Month: May 2021

Turkish black metallers Sabhankra stream their highly anticipated fifth album

Today, Turkish black metallers Sabhankra stream the entirety of their highly anticipated fifth album, Death to Traitors. Set for international release on May 21st via Saturnal Records, hear Sabhankra‘s Death to Traitors in its entirety here:

Hailing from Turkey, Sabhankra was formed in 2001 as Savaş Sungur’s personal project under the name of Constantinopolis. The project soon became regionally known for its epic musical work and its combination of folk, power, and death metal styles. Constantinopolis released its first demo, The Sudden Death, in 2002, followed by a 70-minute debut album, For the Empire, in 2003 and acquired underground vogue.

The project became a band and appeared onstage starting in 2004. Following its second stage performance, the band took the name of Sabhankra and performed at various venues throughout Turkey. Sabhankra released their debut album, Powercraft, in 2006, blending folk melodies of different cultures and winning local and international recognition. In 2006, the band released a concert DVD of its album premiere; the concert consisted of the bands Sabhankra, Necrophagist, Orphaned Land, and Samael. Between 2006-2008, the band was occupied with performances and album recordings.

By the end of 2008, Sabhankra released a promo album, To Die For a Lie, which also indicated the upcoming album Revenge. Revenge had been recorded, mixed, and mastered, but when its release was postponed, Sabhankra continued releasing new stuff, such as Our Kingdom Shall Rise by the end of 2009 and Swords of the Night in 2011.

During 2012-2013, Sabhankra played no gigs due to Savaş Sungur’s military service, and celebrated his return by releasing Seers Memoir in 2014. With Seers Memoir, the band’s sound got closer to melodic black metal. In 2016, the band re-recorded and released Revenge, followed by two live recordings released on tape. The show played with Eluveitie and Kalmah was also released as a live video.

The full-length From the Frozen Mountains was released in 2018, and Sabhankra also band released an EP, The Dream is Dead, in 2019 with the same concept. After one year of touring, with the onset of the pandemic, the band started recording their new album, Death to Traitors, which was completed in late 2020, and is set to be released on CD by Saturnal Records on May 21st.

Encompassing six songs in a searingly compact 36 minutes, Death to Traitors is undeniably Sabhankra‘s most extreme work to date. But for all its aggression, atmosphere also takes equal importance, establishing a mysticism that’s otherworldly and uniquely Sabhankra. Not for nothing, then, is the album titled Death to Traitors: this is a swift ‘n’ decisive strike upon unbelievers, and should once and for all establish Sabhankra on an international scale. If ripp(l)ing melodic black metal played with passion and precision is your vice, then Sabhankra have your fix with Death to Traitors!

Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Sabhankra’s Death to Traitors
1. Call to Arms [6:21]
2. Burn Down Their Halls [5:42]
3. Death to Traitors [4:23]
4. Heavens are Fake [5:08]
5. I Came This Far For Nothing [7:25]
6. Awakened in the Dark [6:41]

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/SabhankraBand

www.saturnalrecords.com

NIGRUM PLUVIAM set release date for SIGNAL REX debut album, reveal first track

On July 30th internationally, Signal Rex is proud to present Nigrum Pluviam‘s striking debut album, Eternal Fall Into the Abyss, on vinyl LP format.

A band born too late, Nigrum Pluviam play rotten black metal not meant for these modern times. The band is the work of one feverish madman named Kraëh Määtruum, who’s lately quite prolific within the other bands a part of the Garde Noire collective – which includes, of course, Nigrum Pluviam. Much like their native Black Legions before them, this French cabal explore all the wildest and worst dungeons lurking below black metal’s very furthest thresholds, and Nigrum Pluviam are arguably the most intense distillation of these sensations.

Following a super-limited split and then a limited tape courtesy of Signal Rex, Nigrum Pluviam now strike with their first full-length, Eternal Fall Into the Abyss. Ghoulish, ghastly, and grounded in the diseased soil of the mid ’90s, mainman Kraëh Määtruum conjures riffs that are tensely triumphant and hypnotically hovering in equal measure. It’s a record conjured on his admittedly sparse equipment, bare-bones and minimalistic as it comes, and fittingly captured during the cursed winter of 2020 – but its maladroit, malodorous spell hits with an impact that’s hackle-raising, its sounds deceptively shimmering and sending sine-waves of senses-distorting terror. Also fittingly, the lyrics describe scenes of agony of mankind, the fall of Christianity, and the death of living beings; no one is spared this Eternal Fall Into the Abyss, not even KM himself, and most especially NOT YOU.

