Cruz Del Sur Music has inked a recording deal with Indianapolis’ SACRED LEATHER for the release of debut album Ultimate Force. With influences that are surely evident to any heavy metal purist, SACRED LEATHER’s music seems to emerge directly from the early 80s, mixing elegant and nostalgic hard rock/ proto metal with the most belligerent side of the traditional NWOBHM sound. The recording of Ultimate Force will start in early September for an expected February 2018 release.
SACRED LEATHER was created out of necessity, to summon the spirit of the Heavy Metal forefathers into an age mired in apostasies. Make sure to keep an eye out for the legion of leather! In the meantime, check out the band’s 2016 official video for “Prowling Sinner”
SACRED LEATHER is:
Wrathchild: vocals
The Devil’s Hellion: guitar
The Highway: guitar
Magnus Legrand: bass
Jailhouse: drum
Unyielding Love announce the vinyl release of The Sweat of Augury – the unbelievable debut EP/mini album from Belfast – Northern Ireland-based blackened noisegrind slaughterers Unyielding Love, which, upon its initial release on tape/digital in September 2016, made heads turn with its mindless and cataclysmic alloy of incredibly savage blackened grindcore and festering harsh noise.
When Decibel Magazine (click HERE to read their feature) first encountered the scathing and torturous sonic depravity of The Sweat of Augury they stated the band “have blasted so hard towards the realm of harsh noise that their song structures are framed around icepick feedback and a layer of pedal abuse that makes it seem like every song they are playing is the last they’ll manage before their equipment disintegrates”, and then further exclaiming that Unyielding Love are “a goddamn nightmare of grind and discord that may have a few of you shitting teeth”. Later, CVLT Nation went to to elect it as one of the best grindcore albums of 2016.
It comes as no surprise that anyone who is first exposed to this band’s skin-peeling music remains completely baffled and speechless in front of the enormous amount of violence and senseless antagonism that bleeds out of Unyielding Love’s crazed homicidal songs. Blending grindcore, black metal, noise and power electronics in a firestorm of abhorrent sonic chaos, Unyielding Love have perfectly bridged the gap between the aesthetics of bands like Full of Hell (for whom Unyielding Love will open all upcoming UK dates), Column of Heaven, Discordance Axis, (early) Knelt Rote, Sutekh Hexen, and Gnaw Their Tongues, creating something so heinous and sonically wretched that the human brain will ever only partially be able to fully grasp the full extent of this band’s immeasurable madness and vision.
SÓLSTAFIR are unveiling their complete forthcoming full-length, ‘Berdreyminn’, which means a “dreamer of forthcoming events”. The new sixth masterpiece of the enigmatic Icelanders will be released tomorrow on Friday, May 26th
Frontman Aðalbjörn Tryggvason comments on behalf of SÓLSTAFIR: “Finally, the time has come to present you ‘Berdreyminn’ in its entirety. Hopefully, the previous pieces that we have released will now fall into their rightful places in the puzzle that this album represents. There is much to explore, surprises to discover as well as meeting old friends again, and we sincerely hope that you will like what you find. Enjoy!”
The cover art by Adam Burke and track-list of ‘Berdreyminn’ can be viewed below.
SÓLSTAFIR have previously announced their first European tour in support of their forthcoming full-length ‘Beyrdreyminn’ (out May 26th) in June.
The tour will kick off at the Download Festival in Paris on June 10th and afterwards the enigmatic Icelandic rockers will continue to perform in England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France before a final show at the Spanish edition of Download in Madrid on the 24th of June.
SÓLSTAFIR commented on the tour: “We are stoked to be back on the road and doing up ‘n close personal club shows between summer festivals. Some of the small venues are expected to sell out fast – so better get your ticket right away.”
