THE AMENTA‘s latest offering “Solipschism” consists of two new compositions whose sound may best be described as dank, grimy, and eerie. The songs ‘Solipschism‘ and ‘Labourinth‘ were originally crafted during the recording sessions for “Revelator“. As such, they further enrich the sinister journey THE AMENTA have embarked on their latest album. Today, “Solipschism” is officially released and available on vinyl via Debemur Morti Production’sEU, US, and Bandcamp shops. The EP can be streamed via Bandcamp and on the label’s YouTube channel:
THE AMENTA‘s Timothy Pope comments on “Solipschism“:
“Both songs share a sound, but for different reasons. The verses of ‘Solipschism‘ have that dankness from reverb and delay. It’s a really damp, cold sounding recording. ‘Labourinth‘ shares the dankness, but mainly because of the environment that it was recorded in. When that song was being recorded, it was just about to storm, and the piano was swelling and performing strangely due to the moisture in the air. The result is a creaking, weird-sounding piece, directly affected by the dankness of the air. Both songs are grimy, the first because it is caked in our traditional distortion. Everything is distorted, guitars, vocals, keyboards, and drums. The second track is grimy from its lo-fi nature. The track was recorded straight to a very cheap condenser mic, and the samples and effects are deliberately very lo-fi, so there is a lot of grit and audio artifacts throughout. Lastly, the songs are eerie as they both live in that area of tense waiting, just before the final destruction.“
“Solipschism” must be understood as a link to THE AMENTA‘s recent past. However, the band is currently also working on new material:
“As it is with all our material, we have no idea what it is or how it will sound until it is finished. Even “Solipschism” went through numerous changes of orchestration and structure. The initial demo is unrecognizable from the final tracks. The new material we are working on is very bare bones, as it always is at this stage. We’re also finalizing another recording project, which will be an interesting one. Without reveling too much, you could consider it an exposure of some of the inspirations for “Revelator“. But once that is done, we will leave the world of “Revelator” behind and experiment to find a new direction for the next release. There are some great ideas already forming. One, in its current form, I would describe as BIG BLACK playing IMMOLATION, in a jam with the GODFLESH drum machine. But that’s a demo. By the end it may sound like Stravinsky.“
THE AMENTA is ugly, dissonant, electronically-lacerated Extreme Metal from Australia, featuring the core creative line-up of Cain Cressall (Vocals), Erik Miehs (Guitars) and Timothy Pope (Keyboards, Samples & Effects) with Dan Quinlan (Bass) and drummer David Haley (PSYCROPTIC, ex-ABORTED) rounding out the lineup.
Early experiments with dissonance resulted in 2002’s “Mictlan” MCD. Two years later, the band had signed to Listenable Records who released the debut full length, “Occasus”. Next came 2008’s divisive “n0n” album. “n0n” was a dense, ugly, sprawling hymn to urban decay. A filthy paean to political manipulation. It was anti-everything.
Upon returning to Australia after extensive European and American touring, THE AMENTA recorded a free download of a huge multimedia release in 2011 entitled “V01D”. The release featured the new title track, re-recordings of tracks from the two previous albums, as well as professionally filmed and recorded live performances and film clips. The new song showcased one of many new directions THE AMENTA could take. Epic chords held in stasis by drones: melody where before there had only been dissonance.
In 2013, THE AMENTA released “Flesh Is Heir”. The most organic and open of THE AMENTA’s releases to date, “Flesh Is Heir” built huge sculptures of sound from decayed choir loops and found percussion, the strongest riffs and guitar hooks in THE AMENTA back catalogue and an immaculate vocal performance.
After taking a hiatus from live performance in 2014, the band resumed activity in 2019. Inchoate rumblings slowly took shape. In 2020, THE AMENTA is excited to announce a partnership with Debemur Morti Productions, a label whose name is synonymous with art and with the most forward thinking bands in extreme music.
On October 22nd internationally, Personal Records is proud to present Le Chant Noir‘s highly anticipated second album, La Société Satanique des Poètes Morts, on CD format. Digital distribution will be handled by Blood Blast.
