Today, Blood Harvest Records announces August 30th as the international release date for Phenocryst‘s highly anticipated debut album, Cremation Pyre, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
Hailing from Portugal, Phenocryst was formed in early 2020 by D.S. (Archaic Tomb, Summon) and P. Tosher (Extreme Unction, Scum Liquor, ex-A Tree of Sign), with N. (Summon, Sepulcros, Concilium) and V.M. (Systemik Violence, Necrobode) joining later on, during the recording of their debut EP. The band is based in the outskirts of Lisbon, and the origin of such conjuration is a rigorous consequence of a vibrant underground activity in the city.
D.S. and P. Tosher wanted to create the foundation of a death metal act crossing other influences like doom and some psychedelic vibes, to illustrate soundscapes of disastrous, catastrophic, and annihilating volcanic and natural events. There are not many artists actually singing about this specific topic, if any, and therefore, the lyrical content is also something to explore. As such, the moniker Phenocryst is fitting.
That debut EP, aptly titled Explosions, was released by Blood Harvest in late 2021 to international acclaim. Across its 23-minute runtime, Phenocryst unsettled with preternatural ease, reeking of death stench and obscure delirium. It was a noble foundation, to be sure, and one that allowed for further liberation of the rich language of death metal.
Speaking more confidently and boldly than ever and armed with a reconfigured lineup, Phenocryst at last deliver their debut album in Cremation Pyre. Another aptly titled record, Cremation Pyre indeed sonically approximates its namesake: somber yet furious, coiling with both inexorable dread and steely-eyed austerity, portentous and spacious in equal measure, and of course MOLTEN. Upon first blush, Phenocryst‘s debut full-length is perhaps purer death metal than its short-length predecessor; riffs are hulking and heaving, with a clearer production imparting a gleaming tank-like sound not unlike mid ’90s Bolt Thrower. But even within this seemingly more “standard” carapace, odd & adroit sensations get malformed into miasmic shapes, and what seems like a no-less-awesome iteration of gleaming meat & potatoes DEATH METAL soon starts sliding and slipstreaming into a vortex of cosmic ash as the second half of the album begins to dig in its supernatural claws and frightening spaciousness opens up. And that’s to say nothing of the subtly reverberating-into-the-abyss bits of melody dotting this sooty landscape…
Forward-thinking traditionalism? Perhaps, but the real beauty of Cremation Pyre is that it’s open to myriad interpretations; one only need step into its lava. Phenocryst prove, once again, that Only Death is Realer!
In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Pyres of the Altar” HERE:
Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Phenocryst’s Cremation Pyre 1. Pinnacle Of Death 2. Astonishing Devastation 3. Pyres Of The Altar 4. Incandescent Debris 5. Embers Of An Ancient Fire 6. Volcanic Winter 7. Fogo Nas Entranhas 8. Burial Swamps
No band has tested the boundaries of extreme music more than Cryptopsy.
After an ungentle exhumation from the Canadian underground during the early ’90s, Cryptopsy quickly rose to recognition amongst metalheads all across the globe. Most bands would consider themselves lucky to make one classic album. Cryptopsy have made three, including None So Vile, which is widely considered one of the best death metal albums of all time.
Cryptopsy’s raw and blistering technical prowess set a precedent for extreme music. After all, their eldest statesmen did write the book on this style of drumming. But the band have continued to evolve throughout their storied career. Their 30-year discography defies any one categorization, incorporating everything from jazz fusion to mathy avant-garde rhythms and melodic experimentation before returning to their more brutal form.
Just last year, Cryptopsy won a JUNO Award for their most recent album, As Gomorrah Burns. This year, the band earned another prestigious honor: joining the celebration of death metal’s most iconic band. While they continue to tour North America alongside Death to All, recently, Cryptopsy made a stop at Maryland Death Fest for a special 30th anniversary set of their debut album, Blasphemy Made Flesh.
Now that they’ve signed with Season of Mist, Cryptopsy are focused on keeping their momentum rolling. They’re hitting the road this fall on a second tour of North America, this time with Carnifex. New music is also on the way, along with definitive reissues from their classic catalogue.
