Today, Blood Harvest Records and Helter Skelter Productions set June 8th as the international release date for Taphos’ highly anticipated debut album, Come Ethereal Somberness, on CD and 12″ vinyl formats.
Hot on the heels of Blood Harvest’s compilation of the band’s first two recordings as Demo MMXVI & 7″ EP MMXVII, garnering widespread acclaim and heightening anticipation for their first full-length, at last arrives Taphos’ Come Ethereal Somberness. As a debut LP, Come Ethereal Somberness does everything it should: stay consistent to a band’s sound established on their demos whilst pointing toward new avenues. Here, Taphos do both, and then some.
Hailing from the same Danish scene as Undergang and Phrenelith, Taphos create a classic – and classically gutted – style of Metal of Death. Their first recording, Demo MMXVI, possessed a darkly thrashing sound highly reminiscent of turn-of-the-’90s death metal on both sides of the Atlantic, as resolutely Scandinavian as it was American, its filthy propulsion as palatably fresh as it was authentically ancient. On the subsequent two-song EP, Taphos’ sound becomes more world-eating, their songwriting aims more epic whilst not losing the raw fury of their beginnings.
Now, with Come Ethereal Somberness, they synthesize the two stylistic shifts into something both berzerker and epic, manic and finessed in equal measures. Indeed, Taphos are firing on all songwriting cylinders here, as the energy literally bursts off the charts but retains a sense of composure and daresay class rarely scene in full-blooded death metal. Hammering and hideous yet nevertheless invoking a clarity that never castrates their attack, the quartet render each of these seven central compositions (bookended by moody instrumentals) a story unto itself. Hell, the titles themselves tell that story – “Ocular Blackness,” “Insidious Gyres,” and the equally telltale “Thrive in Upheaval” and “Impending Peril” among them – and that story is horrific.
New nightmares are here, then, and Taphos will be taking them on the road with a full European tour this May alongside Swedish comrades Degial (dates after the jump). Until then, as its title ominously proclaims, Come Ethereal Somberness!
Hear two new tracks off the album, the aforementioned “Thrive in Upheaval” and “Impending Peril” HERE
Preorder info can be found HERE.
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Taphos’ Come Ethereal Somberness
1. Letum
2. Impending Peril
3. Thrive In Upheaval
4. Ocular Blackness
5. A Manifest Of Trepidation
6. Dysfori
7. Insidious Gyres
8. Livores
9. Obitum
“The Preditorial Siege of Europa” tour dates with Degial
Wednesday 2nd May: Oslo, Norway – Revolver *just Degial
Thursday 3rd May: Gothenburg, Sweden – The Abyss *just Degial
Friday 4th May: Hamburg, Germany – Bambi Galore
Saturday 5th May: Oberhausen, Germany – Helvete
Sunday 6th May: Arnhem, The Netherlands – Willemeen
Monday 7th May: London, UK – Boston Music Room w/ Aura Noir (n)
Tuesday 8th May: Paris, France – Le Klub
Wednesday 9th May: Toulouse, France – Les Pavillions Sauvages
Thursday 10th May: Bilbao, Spain – Pub Mendigo
Friday 11th May: Porto, Portugal – Metal Point
Saturday 12th May: Madrid, Spain – Studios Rock & Pop
Sunday 13th May: Barcelona, Spain – Sala Monesterio
Monday 14th May: Nice, France – Atherax Music
Tuesday 15th May: Milan, Italy – Circolo Svolta
Wednesday 16th: Abtenau, Austria – Temple Neudegg Alm
Thursday 17th May: Dresden, Germany – Chemiefabrik
Friday 18th May: Wroclaw, Poland – Ciemna Stromna Miasta
Saturday 19th May: Berlin, Germany – Urban Spree
MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/taphosdeath
www.taphos.bandcamp.com