Month: May 2018

WITCHING HOUR reveal cover art, tracklisting for forthcoming HELLS HEADBANGERS album

Today, Hells Headbangers reveals the cover art and tracklisting for the highly anticipated third album of Germany’s Witching Hour, …And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon. The album shall be released later this year on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

Witching Hour came to life in 2006 and are currently based in the southwest of Germany. Although their discography is relatively sparse the past dozen years, it is of uniformly high quality. Their two albums for Evil Spell Records – 2009’s Rise of the Desecrated and especially 2011’s Past Midnight… – are prized artifacts of the deep underground, confidently portraying a unique and highly idiosyncratic form of blackened thrash. Now, with the long-awaited …And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon – the band’s first album for Hells Headbangers – Witching Hour shall prove that they’re some of the black metal scene’s most gifted songwriters.

Sequenced like a story and flowing with almost dream-like ease, …And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon is the album whereby Witching Hour move from sepulchral blackthrash magick towards ancient metal mysticism. The transition is an enviously fluid one, as the characteristically high songwriting standards the band have held from the beginning are now transposed onto more nuanced, dynamic, and timelessly HEAVY METAL creations. It all sounds as old as time itself, yet breathes and heaves with a positively invigorating freshness. Glorious and gloomy melodies gallop forward into the fog-choked night, instilling an atmosphere that’s simply impossible to shake, but also latching their claws into the deepest, most emotional corners of the soul.

For Witching Hour create an experience here, one that honorably straddles the divide between traditional metal’s rigorous foundation and black metal’s orthodox/unorthodox duality. Put another way, …And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon is a 43-minute, absolutely addicting journey from which you’ll never want to return.

Release date and preorder info to be announced shortly. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Witching Hour (Germany)’s
…And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon
1. …And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon /
Once Lost Souls Return
2. From Beyond They Came
3. Sorrow Blinds His Ghastly Eyes
4. Behold Those Distant Skies
5. The Fading Chime Of A Graveyard Bell
6. As I Walk Among Sepulchral Ruins

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/witchinghourthrash

NASTY SURGEONS reveal first track, cover, tracklisting for new XTREEM MUSIC album

Today, Spanish deathgrinders Nasty Surgeons reveal the cover artwork (again by Juanjo Castellano), tracklisting, and first single from their sophomore release, Infectious Stench, which will be released July 5th through Xtreem Music.

Having released their debut album, Exhumation Requiem, in January 2017 with a very good acceptance in the gore, grind, and death metal scene, Nasty Surgeons are back with a new album including 11 songs that will for sure appeal to any fan of bands like old Carcass, Necrony, Exhumed, The County Medical Examiners, and General Surgery.

This what Nasty Surgeons says about this first single: “This is our own tribute to the gods Carcass. The main riff reminded us from the beginning, and that’s why the title of the song was ‘The Carcass.’ We adapted the title and the text. This is perhaps the ‘softest’ song on the album and it has a catchy riff, but we love it and it is an essential element for our live performances. Enjoy!”

Release date for Infectious Stench will be July 5th through Xtreem Music on CD format.

Hear that first single, “The Carcass,” both HERE

The aforementioned cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Nasty Surgeons’ Infectious Stench
1. Ex Putrefactione Generati
2. Smell the Carcass
3. Infectious Stench
4. Subdural Haematoma
5. Impaled Crucified and Beheaded
6. Forensic Necrophilia
7. The Lobotomist
8. In Peaces
9. (a) Mouth to Anus
9. (b) Infernal Bacterial Infection
9. (b) Dr Death

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/nastysurgeons

SWEDEN’S BLACK METALISTS BERGRAVEN’S ‘DÖDSVISIONER’ TO BE RELEASED ON VINYL FOR 1ST TIME

May 7, 2018 – Los Angeles, CA – Sweden’s revered experimental black metal band Bergraven will release their seminal, critically heralded album, Dödsvisioner, on vinyl LP on June 1st with Swedish label Nordvis. Originally released by U.S. based Hydra Head Records 11 years ago, the record will get its first ever pressing on wax next month. Fans can pre-order it now at https://nordvis.com/en/bergraven-a-3.

