Lately I’ve been writing posts in which I collect new music, album art, and metal news items that I’ve seen recently which I think are worth sharing. I keep saying it’s not going to become a regular kind of series, but I might as well stop fooling myself. I still need to find a title for them. Today I’m trying out a couple of ideas I got from Kazz (with my addition of some Demilich-style parentheses) and Phro. I’ve got some more reader suggestions I might try out the next time I do this.

SCARAB

I saw that Egyptian death-metal band Scarab have revealed the artwork, tracklist, and title for their next album — Serpents of the Nile. The artwork (above) is by an Egyptian artist who calls himself Bombest, (Mohamed El Sherbieny). and I think he did an awesome job with this, don’t you? Actually, the album cover is only a part of a larger piece, which you can see after the jump.

I discovered Scarab back in July 2010 when I put together a series on metal from North Africa, and wrote this post about them, focusing on their superb last album, Blinding the Masses. It reminded me of bands like Behemoth, Immolation, and Italy’s Hour of Penance, but with a marked use of oriental melodies in the riffs.

Along with details about the new album, Scarab also premiered the title track two days ago. “Serpents of the Nile” still calls to mind those bands I mentioned above, and it’s an excellent song. It proves all over again that this is a band who deserve to become more widely known internationally. Continue reading »