Formed in 2016, Le Chant Noir arrived on the international metal map with single-minded purpose: deliver a grandiose statement of the majestic and macabre. And that’s exactly what they did with their debut album, Ars Arcanvm Vodvm, in 2017. Then again, Le Chant Noir was hardly a “new” band, comprising as they do a veritable “supergroup” of the Brazilian underground: vocalist Lord Kaiaphas, well known for the classic albums of Norway’s Ancient, Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends and The Cainian Chronicles, as well as Thokkian Vortex among others; guitarist Mantus AKA Marcelo Vasco, known for such bands as The Troops of Doom, Patria, and Mysteriis as well as being an acclaimed graphic artist for the likes of Slayer, Kreator, Machine Head, Soulfly, and Hatebreed; and the drummer Malphas, who’s a bandmate of Vasco’s in Mysteriis.
At long last, Le Chant Noir deliver their second statement of the majestic and macabre: La Société Satanique des Poètes Morts. Building upon the firm foundation of its acclaimed predecessor, Le Chant Noir‘s second album threads together the darkest fibers of archaic black metal, doom metal, and even dark metal, arriving at a sort of avant-garde symphonic black metal that’s simultaneously authentic throwback and refreshingly modern. Taken another way, immerse thyself in the chilling waters of La Société Satanique des Poètes Morts and one can imagine this sort of high drama slotting well alongside Rotting Christ, Bethlehem, and Arcturus during the late ’90s – indeed, the very era where DARK METAL was in legitimate parlance. References or none, however, there’s no disputing the spindly, spellbinding power of Le Chant Noir here, as their unsettlingly odd textures and vampiric, olde-worlde atmospheres easily transport the listener to centuries long ago and perhaps long forgotten, of French cabarets populated by aristocratic Satanists and those practicing medieval witchcraft. Simply, it’s an entire sonic/psychic landscape unto itself, and one you’d be hard pressed to locate in today’s metal scene.
Bells toll, and fog rolls in. The symphony of the damned strikes its first chord. Casks of bloodiest vintage are cracked open. Tread warily into Le Chant Noir‘s La Société Satanique des Poètes Morts!
Begin treading with the brand-new track “Priére á Satan” here:
Cover art and tracklisting as follows:
Tracklisting for Le Chant Noir’s La Société Satanique des Poètes Morts 1. Messe Noir 2. Le Vampire 3. Priére á Satan 4. Nuit De L’enfer 5. Le Baron Sanglant 6. Marche Infernale 7. Les Métamorphoses Du Vampire 8. La Danse Macabre 9. Eloa, Le Bel Ange 10. La Morte Vivante
Today, Iron Bonehead Productions announces October 29th as the international release date for Cult of Eibon‘s long-awaited debut album, Black Flame Dominion, on CD and vinyl LP formats.
Formed in 2015, Cult of Eibon are literally a band out of time, so richly and robustly authentic is their classic Greek black metal sound. The duo made their recorded debut in 2016 with the 7″ EP Fullmoon Invocation, but it was next year’s Iron Bonehead-released Lycan Twilight Sorcery which launched Cult of Eibon onto the international underground map. With almost preternatural ease, these Greeks hailed Hellas through 32 minutes of mesmerizing mysticism and ancient METAL. Truly, one could imagine the record being released on Molon Lave circa 1993.
In the interim, Cult of Eibon released a split 7″ with fellow ancient-minded Greeks Caedes Cruenta, but the anticipation (and mystery) built for a full-length work. At long last does it arrive with Black Flame Dominion. Immediately, the listener is whisked to forgotten realms; the sorcery coursing through its atmospheres is potent, the heady, hazy potion pulsing with the same addicting, ageless black magick that made the early works of Rotting Christ and especially Varathron massively influential in Greece and far beyond. Indeed, THAT PULSE is what pulls the listener in and refuses to let go, that locked-in and hypnotic surge idiomatic of Hellenic classicism, as well as liberal layers of swelling synth to fully transport that listener to an archaic age. But, much as they mightily proved on Lycan Twilight Sorcery, Cult of Eibon‘s Black Flame Dominion is no mere work of replication: one must truly LIVE THIS to be able to create it, and a bewitching, almost-(were)wolven identity all their own emerges. Or, put another way, the band’s debut album is an authentically ancient-minded modern entry into that classic canon – no hyperbole, no trends!
