While Spirit Adrift made many take notice with their debut album “Chained To Oblivion”, it is on “Curse Of Conception” their stellar second album, and first with new label 20 Buck Spin, that the band has taken a giant leap forward in songwriting prowess, production and confidence. From the Metallica / Priest like opening moments of ‘Earthbound’ to the epic closing of “Onward, Inward”, Spirit Adrift are aiming sky high with burning focus and peak vigor. The aforementioned ‘Earthbound’ is a standard bearer for album-opening songcraft, leading into the colossal title track, a grungy and twisting radio-ready crawler. ‘To Fly On Broken Wings’ & ‘Graveside Invocation’ continue to show that any of the eight tracks on ‘Curse Of Conception’ could stand as featured singles. Throughout the duration brick heavy riff assembly, somber southern atmospherics and grand melodies entwine flawlessly into perfect metallic majesty, exemplified succinctly and totally in the instrumental ‘Wakien’ for example. With a host of fantastic albums released by their contemporaries lately, Spirit Adrift has taken their craft to an ascendent new level on ‘Curse Of Conception’ earning their rightful place among the top tier of modern metal bands clawing their way above and beyond the underground scene. Now more than at any time metal has become the lifeblood of rock music and Spirit Adrift offer ‘Curse Of Conception’ as an embodiment of that perseverant vitality. Purchase CHAINED TO OBLIVION on CD and vinyl here: www.20buckspin.com/spiritadrift
Pallbearer’s third album stretches the Arkansas outfit’s brand of doom metal to mountainous new heights. More polished—but no less punishing—than *Sorrow and Extinction* or *Foundations of Burden*, *Heartless* is a gleaming bulldozer of a record, shifting effortlessly from the operatic melancholy of “Cruel Road” to “A Plea for Understanding,” which blows out the spacey grandeur of Pink Floyd to nearly 13 minutes.
Pallbearer’s third album, Heartless, is an inspired collection of monumental rock music. The band offers a complex sonic architecture that weaves together the spacious exploratory elements of classic prog, the raw anthemics of 90’s alt-rock, and stretches of black-lit proto-metal. Lyrics about mortality, life, and love are set to sharp melodies and pristine three-part harmonies. Vocalist and guitarist Brett Campbell has always been a strong, assured singer, and on Heartless, his work’s especially stunning. This may in part be due to the immediacy of the lyrics. Written by Campbell and bassist/secondary vocalist Joseph D Rowland, the words have moved from the metaphysical to something more grounded. As the group explains: “Instead of staring into to the void—both above and within—Heartless concentrates its power on a grim reality. Our lives, our homes and our world are all plumbing the depths of utter darkness, as we seek to find any shred of hope we can." Pallbearer emerged from Little Rock, Arkansas in 2012 with a stunning debut full-length, Sorrow and Extinction. The record, which played like a seamless 49-minute doom movement, melded pitch-perfect vintage sounds with a triumphant modern sensibility that made songs about death and loss feel joyfully ecstatic. Pallbearer possessed what many other newer metal groups didn't: perfect guitar tone, classic hooks, and a singer who could actually sing. For their 2014 followup, Foundations of Burden, the band worked with legendary Bay Area producer Billy Anderson (Sleep, Swans, Neurosis) for an expansive album that was musically tighter and especially adventurous. Armed with a more technical drummer, Mark Lierly, Foundations feels like it was built for larger shared spaces—you could imagine these songs ringing off the walls of a stadium. It was a hint of things to come. While the debut earned the band a Best New Music nod from Pitchfork and rightly landed the band on year-end lists at places like SPIN and NPR, along with the usual metal publications, Foundations of Burden charted on the Billboard Top 100 and earned the band album of the year from Decibel and spots on year-end lists for NPR and Rolling Stone. Returning to where it all began, the quartet recorded their third full-length, Heartless on their own in Arkansas, and it’s grander in scope, showcasing a natural progression that melds higher technicality and more ambitious structures with their most immediate hooks to date. The collection, which follows the 3-song Fear & Fury EP from earlier this year, was captured entirely on analog tape at Fellowship Hall Sound in Little Rock