“We are thrilled to announce that Cryptopsy has joined forced with Season of Mist!” the band says. “Season of Mist’s dedication to artistic integrity and their track record of supporting diverse and innovative music make them the perfect partner for Cryptopsy. With their backing, we look forward to reaching new heights creatively, connecting with more fans and continuing to push the boundaries of extreme music. We are excited for the journey ahead and the opportunities this opens up for what’s already an exciting new chapter of our band”.
The Scream of Perseverance Tour 2024 featuring Cryptopsy and Death to All
May 18 – Milwaukee, WI @ Milwaukee Metal Fest May 19 – Milwaukee, WI @ Milwaukee Metal Fest May 21 – Columbus, OH @ The King Of Clubs May 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre Of Living Arts May 23 – New York City, NY @ Gramercy Theatre May 24 – New York City, NY @ Gramercy Theatre May 25 – Boston, MA @ The Middle East May 26 – Boston, MA @ The Middle East May 28 – Montreal, QC @ Le National May 29 – Montreal, QC @ Le National May 30 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre May 31 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre June 1 – London, ON @ London Music Hall June 2 – Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick June 3 – Chicago, IL @ Reggies* June 4 – St. Paul, MN @ Amsterdam Bar & Hall June 5 – St. Paul, MN @ Amsterdam Bar & Hall June 6 – Iowa City, IA @ Wildwood* June 7 – Lawrence, KS @ The Granada June 8 – Denver, CO @ Oriental Theater June 9 – Denver, CO @ Oriental Theater June 10 – Grand Junction, CO @ Mesa Theater* June 11 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall June 12 – Spokane, WA @ The Big Dipper* June 13 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre [TICKETS] June 14 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre [TICKETS] June 15 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile [TICKETS] June 16 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile [TICKETS] June 17 – Richland, WA @ Ray’s Golden Lion [TICKETS]* June 18 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre [TICKETS] June 19 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre [TICKETS] June 21 – Berkeley, CA @ Cornerston [TICKETS] June 22 – Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone [TICKETS] June 23 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst [TICKETS] June 24 – Fresno, CA @ Full Circle Brewery District [TICKETS]* June 25 – San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick [TICKETS] June 26 – San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick [TICKETS] June 27 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater [TICKETS] June 28 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater [TICKETS] June 29 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Nile Theater [TICKETS] June 30 – Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad [TICKETS]* July 2 – Oklahoma, OK @ 89th Street Collective [TICKETS]* July 3 – St. Louis, MO @ Red Flag [TICKETS]* *Cryptopsy only
Necromanteum Part II North American Tour 2024 featuringCryptoposy, Carnifex,Mental Cruelty, Organectomy and Heavy / Hitter
October 4 – Pomona, CA @ The Glass House Concert Hall [TICKETS] October 5 – Palmdale, CA @ Transplants Brewery [TICKETS] October 6 – Roseville, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post [TICKETS]* October 8 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre [TICKETS]* October 9 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon [TICKETS] October 10 – Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre [TICKETS] * October 12 – Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Ballroom [TICKETS] October 13 – Edmonton, AB @ Starlite Room [TICKETS] October 14 – Saskatoon, SK @ Louis’ [TICKETS] October 16 – Winnipeg, MB @ The Park Theatre [TICKETS] October 17 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater [TICKETS]* October 18 – Bloomington, IL @ Castle Theatre [TICKETS] October 19 – Sauget, IL @ Pop’s [TICKETS]* October 20 – Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi Annex [TICKETS] October 22 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House [TICKETS] October 23 – Nepean, ON @ Brass Monkey [TICKETS] October 24 – Montreal, QC @ Beanfield Theatre [TICKETS] October 25 – Quebec City, QC @ La Source de la Martinière [TICKETS] October 26 – Ablany, NY @ Empire Live [TICKETS] October 27 – Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman Theater [TICKETS] October 28 – Cleveland, OH @ The Asylum at Masonic Temple [TICKETS] October 30 – Springfield, MO @ Regency Live [TICKETS] October 31 – Wichita, KS @ Temple Live Wichita [TICKETS] November 1 – Colorado Springs, CO @ Black Sheep [TICKETS] November 2 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex [TICKETS]* November 3 – Reno, NV @ Virginia Street Brewhouse [TICKETS] *no Cryptopsy
Lineup Flo Mounier – Drums Matt McGachy – Vocals Christian Donaldson – Guitar Oli Pinard – Bass
When Cryptopsy emerged from Montreal, Quebec in 1993, their groundbreaking blend of technical prowess and brutal intensity left an indelible mark on extreme metal.