Startlingly familiar but also startlingly awe-inspiring, Cult of Eibon add to their homeland’s enduringly unique “folk language” with Black Flame Dominion. HAIL HELLAS ETERNALLY!
First eternal hails can be found with the brand-new track “Into the Realm of Na-girt-a-lu” here:
Tracklisting for Cult of Eibon’s Black Flame Dominion 1. The Fiery Pillars of Ninazu (Intro) 2. Into the Realm of Na-girt-a-lu 3. The Dreamer and the Morning Star 4. Phaesphoros 5. Black Flame Dominion 6. Recollections From the Chtonian Empire 7. Crossing the Stargate of Xitalu 8. The Mournful Chime of Charon’s Bell
Today, A Beast in the Field announces October 15th as the international release date for Crystal Coffin‘s highly anticipated second album, The Starway Eternal.
Crystal Coffin is a melodic black metal trio from Vancouver, Canada that has played together since 2017. The band consists of Aron Shute (vocals, bass), Lenkyn Ostapovich (guitars, vocals, synths, piano, balalaika), and Rob Poirier (drums). Crystal Coffin is influenced by the progressive black sounds of Enslaved and Wolves in the Throne Room, the straightforward aggression of High on Fire, and the haunting keyboard work of Fabio Frizzi. Lyrically, the band re-imagines 20th century atrocities into poetry and melody. In March 2020, the band released their first full-length, The Transformation Room, on A Beast in the Field to positive reviews. For the remainder of the year, the band wrote and rehearsed the music that would form their second album, The Starway Eternal.
Massive and mesmerizing, The Starway Eternal continues Crystal Coffin‘s contemplation of worldly struggle and the fine line one can find between hope and hopelessness. Cast against the historical realities of the Chernobyl power plant meltdown of 1986, the assumed protagonist – an operator at the power plant – discovers the portalway behind an inoperable console and soon finds that her longing for meaning in this chaotic world answers the opportunity to seek out the purported gods and angels that live among the cosmos in our known solar system. To find such entities would be to imbue a sense of importance in our collective existence beyond the daily disorder and existential despair that one accepts. Her trips into various corners of space reveal little to no such beings, and during one such fruitless endeavor, her portalway back to earth is shut permanently; reactor 4 at Chernobyl back on earth has suffered its meltdown during shutdown operation. Frantic, she makes the decision to return to earth by falling through the fiery atmosphere as a lonely, final and futile act of desperation. Of course, survival is impossible, and such an act becomes a metaphor for our time wandering the earth with little connection to anything beyond the physical world.
Indeed, with a thematic scope so portentous, Crystal Coffin‘s compositions suitably follow that awe-inspiring arc, collectively comprising the band’s best and most adventurous work to date. Musically, The Starway Eternal was written during the lockdown months of spring-into-summer 2020 and rehearsed as restrictions started easing into the autumn. The music and vocals are intentionally more aggressive than its no-less-considerable predecessor while also trying to paint a landscape that contains elements of science fiction and moments of pathos. As they did with the content of that first album, on The Starway Eternal did Crystal Coffin reflect upon actual events of the 20th Century in Eastern Europe to create poetic images of struggle, defeat, regret, and the hope for a lifeless form that yields a form of peace beyond our consciousness can consider. More immediately, each of the band members come from families rooted in European backgrounds and have a shared interest in history, science fiction motifs, and vintage horror.
Refreshingly cinematic, palatably modern, and unselfconsciously adventurous, Crystal Coffin dazzlingly skirt the outer boundaries of black metal and psychedelic, space and time, with The Starway Eternal.
Begin travelling with the brand-new track “Shapeshifter Huntsman” here:
Cover artwork, courtesy of Lenkyn Ostapovich, and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Crystal Coffin’s The Starway Eternal 1. Shapeshifter Huntsman 2. The Starway Eternal 3. Skeletons 4. Console of Horror 5. The Red Forest 6. Cremation: Between Fire and Ice 7. The Descent 8. Mega Tomb (including Tomorrow’s Ghost)
In their endless quest to push and support current underground acts that perpetuate the odor of vintage death metal, Memento Mori are extremely thrilled to announce a new signing: Coffin Mulch, from Scotland.
