Month: August 2020

MONGREL’S CROSS reveal first track from new HELLS HEADBANGERS album – ABSU’s Proscriptor features as new vocalist

Today, Aussie metal vanguard Mongrel’s Cross reveal the new track “Suffer the Witch to Live.” The track is the first to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated third album, Arcana, Scrying and Revelation, which will be released this November by Hells Headbangers on CD and vinyl LP formats. The album also marks the arrival of Absu’s Proscriptor as their vocalist. Hear Mongrel’s Cross‘ “Suffer the Witch to Live” in its entirety here:
Hailing from the extreme metal hotbed of Australia, Mongrel’s Cross were once of the best-kept secrets Down Under. The band’s debut album, The Sins of Aquarius, was released in 2012 via Hells Headbangers, and presented an unselfconsciously unique twist on paradigmatic Oz black/death. Grimily gratifying, Mongrel’s Cross unleashed a widescreen span of filthy thrashing, down-tempo war-marches, and epic metal grandeur alike, and diehards dutifully took note. Unfortunately, lineup struggles would hamper momentum, and it would take six long years before another recording reared its head.

However, when Mongrel’s Cross at last emerged from their hiatus, now pared down to a duo, the dividends paid off handsomely. Released in 2018 to widespread international acclaim, Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court soon became something of a modern classic to any and all who heard it. Mongrel’s Cross didn’t so much as change during the interim as simply intensify and fine-tune their iron-fisted attack, here conveying an altogether more terrifying and triumphant aspect. It was the age-old axis of form meeting content, and rarely had a metal record this cleanly produced sounded so threatening, which simply underlined the powerful panache to the band’s strong songwriting. Mongrel’s Cross had truly arrived with Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court – and thankfully, people were now paying attention.

Keeping that shit-hot momentum going, Mongrel’s Cross scored quite the coup in acquiring the legendary vocal skills of Absu’s incomparable Proscriptor for their third full-length. Bearing the appropriately magickal title of Arcana, Scrying and Revelation, these Aussie hooligans-turned-heroes are set to deliver yet another decisive and undeniable album. Mongrel’s Cross are on the march, ready to take the throne that’s rightfully theirs.

If its no-less-considerable predecessor saw Mongrel’s Cross step deeper into territory that’s entirely their own, here with Arcana, Scrying and Revelation do the bolstered quartet solidify that rarefied ground. Not for them the over-generalization of “Australia = war metal” nor the simplistic connotations associated with such; still peaking at the height of their compositional powers, Mongrel’s Cross remain a great extreme METAL entity. All the drama and danger, legendry and lawlessness, power and poison, and essential OTT abandon of this artform otherwise known as heavy metal – everything that Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court so effortlessly played out with a palpably physical poetry – here on Arcana do they render in more manic and narrative form, no doubt informed by Proscriptor’s pioneering work with the singular Absu. In fact, it’s a match so perfect (and poignant), it’s a small wonder it never happened sooner… Regardless, each of these seven screeds artfully canvasses a wide territory of heavy metal magick – the playing deft and nuanced, the songwriting itself direct yet richly detailed – and once again does the clean ‘n’ gleaming production fit like a gauntlet lined with velvet. In a word, Arcana is EPIC, in every sense.

Suitably adorned with majestic cover artwork courtesy of the masterful Kris Verwimp, hereby do Mongrel’s Cross enter the halls of confirmed greatness with Arcana, Scrying and Revelation!

Begin witnessing that greatness with the brand-new track “Suffer the Witch to Live” HERE at Hells Headbangers‘ official YouTube channel.

A release date in November is expected, but will be confirmed shortly. Preorder info to also follow.
Aforementioned cover art and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Mongrel’s Cross’ Arcana, Scrying and Revelation
1. Suffer the Witch to Live [6:07]
2. Fate of the Grail PT. I [4:53]
3. A Magician’s Prayer [5:22]
4. Fate of the Grail PT. II [6:02]
5. As a Being Undead [5:21]
6. What the Cards May Tell [6:09]
7. The Whispering Void [4:45]
MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/MongrelsCross  
www.hellsheadbangers.com
www.facebook.com/hellsheadbangers 

SVABHAVAT set release date for EISENWALD debut, reveal first track

Today, Eisenwald set October 30th as the North American release date for Svabhavat‘s striking debut album, Black Mirror Reflection, on CD and vinyl LP formats. In lieu of this announcement, the brand-new track “Aghori, Flame of Knowledge” has been revealed here:
Svabhavat are a brand-new entity hailing from the American Pacific Northwest. A duo, they describe their music as “Ritualistic Necromancy Black Metal,” and indeed is that demi-tag apt: across the band’s Black Mirror Reflection debut, one will find the refreshingly old stench of archetypal Darkthrone, Mayhem, and especially Kartharsis. No elegiac odes to the Cascadians or sun-drenched bliss masquerading as “black metal” here; Svabhavat offer nothing but cold ‘n’ cruel intensity, violently at odds with their region’s reigning paradigm.