Right away, Cryptopsy showcased their unparalleled musicianship with their debut album. Blasphemy Made Flesh (1994) set the stage for a career that’s been defined by innovation and boundary-pushing. Their next album solidified the band as pioneers of death metal. None So Vile (1996) earned them critical acclaim and a devoted fanbase across the world.
“Brutal and beautifully chaotic…a must-have for any extreme metal fan’s collection”, wrote Metal Hammer, who named None So Vile one of the best death metal albums ever.
Cryptopsy has continued to evolve throughout their storied career. Their 30-year discography defies any one categorization, ranging from jazz fusion on Whisper Supremacy (1998) and the avant-garde rhythms of Once Was Not (2005) to the melodic experiments of The Unspoken King (2008).
In 2012, Cryptopsy released their self-titled album, which signaled a return to their brutal roots. Three years later, the band embarked on The Book of Suffering, an ambitious two-part EP that Decibelregarded as “an absolute fucking burner”.
Almost 30 years into their career, Cryptopsy won the JUNO Award for Best Metal/Hard Music Album for their latest album As Gomorrah Burns (2023). They followed that up by earning another prestigious honor: joining Death to All on a tour of North America.
Along with their celebrated discography, a relentless work ethic and reputation as blistering live performers has cemented Cryptopsy as one of metal’s most influential and respected bands. But while their legacy is safely established, the band remain committed to expanding the definitions of extreme music. Having now signed with Season of Mist, they’re preparing to release new music, along with definitive reissues from their classic catalogue.
Today, psychedelic black metallers Kerasfóra stream the entirety of their highly anticipated debut album, Six Nights Beyond the Serpents Threshold. Set for international release on June 14th via Iron Bonehead Productions, hear Kerasfóra‘s Six Nights Beyond the Serpents Threshold in its entirety here:
In the summer of 2021, Kerasfóra quietly released their debut EP, Denn die Todten reiten schnell, on CD and cassette in their native Chile. An obsidian gem like few others in the nowadays black metal scene, its mesmerizing mysticism sounded utterly ancient, but it didn’t nod too conspicuously nor too often to any ’90s touchstones. For that reason – and many others, so copious were its charms – Iron Bonehead released it worldwide on vinyl in early 2022.
However, for awe-inspiring as that record often was, Kerasfóra‘s debut album is set to eclipse that and everything else within the wider black metal scene. Titled Six Nights Beyond the Serpents Threshold, indeed does the album comprise six immersive, none-more-mesmerizing songs, each one once again evoking forgotten realms and vast vistas of wonder. And yet, here does the one-man Kerasfóra strike upon bolder or at least more rarefied territory with his inscrutable usage of synths: whereas so many black metal bands, past and present, use synths as a blanket of atmosphere – often unobtrusively, for fear of “un-true” accusations – the selfsame mainman puts them front and center across these Six Nights, carrying each song’s main melody with an almost-demonic lullaby style. It’s difficult, then, to compare that synth usage / prominence to Kerasfóra‘s contemporaries; one would likely have to dig deep into the realm of old psychedelia and krautrock in the ’70s or the first caustic rumblings of post-punk at the dawn of the ’80s to locate a proper analog(ue). Which is all to say that, somehow, Six Nights Beyond the Serpents Threshold manages to be more BLACK METAL than all and sundry: menacing and majestic, wonderfully weird and wildly singular. That Kerasfóra‘s guitar tone is even thicker and his gait grimmer and more lumbering here simply make the album an even grander achievement.