No hope, no fun, no “feels,” no selfies, just NOTHING: Nigrum Pluviam empty out the basement with Eternal Fall Into the Abyss.

Take the first step into that basement with the brand-new track “A Catharsis for the Wretched Carrying the Divine Cross here:

Cover and tracklisting as follows:

Tracklisting for Nigrum Pluviam’s Eternal Fall Into the Abyss
1. The Whisper of the Black Rain [2:03]
2. A Catharsis for the Wretched Carrrying the Divine Cross [6:24]
3. The Reflection of Your Agony in the Vulture’s Eyes [7:11]
4. Devotion to Absolute Evil [3:12]
5. Passage    [2:39]
6. In the Suffocating Mist [7:35]
7. Shadows and Lights [6:18]
8. From the Earth to the Abyss Through Suffering [6:35]

www.signalrex.com
www.facebook.com/signalrex

ARNA set release date for SIGNAL REX debut – streaming in full now

On July 30th internationally, Signal Rex is proud to present Arna‘s striking debut album, Dragged to a Lunar Grave, on CD format. The vinyl LP version will follow later on.

Formed in 2019 in Barcelona, Arna started as a project influenced by more current groups like Spectral Wound but with references in the riffs of more classic groups like Arckanum. Indeed, traces of both – as well as the spectrum of second-wave black metal tropes between the two – are found in plentiful, poignant supply on Dragged to a Lunar Grave, the duo’s debut album.

Strangely familiar yet foreign, Arna‘s sumptuous swell of sound retains mysticism and majesty in equal measure, METAL surge and triumph whilst remaining mysteriously melodic. Those pronounced melodies across the aptly titled Dragged to a Lunar Grave contrast with torn and tortuous voices trying to convey the concept of the album. Death, rituals, personal despair, ancient deities; all these themes are threaded together to explain the introspective character of the human being as thinking and being tormented in all aspects of his life. Conceptually removed, Arna show a mastery of songcraft here, displaying high drama and passionate execution across the album’s four succinct-yet-expansive tracks. All told, 29 minutes of epic and windswept black metal classicism, crisp and clean but betraying no small amount of dirt underneath that effervescent exterior.

Initially self-released digitally within the wilds of Bandcamp, Dragged to a Lunar Grave was just far too superior to linger within the morass of mediocrity that platform has largely become. Arna‘s swords are sharp, gleaming with menace and imagination, and they’re aiming straight for your heart!

In the meantime, stream Dragged to a Lunar Grave in its entirety here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Arna’s Dragged to a Lunar Grave
1. Gallows Tree [8:06]
2. Moonknife [6:46]
3. Dolmen [6:55]
4. Aunra [7:08]

MORE INFO:
www.arnabm.bandcamp.com

www.signalrex.com
www.facebook.com/signalrex

MOON ORACLE set release date for SIGNAL REX debut, reveal first track – features members of RIDE FOR REVENGE, INCRIMINATED+++

Today, Signal Rex, in conspiracy with Bestial Burst, announces August 27th as the international release date for Moon Oracle‘s striking debut album, Muse of the Nightside, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

Moon Oracle was formed by Sûrya-Ishtara and U after spending years searching for their own sound with previous bands. Later on, Harald Mentor was asked to fill the role of vocalist, knowing his abilities from such acts as Ride for Revenge and Incriminated, among many others. Thus formed, Moon Oracle began their first recording in earnest.

Now, that first recording arrives in full-length form with Muse of the Nightside. Aptly titled, Muse of the Nightside reveals Moon Oracle as astute auctioneers of pure-yet-idiosyncratic metal, equally informed by archaic black metal and eldritch doom, all bass-heavy crunge and wild tribal drumming. And yet, these essentially lunar reflections stem from the need to reiterate their darker, violent energies into expressive form: intense, irascible, derelict, dire. Sonically, then, the album explores that battleground between the Id and the Ego – barbaric primitivism ripped asunder and reshaped into ghoulishly avant-garde shapes. It’s a trip, man.

Moon Oracle is not for everyone; taboos exist for a reason. For those of such constitution, their Muse of the Nightside will open its chasm and ensnare with lurid ease.