It is hard to believe that eleven years have passed since Pär Stille’s Bergraven released Dödsvisioner into the black metal biome. Impishly experimental and yet highly honed and focused, it is an album that seeps its way into the subconscious as all the best black metal is wont to do. Perhaps the most striking sensation you get when listening to this album is that doom-informed riffs, idiosyncratic grooves and shadowy interludes included, you are experiencing the work of a mind open to integrating sounds that are rarefied in the often stubbornly traditional black metal genre. It would be difficult to talk about Dödsvisioner without a nod in the direction of Xasthur and Burzum before them, but Bergraven’s black metal is not as repetitive and only sometimes as hypnotic as these forebears. The subtle shifts in tempo and dizzying experimental deviations rife on Dodsvisione play tricks on the listener’s mind, much like mountains from which the first part of the band’s name come can disorientate and confuse weary walkers, rendering madness a distinct possibility.

“It was more than ten years ago, I had written the darkest music I possibly could. I made so many demos, of the songs, trying to find that perfect balance between listenable music and just pitch black death and sorrow. I was haunted by thoughts of death day and night, in sleep and awake. In many ways I had to make this album to leave parts of all these thoughts if I was to go on living a somewhat normal life. The album became like the last breath, the last waken hour, the last thought. Musically it was the direction I wanted with the band and the addition of Perra behind the drums was absolutely amazing. The doomy slow groove and the surreal fill ins was perfect and if nothing else Perra came up with the title to the album one night when in the studio. He had the perfect guts for this. I also was in contact with Mannevond from KOLDBRANN and really liked his vocal style so I invited him to come to the studio and try to mix his amazing skills with my material. It was totally amazing, I sometimes wonder why he didn’t do all of the vocals. I guess I still think the album is great, it holds so many private memories but today it has also grown out of my person, like someone else did it. This makes me enjoy it even more today and finally get in released on vinyl. Thank you so much Nordvis for making this album available in the best format and with new artwork!” – Pär Stille

Pre-Order Dödsvisioner on vinyl LP:
https://nordvis.com/en/bergraven-a-3

Dödsvisioner Tracklisting:
1. Döende
2. Av saknad släcker jag ljuset
3. Ondkall
4. Känsla av livets nästa skede
5. Den svarta angstens essens
6. Det man med själen…
7. Ekot av bikt
8. Döende (en avslutning)

For More Information:
https://www.facebook.com/Bergraven/
https://www.facebook.com/nordvis/
https://nordvis.com/en/

ATAVISMA set release date for MEMENTO MORI debut, reveal first track

In their endless quest to push and support current underground acts that that deliver the goods unaware of trends and hypes, on July 23rd, Memento Mori is proud to present the highly anticipated debut album of France’s Atavisma, The Chthonic Rituals.

Hailing from the new breed of exquisite French death metal darkness, Atavisma formed in late 2013 and promptly set to work perfecting their assiduously doomed-out craft. Founders G. (guitar) and L. (vocals) wanted to create a band devoted to old-school death metal, and with the addition of C. (drums) and W. (bass) shortly thereafter, the quartet’s compositions progressively shifted towards a death-doom approach with a penchant for lyrics that mainly deal with the relationship between man and nature, ancient cultures and spirituality. Wisely prizing quality over quantity, Atavisma’s sparse discography comprises a debut single in 2014 and a four-song demo that same year, a split 7″ with Maur in 2015, and a two-song 7″ last year on the esteemed Blood Harvest. During all this, the band took their craft to the stage alongside such bands as Archgoat, Merrimack, Inferno, Ritualization, Ataraxie, Mercyless, and Mourning Dawn, and as recently as February/March 2017, they embarked on their first French tour and supported Blood Incantation and Cruciamentum during their European tour.

