Month: November 2022

WOODS OF DESOLATION Premieres New Song, “Illumination”

Atmospheric black metal project WOODS OF DESOLATION is now sharing the third new single from the offering, “Illumination,”. The track is taken from its new full-length, ‘The Falling Tide,’ which is due for worldwide release on December 9 via Season of Mist, making its debut to the label!

“Illumination” can be heard here:

WOODS OF DESOLATION comments, “‘Illumination’ is a song with layered meaning. As this was the first song written for the new album, the lyrics may also simultaneously offer some ‘illumination’ to the concept behind the preceding Woods of Desolation album, ‘As The Stars.'”

‘The Falling Tide’ is available for pre-order HERE.
Pre-save on your favorite streaming service HERE.

The cover artwork was created by Lucas Ruggieri  and can be found below along with the tracklist!

Tracklisting:
01. Far From Here (07:02)  [WATCH]
02. Beneath a Sea of Stars (07:23)  
03. Illumination (05:01) [LISTEN]
04. The Falling Tide (06:32)  [LISTEN]
05. The Passing… (03:45)  
06. Anew (06:39)  
Total Duration (36:22)

Australian visionary Woods of Desolation returns with The Falling Tide, a bewitching crescendo of atmospheric black metal and post metal elements. Unlike the act’s Australian contemporaries who are known for their raw, unrefined grit, Woods of Desolation takes a different approach, showcasing the genre’s beauty and elegance with their grand melodic passages and radiant aura.  
  
Formed by multi-instrumentalist D. in 2005, the project started as a means for personal expression through music. Firmly built upon this ethos, a series of demo recordings garnered attention and a solid following within underground black metal circles worldwide. Continually evolving and working with different guest musicians in pursuit of new artistic territory, D. began to showcase his talent for crafting melancholic, yet at times uplifting, melodies on the debut album Toward the Depths (2008), further refining it on the Sorh EP (2009) and the influential sophomore full-length Torn Beyond Reason (2011).   

In 2014, Woods of Desolation released the critically acclaimed third full-length As the Stars, receiving strong placements on Decibel’s “Top 40 Albums of 2014” and Stereogum’s “50 Best Albums of 2014” list. This album saw D. further introduce a wider array of musical influences, such as post rock and shoegaze, into his unique take on black metal, becoming one of the main protagonists in what would become the burgeoning genre of post black metal. Additionally, lyrical themes were expanded beyond what had come before – nature, life, sorrow – now personally exploring the metaphysical aspects of spirituality and the afterlife.   

In the intervening years that followed, D. created and worked on two new black metal projects Remete & Unfelled, simultaneously writing and developing material for the next Woods of Desolation full-length. In 2021, finally ready, D. teamed up with Vlad (Drudkh, Windswept) on drums & keys to record The Falling Tide, the long-awaited follow-up to As the Stars.  

This forthcoming album sees the musical palette of D. and WOODS OF DESOLATION continue to grow, exploring higher peaks, deeper depths, all the while maintaining honest artistic expression, unfettered and free – remaining ever faithful to those principles that lead the way all those years ago.  

Lineup: 
D. – Guitars, Bass, Vocals  
Vlad – Drums, Keyboards 

Links: 
www.facebook.com/woodsofdesolationofficial 
www.instagram.com/woodsofdesolationofficial 
www.woodsofdesolation.bandcamp.com  

Recording Studio: 
Cold Ways Studios (Australia) & ViTeR Music (Ukraine) 

Producer & Sound Engineer: 
D. & ViTeR Music  

Mixing + Mastering: 
ViTeR Music 

Cover Artwork: 
Lucas Ruggieri  

ABSOLUTE KEY set release date for new SIGNAL REX album, reveal first track – features members of CIRCLE OF OUROBORUS+++

Today, Signal Rex announces December 21st as the international release date for Absolute Key‘s highly anticipated fifth album, The Third Level of Decay, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

Absolute Key is another, magickal work of Antti Klemi, vocalist/lyricist for the ever-singular Circle of Ouroborus and editor of the esteemed Kaleidoscope zine. While one could make faint comparisons here to Circle of Ouroborus, Absolute Key is very much its own entity, and has proven as much over their feverish discography the last three years.