Coffin Mulch are Al on vocals, David on guitar, Rich on bass, and Fraser on drums. They’ve been going for around three years and have released one demo and one EP so far, the reaction to which has totally been massive. They come from a diverse musical background, having played in a variety of different bands throughout the years, but started Coffin Mulch to play old-school, heavy & pounding death metal influenced totally by late ’80s / early ’90s bands like Entombed, Autopsy, Massacre, Death, Bolt Thrower et. al. They’re all punks at heart, and the DIY ethic and aesthetic is just as important to them as the tunes. They’ve got a flexi single coming out in tribute to the great L-G Petrov soon and a split 7″ with their friends Cryptic Brood, and are currently polishing off songs for their debut album, which will be released on CD by, according to Al (the band’s vocalist and also owner of the underground label At War With False Noise), “the most esteemed Memento Mori, an excellent old-school label who do things right!”
Memento Mori will unleash the CD version of their debut full-length on July 25th, 2022. Further details to follow in the coming months. For more info, consult the links below.
Today, Eisenwald announces September 24th as the international release date for Iskandr‘s highly anticipated third album, Vergezicht, on CD, and vinyl LP formats. Cassette edition to be released under the sign of Haeresis Noviomagi.
Iskandr, the enigmatic heathen black metal project by creator O, returns in the autumn of the year MMXXI with their third full-length album. In two albums and two EPs spread out between MMXVI and now, the project has seen an interesting arc of development from spacious atmospheres and regal solitude towards both a more battle-hardened aggression as well as elaborate acoustic instrumentation. The new album Vergezicht not only delivers on what these earlier releases promised but further elevates Iskandr into higher planes of compositional complexity.
Utilizing a variety of electric and acoustic instruments – as well as a wide array of vocal techniques – the sound of Iskandr has ventured further into realms of monumental sonic architecture. The fruitful collaboration between O’s musical direction and engineering and M. Koop’s foundational drumming provides a degree of clarity and forcefulness to the record that goes well beyond anything put out under the Haeresis Noviomagi banners until now. The regal triumphalism of its MMXVIII predecessor Euprosopon is further expanded upon, yielding six hymns chronicling stories of heroic resistance, deceit, and regeneration.
Opener “Gezag” gradually builds an atmosphere of mythical pastoralism before diving into a combative mid-paced epic that transports the listener into a realm both imagined and real, a past without a present. “Bloeddraad” solidifies the established sound of Vergezicht and cascades into a grand finale reminiscent of Bathory’s Hammerheart. Throughout the tracks “Gewesten der Tijd,” “Baken,” and “Verbod,” Iskandr meanders between windswept adventurism and stoic martial registers, culminating in the splendor of “Verbod”’s ending. Closing track “Het Slot,” the longest and most aggressive, while ending in a highly devotional ambiance, reaffirms this record as a terrifically ambitious undertaking.
Drawing equally from Bathory’s mid-era albums, King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King, the early works of both Enslaved and Hades, as well as Neurosis’ A Sun that Never Sets, Vergezicht signifies a crowning moment in this era of Iskandr. Six majestic paeans to those whose banners are only illuminated by the fires of rebellion. An ode to resistance and refusal to admit defeat in the face of a great devouring chasm.
In the meantime, see & hear the brand-new video “Bloeddraad here:
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Iskandr’s Vergezicht 1. Gezag [10:50] 2. Bloeddraad [8:22] 3. Gewesten der Tijd [13:02] 4. Baken [7:31] 5. Verbod [10:04] 6. Het Slot [13:54]
Today, Me Saco Un Ojo Records sets October 12th as the international release date for Rothadás‘ highly anticipated debut album, Kopár hant… az alvilág felé, on vinyl LP format.
Hailing from Hungary and proudly performing in their mother tongue, Rothadás made their public debut in 2019 with a self-titled demo tape for Me Saco Un Ojo. A two-song work totaling 16 minutes, Rothadás suggested – and strongly – that the selfsame band had a staunchly ancient-minded vision of death metal but by no means were blinkered by the past. Perhaps this unique dichotomy is down to Rothadás being a self-contained duo of vocalist/drummer Lambert Lédeczy and guitarist/bassist Tibor Hanyi – both men equally prolific veterans of the underground, and both concurrently playing in labelmates Cryptworm among others.