Dare to step into that chasm with the brand-new track “Rite of Chthonic Mother” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows

Tracklisting for Moon Oracle’s Muse of the Nightside
1. The Huntress and the Hunted
2. A Rape on the Plain of Nysa
3. Rite of Chthonic Mother
4. Sinister Decresence
5. Crossroads (Mysterium Triformis)
6. The 10th Hour

www.signalrex.com
www.facebook.com/signalrex

RUNESPELL set release date for new IRON BONEHEAD album, reveal first track

Today, Iron Bonehead Productions announces September 10th as the international release date for Runespell‘s highly anticipated fourth album, Verses in Regicide, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

By now, Runespell should require little introduction. Since this Australian entity’s public unveiling in 2017 with the Aeons of Ancient Blood demo – released by Iron Bonehead, as well as all successive recordings – Runespell has sharpened its sword and quickly, with three albums arriving like clockwork every year: Unhallowed Blood Oath (2017), Order of Vengeance (2018), and Voice of Opprobrium (2019). That’s not to suggest that mainman Nightwolf is hasty or careless with his creations; rather, the Runespell aesthetic is so etched in iron, so forged in blood, that this mystical & mesmerizing soundworld takes on its own life. A split LP with the reanimated Forest Mysticism arrived last year, tiding the faithful over until the next full-length.

At last, it arrives in the form of Verses in Regicide. Arguably Runespell‘s best-produced and -executed album to date, Verses in Regicide is highly familiar in one sense – grandiose melancholy given majestic flight, bloodlusting energy no matter the tempo, widescreen in its vast landscapes yet fiercely focused – but reveals a subtly newer side. Melody has always played a prominent part in the characteristic Runespell riffing – equal parts classic Scandinavia, France, and Poland – but there’s a multi-layered shadow of scintillating scales here that dazzles the senses and pulls even harder at the heartstrings. It’s deceptively straightforward, but boundlessly deep; it likewise feels more urgent than ever while seemingly coming from a cosmos many realities removed. Put another way, Verses in Regicide is second-wave black metal born from the elements, where earth, water, and fire forge a new destiny when wielded by such expert hands as Runespell‘s Nightwolf. And of course, those plaintive acoustic tracks, here aptly titled “Into Dust” and “Windswept Burial,” chill to the fucking bone.

Could Runespell very well be the best or at least most compellingly consistent black metal bands of the last five years? Verses in Regicide is irrefutable evidence in the affirmative.

Hear for yourself with the brand-new track “Structures of Collapse” here:

Cover art and tracklisting as follows:

Tracklisting for Runespell’s Verses in Regicide
1. Structures of Collapse [6:37]
2. Vengeance Reign [6:21]
3. Realm of Fire [5:11]
4. Into Dust [2:08]
5. Tides of Slidhr [9:11]
6. Shadow’s Dominion [5:51]
7. Windswept Burial [2:24]

MORE INFO:
www.runespell.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions

ATRIUM set release date for SIGNAL REX debut – streaming in full now

On June 11th internationally, Signal Rex is proud to present Atrium‘s striking debut album, Ancient Spells, on CD format. The vinyl LP version will follow later on.

Hailing from Colombia, Atrium is the sole work of one Magister L., who’s a prolific veteran of the underground, most prominently with Mantus. As Atrium, however, he explores his cosmic shadow-self with a poignantly stargazing style of black metal brewed in the ancient ’90s.

Ancient Spells is Atrium‘s bolt-from-the blue debut, and a more engrossing experience one will not find. As Magister L. explains, the record is “a conceptual album that follows some lucid and not-lucid dreams I had some time ago. The lyrics on this album mainly talk about oníric, cosmic trips, hyperborea, and an old kingdom I saw in my former dreams and its king. The music also is very inspired by nature because this music is made far from urban.”

Indeed, Ancient Spells resides on another realm, so ethereal is its synth-led swell, but that atmosphere reveals myriad truths to those who wish to wander within its widescreen splendor. Fathomless darkness or breathtaking beauty? Unbearable density or liberating space? Decades behind or decades ahead?

Atrium offer no easy answers, only the sharp sword of pure & proud black metal. How will you wield it? Best to explore these Ancient Spells now, for another full-length is already in the works for Signal Rex.