As Klemi explains, “The name of the album refers to a vision I had in a dream. There were three levels of death – the physical one, the spiritual one, and then the final death where even death is dissolved. No memories, no grieving, no other sides. Just nothing.”

Continuing about the lyrics, he says, “The themes of death and decay are strong on this album in general, too. It’s observing for example how death is present in our everyday life – it’s oozing from the dark corners, from hidden angles and behind cellar doors. There is a poem by Finnish poet Eino Leino, where the main character is seeing death and demons everywhere and he wants to die, but even his dead ancestors are rejecting him. In the end, he gets his peace just by accepting these horrors around him. Some days are better and some worse, but he relies on those better ones. This is maybe the main message of The Third Level of Decay.”

Absolute Key are just as challenging musically as they are lyrically. “Musically, this album sprung from an idea of totally bleak and monotonous industrial/black metal hybrid, driven by simple, repetitive drumbeats and cold synth/guitar riffs,” Klemi explains. “With time, these songs took many twists and turns, layers were laden one after another, and the labyrinth grew more complex and serpentine. So, The Third Level of Decay is play between two elements – blunt, primitive, and ‘physical’ core and spectral, unconscious, and ‘spiritual’ details. And that third level, death of deaths, humming over this all.”

To celebrate the release of The Third Level of Decay, Absolute Key will be making its live debut at this year’s Invicta Requiem Mass festival, curated as always by Signal Rex. Drown in layers of sonic defiance!

Begin drowning with the brand-new track “A Hidden Angle” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Absolute Key’s The Third Level of Decay
1. A Hidden Angle
2. A Wrecked Spine
3. Closer, Further
4. Flakes of Ash
5. The Cellar Door
6. The Third Level of Decay

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/absolutekey111

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

CURSED EXCRUCIATION set release date for IRON BONEHEAD debut, reveal first track – features TRANCE OF THE UNDEAD member

Today, Iron Bonehead Productions announces January 13th, 2023 as the international release date for Cursed Excruciation‘s striking debut album, Arcane Diabolism, on vinyl LP format.

Hailing from Brazil and forming in 2020, Cursed Excruciation is the sole work of one Trance of the Undead, who antagonized trendies last year with his selfsame Trance of the Undead project’s Chalice of Disease debut album via Iron Bonehead. Whereas that band hails the banner of malodorous black/death, Cursed Excruciation is an expurse of sonic sodomy from southern climes circa 1993 – specifically, landmark records like Necromantia’s Crossing the Fiery Path and Mystifier’s Göetia. And yet, whereas black metal as an artform and culture owes so much to those two albums, time has proven that they’re incredibly difficult to replicate, be it songwriting, production, or especially aura.

Enter Cursed Excruciation‘s debut full-length, Arcane Diabolism. Making good on the promise of two demos last year, Trance of the Undead somehow manages to channel the aura of both aforementioned landmarks simultaneously – and, in the process, reveal an identity all his own. Hulking and lurking, surging sulphurously with a primal power that’s exceptionally nuanced, Arcane Diabolism is truly titled: literally Olde Worlde is this black metal, entrancing as it is engaging. Cursed Excruciation cast spells at once ugly and ceremonial, seemingly crude in their dungeonic plunge but transcendental in final effect; physicality is real and wielded freely, just as it was in those fiery days of the early ’90s. Unshackled from orthodoxy but bound by the Devil’s power, all the witches will dance when Cursed Excruciation speak their Arcane Diabolism.

Begin speaking with the brand-new track “The Sorcerer of Antioch” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Cursed Excruciation’s Arcane Diabolism
1. The Call… (Intro) 
2. Initiation (The Oath of Darkness)
3. Goetic Glorification
4. The Sorcerer of Antioch
5. Daughters of Nyx
6. Beast of Fire
7. Black Altar Sacrifice
8. The Rapture (Outro)

MORE INFO:
www.tranceoftheundead.bandcamp.com