this past summer and then mixed by Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool, Melvins, Soundgarden). From the gloriously complex, sky-lit opener “I Saw the End” to the earth-shaking (and heartbreaking) 13-minute closer “A Plea for Understanding,” the entire group puts forth the full realization of their vision: More than a doom band, Pallbearer is a rock group with a singular songwriting talent and emotional capacity. Heartless finds the group putting forth their strongest individual efforts to date: Campbell and Rowland, along with guitarist/vocalist Devin Holt and drummer Mark Lierly, turn in peak marathon performances. Both Campbell and Rowland also handle synthesizers alongside their normal duties, and there are plenty of gently strummed acoustic guitars amid the crunchy electric ones, adding a moody, ethereal spareness to the towering metal. The almost 12-minute “Dancing in Madness” opens with dark post-rock ambience and moves toward emotional blues before exploding into a sludgy psychedelic anthem. A number of the seven songs feature a humid rock swagger. By fusing their widest musical palette to date, Pallbearer make the kind of heavy rock (the heavy moments are *heavy*) that will appeal to diehards, but could also find the group crossing over into newer territories and fanbases. After having helped revitalize doom metal, it almost feels like they’ve gone and set their sights on rock and roll itself. Which doesn’t seem at all impossible on the back of a record like Heartless.
Necrot’s second album is a blissful nightmare come true for death metal diehards who prefer the raw and pummeling over the precise and technical. The band’s slow, low-end assault veers between shuddering songs that threaten to devolve into muddy formlessness (“Layers of Darkness”) and deliriously dense blast-beat workouts splattered with guttural vocals (“Shadows and Light”). As with their debut, buzzsaw riffs and moshpit beats abound, threading through “The Blade” and cementing their sweaty, chaotic edge.
Recorded by Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege Art by Marald Van Haasteren Released by Tankcrimes
Maryland/Pennsylvania experimental death-noise band FULL OF HELL have embarked on quite the journey leading up to the impending release of their latest full-length album “Trumpeting Ecstasy”, an album which will see the band deliver their most punishing, virulent, and dynamic album to date. The embryonic beginnings of Full of Hell displayed their palette at it’s most primitive, d-beat and blast ridden hardcore punk with spats of noise and caustic rhythm, and within a few short years, they have bloomed into a true force to be reckoned with within the punk and metal communities. Since the release of their Profound Lore Records debut album “Full Of Hell & Merzbow” late 2014, their third full-length album, the band began to truly come into their own, combining elements of grindcore, death/black metal, punk and hardcore with a smattering of sonically laden power electronics and industrial pounding. It would also signal the band being at their most active and prolific ever since their inception in 2009. The band would tour endlessly non-stop in different parts of the world in places as far off as Japan, Australia (twice), Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea etc.), along with several tour runs in Europe and many tour jaunts within the US, along with playing countless festivals and exclusive shows. The band would also add to their repertoire and discography as well during said timeframe releasing a direct collaboration album with The Body and several EPs, one of them being their most-recent split 7”EP with Nails (which debuts #2 on the Billboard Top 100 Singles Chart). With “Trumpeting Ecstasy”, FULL OF HELL build upon their progression since the Merzbow collaboration and the releases succeeding it. This time the band decided to go into God City Studios with Kurt Ballou at the production helm to help achieve the intended vision of “Trumpeting Ecstasy”. The result being the best and strongest sounding FULL OF HELL album along with it being their most towering release to date. Sky tearing and sonically cataclysmic, the aural deluge that is “Trumpeting Ecstasy” also features guest appearances by Aaron Turner (Sumac/Old Man Gloom/Mamiffer/Isis), Nate Newton (Converge/Old Man Gloom), Andrew Nolan (Column Of Heaven/The Endless Blockade), and Canadian singer/songwriter Nicole Dollanganger. Expect FULL OF HELL to tour relentlessly in support of “Trumpeting Ecstasy” as well.
Buy the album on vinyl or CD here: US: www.artemisia-store.com Europe: eu.kingsroadmerch.com/artemisia-records Now, a portal into the dreamworld of Wolves in the Throne Room opens again with THRICE WOVEN. It is a glorious return to the blazing and furious Black Metal that they alone can create! The album begins with Born From the Serpent’s Eye a true thrashing black metal epic that is bisected with a haunting northern lament sung by Swedish star Anna von Hausswolff. The band worked with metal documentarians Peter Beste and Nico Poalillo to create a video for this track which captures a bonfire-lit performance in the forest near their Olympia compound. The Old Ones Are With Us opens with the crackling of a fire and the voice of Steve Von Till (Neurosis) invoking the springtime thaw. It then storms into a dirge inspired by 90’s Finnish doom with lyrics that celebrate Imbolc, the holy day which marks the end of winter and the first stirrings of spring. Figures from Norse mythology intertwine with personal heartbreak and rebirth in the bleak Angrboda. The song is named after a frost giantess who birthed Fenris Wolf, a beast who was destined to destroy the world and murder the gods. Fenris Wolf also appears on the cover of THRICE WOVEN in a painting by Russian occult artist Denis Forkas. Forkas’ obscure medieval painting techniques perfectly compliment the music of Wolves in the Throne Room. A raven’s wings stir the air in the interlude Mother Owl, Father Ocean. Anna von Hausswolff returns in a duet with Turkish harpist Zeynep Oyku. Forlorn industrial atmospheres haunt the mix. Hausswolff’s lyrics, sung in Swedish, echo over a barren grey seascape. Fires Roar in the Palace of the Moon is the classic Cascadian Black Metal epic. The third eye opens to see holy rivers being born from the ice on the tallest peaks. The lyrics offer blessings to the waters of the earth as they flow from the high places to the source of darkness, the ocean.
London’s premium metal force Craven Idol unleash their second album of ruthless first wave blackened thrash in the vein of early Bathory, Gospel Of The Horns, Manilla Road, and Inquisiton. After four years of toil, the U.K. four-piece present: The Shackles Of Mammon, an uncompromising and unique blend of tag-less extreme metal from the early days of horrible hellnoise. Inspirations are many; Be it heavy metal Gods such as Mercyful Fate, Candlemass, Sortilege or Manilla Road; Early pioneers like Poison (Ger), Samael, Razor, Bathory, Venom; Pretenders to the throne like Gospel Of The Horns, D666, Inquisiton… But don’t be fooled – this is no tribute act. Recorded at Birmingham’s Priority Studios and engineered by Esoteric’s Greg Chandler (and mastered by Dan Lowndes at Resonance Sound), The Shackles Of Mammon boasts an old school production as well as Craven Idol’s most fierce and varied songs to date. The album boasts artwork by the extraordinarily twisted Daniel Corcuera. The artist’s powerful take on Sascha Schneider’s 1896 wood carving ‘Mammon und sein Sklave’ is a striking work of art. Lyrically the album deals with the vices of man, the plagues they unleashed upon themselves, and the rationalisation of its own actions – be it in tragedy or ruin – through the creation of deities and cults. Mammon the - Demon of Avarice - reigns above all, whilst the black arts and countless religions seek to justify human failure.
Legendary death metal band OBITUARY return with their self-titled, 10th studio album, further cementing their legacy as one of the most important metal bands of all time! Picking up where 2014's critically acclaimed Inked In Blood left off, OBITUARY show no signs of slowing down as they continue to reign as Kings of their genre. Recorded at their home studio in Tampa, FL, Obituary is a 10 track tour-de-force of bone-pulverising death metal that is as heavy, uncompromising and infectious as anything they've released in their historic, nearly 30-year career!
Myrkur’s second album is a haunting journey into the bad dreams (the title means \"Nightmare\") of Danish singer and multi-instrumentalist Amalie Bruun. Writing in English for the first time on “The Serpent” and “Funeral” (which features American songstress Chelsea Wolfe), Bruun also uses various Scandinavian languages in her alluring amalgamation of classical music, black metal, and Norwegian folk. With traditional rock instrumentation against a backdrop of strings and her own piano, violin, and nyckelharpa playing, Bruun deftly balances beauty and darkness.
On their dazzling debut, Atlanta’s Cloak conjure a bewitching blend of black metal, rock, and occult bombast. Steeped in darkness and death imagery, songs like “Within the Timeless Black,” “Beyond the Veil,” and 10-minute closer “Deep Red” harness hypnotic guitars and horror-movie melodies to channel the kind of mesmerizing atmosphere summoned by Swedish sorcerers Tribulation and In Solitude. Meanwhile, vocalist Scott Taysom’s sepulchral howl gives “The Hunger,” “Forever Burned,” and the sinister “In the Darkness, the Path” a grim and ghoulish immediacy.
CLOAK captures the magic, mystique, and mystery of classic heavy metal with their long-awaited debut 'To Venomous Depths'. Drawing from metal's most impactful sub genre's, the quartet distill their collective influences into an enthralling full-album experience that honors the spirit of the early classics while standing firmly in the now. Captivating tracks like "Beyond the Veil", "Deep Red", "Forever Burned" and the title track are riveted with somber harmonies, driving rhythms, and dramatic builds in momentum and suspense. CLOAK's bold and blackened metal teems with dark energy, and 'To Venomous Depths' is a testament to the genre’s primal power and magic.
With their second full-length album “Infrared Horizon”, NY-based death metal band ARTIFICIAL BRAIN have created a sophomore release more advanced than their lauded debut album “Labyrinth Constellation”. By taking their brand of singular brutal guttural yet technical and ambient sci-fi death metal to a new galaxial plateau, “Infrared Horizon” sees the sonic architecture laid down by the band go further into the beyond and infinite. Conceived in 2011 by guitarist Dan Gargiulo (Revocation) and vocalist Will Smith (ex-Biolich), the band would be rounded out by bass player Samuel Smith (Luminous Vault), guitarist Jon Locastro, and drummer Keith Abrami. The band would align themselves with Profound Lore Records and drop their debut album “Labyrinth Constellation” in 2014 to wide praise within the circles of death metal that range from accolades from within technical, dark, guttural, and progressive death metal respectively. Along with decent touring around “Labyrinth Constellation”, the band would also have their music played and were even name dropped on multiple occasions in the popular CBS television shows Elementary and Limitless. Once again produced by Colin Marson (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia, Krallice) at The Thousand Caves, “Infrared Horizon” (featuring art by Adam Burke) sees ARTIFICIAL BRAIN traveling towards a sonic realm where the music has become more brutal and dissonant, technical, atmospheric, and just overall more otherworldly. Delving into the lyrics and themes of “Infrared Horizon”, themes such as dealing with the concept of a dystopian future in which robots and cyborgs have outlived human beings. Robots and Cyborgs who believe themselves to be not of creation of the long extinct humans but a more perfect evolution of them. The scenarios take place all over outer space and on unnamed planets (not necessarily Earth).
By now, MIDNIGHT need no introduction. Guided by the twisted muse of mainman Athenar since 2003, this Cleveland cult have been slaying the metal/punk underground with their own, highly addictive brand of lust, filth, and sleaze, subsequently building up a sizable catalog and garnering a rabid fanbase. While there's certainly fanatics for the band's early EP work, it was MIDNIGHT's debut album, Satanic Royalty - released to international fanfare in 2011 by HELLS HEADBANGERS - that entered the band's name into the annals of "classic." Never one to rush things (nor drop an EP along the way), MIDNIGHT continued their underground dominance with No Mercy for Mayhem in 2014, further perfecting their signature sound. Now, with their massively anticipated third album, "Sweet Death and Ecstasy," Athenar and co. return with their darkest and most daring effort yet. Granted, upon the first detonating chords of opener "Crushed by Demons," it would be fair to assume that "Sweet Death and Ecstasy" is simply classic MIDNIGHT...until the track time nearly doubles what a characteristic track of theirs would be. This is no mere bloat, though: bookended by two of the band's longest songs to date, "Sweet Death and Ecstasy" lays bare a more anguished 'n' aggravated MIDNIGHT, forever in thrall to the usual subjects (LUST, FILTH, SLEAZE) but speaking a slightly different, altogether-more-poisonous tongue. It both charges harder than ever - even harder than the band's early EP work, arguably - and also puts on the brakes to bang 'n' clang in a manner most foul. Indeed, MIDNIGHT truly deliver "Sweet Death and Ecstasy" in a swift 32 minutes, and it's absolutely addicting. What's more, the CD version will feature a bonus disc that's a 12-song live rehearsal recorded in 2015 by Commandor Vanik. There's no dawn for MIDNIGHT...ever!
Nearly 30 years into their career, death-metal masters Cannibal Corpse haven’t missed a single blast beat. Propelled by an exceptionally ruthless performance from vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, the band’s 14th album is packed with frenzied riffs, brutal bass bombs, and ultraviolent tales of murder and maiming. Savage opener “Only One Will Die” sets the bloodthirsty tone before the decimating graveyard groove of “Code of the Slashers” and gory gallop of “In the Midst of Ruin” give way to crushing closer, “Hideous Ichor.”
A mythical connection exists between nature and music. Within vast forests, pagans traditionally participated in midnight drum circles around cackling flames. Led Zeppelin recorded the seminal Led Zeppelin III at the infamous secluded 18th century Bron-Yr-Aur cottage deep in the wilderness. Pink Floyd cut 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason and 1994’s The Division Bell on the Astoria houseboat. Nestled among the Rocky Mountains, it’s hard to escape the influence of nature in Colorado. Maybe they didn’t record in the woods or on the high seas, but Denver outfit Dreadnought breathes fresh air through extreme music like a torrential force of nature nonetheless. On their third full-length album A Wake In Sacred Waves [Sailor Records], the quartet—Kelly Schilling [guitar, flute, clean & harsh vocals], Jordan Clancy [drums, saxophone], Kevin Handlon [bass, mandolin, lyrics], and Lauren Vieira [keys, clean vocals]—redefine the boundaries of heavy, swinging from gusts of black metal double bass, guttural guitar, and haunting harmonic hymnals to reprieves of fairy tale flute, anesthetic mandolin, and jazz saxophone. (For the uninitiated, think Joni Mitchell guesting with Wolves in the Throne Room). That singular style quietly turned ears towards the band on their 2013 debut Lifewoven and its critically lauded follow-up Bridging Realms in 2015. The latter earned acclaim from the likes of Terrorizer Magazine, Invisible Oranges, AXS, Metal Sucks, Metal Injection, and more, while the group toured with Wayfarer and Ford Theatre Reunion in addition to sharing the stage with the Devin Townsend Project. A Wake In Sacred Waves sees their patented sound consciously evolve with sharper claws, but a warmer embrace. “Each album is loosely based on an element,” explains Kelly. “Lifewoven was earth, Bridging Realms was ether, and this is our water album. You could think of them like Zelda temples. We wanted to make this a little bit darker and heavier because we were going through heavier parts of our lives. This record tells a story about the process of life and death. A sea creature evolves into an apex predator, takes over everything, and then falls from grace. It mirrors humanity’s own existential struggle.” The journey begins with the 17 minute-plus “Vacant Sea.” Sucked down an aquatic wormhole of claustrophobic distortion, spellbinding melodies, and unpredictable instrumental wizardry, the record immediately extends its tentacles. “Within Chanting Waters” mitigates brutality with bliss as “To Luminous Scale” and “A Drifting Reign” coalesce into a mind-blowing aural climax. Kevin explains, “In ‘Vacant Sea’, a species gets chased into a giant trench, where it evolves into the alpha in a new ecosystem. ‘Within Changing Waters’ discusses the way life relates to the ocean itself. The water can be interpreted as the nature goddess. The final two songs see the predator come into self-discovery, rise, and then come to ruin as the rest of her species and prey turn against her and take her down.” Dreadnought represents a new face for extreme music across the board. The presence of flute, mandolin, and saxophone adds subterranean depth to the sonic palette, while dual female melodies make for a majestic and mystical chemistry. “By virtue of being women, we add a different dynamic, femininity, and perhaps more balance to this genre,” continues Kelly. “Our voices are a color, timbre, and sound that’s unfamiliar and unique. That makes the music extra exciting for us.” A Wake In Sacred Waves also conjures an undeniable listening experience for anyone who boards Dreadnought’s ship. “I hope people react in a natural way,” she leaves off. “No matter what it is, I just want them to feel something when they hear us.”
Over the 30 years of Oxbow’s operations, no one has come comfortably close to classifying the Bay Area group. This could arguably be the result of Oxbow’s ongoing evolution, but accurately describing any particular phase of the groups’ seven-album career is no easier than describing the broader metamorphic arc of their creative path. This is especially true with their seventh album Thin Black Duke, where Oxbow’s elusive brand of harmonic unrest has absorbed the ornate and ostentatious palate of baroque pop into their sound, pushing their polarized dynamics into a scope that spans between sublime and completely unnerving. This is new musical territory for all parties involved. As throughout their history, Oxbow grapples with channeling man’s most primal urges through a framework of meticulous, cultured, and cerebral instrumentation. But the unadulterated electric roar and percussive barbarism of their past work wasn’t as wholly satisfactory as it had been in the past. Other flavors were deemed necessary and called into play, both to slake unnamed thirsts and to suitably fit the Thin Black Duke’s lyrical themes, but also to explore the further reaches of Oxbow’s studied approach to tension and release, structure and dissonance, and melody and abstraction. “Certainly we all became increasingly aware that none of us are getting younger,” says guitarist Niko Wenner. Recognizing one’s own mortality can render one’s art to the ranks of ephemera, but Oxbow lashed out at such notions. “For this record I wanted to go even further in the way we always make recordings, as music that hangs together over an entire album, 'large scale coherence' if you will,” Wenner says of his compositional strategy. “I was inspired by pieces like Bach's Goldberg Variations and the formal technique in classical music where a small idea, a kernel, is reiterated, morphed, expanded and truncated, to make a piece of music permeated with the potent perfume of that small element.” Consequently, the attentive ear will notice recurring musical phrases and motifs throughout Thin Black Duke. Noticing such details isn’t necessary to absorb and appreciate the album, but as Wenner suggests, “I think I'm not the only one that finds a visceral satisfaction when you can look into something you like deeper, and deeper, and find more and more there.”
On their first album in five years, Canadian punk stalwarts Propagandhi light a political firestorm with ferocious guitars and poignant lyrics about the rise of fascism. Railing against police brutality, societal apathy, and government control on songs like “Cop Just Out of Frame,” “Comply / Resist,” and “Adventures in Zoochosis,” frontman Chris Hannah leads the combustible charge, while new guitarist Sulynn Hago brings a fluid, angular touch to the band’s signature slash-and-burn style.
*What Passes For Survival* is technical death metal seemingly created by Dadaists. Most of its songs are nonlinear splatters of amorphous riffs and centrifugal rhythms: “The Invisible Hand Holds a Whip” drops gooey layers of screams and grunts into the already disorienting mix, while the grindcore-flavored “Trash Talk Landfill” turns all of it cold and atonal. But Pyrrhon can also drop down a couple of gears, as on “Empty Tenement Spirit,” which is a bottomless pit of blackened clangs and plodding drums.
Continuing to shapeshift and unravel, while using unorthodox songwriting techniques that border on the incomprehensible, avant-garde extreme metal quartet PYRRHON return with What Passes For Survival. Dense, volatile, and drenched in manic ferocity, What Passes For Survival is an aural challenge that refuses to adhere to genre conventions, merging strategic orchestrated bursts of death metal chaos with expanses of unhinged improvisation. The latest stage of PYRRHON’s metamorphosis is one that demands repeated audio submersion from the listener, and satisfies those craving sonic extremity that pushes limits. Also available on vinyl via Throatruiner records: music.throatruinerrecords.com/album/what-passes-for-survival
