Boston Death Metal quintet SOUL REMNANTS will release its third album, Ouroboros, July 21 on eOne/LifeBlood. A concept album revolving around a futuristic, dystopic war amongst all mankind, Ouroboros is the SOUL REMNANTS’ most ambitious recording to date. While the new album is more dynamic than its predecessors, it still maintains the uniquely crushing style that SOUL REMNANTS has cultivated over its career.
So few emerging bands in this day in age can pride themselves on being a Death Metal band, committing to the title, uncaring of consequence and fostering the ability to stick to the slime that creeps down the walls of all hyperbolic underground musical trends. Hailing from the Boston-area and beyond, within the depths of New England, SOUL REMNANTS catalyze a major point that Death Metal is by far the most punishable to all.
Track Listing:
1. Mechanical Synapse Modulations
2. Regurgitated and Consumed
3. Depravity’s Lock
4. Walled City
5. Mental Tourniquet
6. Echoes of Insanity
7. Dissolving into Obscurity
8. Decomposition
Today, Svart Records sets August 18th as the international release date for Kimi Kärki ‘s highly anticipated second album, Eye for an Eye.
Kimi Kärki is a Finnish cultural historian, guitar-player, and singer-songwriter. Known for his versatile guitar playing and somber compositions for Reverend Bizarre, Lord Vicar, Orne, E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr, and, most recently, Uhrijuhla, Kärki has developed his recognizable playing style within doom metal, progressive, folk, and electric ambient scenes. This variety of mostly underground styles reflects the open and intuitive approach to music, which is in the very heart of Kärki’s craft.
Eye for an Eye is Kärki’s second singer-songwriter album. It is a follow-up to The Bone of My Bones, a 2013 effort that was also released by Svart Records. When the first one was built on 12-string guitar foundation, this time, things are even more intimate, personal, and heartfelt; the songs are played with warm nylon string tones that come closer to the listener. But that heart is supported by a rich decoration of other sounds and harmonies.
The stories told on this record are romantic, in the old meaning of the world. They have their origins in both lived life and what could be called the Dreaming, but also resonate the culture that surrounds the dreamer. Both the pain and the joy are real. Give these songs some time and they might heal you a bit, just like they healed the songwriter himself. Please listen loud, and preferably when you can forget everything else for a while. Even the silences speak volumes here.
To maximize the listening pleasure, Kärki again decided to invite some friends to contribute additional guest vocals. Patrick Walker is best known as the emotional vocalist and songwriter of both Warning and 40 Watt Sun, and John Richardson — who just released his superb debut album on Svart Records — is an old-school musician and the Professor of Musicology at University of Turku. He was already heard on the first album, just like the two stunning female vocalists, Anna-Elena Pääkkölä and Pirita Känkänen, whose clear harmonies juxtapose Kärki’s somber delivery. The album was again engineered by Joona Lukala. The collaboration with this sharp-eared audio wizard helped Kärki to realize the ambitious aural stories as intended — enjoy Eye for an Eye.
First track premiere and video both to be revealed shortly. Cover and tracklisting
Tracklisting for Kimi Kärki’s Eye for an Eye
1. Entangled in Pleasure
2. Augurs of Winter
3. Lustful, Wrathful, Sullen
4. Beyond Distance
5. Good Things in Life
6. The Load We Carry
7. Spearhead
8. The River of Shadows
9. The Last Wave
Seasons of Mist Records have been on a roll lately and their new dark melodic metal signing Deathwhite just adds to their already amazing roster:
Season of Mist are proud to announce the signing of DEATHWHITE. The enigmatic bringers of darkness will release their debut album, ‘For a Black Tomorrow’ via Season of Mist.
The band comments: “We are incredibly honoured to join the Season of Mist roster. DEATHWHITE started in 2012 as a basic studio project with the aim of playing dark metal in the vein of some of our most beloved bands. To have one of metal’s leading independent labels take an interest in us is far beyond our expectations. We now turn our attention to the proper release of our first full-length, ‘For a Black Tomorrow’, and look forward to among other things, our first live performances, and a strong as well as enduring partnership with Season of Mist.”
Formed in 2012, DEATHWHITE were created in part to follow on the path first explored by dark metal torchbearers such as ANATHEMA, KATATONIA, MY DYING BRIDE, and PARADISE LOST.
The band’s ‘Ethereal’ EP (2014) successfully established a template of melodic, clean vocals alongside melancholic, but heavy riffing. Their debut created an early buzz within the metal underground that grew significantly with the following ‘Solitary Martyr’ EP (2015), which was hailed by critics as “thick with emotion” and “wonderfully engrossing.”
