Today, Signal Rex announces October 31st as the international release date for striking debut album of the Czech Republic’s Bran, Odcházení, on CD format. The vinyl LP version will follow later this year.
One of the most exceptionally accomplished new hordes Signal Rex has come across in recent memory, Bohemia’s Bran are a power-trio of ancient black metal might and majesty. To be sure, they exhibit the splendorous, spellbinding riff-sorcery so endemic to their country’s black metal idiom, but instead of hypnotizing monochromaticism, Bran‘s epic constructions are always unfolding, always blossoming with a strict sense of narrative flow, surprising and engaging at every turn. Indeed, their Odcházení debut is a march across rarefied lands, for not only does it retain palatably clear production, rendering their ruminations in their most powerful state, but there’s a pronounced grounding in actual METAL here – but thankfully, without any goofy party posturing or “metal brotherhood” bollocks. No, this is the sound of swords sharpened and chainmail donned, grim resolve as the battle approaches; Bran see the struggle ahead, and they’ve created the bloodily majestic / majestically bloody map for it. Taste their Czech steel with Odcházení!
The first taste of that steel can be found with the brand-new track “Tisíce hvězd” here:
Cover artwork, courtesy of Pavlína Kovaříková, and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Bran (Czech)’s Odcházení 1. Skrytá místa [8:24] 2. Tisíce hvězd [8:25] 3. Smuteční průvod [7:53] 4. Odcházení [12:09]
Today, Finnish black metallers Celestial Grave premiere the new track “Eucharist”. The track is the first to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated second album, Vitriolic Atonement, set for international release on September 23rd – the autumn equinox – via The Sinister Flame. Hear Celestial Grave’s “Eucharist” in its entirety here:
Since their public unveiling in 2016 with the hideous & haunting Burial Ground Trance demo, Finland’s Celestial Grave have been steadily perfecting a craft that already arrived fully formed. While the band’s brand of black metal does bear some semblance to certain sectors of their native land’s long-running and -esteemed scene, Celestial Grave largely unshackle themselves from “Finnish black metal” and locate a muse that’s uniquely focused and fiercely personal. Such was the case with the epic four-song Secular Flesh debut album in 2019, and now, three years later, that case is even stronger with their second album, Vitriolic Atonement.
“Vitriolic Atonement is a sonic and visual exploration of the dreadful yet beautiful aspects of life and death,” they begin. “It was a comprehensive work for us, where not only the music and lyrics but also the artwork were really central from the start.”
Indeed, lose thyself in the hypnotic layers of that cover art and you’ll begin to understand the experience that awaits within Vitriolic Atonement. In a most disarming fashion, Celestial Grave here sound both bolder and more brittle – robust lead lines painting melancholy and might in equal measure, the execution seemingly more scattered and strident, the songwriting tending toward the anthemic yet upended by haunting twists of texture – whilst not losing that mesmerizing personality that made its predecessors so compelling. As such, Vitriolic Atonement is a full-album experience that’s paradoxically more approachable and more alien: allow that wounded melodicism into your soul, all enticingly come-hither, and then witness the swirlingly obsidian rot spread.
“Vitriolic Atonement goes through different sacraments and rites,” they conclude. “Inhale and take in the aspects of darkness, death, and the beyond that are in reach on this mortal plane. Give in, admire its beauty, and come to terms with it. Prepare for the inevitable, because the beyond will be something no mind nor soul can fully comprehend.”
Aforementioned cover art and tracklisting are as follows:
The Belgian death metal stalwarts of CARNATION are now releasing a brand new live video for the song “Stench of Death”! The video was shot during their performance at the mighty Hellfest 2022 and can now be streamed here:
The track is taken from the band’s latest EP “Stench of Death”, which includes the ENTOMBED cover ‘Supposed to Rot’.
CARNATION created a fitting red vinyl to celebrate the birth of “Stench of Death”, which is still available HERE.
Frontman Simon Duson comments: “The madness of the summer festivals is now behind us… Suffice to say that we had an excellent time during the last couple of weeks at all the fantastic festivals we performed at! We’ve been blasting our newest track ‘Stench of Death’ at every show, and we’ve managed to capture a live video for this track from during our performance at Hellfest this summer. Here’s a nice throwback if you managed to catch us live, or something to look forward to if you missed your opportunity. Hails!“
CARNATION is currently working on their next album! For regular updates, keep an eye out on the band’s Facebook and Instagram page.
CARNATION‘s latest album ‘Where Death Lies’ was released on September 18, 2020 and can be heard in full HERE! The cover artwork and further album details can be found below.
