

When you watch the video for this first song you will see Xoresth’s music labeled as Funeral Doom. To be more precise, this is music for the funeral of all humankind, with no surviving soul left to mourn. As I hear it, it’s a vision of the future in which our planetary home has been burned to a cinder and then frozen in a heatless void. Not for naught, the name of the album is Vortex of Desolation. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ATAVISMA — “INVOCATION OF ARCHAIC DEITIES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 062018
 

 

The song you’re about to hear, “Invocation of Archaic Deities“, is a stupendous death-doom monstrosity, and it’s also stupendously good — a multifaceted, richly dynamic, electrifying, hook-heavy, and otherworldly piece of musical nightmare.

The track comes from The Chthonic Rituals, the eagerly awaited debut album by the French quartet Atavisma, which follows a debut single in 2014, a four-song demo that same year, a split 7″ with Maur in 2015, and a two-song 7″ last year released by Blood Harvest. The album will be released by Memento Mori on July 23rd. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: WAYFARER, ATAVISMA, NATTVERD, THRONEUM, FINIS, 酸葬儀 ACIDFUNERAL, WITCHSKULL, HAMMERS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 082018
 

 

I had enough time last night to turn myself into a musical glutton. Just kept stuffing myself to the point of swelling up like a dirigible, hoping I’d come across something that wasn’t tasty before I exploded. That didn’t happen, so I had to summon the last vestiges of willpower and make myself stop.

So here’s a whole bunch of music, and only pithy impressions from me.

WAYFARER

Wayfarer’s third album, their first for the Profound Lore label, is described as “a reflection of the Rocky Mountains and high plains of their native Colorado”, “drawing influence as much from the dusty, dark Americana of the ‘Denver Sound’ and the scores of epic westerns as they do the fury and melody of black metal….” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: AOSOTH, ANTARKTIS, APOLOGOETHIA, ARROGANZ, ATAVISMA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Sep 222017
 


Cover art for Aosoth by Benjamin A. Vierling

 

Greetings and Happy Fall Equinox, one of two days in the year when every place on earth gets the exact same amount of daylight (almost exactly 12 hours today) and four days since my last round-up. I’m awash in good new music again (always). The fact that I chose songs from five bands whose names all begin with “A” should tell you something: Just imagine how many other new songs fill out the rest of the alphabet.

It may be the end of the working week for many of you (and I hope that’s so), but for us this isn’t really work, though it requires effort, and so we’ll just ramble on through the weekend as usual. For today, until you get to the last band in this post, you’ll hear nothing but new stuff from forthcoming releases. The last one I’ve been meaning to say something about for a while, and the time now seems right… since Atavisma begins with “A”.

AOSOTH

Like many others, I’ve had great expectations for the new album by Aosoth, which has been named V: The Inside Scriptures. The first single from that album validates all the eagerness with which it has been anticipated. Continue reading »