Backed by such praise, DEATHWHITE spent 2016 writing and recording their first full-length under the supervision of producer and engineer Shane Mayer. ‘For a Black Tomorrow’ was originally scheduled for release in March of 2017, but after signing to Season of Mist the release has now been slated for early 2018.
The Father Of Serpents is an entity consisted of six souls, entwined with admiration for doom metal. Formed in 2015, by the members of the renown bands from the Serbian scene (The Hell/Awaiting Fear, Tamerlan, Rain Delay, Consecration), their purpose was to leave their name within the musical path paved by the old masters like My Dying Bride, Saturnus, Paradise Lost and Moonspell. Due to their professional approach and reputation beforehand, The Father Of Serpents quickly got a large amount of attention in Serbia and beyond. The band performed in Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania, supporting such names like Fear Factory, Attic, Mourning Beloveth, Caronte, Eye Of Solitude, and many more.
First album “Age Of Damnation” contains about an hour of apocalyptic atmosphere, presented through the gentlest of acoustic passages, in the most brutal and vicious parts. The album is consisted of ten tales of struggles against the very real monstrosities this world has created, as well as the parts of human beings, that such monstrosities have infected. These are the tales of spiritual survival, battles, wars, kicking, tearing, and biting in order to preserve at least some sanity, in the world, which has doomed us all to slavery, and connected us to a single mind-machine, in order to harvest us for any drop of quality, that we, as individuals, have.
CARACH ANGREN are premiering a stunning new video for the track “Charles Francis Coghlan” taken from their new album, ‘Dance and Laugh amongst the Rotten’, which is hitting the stores today, 16th of June.
CARACH ANGREN comment: “After months of incredible hard work, we are extremely proud to present our official horror video for ‘Charles Francis Coghlan’. Together with director Rick Jacops, we have relentlessly pushed all creative limits to transport the viewer into another terrifying dimension. Everything you see is real and produced as well as co-directed by us. Prepare to be obsessed and possessed!”
Video Credits
Produced by Carach Angren & Backstage Film Productions
Directed by Rick Jacops & Carach Angren
Actress: Amber Delahaye
Sound Design by Clemens Wijers Music Productions & Backstage Film Productions
Team: Brendan Gijzen, Stefan Wijers, Julien Wijers
Special thanks: Paul Kops, Ria Hendriks, Transportbedrijf Chris Wijers, Het Leukermeer, Merith Rooden
The cover art by Costin Chioreanu and track-list of ‘Dance and Laugh amongst the Rotten’ can both be viewed below
1. Opening (2:17)
2. Charlie (4:10)
3. Blood Queen (4:55)
4. Charles Francis Coghlan (6:07)
5. Song for the Dead (4:16)
6. In De Naam Van De Duivel (6:29)
7. Pitch Black Box (3:17)
8. The Possession Process (4:27)
9. Three Times Thunder Strikes (5:19)
Total playing time: 41:16
The Dutch masters of horror are back with their most flamboyant album so far. On ‘Dance and Laugh amongst the Rotten’, CARACH ANGREN are painting musical pictures that easily combine the grandiose depth of a Rembrandt with Van Gogh’s maelstrom of whirling colours and the utter madness of Bosch. This lusciously seductive danse macabre will drag you in and never let go.
CARACH ANGREN have employed all the sonic colours on their palette to dazzling effect. Their trademark whipping guitars are weaving harsh melodies and sinister soundscapes, which are beautifully contrasted by opulent keyboards and majestic orchestrations. That Till Lindemann (RAMMSTEIN) and Peter Tägtgren (PAIN) have called upon the composition talent of Clemens “Ardek” Wijers is a telling sign of his outstanding mastery of the craft. Another signatory counterpoint is provided by Seregor’s fierce rasping and shrieking vocals. Adding to the impact, Namtar has become a relentless driving force with his hard hitting yet intricate drumming. Each track on this album is a highlight on its own, while combined ‘Dance and Laugh amongst the Rotten’ simply shines.