Track-list 1. Iron Discipline (3:52) (WATCH) 2. Sepulcher of Alteration (4:22) (WATCH) 3. Where Death Lies (3:26) (WATCH) 4. Spirit Excision (3:46) 5. Napalm Ascension (4:09) 6. Serpent’s Breath (4:47) 7. Malformed Regrowth (3:09) 8. Reincarnation (5:24) 9. In Chasms Abysmal (7:39) Total playing time: 40:34
Embrace the new death metal overlords and their second full length ‘Where Death Lies’! CARNATION equals blistering and crushing death metal madness and, with this new chapter, return with relentless destruction and greater punishment than ever before.
Early 2013, guitar player Jonathan Verstrepen created the band to show his appreciation for the old school death metal legends from the ‘80s & early ‘90s. Vocalist Simon Duson, bass player Yarne Heylen, guitar player Bert Vervoort, and drummer Vincent Verstrepen were summoned to complete the band, and it didn’t take long until the chemistry between this quintet hit critical mass.
The Belgian’s first EP offering, entitled ‘Cemetery of the Insane’, was released upon the masses in 2015 . Tracks such as “Explosive Cadavers” or “The Rituals of Flesh” take you back in time to the better days of shredding riffs, neck-breaking drums, and skull-crushing guttural vocals.
The live rituals that followed were executed with stone cold merciless aggression. CARNATION delivered their bloodbath at select festivals across Europe during 2015 and 2016. Their next journey led them to distant Asia for their first tour across mainland Japan. This resulted in the infamous ‘Live at Asakusa Deathfest’ album, which saw the light in (2017).
These releases, combined with their reputation as a notoriously impressive live act, drew the attention of fans worldwide and provided CARNATION with the opportunity to perform at several European festivals and saw the band touring alongside PESTILENCE during their special Brazilian tour in April 2018. After signing with Season of Mist in 2018, CARNATION welcomed new and loyal audiences to death’s domain and invited them to witness them rise to their throne!
CARNATION rage on in 2019 with more spectacular live shows at 70.000 Tons of Metal, Alcatraz (BE) and Damnation Festival (UK), as part of their touring rampage throughout Japan and Europe (with PUNGENT STENCH and DESERTED FEAR), before entering the studio for the recordings of a brand new album. The mastering for the new offering was done by the mighty Jens Bogren (SEPULTURA, ENSLAVED, ARCH ENEMY) at the Fascination Street Studios in Örebro (SE).
With ‘Where Death Lies’ a new chapter of abhorrence now begins and opens up a hellish path to resurrection, reincarnation, and immortality. You wanted death? CARNATION is here with a superior appearance performing new rituals in service of ancient deities. All hail the new death metal overlords
Line-up: Simon Duson – Vocals Jonathan Verstrepen – Guitars Bert Vervoort – Guitars Yarne Heylen – Bass Vincent Verstrepen – Drums
Cover art: Juan Jose Castellano Rosado
Discography 2015: Cemetery of the Insane (EP) 2017: Live at Asakusa Deathfest (Live EP) 2018: Chapel of Abhorrence (Full length) 2019: Necromancer (Single) 2020: Where Death Lies (Full length) 2021: The Galaxy Sessions (Live Album) 2022: Stench of Death (EP)
CARNATION live 2022 07/10/2022 – Vienna, Austria – Vienna Metal Meeting 25/11/2022 – Hirschaid, Germany – Braincrusher in Hell 10/12/2022 – Eindhoven, Netherlands – Eindhoven Metal Meeting 18/03/2023 – Heidelberg, Germany – Heidelberg Deathfest
Today, Blood Harvest Records announces October 28th as the international release date for Universally Estranged’s highly anticipated second album, Dimension of Deviant Clusters, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
One of the most exciting new hordes Blood Harvest has come across in recent years, Universally Estranged shocked and awed last year with their debut album, Reared Up in Spectral Predation. Widely acclaimed and blowing most minds who heard it, the mysterious one-man entity created sci-fi-drenched death metal of a most malign and mesmerizing order…and now he returns, little more than a year later, with an even more intimidating record.