Kerasfóra‘s first EP might’ve evoked the likes of Grimorium Verum, Vobiscum Inferni, and early Hetroertzen as far as displaying a different face for South American black metal brewed in the cauldrons of olde, but with Six Nights Beyond the Serpents Threshold, it’s not unjust to say that the man created a modern classic of spaced-out rawness.
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Kerasfóra’s Six Nights Beyond the Serpents Threshold 1. Of Night and Fire [6:51] 2. Of Omniscience and Mystery [5:08] 3. Of Consternation and Ecstasy [4:07] 4. Of Enlightenment and Fall [5:06] 5. Of Darkness and Confusion [4:37] 6. Of Serpent and Return [5:34]
On June 14th internationally, Iron Bonehead Productions will release Ancient Guard‘s highly anticipated debut mini-album, Nightfall Enthroned, on CD and 12″ vinyl formats. And today, they stream the mini-album in its entirety. Hear Ancient Guard‘s Nightfall Enthroned in its entirety here:
Ancient Guard is a new creation of Nightwolf, renown for pagan black metal vanguard Runespell. As expected, his unmistakable mastery is all across Nightfall Enthroned, Ancient Guard‘s first public work. A surprisingly vast mini-album at four songs in 31 minutes, Nightfall Enthroned is immersive to the extreme and almost soothing in its continually cresting swell of sumptuous black metal mysticism. While Runespell‘s no-less-grandiose sound is oft given to bouts of bloodlust and battle rage, Ancient Guard is pure magisterial march & might as can be expected of such a moniker. And Nighttwolf’s knack for mesmerizing melodicism holds true here, as well, but if one could make distinctions in this regard, it’s that Nightfall Enthroned swirls about to a spacious-yet-thick foundation that’s equal parts stargazing wonder and weight-of-the-universe terror – an infinitely compelling canvas equally suited to adrift dreamers and austere realists alike. Followed by the acoustic lament “Eld,” the synth-heavy epic “A Moonscape Abyss” says exactly everything it needs to about Ancient Guard: awaken to Nightfall Enthroned!
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Ancient Guard’s Nightfall Enthroned 1. Dominion of Primordial Darkness [11:40] 2. Sepulchral Damnation [9:04] 3. A Moonscape Abyss [7:29] 4. Eld [2:45]
Today, melodic black metallers BloodCross premiere the new track “Gravebound”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated debut album, Gravebound, set for international release on July 5th via Personal Records. Hear BloodCross‘ title track “Gravebound” in its entirety here:
BloodCross are a Finnish heavy metal band formed in 2019 that rose from the ashes of black metallers Angelscourge and their lone album, Seraph Impaler. Based in Turku, BloodCross cast their gaze wider to the past and draw inspiration from such old gods as Necrophobic, Dissection, and even Yngwie Malmsteen.
BloodCross‘ first release was the demo Abyssal Blood in 2021, which featured three ear-piercing songs. At that point, the band had not yet fully introduced their influences from power metal to their already lethal and bloody cocktail of blackened melodic thrash metal.
However, that will all change with their full-length debut, Gravebound. Here, BloodCross boldly broaden their musical expression to soundscapes that are catchier, more melodic, and somehow also crushing soundscapes. Insanely fast at times but exuding a palatable precision, Gravebound is technical and relentless but never forsakes the art of songwriting, remaining mesmerizingly memorable every step of the way, building epic towers of icy, majesty melody and ripping, burn-the-touch intensity. Coupled with the crisp & gleaming production, one could possibly mistake BloodCross for a very young & hungry Children of Bodom, but the band’s late ’90s vibes extend further to such cult names as Swordmaster, Gates of Ishtar, Ablaze My Sorrow, Prophanity, and Raise Hell: in other words, this is melodic black metal par excellence.
Prepare for a new modern classic of meloblack with BloodCross‘ Gravebound!
Also hear the previously revealed “Warbeasts” HERE at Personal Records‘ Bandcamp. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Y’all hear that? The rumble in the distance ain’t your drunk uncle on his third pass at the chili cook-off; it’s the almighty, riff-crushing, eardrum-busting caravan of renegades known as WEEDEATER. And guess what, Europe? They’re stormin’ your castles with a tour chock-full of Southern-fried metal madness that’s heavier than a double-loaded barbecue platter after Mardi Gras.
