You have to admit (I insist!) that The Saw is a great name for a death metal band. In the lore of horror and the reveling in destruction that inspires so much of the genre, it’s not a tool of carpentry but a weapon of ruination. The teeth don’t cut wood and scatter sawdust but bite through flesh and bone. It’s a wonder that Metal-Archives shows the name as unclaimed… until now.

Who has now claimed it? The answer is a quintet of talented Russians, who first began gathering as a side project of vocalist and lyricist Evgeny Pchelyakov (from the band Анклав Снов) and guitarist and composer Roman Derevyanko (Стальные Нервы) and then expanded through the addition of guitarist Max Nikolaevsky, bassist Dmitry Bichenkov and drummer Yuri Puzanov.

What they’ve achieved together is captured in a debut album named Nothing But Darkness that’s set for release on July 30th by the Ukraine-based label GrimmDistribution, and to help pave the way we’ve got the premiere of the album’s title track today. Continue reading »