Tellingly titled Dimension of Deviant Clusters, Universally Estranged‘s second album lays forth an equally psychedelic landscape perhaps less Technicolor than its predecessor but arguably one more focused and fearless. For sure, the dazzling/disorienting bleeps ‘n’ bloops hinted at on the first album go full tilt here, singeing the synapses while tighter and more coiled song constructions surge forward with crushing clarity, all before going in impossibly angular directions which feel more like a fever dream rather than (un)conventional death metal. Dimension of Deviant Clusters is thus an album of stark contrasts: on one hand, some of Universally Estranged‘s biggest (or, at least, most engaging) hooks, brought forth by seamless flow and exceptionally tight execution; on the other hand, a total MINDFUCK where riffs implode, backwards, and lazers shoot from every direction and tempos just tumble where they may. But, lest this all sound like a mess on paper, the mainman makes it all work lysergically, alchemically well, slam and skronk coming together and unveiling infinitely more possibilities for cosmonauts smitten with that first full-length. And if this is your first trip with Universally Estranged? Prepare to drop out, and drop in…deep, deep, deeper.
Science fiction becomes reality, and it’s bonkers to behold. Death metal’s DNA gets mangled once again, emerging more hideous and heightened than before, with Universally Estranged‘s Dimension of Deviant Clusters.
Begin mangling your mind with the brand-new track “Corrupted Mind Palace” here:
Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Universally Estranged’s Dimension of Deviant Clusters 1. (Prelude) 2. Psychic Laceration 3. Devoured From Another Time 4. Between the Lacunae 5. Dimension of Deviant Clusters 6. Memory of Death 7. (Interlude) 8. Corrupted Mind Palace 9. Universally Estranged
Today, French black metallers Caïnan Dawn premiere the new track “Apnea”. The track is the first to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated fourth album, Lagu, set for international release on September 30th via Osmose Productions on CD format; the vinyl LP version will follow later this year. Hear Caïnan Dawn‘s “Apnea” in its entirety here:
Contemplate – the infinite waves of your soul will let themselves be caught up, a journey where the sky will be nothing more than a memory. Dive into this watery vastness, and immerse yourself. Then he will reveal himself, the deeply conscious being. Welcome in the drown – an endless slide where the abyssal depths await you for eternity…
Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Today, modern vampiric black metal kings Wampyric Rites stream the entirety of their highly anticipated second album, The Wolves Howl to the Moon. Set for international release on August 26th via Signal Rex on CD and cassette tape formats – the vinyl LP version will follow later this year – hear Wampyric Rites‘ The Wolves Howl to the Moon in its entirety here:
Wampyric Rites hail from the ever-rising Ecuadorian black metal underground, and have had a major hand in shaping its prominence and notoriety across countless short-length releases since 2019. However, it was last year’s full-length The Eternal Melancholy of the Wampyre where Wampyric Rites displayed the full gait of their potential: classic (and unapologetic) vampiric black metal deeply rooted in the idiom’s earliest days whilst evincing a spectral aura all their own. The duo may belong to the Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague, which includes now-labelmates Winterstorm and Ründgard, but Wampyric Rites truly had found the cosmic keys to their creations and times.
Eclipsing that feat is their brand-new second album, The Wolves Howl to the Moon. Immediately, the record sounds like Wampyric Rites – shimmering surge, velvety synths, hysteric shrieks across a dungeon deep – but the attack soon takes on deft dynamics, skillfully balancing robust physicality (often, headbangingly straightforward) and stained-glass sensitivity. The latter element is perhaps the boldest move here, as a variety of synth sounds – medieval organ, stargazing swirl, or even just the faintest daubing upon ripped-raw guitar – often play a prominent role in each of the album’s five component songs. Yet, it’s never done in a gaudy or gimmicky manner; it’s but another layer to lose oneself in, as the songwriting itself allows the mind to wander and palpably experience the landscape as The Wolves Howl to the Moon. What’s more, Wampyric Rites incorporate shockingly beautiful acoustics, albeit sparingly, making their seemingly strictured canvas far vaster than otherwise suggested by vampiric BM standards.
All told, The Wolves Howl to the Moon sets new standards for (true) vampiric black metal. Wampyric Rites stoke the fires of the imagination, and seemingly are only getting started.
Cover artwork, courtesy of Ainul Iblis, and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Wampyric Rites’ The Wolves Howl to the Moon 1. The Ancient Tyrant Returns from the Deep Forgotten Crypts [8:10] 2. Rites Under the Fullmoon [6:06] 3. Amidst the Fog of Eternity [2:47] 4. The Wolves Howl to the Moon [9:58] 5. Captive in a Desolate Castle [8:25]
Season of Mist are proud to announce the signing of German Black Extreme Metal legend NARGAROTH.