Catch them on the following dates, presented by Tone Deaf Touring: 12 July: Erfurt, DE @ Stoned From the Underground 13 July: Lille, FR @ La Bulle Cafe 14 July: London, UK @ Underworld 17 July: Helsinki, FI @ Kuudes Linja 19 July: Praia de Quiaios, PT @ Woodrock Festival 21 July: Manchester, UK @ Rebellion 22 July: Dublin, IE @ Grand Social 24 July: Wiesbaden, DE @ Schlachthof 25 July: Berlin, DE @ Neue Zukunft 26 July: Cottbus, BE @ Bluemoon Festival
Brace yourselves for a night filled with the kind of head-bangin’, foot-stompin’, soul-shakin’ debauchery that only WEEDEATER can deliver. Them syrupy slow riffs will resonate in your bones, the canyon-deep bass will rumble your guts, and hard-hittin’ drumming will slap the sobriety right outta your system.
WEEDEATER‘s fifth full-length installment merges true Southern rock and metal with their unique blend of raw humor, old religion, and tributes to weed and whiskey. Goliathan not only showcased WEEDEATER‘s distinctively syrupy slow riffs, buoyed by canyon-deep bass, but also encapsulates the band’s full-on swagger and shuffle like never before. The album is a landmark in their adventurous journey through music, embodying the crossroads of their musical and thematic elements at their absolute peak.
Y’all best brace yourselves for a double whammy of tunes—you’ll get a healthy dose of the swampy, thunderous tracks from Goliathan and some bona fide WEEDEATER classics that’ll shake your very soul. And hey, if you truly can’t wait to get your live fix, you can always haul yourself over to the Season of Mist Webshop to grab your self a copy.
Those infamous sludge outlaws WEEDEATER finally return with their long-awaited fifth full-length Goliathan. Their new album marks the crossroads where true Southern rock and metal meet raw humour, old religion, as well as weed and whiskey.
Goliathan embodies the band’s trademark shuffle and swagger at their fullest. Syrupy slow riffs are buoyed by canyon-deep bass and some of the hardest-hitting drumming since Keith Moon. Full-on bruisers such as “Cain Enabler”, “Claw of the Sloth”, and the aptly-named “Bully” demonstrate that Goliathan is delivering a vintage WEEDEATER and the soon-to-be gold standard of Southern sludge metal.
At its founding, the band rose like a doobie phoenix out of the ashes of BUZZOV•EN. When the cult sludge act called it a day, bass player Dave “Dixie” Collins teamed up with guitarist Dave “Shep” Shepherd and founded WEEDEATER in the harbor town of Wilmington about the year 1998. Their crushing and massive first full-length ‘…and Justice for Y’all’ (2001) created an immediate buzz, while critics were struggling to put a tag on their sound. Nearly everybody agreed that stoner rock, doom, sludge and some crusty elements were part of the mix, which the band simply calls “weed metal”.
The debut was produced by renowned engineer Billy Anderson (EYEHATEGOD, NEUROSIS) as well as sophomore album ‘Sixteen Tons’ (2002). WEEDEATER went out to perform live with CORROSION OF CONFORMITY and ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY among others. After some detours of Dixie Dave, who played shortly with BONGZILLA and SOURVEIN, third album ‘God Luck and Good Speed’ hit the world in 2007 and shifted the band’s focus slightly towards the stoner side.
The latest full-length ‘Jason… the Dragon’ got delayed when vocalist Dixie Dave lost a toe due to an incident with his favourite shotgun. When the sludge driven album finally came out in 2011, shows in the US and Europe cemented the band’s reputation as a fierce live entity.
After signing to Season of Mist, WEEDEATER reissued their full back-catalogue on their new label. Yet the Bible Belt state of North Carolina, USA remains a fertile ground for hemp and stoner rock. Goliathan makes the South smoke again. Lean back and let this monster record blow your mind!
Imagine the scene: you’ve passed out in a graveyard because you had one too many shots of bourbon last night, and you wake up to a world where every day is literally Halloween… Do those slow-moving figures in the corner of your eye remind you a bit of the fiends from that black-and-white Romero movie you’ve watched too many times?