Now, at last do the duo unveil their debut album, Kopár hant… az alvilág felé. Here, Rothadás erect an eerily shimmering monument of slimy, oft-doomy DEATH METAL: for maniacs, by maniacs, young and old and everyone in between. Armed with an absolutely crushing production, the band’s first full-length betrays an eternal wisdom by maximizing the basics as well as nodding to various eras and locales of death metal but only subtly – immersion rather than extraction, and addition by subtraction, tastefully so in both regards. As each of these five lumbering/lunging hulks of dread-inducing sound effortlessly morph into myriad shapes, each one as ghastly and grotesque as the last, it slowly begins to dawn on the listener than Kopár hant… az alvilág felé retains a runtime of 44 minutes: truly, an experience that is EPIC – as ever, tastefully and subtly so – rather “epic” in shameless overstatement. Further, Rothadás‘ native Hungarian helps lend another sublime layer of the unique to what is arguably the year’s best dark-horse death metal recording…recognize or regret!
Begin recognizing with the brand-new track “Utolsó kenet” here:
Preorder info to be announced shortly. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Rothadás’ Kopár hant… az alvilág felé 1. Utolsó kenet [7:16] 2. Koporsószeg [6:47] 3. Sírkő [8:22] 4. Kripta [8:41]
Today, Helter Skelter Productions (distributed & marketed by Regain Records) announces March 25th, 2022 as the international release date for the LONG-awaited third album of Sweden’s Eucharist, I am the Void, on CD, double-LP vinyl, and cassette tape formats.
The history of Eucharist is long and tangled, but what the band managed to do during the ‘90s has remained justifiably legendary. Originally forming in 1989 and then undergoing various stops and starts during the next decade before their amicable dissolution in 1998, the Swedish Eucharist first made their name in the underground in 1992 with their self-titled demo before the pivotal Greeting Immortality EP on the cult Obscure Plasma label, which would become the influential Avantgarde Music. However, even that enviable accomplishment was handily eclipsed by the band’s debut album, A Velvet Creation, in 1993. A stone-cold classic, A Velvet Creation largely helped usher in the melodic death metal era; while by no means the first “melodic” death metal record, it was arguably the best for that era, maintain a heart-on-sleeve sincerity and melancholy fully befitting its title. With those stops & starts playing havoc within the band, Eucharist would emerge four long years later with an equally monolithic album and yet one decidedly different than the first: Mirrorworlds. As suggested by its title as well as cover art, Mirrorworlds was a mesmerizing experience, taking the band into more modern territory (which they helped pioneer in the first place) and evincing a dizzying & dazzling prog-death approach thankfully still ripe with their characteristic melancholy.
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In the years following their original dissolution, the cult of Eucharist continued to grow more feverish with each ensuing generation of metallers, with Regain Records’ reissues of both in the early 2000s helping that cause. Still, the name was effectively dead…until 2016, and the roots for their reunion album, I am the Void, were planted. Founding vocalist/guitarist Markus Johnsson picks up the story: “A reunion gig in Varberg, Sweden led to me and Daniel [Erlandsson, original drummer] deciding to do another album. We wanted to change the style to a darker atmosphere, both lyric-wise and music-wise – something that I always wanted. Daniel eventually found out that his interest lied elsewhere and wanted to get out of the project, and by that time, the album was more or less recorded. I had written all the lyrics this time and also made all the music except for a couple of riffs that were Daniels’, but Daniel had helped out with the some of the song structures.”