Yet, for a sound so stridently traditional, Svabhavat offer unique twists of the knife across Black Mirror Reflection, its self-imposed boundaries paradoxically offering freedom. Undoubtedly, those noble influences form their foundation – as they do for countless black metal bands, past and present – but there’s a devilish delirium the duo delve into across their debut album which suggests aesthetic aims beyond the tried & true (or “tired & tr00”). Almost deceptively so, Black Mirror Reflection in fact reflects a hovering, haunting melodicism that poignantly penetrates one’s subconscious but never without smacking of the saccharine; simply put, Svabhavat‘s ceaseless(ly sinister) intensity bleeds through at any speed, which is all the more surprising given their Spartan composition as a two-piece. And speaking of compositions, the six comprising this 37-minute Black Mirror Reflection are mini-epics in their own right, offering exceptionally linear narratives exceedingly daubed in the grim and ghoulish, the total package taut and swiftly satisfying.

Intoxication through damnation, salvation through incineration…Svabhavat offer a dread path ahead. Step forward and stare into their Black Mirror Reflection.

Preorder/pre-save link can be found HERE.

Further ordering info can be found at Eisenwald‘s North American webstore HERE. 

Cover artwork, courtesy of Misanthropic-Art, and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Svabhavat’s Black Mirror Reflection
1. Mysteries of the Odious Path [7:09]
2. Great Tiamat, Filled with Corpses [5:05]
3. Abhicaara [5:11]
4. Chalice of Poisoned Souls [5:35]
5. Aghori, Flame of Knowledge [5:16]
6. Black Mirror Reflection [8:16]
MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/MalumInSe
www.svabhavat.bandcamp.com
www.eisenton.de
www.facebook.com/eisenwaldofficial
www.youtube.com/eisenwaldofficial
www.twitter.com/EisenwaldHammer
www.instagram.com/eisenwald.official
www.open.spotify.com/user/eisenwald_official

New Zealand’s black/death/doom titans Vassafor stream new album

Today, black/death/doom titans Vassafor stream the entirety of their highly anticipated third album, To the Death. Set for international release on August 7th via Iron Bonehead Productions, hear Vassafor‘s To the Death in its entirety here:
Vassafor should need no introduction. For the past decade and a half, since the band’s reactivation with their Demo II in 2005, this New Zealand cult have patiently plied their idiosyncratic craft, pushing the boundaries of black and death metal ever further whilst driving deep into each’s collective core. Although some will argue that they reached their apotheosis with 2012’s debut album, Obsidian Complex – a true, two-disc double album – Vassafor played their most daring hand with respective split LPs with comrades Sinistrous Diabolus and Temple Nightside (both released by Iron Bonehead in 2014 and 2015, respectively). In miniature, these works amplified the simultaneously world-eating/ethereal textures that lay at the heart of the Vassafor aesthetic. After an intense two years in the shadows, their grandest work so far was revealed: Malediction, released in October 2017 on vinyl and cassette via Iron Bonehead. Vassafor continued to cement their legend…

Vassafor are not ones for half-measures. For them, their spirituality is Satanic and absolute: no compromise, no quarter. Thus, with the aptly titled To the Death do Vassafor render their most direct statement yet, yet one also imbued with a lurking strangeness that’s entirely their own. At once submerging into the murkiest depths of the underground from whence they sprang, in other senses smothering those senses with a serpentine flow that’s stultifying to behold, the seven sonic incantations comprising the 66-minute To the Death prove that the duo indeed are ever able to conjure horrifying new shapes stitched from the fabric of the ancients. Not for nothing is this third full-length titled as such: To the Death bespeaks Vassafor‘s own path – theirs, and theirs literally ALONE – that is verily “Archaic Black Metal that exists outside time.” Any band would kill to write songs as mesmerizing ‘n’ monolithic as the opening 12-minute title track, or the ten-minute self-explanatory “Eyrie,” or especially the 17-minute, likewise self-explanatory closer “Singularity”…and that’s barely half the album.