SÓLSTAFIR tour
10 Jun 17 Paris (FR) Download Festival
11 Jun 17 Brighton (UK) The Haunt
12 Jun 17 Colchester (UK) Arts Centre
13 Jun 17 Leeds (UK) Brudenell Social Club
14 Jun 17 London (UK) Old Blue Last
15 Jun 17 Breda (NL) Mezz
16 Jun 17 Dessel (BE) Graspop Metal Meeting
17 Jun 17 Utrecht (NL) Tivoli de Helling
18 Jun 17 Hannover (DE) Musikzentrum
19 Jun 17 Dresden (DE) Beatpol
20 Jun 17 Karlsruhe (DE) Jubez
21 Jun 17 Colmar (FR) Fete de la Musique
22 Jun 17 Lyon (FR) CCO Villeurbanne
23 Jun 17 Toulouse (FR) Rex
24 Jun 17 Madrid (ES) Download Festival
SÓLSTAFIR festivals
07 Jul 17 Neskaupstaður (IS) Eistnaflug Festival (Exact date tba)
29 Jul 17 Neuensee bei Lichtenfels (DE) Rock im Wald
18 Aug 17 Borre (NO) Midgardsblot Festival 2017 (Exact date tba)
Music will always be inspired by the environment in which it is created. With its incredible array of highly diverse landscapes ranging from white glaciers via volcanic bizarreness, moss-green bubble-fields, deep fjords, and frost-cracked mountains to black beaches, Iceland has shaped a host of astonishingly original and fiercely individual bands such as SIGUR RÓS, BJÖRK, and SÓLSTAFIR.
SÓLSTAFIR embody the ever-turning wheel of seasons with their shifting light, darkness, and colours, extreme Northern climate, the stark contrasts, the closeness of beauty and deadly forces of nature, the impressive sceneries that have the bones of ancient gods enshrined in them like hardly any other band in every aspect of their existence.
SÓLSTAFIR are not like any other band. Their latest album, ‘Berdreyminn’ underscores this statement. As its title “a dreamer of forthcoming events” aptly describes, the four Icelanders have taken their already impressive evolution one step further. The band has continued to amalgamate haunting melodies, psychedelic phases, as well as strong undercurrents of classic rock and hard rock with echoes of their metal past. Yet SÓLSTAFIR’s focus is not on style but pure emotion. ‘Berdreyminn’ is eclectic by a conscious choice to make feelings audible and transform taste as well as texture to sound. Genre borders are not broken but simply ignored. Musical influences are gathered from a wide range of sources, re-arranged, and woven into new patterns. Melancholy, longing, anger, joy, pleasure, pain, and other emotions are fulling this album.
Despite leaning clearly towards an expression that can be described as rock today, SÓLSTAFIR have their roots in metal as their debut full-length ‘Í Blóði og Anda’ (2002), which translates as “In Blood and Spirit” still witnesses. Instead of today’s Icelandic gravel throated siren chants, frontman Aðalbjörn Tryggvason spat forth vitriolic crusty vocals and all strings were forged with black metal. Already their next albums ‘Masterpiece of Bitterness’ (2005) and ‘Köld’ (2009) marked stations of a continuous evolution. SÓLSTAFIR went further along their solitary path and obviously left any categorising box with the ground-breaking follow-ups ‘Svartir Sandar’ (2011) and ‘Ótta’ (2014), which received high critical acclaim and attracted new fans in equal measure, while managing the difficult feat of keeping most of their earlier following too.
SÓLSTAFIR have set sails to new horizons with ‘Berdreyminn’. Yet the Icelanders brought their home with them and the silhouette of their vessels remains easily recognisable. Welcome aboard on a new adventurous musical journey into uncharted territories.
Today, Iron Bonehead Productions sets July 28th as the international release date for Urn’s highly anticipated fourth album, The Burning. One of the Finnish underground’s longest-running yet best-kept secrets, Urn have been flying the flag of hate for unholy blackthrash since 1994. Founded by ex-Barathrum guitarist Sulphur, Urn have been a study in delayed-gratification patience and trend-bucking defiance. Their 2001 debut LP 666 Megatons sounded exactly like that, detonating a nuclear blast of classic blackthrash-cum-speed metal, which was further roughed up and refined on the successive LPs Dawn of the Devastation (2006) and Soul Destroyers (2008). But just as Urn had seemingly perfected their addicting ‘n’ acidic style, their classic power-trio lineup disintegrated and it was up to Sulphur to rebuild the band again. And rebuild, the bass-playing frontman did, as The Burning is the triumphant phoenix from the ashes.