Truly spoken, I am the Void is a decidedly darker version of Eucharist – and one blackened to a crisp. While the death metal muscle of yore remains, the leather-winged specter of black metal looms large across I am the Void, giving a familiar-yet-foreign aspect to Eucharist’s characteristic sound. Taken a different way, this literally-massive new record (12 songs in 77 minutes!) is nearly a complete makeover of Eucharist, but one just as engrossing and dynamic as their beloved ‘90s works. And one not without further strife, as Markus continues: “The album was buried under dust and anxiety for a few years – from the beginning of 2016 until December 2020. But I pulled myself together and sent the entire album to Per Gyllenbäck of Regain Records at the end of 2019. A year of silence passed, and in December 2020, Per contacted me and said ‘Let’s do this album!’ We were both ready, and that day, I decided that I wanted to run this race on my own from now on. I figured that I had always been the main creative force in Eucharist along with Daniel, so I couldn’t see any problems with continuing the race alone. Daniel also said that if I wanted, I could always use the band name and release the album myself. So, I went on with it.” Johnsson is joined on the new album by Marduk drummer Simon “Bloodhammer” Schilling, hereby considered an official member of Eucharist. “I will do it all on my own from now on and in my own style. I want to make music and record albums, and that I will do as long as someone will release the stuff because I am on a creative streak now.”
Again, truly spoken, and the next (hopefully epic) chapter of Eucharist is about to be revealed. The abyss can take many forms, and so it does for I am the Void.
Hear for yourself with the brand-new track “Shadows” here:
Cover art and tracklisting as follows
Tracklisting for Eucharist (Sweden)’s I am the Void
1. Shadows 2. A Vast Land of Eternal Night 3. Goddess of Filth (Tlazolteotl) 4. In the Blaze of the Blood Red Moon 5. Mistress of Nightmares 6. Queen of Hades 7. Nexion 8. Where the Sinister Dwell 9. In the Heart of Infinity 10. Lilith 11. Darkness Divine 12. I am the Void
Today, Spirit Coffin Publishing announces September 17th as the international release date for Swelling Repulsion‘s striking debut album, The Severed Path, on CD format.
A progressive and melodic death metal slipstream achieved between worlds, The Severed Path is the deranged and climactic journey resultant of United States- and Australia-based musicians Dono (Ashes For the Mute) and Bage (Caged Grave, ex-Overpower), respectively, who’ve crafted their debut full-length to the tune of suffering and suicide at the end of the days. Though the duo each speak the universal language of death metal, their individual perspectives represent a striking duality at every twist and turn – abrasive yet melodic, technical yet raw – and a bittersweet quality persists throughout the experience, as they pull their fateful thread of riffs upon ruination.
Let the visceral, ornate cover art guide the senses first, hand-painted by Dono as an interpretation of imperceptible forces in nature, extra-dimensional reality, and personal spiritual energy. The colorful fluidity of the artwork intentionally reflects the process of realizing The Severed Path, the whole package showcasing the artists’ strong vision of beauteous, jagged motion and fine detail.
In the meantime, stream The Severed Path in its entirety here:
Preorder info can be foundHERE. Aforementioned cover art and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Swelling Repulsion’s The Severed Path
1. Enslaved 2. Shooting the Gap 3. Black Tide 4. Ride or Die 5. Labyrinth 6. Corridor 7. The Severed Path 8. Portal 9. Unfathomable Depths
The of DEVIANT PROCESS are now unveiling the second new track ‘The Hammer of Dogma’, which is taken from the tech death-metal shootings stars’ brand new full-length ‘Nurture’. The new album is scheduled for worldwide release on October 15, 2021 via Season of Mist. Listen to the new track here:
DEVIANT PROCESS have previously revealed a play-through video for the recently released track ‘Asynchronous’, which can be viewed via the official Season of Mist YouTube channel HERE.
The cover artwork of ‘Nurture’, which is created by Sien-Sébastien, can be viewed together with further album details below.
Tracklist: 1. In Worship, In Blood (07:32) 2. Emergence (05:20) 3. Asynchronous (05:42) 4. The Hammer Of Dogma (05:50) 5. Syrtis Magna (05:57) 6. Homo Homini Deus (04:37) 7. The Blessings Of Annihilation Infinite (07:49) 8. Cybervoid (Obliveon cover) (03:56) Total playing time: 46:43
Too often in metal, limits and boundaries are pushed at the expense of taste. Bands and fans alike can be found showering bursts of attention onto the latest hotshots redlining along at the fastest BPMs, at whose got the most unintelligibly guttural vocals, at who can generate the most indistinguishably chaotic guitar tone and/or how picture-perfect and sanitized rhythm sections can deliver their click-tracked wares. More often than not, all this comes at the expense of clarity, soul, groove and, most importantly, good songs. For Québec City’s Deviant Process, this sort of thing has been happening too much and for too long. And while the progressive tech-death quartet are tuned in to their surroundings, the band have made a conscious decision to drop out, but not before turning on those obsessed with the likes of classic Death, Cynic and Pestilence as well as contemporaries Obscura, Beyond Creation and Fractal Universe with Nurture, their second full-length and first for Season of Mist.