In the meantime, stream Ancient Spells in its entirety here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Atrium’s Ancient Spells
1. The Iron King [10:14]
2. Despair of Silence [9:45]
3. Lands of Hyperborea [4:27]
4. Crossing the Northern Sky [6:40]
5. Overture [7:02

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/Atrium-Black-Metal-108970347560658

www.signalrex.com
www.facebook.com/signalrex

HEXORCIST set release date for MEMENTO MORI / UNHOLY PROPHECIES / GODZ OV WAR debut, reveal first track – features members of GNOSIS, DEVASTATOR+++

In their endless quest to push and support current underground acts that perpetuate the odor of vintage death metal, on July 26th, Memento Mori – in conspiracy with Unholy Prophecies and Godz ov War Productions – is proud to present Hexorcist‘s striking debut album, Evil Reaping Death. Memento Mori will release the CD version, Unholy Prophecies the vinyl version, and Godz ov War the cassette version; the CD and tape version will see release on July 26th, while the vinyl version will follow a bit later.

Unearthed in Florida in early 2019 and comprised of past and current members of other impious hordes such as Gnosis and Devastator, Hexorcist summon old-school and blasphemous death metal that may as well fall under the “proto-death metal” category, for their ferocious and relentless approach to the genre harkens back to the mid-to-late ’80s, when all things extreme were still boiling in the same malignant cauldron and all boundaries were nothing but a blur that no diehard dweller of the underground gave a damn about. Hexorcist‘s aural and lyrical offering is uncompromising and exudes utter vileness, leaving no room for absolutely anything that could remotely be considered modern or trendy.

And Hexorcist accomplish precisely that on their scathing debut album, Evil Reaping Death. Ridiculously accurate in its title, Evil Reaping Death is exactly EVIL REAPING DEATH: steeped in the ancients, billowing sulfur, divebomb leads flying right and left, and the unhinged yet locked-in execution that can only come from true and total DIEHARDS. Not everything goes in death metal, and Hexorcist keep a closed mind when it comes to the Metal of Death. For them, the archaic ways of Morbid Angel, Necrovore, Sarcofago, Death, Incubus, Possessed, Vital Remains, Slayer, and Peru’s Mortem do not need to be messed with, only upheld, and uphold Hexorcist do here. No more but definitely no less, Evil Reaping Death is 666% maniacal death metal for death metal maniacs – exclusively!

With utterly ripping mastering courtesy of Loïc Fontaine at Krucyator Studio, France and classically evil cover art courtesy of Art Militia, Hexorcist soundly erase 30 years of “progression” with Evil Reaping Death. Expel the flesh! Revere the sacrificial rites!

Begin expelling the flesh and revering the sacrificial rites with the brand-new track “Exulting the Adversary” here:

Aformentioned cover art and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Hexorcist’s Evil Reaping Death
1. Exulting the Adversary 
2. Sentry at the Seven Gates
3. Unblessing the Reverent
4. Proverbs of Pestilence 
5. Denouncing the Immaculate 
6. Evil Reaping Death
7. Unrighteous Ceremony 
8. Accursed Affirmations
9. Praising the Most Foul
10. Crucifixion [Devastator cover]

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/hexorcistband
www.hexorcist.bandcamp.com
www.memento-mori.es

REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER release full Roadburn Redux performance

French black metal formation REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER are now releasing the full live performance of their album ‘Ascension’, which they played in its entirety at Roadburn Redux! The online festival took place on April 16-18.

After having released a video for ‘The Crowning’ previously, the band’s full concert is now also available for watching. Check it out here:

‘Ascension’ was released on February 28, 2020. The cover artwork and tracklist can be found below. The artwork was created by Fortifem. Listen to the full album HERE. The live video for ‘The Crowning’ that was released earlier can still be viewed HERE.

Track List:
I. L’Ascension (1:49)
II. A New Order (8:04)
III. The Renegade Son (8:01)
IV. The Crowning (9:26)
V. Stellar Cross (8 :10)
VI. La Tentation (2:28)
VII. Au Bord Du Gouffre (8:53)
Total playing time: 0:46:50

Find REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.

Recording and Mixing: Francis Caste, Studio Sainte Marthe

Mastering: Francis Caste, Studio Sainte Marthe

Cover artwork: Fortifem Line-up:
Vocals : T.C
Guitar : J.J.S
Guitar : A.M
Bass : A.B
Drums : R.R

Finland’s MARRAS set release date for new SPREAD EVIL album, reveal first track

Today, Spread Evil Productions announces July 9th as the international release date for Marras‘ highly anticipated second album, Endtime Sermon.