Under the light of a full moon, you head back home only to realize your old friendly neighborhood is now swarming with witches, and there’s a sacrifice going on behind every window. Finally, back in your own bed, you can’t sleep because the flapping sounds of batwings keep you awake, and you still can’t get rid of that image of the totem in the shadows that wasn’t there yesterday…
For some, this could be the most nightmarish scenario to witness, but to the death rockers of Black Totem, it’s the very (un)life they live and breathe every single day with their third full-length album, “III: Sacrifice Tonite.”
Take a horrific trip through the ten tracks of pure vintage audio horror, guaranteed 100% free from modern-day CGI and cheap jump scares. “III: Sacrifice Tonite” brings back the good old days of rocking and catchy as hell blues punk, where Screamin’ Jay Hawkins shakes hands with old-school doom metal, and Samhain and The Misfits. Guitarist and vocalist Spit Poison and bassist Vera Wolf preach these unholy sermons together, never forgetting just the right amount of “WOOOO’OS,” while Tony Cash assaults the drums with human bones and lead guitarist Sam Hate channels the very best of John Christ‘s rocking solos.
Black Totem’s new album “III: Sacrifice Tonite” is out today digitally and on 300 copies of limited black vinyl.
Today, pan-international darkwave duo Nox stream the entirety of their highly anticipated debut album, Entity. Set for international release on June 7th via Neuropa Records, hear Nox‘s Entity in its entirety here:
Nox is a brand-new project between Inmesher (Rope Sect) and Lykaios (Hemelbestormer, Lhaäd, Rituals of the Dead Hand). While both men are known for post-punk and metal, respectively, Nox sees them taking their first steps into the wider electro scene, wielding a similar-yet-different darkness to their more-renown bands. Elements of synthwave, industrial, and dubstep are chopped & screwed to their (DARK) design.
Entity is the duo’s debut album, comprising eight songs across 43 minutes of shimmering, mysterious energy. With pulsing but never-overpowering beats, in service of atmosphere as much as songwriting, Nox dive headlong into a mirror world of subtly torched tones – some scavenging among the gravel, even despite being electronic, while others ascend into the ether on wings of mesmerizing melody – where the listener is guided through moonlit back streets, crumbling edifices of modernity, and a strange sense of futurism that feels apocalyptic and enticing in equal measure. Atop it all are the hauntingly soothing vocals of Inmesher, narrating that listener’s journey (or perhaps narrating the hitherto-unexplored regions of his soul) and creating a unique disconnect that separates Nox from so many treading the hard-electro boards; Entity definitely isn’t the usual retrowave / outrun worship. Underlining this crucial link to humanity is the duo’s cover of Placebo’s “The Bitter End,” which is dubstep in form but something sublime in content.
Trainspotters will already know of Neuropa’s work with the scene stalwarts Carpenter Brut, which serves as a handy reference here, but Nox is equally recommended to fans of Crystal Castles, ADULT., Kavinsky, Sixth June, Kontravoid, or even Nine Inch Nails. Entity is but their first steps on this path…where will it end?
Also see & hear the recently revealed video for “Once Now Gone” exclusively HERE, courtesy of InvisibleOranges.com. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Nox (Germany/Belgium)’s Entity 1. Black Nebula 2. Once Now Gone 3. Flesh and Bones 4. Escape the Light 5. Seven Days of Rain 6. The Bitter End (Dream Mix) 7. Broken Circle 8. The Triple Goddess
Today, Sepulchral Voice Records announces July 26th as the international release date for Mayhemic‘s highly anticipated debut album, Toba, on CD and vinyl LP formats.
Over 70,000 years ago, an event of horrific proportions brought earth’s life to the edge of existing. Known as the Toba eruption, a monstruous super-volcano spat forth brimstone and fire and put the world under the fangs of a massive volcanic winter. Here and now, writing the year 2024, we finally get the audiomantic equivalence to this catastrophe absolute.
As if the most glorious days of thrash metal never had ceased to exist, Chilean aggressors Mayhemic come up with a debut combining utmost power and speed, intertwined with incredible musicianship and songwriting of sheer brilliance.