Still maintaining that power-trio formation but now featuring a new lineup that includes guitarist Too Loud and drummer Revenant, The Burning literally explodes with an excitement that’s long been missing in black metal – suitably so, as it’s Urn’s first new recording in nearly a decade. Well rested, then, but certainly not resting on past laurels, Urn here fire off one veritable anthem after another with an urgency that’s startling to behold; the energy and passion are writ large across The Burning, and absolutely impossible to contain. And yet, for all its immediacy, there’s a certain grace and grandeur to The Burning that Urn have never revealed before: a wide-open, widescreened “man on the mountain” type of atmosphere that makes this pure black HEAVY METAL all the more majestic. However, let it be known that these Finnish bastards still revel in the dirt, just that now they’ve delivered their rancorous visions in a recording that’s their most robust and powerful to date.
Feel The Burning? It’s Urn, 666% back with a bestial invasion in the sign of evil! Bow before its first sign HERE at Iron Bonehead’s Soundcloud with the new track “Sons of the Northern Star.” Cover art, by Rok of Sadistik Exekution, and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Urn (Finland)’s The Burning
1. Intro – Resurrection
2. Celestial Light
3. Hail The King
4. Morbid Black Sorrow
5. Sons Of The Northern Star
6. Nocturnal Demons
7. Wolves Of Radiation
8. All Will End In Fire
9. Falling Paradise
10. The Burning
Darkness. Experimentation. Heaviness. Artistic integrity. A band that is born as a tribute to swiss titans Celtic Frost should have all these concepts as a basic reference when working on their own music. Formed in 2014 by three “off-road” musicians with a vast experience in metal, rock, and hardcore bands of Asturias (Spain), TOTENGOTT raises in the middle of the self-indulgent metal scene in order to claim the importance of evil and morbidity of compositions above technique, rawness above demonstration. An obsolete but effective speech.
It wasn’t long when their setlist, initially formed by classics (and “not-too-classics”) from Celtic Frost, started giving way to their own songs. Songs in which, although the “Warrior universe” touch is undeniable, we can also hear other influences like the space madness of Voivod, the sonic gravity of Conan, the experimentation of early Pink Floyd albums, the riffing mastery of Candlemass, or the atonality of Kryzstof Penderecki. Occult metal with obvious doom / death influences, but as we say, these are not the only ones: thrash, ambient, gothic… TOTENGOTT avoids limitations in the way they understand music.
In less than three years, they have managed to form a solid base of fans in the metal underground scene of their area. They have already shared stages with bands like Sodom, Entombed AD, Minsk, Holy Moses, Angelus Apatrida, Horn of the Rhino, Bodybag, Kowloon Walled City, and Wolvserpent, and they preached their musical philosophy widely in the north of Spain. This ode to darkness was depicted in the self-released Demo 2016, a three-song / 43-minute-long recording that served as an introduction to TOTENGOTT. The band sold more than 200 copies of this demo and gathered a good number of praising reviews in the Spanish extreme metal scene.
TOTENGOTT is now set to release worldwide Doppelgänger, their first album, on the 11th of July through XTREEM MUSIC / Burning World Records (label managed by Roadburn Records). The album was recorded, produced, and mixed by the band during late 2016 / early 2017 at Anglagard Recording Studios (Grao, Spain), and was mastered by James Plotkin (well known for his work with bands like Conan, Electric Wizard, Isis, Amenra, Jesu et al).
TOTENGOTT lineup
Chou Saavedra – guitar/vocals
Nacho Void – bass
José Mora – drums
The second album of Italian horror death metallers Gravesite is ready! Entitled Neverending Trail of Skulls, the album is set for international release on August 1st via Xtreem Music. The album was recorded by Umberto Furlan at Black Sun Studio between October 2016 and February 2017, with a later mastering by Daniel Lowndes at Resonance Sound Studio and topped off by the artwork of Matteo Zanella.
Gravesite was formed back in 2014 by members from other bands like Haemophagus, Undeed Creep, and Cancer Spreading among others, and released a demo entitled Obsessed by the Macabre. This led to their signing with Xtreem Music, who released their debut album Horrifying Nightmares… in July 2015, which was formed by nine tracks of old-fashioned death metal in the best tradition of bands like Autopsy, Grave, Death, and Carcass.