CARACH ANGREN set out to tell ghost-stories with a set of paranormal cases recorded on the demo ‘The Chase Vault Tragedy’ (2004). This was soon followed by the official release of the ‘Ethereal Veiled Existence’ EP (2005) as a prelude to the haunting ‘Lammendam’ (2008). The Dutch had a clear vision of combining a dark baroque style of metal with horror based lyrical concepts. Their sophomore full-length ‘Death Came through a Phantom Ship’ (2010) witnessed the band setting sail to bring their eccentric and capturing live performances to audiences and festivals all over Europe. In the wake of third album ‘Where the Corpses Sink Forever’ (2012), the haunting had reached the Americas and started to spread rapidly. This recorded added a serious side to the lyrics of CARACH ANGREN. While firmly remaining in the horror genre, their tales revolve around the evils of war. This mature streak was taken a step further with the fourth full-length ‘This Is No Fairytale’, which is on the surface a darker variation of the “Hansel and Gretel” story from the Brothers Grimm collection, but also deals with the too real topic of child abuse in a dysfunctional family.
With ‘Dance and Laugh amongst the Rotten’, CARACH ANGREN are returning to “pure” storytelling with episodes that are centered on a girl playing a little too long with her Ouija board. The Dutch have pushed their unashamedly theatric style to a new intense height. You do not believe us yet? Press play and unleash these radiant ghosts into your home…
Lavadome Productions has inked a deal with Australian cataclysmic Death Metal force Eskhaton for the release of band’s third album entitled Omegalitheos.
The Omegalitheos phenomenon will exhibit powerful 14 songs of psycho violence brought to levels above its predecessors.
You can now listen to unmixed and unmastered samples of Omegalitheos. This is just the hint of what’s to come. The cover and the force of the finished songs shall be revealed soon. Expect nothing but TOTAL DEATH.
Today, The Ajna Offensive sets August 18th as the international release date for Reverorum ib Malacht’s highly anticipated third album, Ter Agios Numini.
Reverorum ib Malacht’s newest offering, however, isn’t all that new, having been composed and compiled and reworked and redesigned over the past 10+ years, kept lingering in a haunted and purgatorial state until just a few months ago. Therefore, those who came to understand and marvel at the likes of Ur-kaos and De Mysteriis Dom Christi will find Ter Agios Numini to be equally as dense and vast and inspired. And yet, Ter Agios Numini reveals another complex dimension of the band, all the while being unapologetically Reverorum ib Malachtian: cryptically, murkily terrifying and simultaneously cathartic with moments of sublime remoteness.
In the meantime, hear one of Ter Agios Numimi’s most epic tracks – the nearly 22-minute “Long into the Time Beyond
Tracklisting for Reverorum ib Malacht’s Ter Agios Numini
1. Synestesi
2. Long into the Time Beyond
3. Reverorum ib Malachtum
4. Dwellings are His that Die
California-based classic death dealers NECROT unleash the fetid fruits of their Blood Offerings debut full-length. Released on June 9th, 2017 on CD, LP, and digitally via Tankcrimes and on cassette in partnership with Sentient Ruin Laboratories, the eight-tracks comprising Blood Offerings were captured by Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer (Vastum, Graves At Sea), mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Nails, Gatecreeper), and will come sheathed in the unholy cover craftings of Marald Van Haasteren (Bolt Thrower, Baroness).
Forged in 2011, NECROT features current and past members of Acephalix, Vastum, Saviours, Watch Them Die, and Atrament. The band unleashed the audio bone-crush of their The Labyrinth full-length last year via Tankcrimes and Sentient Ruin. Spewing forth eight tracks amassed from three hard-to-find and long out-of-print demo tapes, the record reaped critical acclaim from fans and media alike compelled by the band’s unrepentant Autopsy, Bolt Thrower, and Sacrilege worship. Decibel Magazine hailed NECROT’s “classic, bursting-at-the-seams, crawling-from-the-grave-still-decaying sound”, while Invisible Oranges wrote “NECROT are as old-school death metal as old-school death metal gets. Their songs would have been welcome presences on early classics by Master, Bolt Thrower, and Autopsy and yet, NECROT has a punk rock soul that refuses to die”. Last Rites concurred noting that “Death by pitiless decimation is the principle mandate here.”
With Blood Offerings NECROT continue their quest for total aural warfare perhaps at an even more severe and damaging level than before, unleashing upon the listener a concrete-thick wall of total death metal chaos that strides forth with absurd belligerence and reckless aggression.
Formed by the initial duo of Luca Indrio on bass and vocals (Acephalix, Vastum, ex-Lawless), and by Chad Galey on drums (Ex-Vastum, ex-Bruxers, Atrament, Caffa, Rude, Mortuous), and subsequently rounded out by Sonny Reinhardt on guitar (Saviours, ex-Watch Them Die), Necrot are one of the most punishing, savage and treacherous death metal acts to ever tread californian soil. Formed in 2011 initially as a side-project of Acephalix, Necrot have since then built a devoted following in their native Bay Area and beyond, and have become known as a merciless and bloodthirsty death metal killing machine thanks to their bulldozing live sets and their savage and butchering recordings.