The young quartet has pushed it hard since the beginning with numerous live shows – sharing stages with names like Marduk and Krisiun, among others – countless rehearsals, and an evolution which can be only labeled as stunning. From the well-produced and -structured No-Life demo up until the total speed mayhem and maniacal fury of the Mortuary Feast of Skeletons EP and the “Volcanic Blast” single, the time is now for Mayhemic‘s first full-length madness.
Comparisons do mostly suck, but for those unfamiliar with their earlier output, imagine the ravage of old Sodom, the speed kill of Merciless and old Sepultura, all combined with Kreator’s best moments of high-class thrash as on Pleasure to Kill till Extreme Aggression. Big words without doubt, but listen to Toba and the rest is self-explanatory.
If you need your dirty white high-tops, skinny jeans, and leather jackets as sharp as in the ’80s, this is the perfect soundtrack to bang your heads to Hell.
In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Triumph Portrait” here:
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Mayhemic’s Toba 1. Kollarbone Crushed Neanderthal 2. Extinction & Mystery 3. Valley Of The Thundra 4. Triumph Portrait 5. Eschatological Symphony 6. Hazardous Prowler 7. Olduvai’s Lullaby 8. Toba
On July 30th internationally, W.T.C.Productions is proud to present True Black Dawn‘s highly anticipated third album, Of Thick-circling Shadows.
True Black Dawn are a cult band above all “cult” bands. Come the Colorless Dawn, that record marked the second (or even third) era of the band. See, back in 1992 when they first formed, True Black Dawn were simply “Black Dawn” years before a no-name American band threatened legal action. A handful of demos were released that decade before their classic debut album, Blood for Satan, arrived in 2001. A tense hiatus followed before a very strange three-way split Enochian Crescent and O came at the end of 2005, signaling a shift – or fucking with their audience, or the underground, or whoever – from the filthy & furious Finnish black metal of their preceding work to something almost industrialized and inhuman, wild and boundless and unorthodox no matter how you qualify it. Thus, when Come the Colorless Dawn surprisingly arrived, heralding the band’s official return after a couple teasing festival performances, True Black Dawn had largely drawn those two (challenging) poles together – and started on a new path equally powerful and poignant.
And so it goes with Of Thick-circling Shadows, an extrapolation / intensification of all that came before but with yet another subtle-yet-significant sonic shift: majestic, mesmerizing melody of a most purple-blue hue. It’s not disingenuous to suggest that True Black Dawn here are drawing together that elusive balance (or at least juxtaposition) of the “classic” and the “modern,” given the cold-metal contours they continue to icily erect which particularly imparts the latter. But that balance / juxtaposition isn’t solely relegated to ’90s melodicism / industrialized textures; across a bulk of Of Thick-circling Shadows, the intensity is pushed well into the blastbeaten red – truly, founding vocalist Wrath sounds like he’s being torn apart – while the subtlest dusting of synths tastefully heightens / deranges the vortextural violence circling that spidery, spiraling melodicism. Thus does the title make sense, at least within the album’s sonic aesthetics, while the psychedelically smeared artwork (courtesy of Jukka Siikala and Babalon Graphics) provides ample visual cues for what the listener is getting into when he enters these Thick-circling Shadows.
All this grimy grandeur is given palpitating, Technicolor clarity courtesy of Tore Stjerna’s mastering, making the streamlined orthodoxy of Come the Colorless Dawn both a conclusion to that era of the band and a springboard into a new one. Have True Black Dawn, some 30-plus years after their formation, delivered their masterwork with Of Thick-circling Shadows? Only time will tell…but the present is as dark and daunting as the album’s namesake.
In the meantime, hear the brand-new video “Algol” here:
Aforementioned cover artwork and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for True Black Dawn’s Of Thick-circling Shadows 1. Algol 2. The Depths of the Looking Glass 3. Night and Names 4. The Wind from the Red Cloud 5. Fish, Sin and Soma 6. Body-without-Soul 7. Worlds in the Mirror 8. Palace of Ash 9. Volaverunt 10. The End of Our Age