“We aren’t the kind of band where it’s ‘showing off first, music second,’” exclaims guitarist/vocalist Jean-Daniel Villeneuve. “We want to have great compositions with solid ideas and structures. We want the listener to be able to sing the song, to be able to remember every passage and every riff, not just thinking, ‘Oh my god, I’m surrounded by 11,000 notes a second.’ We didn’t want to check tech-death boxes about what BPM we needed to have blast beats at, using the same amps this big band used or how much shredding we needed to include. We don’t want to be a band that’s only about achievements in technical ability. We want great music and that’s been our goal since the beginning.”
“The container is more important than the contents,” guitarist Stéphane Simard sums up. “We take time to have really good structures first before adding all the harmonies, melodies and musicianship stuff.”
Deviant Process’ history goes back to 2008 with Villeneuve kicking out the one-man symphonic black metal jams under the guise of Psychic Pain. A self-produced demo caught the attention of fellow axe-swinger and musical soul mate, Simard, who together with bassist Pierre-Luc Beaulieu and drummer Olivier Genest, completed the band’s original lineup. In 2011, the foursome recorded two-track debut EP Narcissistic Rage after a common bond led to a shift in musical direction.
“Psychic Pain was a solo project,” remembers Villeneuve, “and when Steph and I came together, more brutal and technical death metal was the common ground between the two of us. So, we decided to go that way because that’s more how we thought about music together and it fit better.”
Following the release of Narcissistic Rage, Deviant Process honed their chops on local stages, opening for the likes of Cryptopsy and Revocation, and in rehearsal rooms, delving deeper into the ways and means of expanding technical death metal beyond jaw-dropping tempos and flashy fretboard finger gymnastics. Replacing Genest with drummer Antoine Baril (who produced and engineered Narcissistic Rage) introduced broader rhythmic elements to the new material, everything from rock-solid four-on-the-floor heavy metal pounding to side-winding jazz and hi-brow classical percussion. In the summer of 2013, the band entered Baril’s Hemisphere Studio with the help of Chris Donaldson (Cryptopsy, Beneath the Massacre, Ingested, Ophidian I) to capture what would become debut album, Paroxysm. To say their first full-length endeavor was a challenge is an understatement. During what ended up being a three-year operation, François Fortin took over both production and drumming duties, production work shifted studio locations from Hemisphere to La Boîte Noire, and the insanely busy Baril (who also plays in Augury, From Dying Suns and Contemplator and owns the studio in which Paroxysm was recorded) made the decision to leave the band during the mixing process. By the production had been completed, bassist/lyricist Philippe Cimon replaced Beaulieu.
Deviant Process may have been bruised and battered by the end of the process, but they emerged stronger, more intent and focused, with a new lease on life, a solid lineup (drummer Francois C. Fortin replaced Michel Bélanger, who had stepped up after Baril left) and Paroxysm which was initially released by recently shuttered Canadian label, PRC Music. Paroxysm was supported by slots opening for the likes of Archspire, First Fragment, Beyond Creation and Gorod. But it was a mini-tour in the band’s home province opening for Gorguts and Dysrhythmia in 2017 that brought them to the attention of Season of Mist. The band and label felt each other out, went into negotiations and finalized a deal in 2018.
“We were a really small band with an album released on a really small label when [SoM label boss] Michael [Berberian] approached us…” begins Simard.
“…He said that some people in the US office told him about the band and the album,” finishes Villeneuve. “He liked it, made a proposal for the next album and then sent a contract. I still don’t know who told him about us, but that’s the story, as dull as it is!”