Since inception the band has only made their music available as very short and hard to find demo tapes that are now completely sold out, impossible to find and have become something of a cult object or collector’s item, elevating the band’s reputation to that of absolute cult and DYI monument in the Bay Area underground metal scene. Taking queues from legends like Asphyx, Bolt Thrower, Grave, Discharge, early Sepultura, early Morbid Angel, and Entombed, Necrot have thus far existed as a power trio with the build and attitude of a bloodthirsty tank.
Necrot’s music is a literal onslaught of buzz-sawing death metal riffs and bone crushing rhythms – an authentic sonic bludgeoning that can batter the listener’s flesh into complete submission within seconds, and which owes much of its crude heaviness and primitive ferocity to old-school death metal and thrash just as it does to (crust) punk.
SÓLSTAFIR have entered the album charts in several countries in the first week after ‘Berdreyminn’ was released worldwide on May 26th. It is actually hard to overstate the massive achievement of a band coming from a volcanic island close to the arctic circle in the North Atlantic midway between Europe and America that sings in Icelandic and that has evolved a highly original style of music very much their own. Excluding the multiple high scores in digital charts across all platforms worldwide and focusing on physical charts, these are the album’s current results (with expected top positions from their native Iceland and other countries still missing):
Finland #20 National album charts
France #121 National charts
France #2 Metal charts
Germany #30 National album charts
Sweden #8 Vinyl charts
Sweden #18 Hardrock charts
Switzerland #42 National charts
UK #39 – Top 100 independent album chart
UK #24 – Top 40 rock/metal album chart
The cover art by Adam Burke and track-list of ‘Berdreyminn’ can be viewed below.
On previous news, SÓLSTAFIR have released their first video for a track taken from ‘Berdreyminn’
Frontman Aðalbjörn Tryggvason commented on behalf of SÓLSTAFIR: “Videos have always been a medium that we are taking seriously. Therefore, we have worked with excellent visual artists like Bowen Staines and Vesa Ranta on previous clips. We are privileged to have been able to enlist the team of Nico Poalillo and Peter Beste to create the imagery for ‘Silfur-Refur’. They have directed and produced a video that beautifully illustrates our song – at least in our minds. We are giving Nico and Peter our heartfelt thanks for their amazing contribution to our musical vision. The video’s meaning is a puzzle, which we are leaving for you to solve as we don’t want to spoil your imagination spinning stories of its own. We sincerely hope that you enjoy ‘Silfur-Refur’ as much as we do.”
SÓLSTAFIR have previously announced their first European tour in support of their forthcoming full-length ‘Beyrdreyminn’ (out May 26th) in June.
The tour will kick off at the Download Festival in Paris on June 10th and afterwards the enigmatic Icelandic rockers will continue to perform in England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France before a final show at the Spanish edition of Download in Madrid on the 24th of June.
SÓLSTAFIR commented on the tour: “We are stoked to be back on the road and doing up ‘n close personal club shows between summer festivals. Some of the small venues are expected to sell out fast – so better get your ticket right away.”
SÓLSTAFIR tour
10 Jun 17 Paris (FR) Download Festival
11 Jun 17 Brighton (UK) The Haunt
12 Jun 17 Colchester (UK) Arts Centre
13 Jun 17 Leeds (UK) Brudenell Social Club
14 Jun 17 London (UK) Old Blue Last (SOLD OUT!)
15 Jun 17 Breda (NL) Mezz
16 Jun 17 Dessel (BE) Graspop Metal Meeting
17 Jun 17 Utrecht (NL) Tivoli de Helling
18 Jun 17 Hannover (DE) Musikzentrum
19 Jun 17 Dresden (DE) Beatpol
20 Jun 17 Karlsruhe (DE) Jubez
21 Jun 17 Colmar (FR) Fete de la Musique
22 Jun 17 Lyon (FR) CCO Villeurbanne
23 Jun 17 Toulouse (FR) Rex
24 Jun 17 Madrid (ES) Download Festival
SÓLSTAFIR festivals
08 Jul 17 Neskaupstaður (IS) Eistnaflug Festival
28 Jul 17 Balve (DE) Balver Höhle (Prophecy Fest)
29 Jul 17 Neuensee bei Lichtenfels (DE) Rock im Wald
11 Aug 17 Rasnov (RO) Rockstadt Extreme Fest (exact date tba)
18 Aug 17 Borre (NO) Midgardsblot Festival (exact date tba)
Music will always be inspired by the environment in which it is created. With its incredible array of highly diverse landscapes ranging from white glaciers via volcanic bizarreness, moss-green bubble-fields, deep fjords, and frost-cracked mountains to black beaches, Iceland has shaped a host of astonishingly original and fiercely individual bands such as SIGUR RÓS, BJÖRK, and SÓLSTAFIR.
SÓLSTAFIR embody the ever-turning wheel of seasons with their shifting light, darkness, and colours, extreme Northern climate, the stark contrasts, the closeness of beauty and deadly forces of nature, the impressive sceneries that have the bones of ancient gods enshrined in them like hardly any other band in every aspect of their existence.
SÓLSTAFIR are not like any other band. Their latest album, ‘Berdreyminn’ underscores this statement. As its title “a dreamer of forthcoming events” aptly describes, the four Icelanders have taken their already impressive evolution one step further. The band has continued to amalgamate haunting melodies, psychedelic phases, as well as strong undercurrents of classic rock and hard rock with echoes of their metal past. Yet SÓLSTAFIR’s focus is not on style but pure emotion. ‘Berdreyminn’ is eclectic by a conscious choice to make feelings audible and transform taste as well as texture to sound. Genre borders are not broken but simply ignored. Musical influences are gathered from a wide range of sources, re-arranged, and woven into new patterns. Melancholy, longing, anger, joy, pleasure, pain, and other emotions are fulling this album.
Despite leaning clearly towards an expression that can be described as rock today, SÓLSTAFIR have their roots in metal as their debut full-length ‘Í Blóði og Anda’ (2002), which translates as “In Blood and Spirit” still witnesses. Instead of today’s Icelandic gravel throated siren chants, frontman Aðalbjörn Tryggvason spat forth vitriolic crusty vocals and all strings were forged with black metal. Already their next albums ‘Masterpiece of Bitterness’ (2005) and ‘Köld’ (2009) marked stations of a continuous evolution. SÓLSTAFIR went further along their solitary path and obviously left any categorising box with the ground-breaking follow-ups ‘Svartir Sandar’ (2011) and ‘Ótta’ (2014), which received high critical acclaim and attracted new fans in equal measure, while managing the difficult feat of keeping most of their earlier following too.
SÓLSTAFIR have set sails to new horizons with ‘Berdreyminn’. Yet the Icelanders brought their home with them and the silhouette of their vessels remains easily recognisable. Welcome aboard on a new adventurous musical journey into uncharted territories.
Today, Svart Records sets August 25th as the international release date for Morbid Evils’ highly anticipated second album, Deceases.
A counterpart of sorts to vocalist Keijo Niinimaa’s older group Rotten Sound, Morbid Evils have become known for exploring slower tempos and the lower end of the sonic spectrum, all topped with a fascination with the morbid realities of our hopeless existence. Having so far survived touring with Voivod and the impending global eco-catastrophe, Morbid Evils spent the best part of 2016 hidden in sweaty underground conditions perfecting their craft, working on the follow-up to their 2015 album In Hate With The Burning World. Comments Niinimaa, “When producing these tracks, I paid special attention on making things as heavy and suffocating as possible, to emphasize the deadly seriousness of the world this music is taking us to.”
Come 2017, the band emerges from the pit with a paean to death, split in six sections, each examining the subject from various positions. Titled Deceases, the album takes a bold leap from their sludge-death metalish origins and towards a more original, minimalist approach. The air hangs heavy as droning, buzzing walls of downtuned guitars grind against punishingly pummeling drums in slow motion and everything around us seems to be another step closer to death. While wallowing in the unpleasantries of life, Morbid Evils manage to churn out something wholly original in the congested sludge metal genre – if a grind/drone hybrid existed, it might sound like this. With their downtuned slo-mo aesthetics, nasty black metal-ish buzzsaw guitar harmonies, and a drone metal-like sense of space in music, Morbid Evils are on a path of their own.
Adorning the album cover is the painting “Tukala Pietari” by Jerker Ramberg. Sounds on the album were captured on tape and mixed by Keijo Niinimaa, with mastering duties handled by Pelle Henricsson of Tonteknik. The album will be released by Svart Records on CD, LP, and digital formats on August 25th, if the world doesn’t end sooner. Until that time inevitably comes, hear “Murder” – the first track to be revealed from Deceases – at Svart’s Soundcloud .
The aforementioned cover art and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Morbid Evils’ Deceases
1. Case I – Murder
2. Case II – Dead Weight
3. Case III – Evaporate
4. Case IV – Tumour
5. Case V – Death Breat
6. Case VI – Abacinated and Blind