In conjunction to the news, all back-catalogue will be available on digital and CD on October 21, 2022. The release of vinyl will be announced at a later time. Pre-order the albums HERE. Instead of sending in a written comment, frontman Ash took the liberty of creating a personal video message which can be found here:
Upcoming NARGAROTH shows: 24 Sept 2022 – Mexico Metal Fest, Monterrey – MX 29 Apr 2023 – Black Hole Fest IV, Wetzikon, CH
For more information about NARGAROTH, please visit their socials down below.
On September 19th internationally, Amor Fati Productions, in conspiracy with Ván, is proud to present Hadopelagyal‘s highly anticipated debut album, Nereidean Seismic End. Amor Fati will handle the cassette tape version while Ván will handle the CD and vinyl versions.
A duo hailing from Germany’s ever-fascinating and -evolving black metal scene, Hadopelagyal are the personification of feral frequencies drawn together to drown the listener in a free-flowing hypnosis of horror. At once animalistically primitive and superlatively consciousness-expanding, the body of work Hadopelagyal have created across their 2018 debut demo and successive splits with Thorybos and Kosmokrator have hinted at a garish grandiosity that could bloom to obscene lengths. Now, that moment has arrived with Nereidean Seismic End.
Hadopelagyal‘s first full-length recording, Nereidean Seismic End is presciently titled: the ripped-asunder vacuum of violence that exists here begins as the bitter end but also allows for infinite immersion, forever devouring itself like the very Ouroboros. Strings and drums certainly exhibit musical qualities – this is recognizably black metal, after all, albeit of a fucked-up and fuck-you variety – but the manner in which they’re used and the paths they take are utterly unorthodox and most definitely psychedelic in the most horrific definition. Surges sprint across a trajectory both parallel and perpendicular; angularity is bent backwards, and then further. Howling abyssal voice melds/melts with distortion both cruel and cool; forever there is a swarm of sound, and yet the perpetual levitation leaves a massive amount of space within that vacuum.
“Appealing in us and widely released from getting placed in vacant definitions, there is resulting pantophagy,” state the band, “bounded by the energies which are at work in us, which are exempted from expression through hollow words and not attempted to be depicted concretely. Our compound exists for what is shaking and flowing in us, naturally grown and born by efforts of disposition in infinity. Doomed in utter vagous cacaesthesia, a haemathermal burning thirst for things that are to be figured out tacitly, which may also wait eternally to get breathed into life and get a name, because raining from the heavens, they will presumably never meet us at all. We vomit what is in our limbs and inhale from our depths what we allow to lead us. Where you sink to ashes in purgatory, ashes that don’t wear out as long as something pulsates in you, where malacophonous umbrages claim the toxic climax, where the masks fuse and you consider yourself lost in pandemonism, until the mythical labtebricole creatures fly….” Here, there is Hadopelagyal‘s Nereidean Seismic End.
In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Blades Drawn from the Iron Marrow of the Sunken Dead” here:
Tracklisting for Hadopelagyal’s Nereidean Seismic End 1. Depravity Shall Triumph [7:19] 2. Intertidal Terrorrealm [6:08] 3. The Morning Carried a Feeble Sun, a Solitary Sphere of Embers [4:24] 4. Blades Drawn From the Iron Marrow of the Sunken Dead [7:31] 5. In Dragging Incandescence [5:01] 6. Pitiless Stars in the Clasp of Putrefaction [5:03] 7. ἄπειρος καὶ ἐρῆμος ἐστιν ἡ θάλασσα [5:40]
Today, long-running Italian black metallers Abhor premiere the new track “Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated eighth album, Sex Sex Sex (Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi), set for international release on September 23rd via Iron Bonehead Productions. Hear Abhor‘s title track “Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi” in its entirety exclusively here:
Abhor are a veritable institution of Italian black metal. Formed in 1995 in the northeast of Italy, the band began with a passion for black metal music and the study of esoteric arts. Less like a band and more like a congregation, Abhor represent a form of global art that embraces musical art, visual art, and literal art. Their first musical manifestation came in 1998, with the first demo tape In Tuo Honori Preparatum. From there, Abhor were off and running, subsequently releasing six albums with a variety of labels, doing honorable underground work. Within their ranks came many musicians, including members of compatriots Evol. But, arguably, Abhor reached their apotheosis with their seventh album (and first for current label home Iron Bonehead), Occulta religiO. Released in 2018, this veritable blazing-purple torch conveyed a bewitching mysticism and beyond-the-veil secrecy that showed the band at their most masterful, even at this mature stage.