With their chops finely honed in the studio and on the live front, at last comes the time for Atavisma’s momentous debut album: The Chthonic Rituals. The album’s title not-so-subtly serves as a clarion call for the quartet’s aesthetic to date, and where that aesthetic can fully go when given a long-form format. Ridiculously filthy and yet exuding a startling sense of clarity, Atavisma here conjure a forever-roiling, fatally-swirling whirlpool of murk and total ‘n’ utter DARKNESS. Riffs are doled out like sick ‘n’ slithering creatures that soon overtake their master, devouring both body and soul with salacious delight. Thus armed, compositions take on obscene forms, utilizing both über-heavy hooks and labyrinthine detours, hackle-raising tension and hypnotic quasi-melodicism, winding the listener down caverns most foul, warping any sense of sanity. And although the band’s attack has gotten progressively doomier, there’s never a moment of inertia; all is forward momentum, and it all leads toward an abyss with literally no end. The 11-minute closer says everything in its title: “A Subterranean Life.”

As with all Memento Mori releases, totality is reached in both cover art (courtesy of E. Muskie), mixing by Johan Bijaoui at Mannaz Records, and mastering, by the elite Javier Felez at Moontower Studios. Maniacs of Incantation, Cianide, Grave, Disma, Winter, Funebre, Encoffination, and classic Convulse, hereby meet your new masters: Atavisma! Let The Chthonic Rituals begin…

The first ritual can be found HERE

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Atavisma’s The Chthonic Rituals
1. Chthonic
2. Extraneous Abysmal Knowledge
3. Sacrifice unto Babalon
4. Invocation of Archaic Deities
5. Monoliths
6. Ashen Ascetic
7. Amid the Ruins
8. A Subterranean Life

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/atavisma.band

MALSANCTUM set release date for IRON BONEHEAD debut, reveal first track

Today, Iron Bonehead Productions sets July 13th as the international release date for Malsanctum’s highly anticipated debut album, simply titled Malsanctum, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

Malsanctum hail from Canada and made its first public recording with the aptly titled demo Metamorbid Fetishization. Inconspicuously released in 2015 by Iron Bonehead, Metamorbid Fetishization presented Malsanctum in a cruelly stark and most frightening manner: a single 24-minute track of noisy ritualism, alternately spacious and suffocating, but most certainly uncomfortable. However, all that is trumped by the full-length Malsanctum.

Here split into three tracks – two at 10 minutes, and the closer at a staggering 24 minutes – Malsanctum’s debut album is 45 minutes of obscene body worship. Defiantly challenging and sickeningly fascinating in equal measures, Malsanctum once again mangles trace elements of funeral doom and black metal into a malodorous miasma that defies both genres. It is as hypnotizing as it is hellish, fully utilizing those epic lengths with time-evaporating/halting inertia cum overload. The listener becomes lost because there was no path to begin with; obfuscation is thus replaced by pure punishment. But to simply listen to Malsanctum in general and Malsanctum in particular is not to just “listen,” but to endure…and the light at the end of the tunnel was already snuffed out long ago.

The end will come…but not when you want it. Time, then, to enter Malsanctum’s Malsanctum. Step forward into the 10-minute “The Father” HERE

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Malsanctum’s Malsanctum
1. The Father (10:17)
2. The Son (9:47)
3. The Shattered Spirit (23:49)

Dante’s Inferno themed black metallers Kyterion’s new album “Inferno II” out now

Dante’s Inferno themed black metallers Kyterion’s much-anticipated new album “Inferno II” is out now via Subsound Records.

The full-length is available for order here : http://goo.gl/XCFuXj

Featuring vocals in XIIIth century’s Italian Vernacular language, the concept album is focused on the first canticle of the eternal poem ‘The Divine Comedy’ by Dante Alighieri.

This is the album tracklist :

1. Mal Nati
2. Onde La Rena s’Accendea
3. Dite
4. Pena Molesta
5. Cerbero Il Gran Vermo
6. Cocito
7. Dolenti ne la Ghiaccia
8. Rabbiosi Falsador
9. Vallon Tondo
10. Li ‘ndivini
11. Terribile Stipa

The awaited follower to “Inferno I” was recorded at Medoosa Studio in Bologna, while mixing and mastering were handled by Giuseppe Orlando at The Outer Sound Studio (Stormlord, Necrodeath, Novembre) in Rome.
Cover Artwork Design by Gustavo Sazes.