Vassafor exist on their own terms, and we can only help but bear witness to their black magick. To the Death is a statement of intent, a world unto itself, and so much more: bow, enter, die.

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Vassafor’s To the Death 1. To the Death [12:03]
2. Egregore Rising [7:36]
3. Eyrie [10:35]
4. Black Talon [2:13]
5. The Burning íthyr [9:17]
6. Emanations from the Abyss [6:13]
7. Singularity [17:56]
MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/vassafor
www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions

DEATHEPOCH set release date for PUTRID CULT debut, reveal first track – features guests from CULTES DES GHOULES, ACHERON, DIOCLETIAN+++

Today, Putrid Cult announces October 6th as the international release date for DeathEpoch‘s striking debut album, Abysmal Invocation, on CD and cassette tape formats. The vinyl LP version shall be released in December.

DeathEpoch is a band from Poland formed in February 2020. The band consists of Lord K. (Nekkrofukk, Sacrificulus, Goathrone, ex-Hate) responsible for vocals, drums, and electronic samples and Morgul (owner of the Putrid Cult label) responsible for guitar and bass parts. In June of this year, they finished work on their debut full-length, Abysmal Invocation, combining dark ‘n’ deranged elements of black metal, death metal, and war metal with ritual ambient and industrial noise. A bold fusion for such a new band, but one that’s haunting and suffocating in equal measures…

Comprising 10 songs across 51 frayed-ends-of-sanity minutes, DeathEpoch‘s Abysmal Invocation duly lives up to its title, and then some. To enter its tar-thick and just-as-black depths is to enter a charnel pit itself; the way forward is spread before the listener, but each step deeper reveals fathomless horrors. Much like a fever dream, the delirium-inducing decibels the duo present here paradoxically flow, flitting between crushed ‘n’ crushing metal one minute and otherworldly ambience the other, its jarring malevolence well and truly drawing that listener toward the outer reaches of madness. Indeed, genre parameters matter not to DeathEpoch when the goal is SONIC ANNIHILATION, utilizing every weapon at hand to evoke the unshakable feeling of Apocalypse in this increasingly desperate 21st Century. Adding to that arsenal are guest vocal parts from the esteemed likes of Mark of The Devil (Cultes Des Ghoules), Vincent Crowley (Acheron), and Kris Stanley (Sinistrous Diabolus, ex- Diocletian), and covers of Sodom and Acheron are given suitably malformed treatment within this Abysmal Invocation.

Given this span of stylistic antagonism, Abysmal Invocation is just as recommended for fans of Mz.412, Prurient, and Brighter Death Now as it is for Beherit, Revenge, and Archgoat. But, upon evidence of this frightening first strike, DeathEpoch have crafted a unique identity worth reckoning. This is the beginning of the end!

The first harbinger of that end can be heard with the brand-new track “Genocide III” (featuring Cultes des Ghoules’ Mark of The Devil) here:

Cover and tracklisting follows:

Tracklisting for DeathEpoch’s Abysmal Invocation
1 Abysmal Invocation pt. I
2. Genocide I
3. Genocide II
4. Abysmal Ivocation pt. II
5. Genocide III (featuring Mark of the Devil)
6. Genocide IV
7. Genocide V (featuring Vincent Crowley)
8. Bombenhagel (featuring Kris Stanley) [Sodom cover]
9. Abysmal Invocation pt. III
10.  Ave Satanas [Acheron cover]
www.putridcult.pl 
www.facebook.com/putridcult 

HORDE OF HEL set release date for long-awaited new BLOODDAWN album, reveal first tracks – features members of NORDJEVEL, IN BATTLE, THE WRETCHED END++

Today, Blooddawn Productions (distributed & marketed by Regain Records) announces September 30th as the international release date for Horde of Hel’s long-awaited third album, Döden Nalkas, on CD and vinyl LP formats. 

Horde of Hel’s history dates back to the dawn of the new, cursed millennium, when John Odhinn Sandin – previously in Odhinn, and concurrently of the late/great In Battle – wanted to strike out on his own with a project that significantly differed sonically from those bands. It would take years before a first recording arrived, but at last it did in 2009 with the debut album Blodskam. In one sense, Horde of Hel here exhibited a refreshing take on industrialized black metal – martial, malevolent, mesmerizing – but in another, more accurate sense, with Odhinn’s emphasis on dark ambient atmospheres, Blodskam transcended the “industrial black metal” demi-tag altogether. 