It was but the autumn of 2019 when Marras burst from the void, fully formed, with their widely celebrated debut album, Where Light Comes to Die. Although a then-brand-new entity, the black metal this Finnish formation conjured forth exuded an ageless wisdom – which is not surprising given that the Marras‘ members hail several highly respected bands.

Now, as this cursed epoch continues on, Marras swiftly return with their second album, Endtime Sermon. Indeed aptly titled, Endtime Sermon sonically encapsulates the haunted (and haunting) sensations of these incredibly dark days: mania, depression, hopelessness, fear, longing, DEATH. That the expanded sextet can take these varied-yet-related sensations and brew them into black metal of a most quintessentially Finnish aspect and make each track a new-yet-unified experience is something special, and further proof that the Marras of Where Light Comes to Die was no fluke. If anything, Endtime Sermon spans delirious violence and stoic mysticism with equal aplomb, all joined together by a through-thread of the (darkly) cinematic, but the message remains the same: there still is no light, and these are the endtimes whether we accept the fact or choose to ignore it.

There will be ignoring Marras upon the release of Endtime Sermon. Heed their wisdom, or perish unenlightened.

Heed or perish with the brand-new track “Shadows Upon the Sacred Land” here:

Cover and tracklisting as follows:

Tracklisting for Marras’ Endtime Sermon

1. Shadows Upon the Sacred Land
2. (1st Prophecy) Anointing Of The Sick
3. Endtime Sermon
4. From The Last Battleground
5. Gathered To Rule
6. (2nd Prophecy) Last Judgement
7. My Cold Grave
8. (3rd Prophecy) Pestilence
9. As Nights Get Darker
10. (4th Prophecy) Viaticum
11. From The Soot of Goahti

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/marrasblackmetal


www.spreadevil.net 

FLUIDS set release date for new HELLS HEADBANGERS album, reveal cover & tracklisting



  Today, Hells Headbangers announces June 4th as the international release date for Fluids‘ highly anticipated third album, Not Dark Yet, on CD format. The vinyl LP version will follow later this year.

Since 2018, Arizona’s Fluids have been prolifically polluting the underground with their remorselessly disgusting brand of goregrind. The band’s debut album, Exploitative Practices, came in 2019, but before and definitely after have plenty of short-length assaults on good taste come/cum, each one a swift ‘n’ sick declaration of total goregrind purity: knuckle-dragging, ignorant, and intensely foul ‘n’ filthy. And just last year, Fluids released Ignorance Exalted, which the band consider their second album.

With Hells Headbangers releasing the band’s Fluids of Death compilation on vinyl earlier this year, bringing together all those short-lengths, the label is sickly thrilled to welcome Fluids to its dysfunctional family with the band’s third album, Not Dark Yet. Right from the opening moments of its unsettling intro, Not Dark Yet sets the tone: this is Fluids at their vile best/worst, prepared to transcend/descend the depths of poor taste that was their shocking full-length predecessors. And it sounds EXACTLY like every Fluids record to date: a stream of slimy, speculum-spreading, all-caps GOREGRIND in the grand, drum-programmed ‘n’ fuzz-toned tradition of godfathers Mortician. And yet, across Not Dark Yet there exists subtle elements of “progression” that thankfully don’t spell sellout: the 10-song album is relatively epic at 37 minutes, some real drums can be spotted, and the production’s both advanced and regressed in equal measure. Similarly, the spectrum between absurdist whiteout speed and bowel-emptying slams is more extreme than ever, making Not Dark Yet the ultimate reckoning: you’re either with Fluids or against ’em.

Not for nothing have Fluids become mandatory listening for gorefiends, from those schooled in Mortician‘s earliest teachings to those into the new breed of old-style goregrind. Not Dark Yet is ready to ruin everyone else’s day!

Begin ruining your day with the previously revealed “Life Spent”  here:

Preorder info can be found HERE at Hells Headbangers’ Bandcamp. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Fluids’ Not Dark Yet
1. Genesis Spoiled
2. Hope Forgotten
3. Empathy Shed
4. Dignity Swindled
5. Integrity Fabled
6. Mercy Gelded
7. Honor Tainted
8. Trust Bargained
9. Life Spent 
10. Humanity Reviled


MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/Fluids666

www.hellsheadbangers.com