Watch “Cerbero Il Gran Vermo” official track stream video :

Watch “The Making Of Inferno II” :

Catch KYTERION on their headlining tour “Inferno Over Europe 2018” here :

28.04 Bologna, Italia, Alchemica Music Club
03.05 Maribor, Slovenia, Gustaf Pekarna
04.05 Vrbovec, Croatia, Akc Garaze
05.05 Bekescsba, Hungary, Narancs
06.05 Sibiu, Romania, Underground
07.05 Timisoara, Romania, Manufactura
08.05 Sofia, Bulgaria, Live&Loud
09.05 Svisthov, Bulgaria, Disorder
10.05 Bucarest, Romania, Simply
11.05 Cluji Napoca, Romania, La Tevi
12.05 Budapest, Hungary, S8 Underground
26.05 Acerra (NA) Evilution Club

Subscribe to KYTERION’s official youtube channel here : http://goo.gl/75Y9fg

Follow KYTERION :
FACEBOOK : http://www.facebook.com/kyterion
OFFICIAL STORE : http://goo.gl/ujjo3B
BANDCAMP : http://goo.gl/fAFoyG
YOUTUBE : http://goo.gl/75Y9fg

Festerday complete new album

Death metal outfit FESTERDAY have completed their forthcoming new record, which will be released later this year. The new album was recorded at Wolfthone Studios in Finland

Regarding the new record, FESTERDAY comment: “A year ago, we tried out this nice little studio located in the middle of pretty much nowhere and instantly fell for the sound and engineering techniques. A year later we are here again, finalizing our debut album. Keep an eye on this upcoming monster because we’ere talking about a versatile and fat album with death, punk and blackish nuances. If you put Bolt Thrower, Carcass, Deicide and Napalm Death in the same train, this is what you’ll get – one hell of a ride so to speak”.

On previous news, Season of Mist announced the signing of FESTERDAY. Not counting the compilation of earlier material, the Finnish death metal cult act will release its debut studio album on Season of Mist.

Regarding their signing, FESTERDAY comment: “It is now close to 25 years, following our decision to split up. It has taken as many years after writing any songs for this band that we got our shit together again and came up with new material to see where this might take us. Six new songs later, we sent them to various labels and magazines. Much to our surprise, the feedback was overwhelming. After negotiating with different labels and pondering over their offers, we decided to take action and double the excitement by joining a familiar and globally established label: Season of Mist. It feels like coming full circle to return to the label, where it all started with …AND OCEANS over 20 years ago. Like in this old proverb, it goes without saying: the frost will drive a pig back home.”

FESTERDAY were formed in Pietarsaari, Finland in the year 1989. In the following years, the band released three demos, in truly laconic Finnish style simply entitled ‘Demo I’ (1991). ‘Demo II’ (1992), and ‘Demo III’ (1992) that gained cult status. ‘Demo II’ was also released on a split with CARNIFEX. In 1993, the group split-up.

This could have been the end, but FESTERDAY got together again in 2013, remastered all their previous material with Sami “Jämy” Jämsen at Studio Perkele in November 2014, and released everything on ‘…the Four Stages of Decomposition…’ (2015).

Featuring members of …AND OCEANS, MAGENTA HARVEST, HAVOC UNIT, and KHAOS NIHIL, FESTERDAY are back together and will finally release their debut full-length on Season of Mist later this year.

Line-up
Antti Räisälä: bass
Kena Strömsholm: vocals
Timo Kontio: guitar
Teemu Saari: guitar
Jani Kuoppamaa: drums

www.facebook.com/festerday
www.instagram.com/festerdayfinland

Interview with Aggressor from Norway Black Metal Legends Aura Noir

This week I spoke with Aura Noir main man Aggressor. In case you have been living under a rock the Aura Noir guys have been making black metal since back in 1985. read this and learn something new.