In 2011, the second Horde of Hel album arrived in the form of Likdagg, courtesy of Regain Records. Immediately, a change was felt: the more lumbering ‘n’ loping mid-tempos of Blodskam have been replaced by thoroughly berserker drum-programming, which increased the ultraviolence a hundredfold. A reflection of the increasingly darker times, Likdagg’s utterly remorseless, unrelentingly unhinged speed slaughtered listeners with apparent ease…that is, if that listener possessed the sturdy constitution to step forward to that onslaught to begin with. 

Many years passed, and many presumed Horde of Hel dead. Far from it: the most ULTRA ultraviolence was simply lying in wait! And now it has arrived with Döden Nalkas, doubtlessly the most extreme (or at least extremely unforgiving) record you’ll hear all year – or perhaps all decade. All the rudiments of its no-less-considerable predecessor have been pushed into the red: drums reaching 500 BPM, the guitars slicing like barbed wire at warp speed, vocals approaching blackout levels of seething vitriol, the ambient elements wrapping all around the wreckage in dizzying, disorienting darkness. But, this new guise of Horde of Hel is a unified trio – a connection between and within three individuals – and thus are its effects felt across Döden Nalkas. Of them, perhaps the most pronounced are the integration of real drums from the ever-prolific Nils “Dominator” Fjellström, who played with Odhinn in In Battle and more recently in The Wretched End and Nordjevel, among others; this symbiosis straddles the line between over-the-top gabber and black metal’s outermost reaches of intensity. Likewise, the arrival of vocalist Sanctvs (also of Nordjevel) has injected an even greater intensity into Horde of Hel’s already-incomprehensibly-intense attack. Simply put, put on headphones and your ears will be absolutely PUNISHED by Döden Nalkas!  

The more things stay the same – or stay bleak, the Apocalypse at hand with the current worldwide pandemic – the more things change, and so too do Horde of Hel. With mastering by Devo (Marduk) at Endarker Studio, Döden Nalkas is the soundtrack to the literal END. 

Begin marching forward to that End with the brand-new tracks “Totalitarian Regime” and “Holy Ash” here:
Preorder info can be found HERE. 
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Horde of Hel’s Döden Nalkas
1. Blodets Morgon
2. Death Division Status
3. Visdomen Kallas døden
4. Standard Nordland
5. Totalitarian Regime
6. Total Death
7. Holy Ash
8. No Remorse
9. Livets Narkos
10. Of Eternity And Ruins 
HORDE OF HEL lineup 2020
Vocal: Sanctvs
All strings: J.O Sandin
Drums: Nils Fjellström 


MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/hordeofhelofficial
www.facebook.com/blooddawnproductions

Sólstafir share new album details and release teaser

Iceland post rock outfit SÓLSTAFIR are now announcing the details for their new album ‘Endless Twilight of Codependent Love’. The record will be released on November 6, via Season of Mist. The cover artwork and tracklist can be found below. 

The band have also released a teaser for the new record, which can be viewed here:
‘Endless Twilight of Codependent Love’ was recorded at the Sundlaugin Studio (Iceland), where ‘Svartir Sandar’, ‘Ótta’ and ‘Berdreyminn’ were also recorded by producer Birgir Jón Birgisson (Sigur Rós, Alcest, Damien Rice).
The cover artwork and track-list can be found below, together with the album info. The painting is a watercolour of the Lady of the Mountain, 1864, by Johann Baptist Zwecker.
Tracklist:
1. Akkeri (10:10)
2. Drýsill (08:52)
3. Rökkur (07:06)
4. Her Fall From Grace (06:36)
5. Dionysus (05:31)
6. Til Moldar (04:29)
7. Alda Syndanna (04:30)
8. Or (06:58)
9. Úlfur (08:49)
10. Hrollkalda Þoka Einmanaleikans (06:39) bonus track
11. Hann For Sjalfur (08:09) bonus track
Total: 1:17:49
Recording line-up:
Aðalbjörn Tryggvason – Vocals, uitar
Sæþór M Sæþórsson – Guitar
Svavar Austmann – Bass
Hallgrímur Bárðdal – Drums

Recording: Sundlaugin Studio, Grótta
 
Mixing and mastering: Birgir Jón Birgirsson
 
www.solstafir.net
www.facebook.com/solstafirice
https://www.instagram.com/solstafir_official