This brings us to the present and forthcoming second album, Nurture. Its seven songs (and one cover, of Obliveon’s “Cybervoid”) are an expansive marvel of not just technical death metal maturity, but the seamless inclusion of foreign elements like the tribal fusion middle-eight in “In Worship, In Blood,” the almost free-jazz chaos that introduces and drives “Emergence,” the Latin-folk-meets-British-prog acoustic flourishes in “Syrtis Magna” and tinges of ‘90s Rush weaved into the complex firestorm of “Asynchronous.” It’s a record that the guitar-slinging duo said they officially started working on in the autumn of 2017, so as to take advantage of the opportunity afforded to them by their new label, but one in which the material harkens back to 2008 as the band has been unafraid to dip into its extensive riff bank for the meticulously perfect idea that’ll connect this and that, old with new, brutal and delicate, and balls out with brains out.
“We know when it’s too much and are always thinking about what’s best for the song,” Villeneuve explains. “Some people might want to hear a million notes in a song, but sometimes all you need is a riff with two power chords that will stick in your head. But, we’ve also been known to spend a complete week working on a three-second transition…”
“…Or throwing out a couple minutes of music we’ve worked on because it doesn’t fit with the parts before or after it,” says Simard.
Nurture bobs and weaves like the sonic manifestation of a worryingly tall and fantastically ripped mathematics/quantum physics double-major who spends nights crunching noses and ear cartilage after spending days crunching numbers and calculating the size of the universe. Tidal layers of barbarous guitars engage in a baroque convergence/divergence dance and are bounced off prominent, fusion-inspired bass playing. The drumming stops and spins on a dime from ambient sparseness to clogging every artery of space while Villeneuve unleashes an insanely unholy barrage of black metal screams, death metal growls and full-throated, muscular bellowing, everything being put on display throughout dizzying album centerpiece “The Blessings of Annihilation Infinite.”
“On Nurture, we took a different direction during the writing,” the vocalist says, “to make it more articulate and instrumental. Death metal wasn’t our only guideline for writing music or even what we enjoy; we like jazz, old prog from the ‘70s, classical and we want to play the well-crafted music that we want to hear.”
Thematically, Nurture uses veiled lyrical references and far-reaching metaphors in the exploration of human experience commonalities. What’s being referenced may not be blatantly or entirely revealed, but spend enough time parsing and decoding Philippe Cimon’s lyrics and it’s clear that even if the dude is living in a perpetual game of 3-D chess, he empathizes with what we’re all dealing with and understands where we’re all coming from and where we’re all going.
Says the bassist: “There isn’t a central theme for the lyrics on Nurture. The songs were written over a certain period of time and different themes are explored. A common aspect to every song is the use of esoteric or mythological references to express a relation to a certain theme, be it substance abuse, trauma and its consequences, faith, solitude, or man’s lust for power. However, the themes are sometimes brought up in a way that is very unclear and lets the reader make up his own explanation of the text.”
“There’s no gory stuff or anything typically death metal in our lyrics,” adds Villeneuve. “Our goal is to have the listener be able to associate a lyrical idea to a song. We want the listener to create their own feeling and meaning for the songs. It’s an album where people can really feel the vibe throughout the whole thing, not just from listening to one song. There’s an energy you can feel from our effort and there’s a flow that goes from beginning to the end, a journey that’s speaking in the music.”
With Season of Mist having their backs, Deviant Process has quickly been thrust into an unfamiliar world of having to select and settle on variant vinyl colors, conjure up multiple t-shirt designs, tend to contractual and legal matters, PR responsibilities, out-of-province and international communication and all that fun behind-the-scenes business stuff. The band is still adjusting to industry demands and encountering stressful situations they hadn’t thought of, assumed they’d ever have to consider or even know existed. Ironically, what’s brought them to this point is their own boundless and borderless take on extreme metal. They may be “a small band that wants to be not small,” and Nurture has helped them get their collective foot in the door to a world populated by the stable of bands they blasted while growing up and still blast today when time away from rewriting the rules of technical death metal permit.
“All of my favorite bands since I was young seemed to be signed to Season of Mist,” laughs Simard, “so we are very appreciative of having the opportunity to be on the same label as our idols. We’re still getting used to what we have to do when we’re not playing our instruments…”
“…But we want to go against the grain,” says Villeneuve, again finishing his counterpart’s thought. “We don’t want to just fit in the tech-death box; we want to include anything that opens more possibilities, even if we’re just boring people from a small city in Québec that like and want to play really good music!”