Congrats on your first record in 6 years
Oh, thank you

* What have you guys been doing in the interim?
Playing a few short tours and a lot of festivals, plus writing this new album.

* You have worked with Satyricon Ulver and many more – what would you say are the biggest differences between how Satyricon and Ulver work?
I played in those 2 bands more than 25 years ago. Don’t remember much, and I’m sure they have a routine worked up many years ago that wasn’t even considered when I was in those bands. I’m still in contact with the Ulver-guys, Satyricon, not so much..

* You guys got your start on Nocturno Cultos label right? How was that in the early days?
No. Actually Tyrant Syndicate was our 4th record-label. We had been on Hammerheart records, Malicious records and Hot Records before signing with Tyrant. Our first release on Tyrant was «The Merciless», which was our 4th release.

Cadaver were the first

* I saw you guys play a metal fest back in the early 2000s as part of Cadaver Inc. Would it be fair to say that Cadaver were one of the first Norwegian Extreme bands to have a worldwide release – right? How was it working with Neddo?
Well, yes. The first Cadaver album came out in 1990, so if you don’t count in Mayhem’s Deathcrush-album, yes, Cadaver were the first. But this was way before we came in to the picture. We started in 2000, I joined cause not much was happening with Aura Noir at the time and Apollyon joined later. We were ambitious, but not much came out of it, so we laid down the band. Neddo is a swell guy with lots of irons in the fire..

The music became more important than ever after my accident

* In 2005 you fell off a 4th story building and was hospitalized for many months – how has your life changed since that terrible time?
That’s a big question. It’s now 13 years ago and I’ve gradually made a good life for myself. I have some chronic pain, but I’m able to live with it. The music became more important than ever after my accident, or maybe I realized how important it always was.

* How does your output with Virus differ to your work with Aura Noir. Do you set out to write for each band individually or do you get into “blackened thrash mode” to write for A.N. or?
Well, the 2 bands are like different planets. In Aura Noir we have the music in our bloodstream, while in Virus we have to see what we can conjure up. Virus is experimental, Aura Noir is somewhat traditional.

* I know in the past you guys have demoed songs and lived with them for some time before doing the album – did you take this approach for the new album too?
Yes, we always do that. The songs has to mature. We make rehearsals and listen alot, then do the proper adjustments. This is one of the reasons that it takes so much time in between albums.

* From the thrash side what bands have been the biggest influences for Aura Noir?
Early stuff from before there were clear definitions on what was thrash and what was black metal.. There was a time when people called Celtic Frost speed metal, you know? All the early to mid eighties stuff. Venom, Slayer, the german bands, Sodom, Kreator, Destruction. The first Voivod albums, etc..

There was much more rivalry in the old days.

* You guys have been doing this since the 2nd wave of Black Metal hit Norway – how you would say the scene has changed since the early 90s?
Very much. People are much more supportive of each other now than before. There was much more rivalry in the old days.

* What do you think are the benefits of being the old guys in the scene now?
I don’t know if there are any benefits other than when it comes to making music. We are more certain on how we want to sound, and how to achieve that sound.

* If you could go back in time and give your younger selves advice what would it be?
Work harder.

It’s a way of life.

* What keeps you guys going after so many years?
Speaking for myself, music is something I need to do. It’s a necessity for me. It’s not a hobby or a job. It’s a way of life.

* I know you guys are doing a run of dates for this record – any plans for US dates this year?
No concrete plans no, but we want to go there for sure. We’ll see what we can work out for early 2019.

But South America is something special

* From memory when you last played South America the fans went nuts – would you say thats your favorite market to play or do you have other favorites?
Greece is always good. But SA is something special, yes. Wild crowds all over.

* What else can we expect from the band in 2018?
Everything will revolve around this this album. A couple of small tours. One in Australia-New Zealand, two in Europe. Plus a few festivals and one-offs.

* Any final words?
Not really. Take care!