And, although four years have passed since that momentous event – and a split mini-album with fellow Italian occultists Abysmal Grief in 2019, also courtesy of Iron Bonehead – Abhor continue their deeper-into-the-catacombs ascent with the devilish Sex Sex Sex (Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi). Truly titled, Sex Sex Sex brings a spooky sensuality to Abhor‘s trademark style of olde-worlde black metal. With both Hammer Horror organs to the fore and a macho headbanging stomp, the Italians create a canvas of arcane mysteries and ancient metal might, foregoing so much of the fluff that’s characterized post-“second wave” black metal and striking true(r) to the sound of the Old Gods: Celtic Frost, Mortuary Drape, Varathron, Samael, and even very earliest Mayhem. It’s more of “no more, but no less” Esoteric Horror Black Metal, but still suffused with an undeniable energy and electricity, even when creeping slowly through those catacombs. It’s an immediately recognizable sound that’s neither regressive nor progressive, and Abhor conjure it with enviously effortless zeal.
Unshackle thyself from the morals and mores of the modern world and return to more sinister and sinful times with Abhor‘s Sex Sex Sex (Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi)!
The first sin can be found with the previously revealed “Evil Mentor” HERE at Iron Bonehead‘s Soundcloud. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Abhor (Italy)’s Sex Sex Sex (Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi) 1. The Curse of the Twins 2. Ceremonia Daemonis Anticristi 3. At the Edge of the Circle 4. Ode to the Snake 5. Ritual Satanism 6. Evil Mentor 7. Beelzebuth [Mystifier cover] 8. October 31st, 2010 9. The Call 10. Violet Coven
Today, ancient Greek black metallers Medieval Demon premiere the new track “Baptismal Blood”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated fourth album, Black Coven, set for international release on September 16th via Hells Headbangers on CD format; the vinyl LP version will follow later this year. Hear Medieval Demon‘s “Baptismal Blood” in its entirety exclusively here:
By now, Medieval Demon should require little introduction. Formed in that fateful year of 1993, Medieval Demon remained one of the cultest entities of the immortal Greek black metal scene, releasing a handful of demos during the mid ’90s and then their lost-classic debut album, Demonolatria, in 1998. Not long after, the band receded into the shadows, in vampiric slumber, until awakening from the crypt in 2018 with the majestic comeback album, Medieval Necromancy, through longtime fans Hells Headbangers, followed two years later by the equally acclaimed Arcadian Witchcraft.
Continuing that enviable momentum compared to most “old” bands who tiredly rehash long-faded glories, Medieval Demon light another new full-length torch with Black Coven. Just as its esteemed predecessors sounded like those glorious ’90s never ended, so, too, does Black Coven burn with an authentically eldritch fire by those who truly LIVED IT. Much as canonical Hellenic black metal always prized heavy metal classicism at the heart of black METAL, Medieval Demon once again synthesize such with equally-classic horror and high drama, making Black Coven arguably their most widescreen record yet. The production, in kind, gives robust crunch to that heavy metalized songwriting, along with highlighting the band’s always-captivating synth work. Indeed, the album sounds EXACTLY as it should for something titled Black Coven: the ancient spirits are legion, and unbound!
As founding drummer/keyboardist/composer Lord Apollyon explains, “For the composition of Black Coven, there were used methods and practices of the ancient Greek theory of music, which were also used to the Middle Ages – in the name of Satan. Composition in black metal presupposes to live in real time the process that includes all the elements involved in this kind of black art. We moved into an isolated village inside the forest, a place where ancient Greek sorcery and death magic was born. Ritualism and ancient black metal are parts of our eternally black souls.”
Specifically, opening track “Where Witches Dwell and Labyrinths Confuse” was written as tribute to the deceased Andrea Meyer of Norway’s cult Aghast. Likewise, the unabashed use of saxophone was in tribute to founding Greek forebears Necromantia, who entered the crypt of time eternal last year. And of course, the influence of Italian gods Goblin is never far away from Medieval Demon, even if that influence is more spiritual rather than literal. Any way you cut it (and try not getting mesmerized by the choirs here!), Black Coven is cinematic black art at its very finest. Last word, then, to Lord Apollyon: DEATH TO THOSE WHO BETRAY THE SECRET CULT!”
Also hear the previously revealed title track “Black Coven” HERE at Hells Headbangers‘ official YouTube channel. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Medieval Demon’s Black Coven 1. Where Witches Dwell and Labyrinths Confuse [5:48] 2. Black Coven [8:21] 3. Nocturnal Sacrilege [5:49] 4. Sylvestris Deus (Protector of the Forests) [4:01] 5. Baptismal Blood [5:27] 6. Katavythisis [5:00] 7. The Grave Dwellers [6:38]