In the meantime, check out the title track to Neverending Trail of Skulls
The second full-length album by recluse industrial black metal/harsh noise abusers american (which the band stylizes lowercase). american were one of the earliest ever bands Sentient Ruin records ever worked with back in 2014 (their fourth ever “signing” to be exact), and their debut album Coping With Loss – was a cornerstone point of no return for the label, and probably the first release to make the SR name surface out of complete obscurity, and which first realistically circulated the label’s vision among total strangers for the first time ever.
Hailing from Richmond, Virgina, and with influences ranging from The Body, Leviathan, Ministry, and Skinny Puppy, to Craft, Godlflesh, and Blut Aus Nord, american play a disembodied, torturous and completely fucking annihilated blend of sludge, black metal, industrial, and harsh noise – creating a wall of face-tearing noise that oozes of almost implausible negativity. In recent years the likes of Noisey/Vice have claimed that american’s noisy industrial black metal “takes you into a world of pain”, and makes you “beg to whoever you believe in to kill you”, with CVLT Nation explaining that their music “advocates suicide”, and Invisible Oranges further elaborating that their music “is blessed with a haunting aura thick with loathing”.
Now the band present us with ten new wretched tracks of astonishing sonic abuse that knows no end. A work of absolutely magnificent sonic abhorrence that coerces together the abyssal darkness of black metal bands like Leviathan and Ash Borer, the earth-shaking noise abuse of Bastard Noise and The Body, and the glacial magnificence of blackened noise sound sculptors like Sutekh Hexen, Locrian, and Wold.
DUNKELHEIT PRODUKTIONEN is proud to present HORRID’s highly anticipated fifth album, Beyond the Dark Border. Italy’s longest-running death metal band, HORRID have built an enviously dependable, unyielding body of work since 1989. Taking initial inspiration from the dual gods of Celtic Frost and Hellhammer, the band spent the 1990s solidifying their sound over a clutch of demos and EPs. Eventually, come 2002, their debut album manifested itself as Reborn in Sin. From there, the name HORRID has continued to stand for the timeless upholding of classic death metal values.
But now, with the imminent release of Beyond the Dark Border, HORRID are set to stake their claim for death metal supremacy. Truly a summation of everything that makes the Metal of Death so enduring and engrossing, Beyond the Dark Border possesses pretty much every element one would want in a pure ‘n’ authentic death metal record: immediately memorable songwriting, crushing-yet-clear songwriting, breathless execution, interesting twists of texture, and just enough melody to remain rooted in foundational heavy metal. More than that, HORRID render the album a rollercoaster of dynamic darkness, leading the listener down nine separate-yet-linked corridors of nameless horror and eldritch dread. And, at a stout 50 minutes, Beyond the Dark Border remains compact and concise and yet fully satisfying – whoever said meat & potatoes death metal wasn’t the best meal? Go Beyond the Dark Border with Italy’s HORRID!
HORRID lineup 2017
Davide “Dagon” Ariostini – vocals/bass
Mario “Belfagor” Plumari – guitars
Simone “Eligor” Della Chiesa – drums
RIVER BLACK are revealing the second heavy track taken from their self-titled debut album. ‘River Black’ has been scheduled for release on July 7th.
The American modern metal pioneers in the wake of BURNED BY THE SUN are now premering the song “#Victim”
Drummer Dave Witte comments on behalf of RIVER BLACK: “This one came together very quickly at the end of the writing sessions for our debut album. Actually, the whole beginning has been sitting around since 2008. We never had anything that made sense to go along with it and it just happened this time. Lyrically, it’s a kick in the pants to the unmotivated and a rallying cry for the malcontent.”
Vocalist Mike Olender adds: “This song was inspired by some individuals, who latch on to the misfortune of others and try to claim it as their own; vicarious victims, who are so addicted to drama and self-loathing that they gravitate towards any tragedy and make it a part of their identity, hence the hashtag. This first-world problem is the height of privilege and it speaks to a larger problem of intentional victimhood in American society, where too often we pre-empt problems that are not ours with solutions we don’t need; solutions which are rooted in a corrupt health care system more committed to profitable treatments than good health or personal growth.”