Ester Segarra unleashed photo-book ‘Ars Umbra’

ESTER SEGARRA is unleashing the first details of her forthcoming photo-book ‘Ars Umbra’, which will hit the stores on July 06th 2018. A first glimpse of the Barcelona-born photographer’s upcoming work can be viewed at the link below.

ESTER SEGARRA comments: “After 15 years, my music photography comes full cycle with this book. Ars Umbra marks the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one, a point in the never-ending circle of life and death, the serpent that eats its own tail. Designed by Münster Studio and Branca Studio from Barcelona, it is thought to fit in within your vinyl collection. To be experienced together with the soundtrack. To go slow and deep. Much love, effort and dedication has been put into the making of this project and no words can fully express what it feels like to have it released, having been through hell and back. I can only say I am incredibly grateful to everything and everyone that has made this moment possible. May the beast be unleashed!

You may not be aware, but you already know the art of ESTER SEGARRA. For over a decade, the Barcelona-born photographer has re-imagined the visual aspect of heavy metal for GHOST, WATAIN, ELECTRIC WIZARD, CATHEDRAL, MAYHEM, KATATONIA, PARADISE LOST, AT THE GATES, CARCASS, DARKTHRONE, ROTTING CHRIST, VENOM, ABBATH, and others.

Through her lens, ESTER SEGARRA has lifted the veil on some of extreme music’s most notorious players and in turn become one of the most prolific and significant contemporary music photographers.

ESTER SEGARRA started to work for the influential UK underground print outlet for extreme music, Terrorizer Magazine in the year 2001 and following from there, she had her pictures published in Metal Hammer, Decibel, Rock Hard, Iron Fist, Deaforever, This Is Metal, Close-Up among many other magazines. Ester has also accepted commissions from metal labels such as Season of Mist, Century Media, Nuclear Blast, Candlelight, Rise Above, Spinefarm , and Peaceville.

The works of ESTER SEGARRA have been exhibited for example at taste-making festivals such as Roadburn, the Netherlands and Beyond the Gates, Norway. The next opportunity to see her photography exhibited will be at the Rome Tattoo Expo in Italy’s capital from the 4th to the 6th of May.

The anthology, ‘Ars Umbra’ celebrates 15 years of ESTER SEGARRA‘s music photography. Pictures and music are presented in the form of a photo-book with an added original soundtrack, which is specially commissioned from percussionist extraordinaire, Uno Bruniusson (ex-IN SOLITUDE, DEATH ALLEY, PROCESSION). The music provides a rhythm, a mind-space that alters the experience of the book.

The time has come to unleash and fuel the flames of ‘Ars Umbra’!

www.facebook.com/estersegarraphotography
www.instagram.com/death_es

DEATH. VOID. TERROR. stream IRON BONEHEAD debut

Today, sonic sorcerers Death. Void. Terror. stream the entirety of their striking debut album, To the Great Monolith I. Set for international release on May 4th via Iron Bonehead Productions, hear Death. Void. Terror’s To the Great Monolith I in its entirety HERE.

NO ORIGIN. Received from the ominous, great monolith and expressed in pure sound. NO ORDER. The recordings presented by the entity Death. Void. Terror. transcend the conventions of “composition” and “performance” in modern music culture and instead reduce the creation to its essence, stripped of convolution and excess, until all that remains is a singularity of blackness, harvested from those who have engaged in its creation.

The recordings contained on To The Great Monolith I are not songs. This is not music that has been rehearsed, honed, and tailored to fit a preconceived notion of what is acceptable in humanist genre confines. Instead, the aim is to achieve the most pure expression of the “unconscious” and to confront the listener with authentic ritual experiences, captured directly as they were conducted by the practitioners involved. These are sounds completely hostile to man, an exploration of the surreal.

Like resonating cries of the void piercing through the air, as incandescent stone upon human skin. No origin. No order. Death. Void. Terror.

Stand at the precipice of the void and dive fully in exclusively HERE.

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Death. Void. Terror.’s To the Great Monolith I
1. (——-) [24:16]
2. (—-) [16:46]

www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions