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!”
In their endless quest to push and support current underground acts that perpetuate the odor of vintage death metal, on October 25th, Memento Mori in conspiracy with Rotted Life are proud to present Conjureth‘s highly anticipated debut album, Majestic Dissolve. Memento Mori will release the CD version while Rotted Life will handle the vinyl and cassette versions.
Hailing from San Diego, California, Conjureth formed in 2018 with the goal of continuing the traditions forged by the originators of death metal. Indeed, they did that with two demos in 2020, Foul Formations and The Levitation Manifest. That the members do or have done time in such bands as Encoffination, VoidCeremony, and Ghoulgotha, among many others, is a moot point; Conjureth are equally DEATH METAL, if not more so, but reside in their own ancient sphere altogether.
Evidence of such can be found with their debut album, Majestic Dissolve. Taking influence via everything from Florida to Finland, the power-trio steamroll their way through late ’80s-inspired filth. There was a short time when death metal wasn’t primarily full of blastbeats, caveman riffs, ultra-low-tuned guitars, and super-guttural vocals. Sadly, this era was fairly short-lived, but we all know how it spawned some of the most classic material the genre has ever seen. As brazenly displayed by the 10 songs comprising Majestic Dissolve, Conjureth slots in that bygone age of 1986-to-1989-style death metal with a heaping portion of thrash metal riffing and a dash of the technical side of things that would be unearthed a few years later. It’s both “by the books” and also bent, as the weird & eerie title of Majestic Dissolve suggests, not to mention its mesmerizing cover art courtesy of Erskine Designs.
Put simply, Conjureth is a band that celebrates the past giving birth to the future. Girded in a scything mix & mastering courtesy of Javier Felez at Moontower Studios, Majestic Dissolve is modern proof that death is just the beginning!
Find out for yourself with the brand-new track “Wet Flesh Vortex” here:
Cover and tracklisting as follows:
Tracklisting for Conjureth’s Majestic Dissolve 1. Wet Flesh Vortex 2. Possession Psychosis 3. Resintegrate 4. A Terror Sacrifice 5. Mutilated Spirits 6. Black Fire Confessions 7. The Silent Hangings 8. Sorcery Arts 9. An Occult Mosaic 10. The Unworshipped
Season of Mist is proud to announce the signing of GOAT TORMENT! The Belgian blackened death metal outfit will be releasing their new album via the label in the fall of 2021.
GOAT TORMENT comments on the signing: “6 years after the release of ‘Sermons To Death’ Goat Torment is back with a third studio album. We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with Season of Mist to unleash this beast! With fierce we extend the path of Death and Darkness.“
For a glimpse of what’s to come, check out GOAT TORMENT‘s Bandcamp HERE
GOAT TORMENT was formed in 2008 by Kwel and K.J. with the intention to create music as a weapon of mass destruction and to annihilate everything which the so-called society stands for. For a start Kwel was supposed to play bass and K.J. would handle the vocals. But they didn’t find a guitarist who fitted with the ideology on a serious level. Thus Kwel decided to handle all the guitar parts and K.J.. started to play bass. After some months of research, the band recruited drummer Perversor. Then the band released a 4-track demo tape, released in 2009 through Terrorghoul Productions from Austria. The reactions were tremendous and bigger labels contacted the band interested to release the future offerings of GOAT TORMENT.
At this point, the band shared stages all over Europe with bands such as Grave Miasma, Hell Militia, Enthroned, Black Crucifixion, Black Witchery, The Devil’s blood…to name but a few. At the beginning of 2010 GT had to part ways with drummer Perversor due to musical differences. During the early days of April 2010 a new burning entity was found: S. claimed the throne behind the battery. The Death wielding Trinity of GOAT TORMENT was complete. New songs were written, gigs were played and blood was shed.
Exactly one year later, the band entered the infamous Blackout Studio in Brussels (BE) to record some tracks for two upcoming releases: A 7” split EP with The Beast which was released at the beginning of 2012 and later that year another 7” EP , called “Into The Mouth of the Serpent”. Directly after the split EP was released, Kwel an S. decided to part ways with K.J.. due to different views about their future. In that moment GT decided to go on as a duet recruiting session members for live-shows.
The band returned to Blackout Studio in the fall of 2012 to record their first full-length album ‘Dominande Tenebrae’ ,which was released in February 2013 by Amor Fati Productions from Germany. After a year of a few European shows, the band had their first live appearance on American soil (Maryland Deathfest XII). The band had plans to go on as a four piece, but that didn’t work out because of different views. A South American tour was planned for August 2014 with the Belgian maniacs of ENTHRONED, but the two bands were forced to cancel one month before due to the irresponsible promoter.
In September 2014, S. decided to leave the band, due to other personal priorities and having no time anymore for drumming. It didn’t take long for Kwel to find somebody to take over the hammers. A new era began and Torturer (Mor Dagor, Bethlehem, ex-Belphegor) joined GOAT TORMENT as a new full member, so the duo was complete again. The band returned to Blackout Multimedia Studio in the beginning of 2015 to record their second full-length album.
In the summer of 2015, ‘Sermons To Death’ was released by Amor Fati Productions. The band toured the US West Coast in October 2015, accompanied by Saroth and Vagus Nox as live members. Shortly after, Vagus Nox joined forces to write new material. At the end of 2020, the third studio album had been completed.
Today, Blood Harvest Records announces August 27th as the international release date for a special split EP between Infesticide and In Obscurity Revealed on CD and cassette tape formats. The 12″ vinyl version will follow later.
Hailing from Mexico, both Infesticide and In Obscurity Revealed are no strangers to the Blood Harvest stronghold: just last year, Infesticide released their critically acclaimed second album, Envenoming Wounds, and in late 2019 did In Obscurity Revealed have their cult debut album, Glorious Impurity, released on vinyl by the label. Featuring two exclusive tracks from each band and totaling 17 deadly minutes, this split EP offers the first new recordings from both bands since those two respective full-lengths.
Infesticide are up first and further prove that they are the true heirs to the altars of madness. Reaping the whirlwind and finding that ever-elusive balance between into-oblivion chaos and cauterized-tight precision, Infesticide are evil death metal incarnate, reeking of sulfur and insanity – and their ascent only continues. Not to be outdone, In Obscurity Revealed rocket further into an abyss of chaos all their own with two aptly titled tracks, “Bloodstorm” and “Under the Vomit Seal.” No doubt abominations of desolation, In Obscurity Revealed‘s Metal of Death is diabolical and absolutely unstoppable.
Mexican death metal continues its bloody reign of vengeance, and Infesticide and In Obscurity Revealed assert their kingship with no small amount of violence and force – pay fealty or DIE!
In the meantime, hear two brand-new tracks – Infesticide‘s “Putrefact Offerings” and In Obscurity Revealed‘s “Bloodstorm” here:
Also see a special video for In Obscurity Revealed‘s “Bloodstorm” here:
cover and tracklisting as follows:
Tracklisting for Infesticide / In Obscurity Revealed split 1. Infesticide – Putrefact Offerings 2. Infesticide – Blackfire Permeate 3. In Obscurity Revealed – Bloodstorm 4. In Obscurity Revealed – Under The Vomit Seal
Today, Amor Fati Productions announces September 15th as the international release date for Fustilarian‘s striking debut album, All This Promiscuous Decadence, on CD format. The vinyl LP version shall follow early next year.
A mysterious new entity, Fustilarian is the work of one man inspired by the dark vision over human decay, his unnatural world, and the decadence of urban dysphoria. The entity’s first public work, All This Promiscuous Decadence comprises eight songs in 43 minutes, bearing an aspect both timeless and palpably modern. Its black metal is undeniably rooted in more traditional Satanic tropes of the ’90s, but a subtle or at least underlying layer of the next millennium’s introspective BM plays a no-less-vital role.
What results across All This Promiscuous Decadence is a firestorm of molten, muscular surge and almost coolly cruising violence. This dichotomy pays dividends, as Fustilarian drags the listener through catacombs of the self and subconscious, each haunting & hysteric turn as treacherous as the last. The ever-present violence is thusly directed inward as it is outward, furthering that totality which again seems almost effortless for this entity, its confidence bespeaking bottomless depths of darkness in a perverse twist of fate. But, with a stand-to-attention title like All This Promiscuous Decadence, perhaps such perversity shouldn’t be surprising at all…
Girded in a powerfully professional production that renders these virulent visions in shocking 3D, All This Promiscuous Decadence firmly puts Fustilarian in esteemed company, from the classic mid/late ’90s melodic black metal vanguard to the orthodox/spiritual black metal movement it would engender during the first decade of the 2000s.
Hear for yourself with the brand-new track “Deceived in Ravenous Perversion” here:
Artwork and tracklisting as follows:
Tracklisting for Fustilarian’s All This Promiscuous Decadence
1. Reversed Ascension 2. Born In Neglect Embrace 3. Irreversible Cessation 4. Deceived In Ravenous Perversion 5. Interlúdio (A Alienação dos Inquietos) 6. Swallowed By The Nether Regions of Chaotic Isolation 7. Carving Crystal Adornments Upon The Flesh 8. The Vacant Dispirit
Today, Iron Bonehead Productions announces October 15th as the international release date for Sorguinazia‘s highly anticipated debut album, Negation of Delirium, on CD and vinyl LP formats.
In 2016, out of the void inconspicuously tumbled a vortex of dread decibels. Bearing the moniker Sorguinazia, the power-duo’s first recorded work was a limited-edition tape EP that soon bore successive editions across a number of formats. Of them, Iron Bonehead released Sorguinazia on CD later on in 2017 and then on 12″ vinyl in early 2018. And for good reason: Sorguinazia are shamanistic butchers of pseudo-occult intellectualism, purveying pure cannibalistic black metal with preternatural fire. They may’ve hailed from Canada, but by all measures, their sound was otherworldly to the extreme, both primitively primordial and exceedingly nuanced. Sorguinazia was the sound of all colors being absorbed and spit back out, mangled and malign.
While a full-length work was promised not long after the release of that first EP, years of tension and unease followed, which perfectly suited Sorguinazia‘s sense of the unpredictable and unorthodox. At long last, their debut album arrives: Negation of Delirium. Almost too perfectly titled, Sorguinazia‘s first full-length work warps deliriums of all sorts – mental, physical, cosmic, even sexual – and negates them all the same. It’s very much in line with what the duo of Xolaryxis and Axczor presented before, but arguably in more brittle form here. Indeed, this almost-deliberate desiccation takes their ghoulish ‘n’ ghastly black metal to uncomfortable realms of sensory experience, that previously wobbly balance between beyond-the-shade mysticism and soul-flaying insanity now upended, and we are but below to witness its unsettling fallout. Put another way, this soundpool of gibbering, horrendous “notes” that somehow coalesce into rude yet strangely alluring shapes is faintly recognizable as being performed by humans, but the sonic-unto-spiritual dislocation is so strong that it thusly transports the listener far beyond the realm of man. Is there a return?
Or, more pithily, imagine a pile of old tapes from the crude-yet-aristocratic Concilium collective left to rot in a sewer… Or, just simply, this is truly the Negation of Delirium. Sorguinazia offer no return.
Do not return with the brand-new track “Black Spell of Supremacy” here:
Tracklisting for Sorguinazia’s Negation of Delirium 1. Black Spell of Supremacy 2. Conquering Skies 3. Ecstatic Karmic Impunity 4. Negation of Delirium 5. Death Entrancing 6. Saraswati 7. Neuromancy