RIVER BLACK have previously revealed artwork and track-list of their debut full-length, which can both be viewed below.
1. Jaws
2. Honor
3. Low
4. Shipwreck
5. River Black
6. South by South
7. Boat
8. Move
9. #Victim
10. Haunt
11. Sink
12. Everywhere
RIVER BLACK deliver the musical equivalent to a diamond-tipped drill to bore breathing-holes into the crusty rusted armour-plating of the metal-genre in order to let some fresh air into the all too often stale scene.
Their powerful self-titled debut album impresses with undiluted aggression, precisely executed and dead on target. Based on an intimate knowledge of thrash metal history, the Americans have found a modern answer to this classic style, incorporating suitable elements of death, hardcore, and other influences. This is boosted by a massive sound that drops the bomb in your face.
The expertise that RIVER BLACK demonstrate in craft and talent does not come out of the blue. Guitarist John Adubato and drummer David Witte (MUNICIPAL WASTE) formed their new creative outlet after the dissolution of BURNT BY THE SUN. The veteran duo felt the need to keep the spirit and energy behind that former collective going, while pushing it a darker and heavier direction. To complete their dream team, Witte and Adubato recruited fellow REVOCATION bassist Brett Bamberger and former BURNT BY THE SUN collaborator Mike Olender for vocal duties.
On completion of their line-up, RIVER BLACK recorded their first album at New Jersey’s Trax East studio (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, HATEBREED, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER) with producer Eric Rachel (SKID ROW, MUNICIPAL WASTE, GOD FORBID).
RIVER BLACK are now ready to drive a vicious spike into the bubble of metallic complacency. Crank up the volume and let ‘River Black’ hit home hard. Impact is imminent…
Line-up
Mike Olender: vocals
John Adubato: guitar
Brett Bamberger: bass
Dave Witte: drums
Today, reinvigorated black metal infamists Nargaroth stream the entirety of their highly anticipated seventh album, Era of Threnody. Set for international release on May 16th via Inter Arma Productions, hear Nargaroth’s Era of Threnody in its entirety exclusively HERE.
Nargaroth needs no introduction. German black metal’s longest-running and most prolific band, Nargaroth has built a canon of work that’s as infamous as it is legendary in the underground. Led as always by the peerless vision of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Ash, the Nargaroth aesthetic has spanned the many extremes of black metal as an artform, but always done with bravado and self-belief, purity of intent and purity of purpose. Now, with the band’s first full-length in a long eight years, Era of Threnody has arrived to mark a glorious new epoch for Nargaroth.
Ever aptly titled, Era of Threnody burns with rage and repose – a war cry from a battlefield long forgotten, a remembrance of sorrows past, present, and future. Across its 65-minute landscape, the 10 songs which comprise Era of Threnody paint a portrait of Nargaroth at its most dynamic: nearly every unique era of the band is represented, but executed with a startling sense of professionalism. But let it be known that “professionalism” in no way should be conflated with mainstream ambitions, for this is still pure ‘n’ pristine BLACK METAL in all its monochromatic grandeur. More accurately, perhaps, Era of Threnody is the sound of Nargaroth at the height of its powers, well rested from the studio hiatus and eager ‘n’ emboldened by an upcoming European tour with Absu and Hate (dates after the jump). The time of reckoning is at hand, and it is indeed the Era of Threnody!
Stream Nargaroth’s Era of Threnody at Inter Arma Productions’ Bandcamp HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Nargaroth’s Era of Threnody
1. Dawn of Epiphany
2. Whither Goest Thou?
3. Conjunction Underneath The Alpha Weel
4. …As Orphans Drifting In A Desert Night
5. The Agony Of A Dying Phoenix
6. Epicedium To A Broken Dream
7. Love Is A Dog From Hell
8. Era Of Threnody
9. TXFO
10. My Eternal Grief, Anguish Neverending
Full “Crusade of Threnody” tour dates with ABSU and HATE, as well as poster art for the tour, are as follows:
