"Since 2019, a spectral entity earthly summoned as Lamp of Murmuur gradually ascended as one of the furthermost esteemed and sought of luminaries within the rawest most crude innards of Black Metal. Such following and public awareness does not stand as a certitude merely grounded on good music. In a niche that presently perceives clear signs of overabundance and counterfeit expression, Lamp of Murmuur prospered, particularly owing its opulence to a vision that didn’t establish itself after an easy pathway - one of exploring a microclimate towards exhaustion - instead displaying there was no guidelines for the artistic manifestation behind the distressing specter behind it. From the raw lo-fi approach of the band’s beginnings to the gothic and melodic overtones trailed on recent times, Lamp of Murmuur redefines itself yet again with a fervorous new declaration of strength and vigor, a ghastly beast under the title “Saturnian Bloodstorm”. From its very early storming chords, one faces a frantic swaying of rabid riffs and intricate rhythm segments, a visceral trail of electrical magnetism. An ardent restless voice narrates this offering with poisonous might and nocturnal fever conjoined with the six-string sharpness, expanded through a razor-sharp sound production, blazing with a dynamic edge, organically mixing cleanness and aggression in a mantra of potency and (un)pure fanaticism. Inspired by the core edge and raging solemnity of Black Metal’s history, “Saturnian Bloodstorm” is as varied as it is organic, offering tumultuous instrumental proficiency under fast, raging bursts of sonic aggression intertwined with brilliant mid-tempo sections, ever epic and ice-cold in its riffing extravaganza. Released through Argento Records (EU) and Not Kvlt (USA), “Saturnian Bloodstorm” stands as an opus of Black Metal might, hailing The Seven Spears of Fever with raging chaos, an eternal spark of flaming delight." -M.S.
Physical copies at Convulserecords.com
On their 16th album, progressive black-metal masters Enslaved have fashioned a concept record about Heimdal, the Norse god who guards a bridge that leads to the heavens. But as guitarist Ivar Bjørnson points out, the Norwegian band has a long history with this deity—they had a song called “Heimdallr” on their first demo back in 1992. “It’s not like he came back into the fold,” Bjørnson tells Apple Music. “It’s more like he came into focus. I compare it to how we have people in our lives that we just have a connection with. We might move across the globe or not see them for years, but when you do, you continue the conversation from wherever you left off.” Sonically speaking, *Heimdal* is the first extreme metal album mixed for Spatial Audio rather than remixed for it after the fact. “It was such a revelation being in the studio, hearing all these sounds traveling like I had imagined in my own head while writing the album,” Bjørnson enthuses. “I felt really privileged that we had this chance to use these dimensions of space. There are always new places to go.” Below, he comments on each track. **“Behind the Mirror”** “There’s this dilemma hinted at in mythology about the relationship between Odin and Heimdal—that one might be the son of the other. But it’s not really cleared up. First, you read that Heimdal might be the son of Odin, the biggest god. And then, the next sentence is the other way around. The myth of Heimdal is even hinting at the possibility of Odin not necessarily being an actual humanoid creature but being a state of mind. The bonus was me discovering, two weeks ago, that the song title was done before by one of my favorite bands, Kreator.” **“Congelia”** “A lot of the time, we end up exploring all the different styles we use—be it prog rock or occult rock or ’70s sequencer ambient—and then we mix our root elements of experimental black metal into it. But I played the sketch of this song for a friend of mine who was seriously worried that I’d gone off and lost my mind for a little while there. He was like, ‘Do you know how this sounds to a functioning human?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why I’m playing it.’ I just wanted it to be extreme, but I also wanted it to be possible to listen to for eight minutes. So, I went in and made some adjustments.” **“Forest Dweller”** “That song is a bit outside of the interaction between Odin and Heimdal. Odin has a lot of interesting aspects to him. He was a magician, for example, but also the father of war. More recently, there were some very right-wing people here in the Nordic countries who took to the streets doing these vigilante things, saying they were protecting women and children. They called themselves the Soldiers of Odin. But Odin is not the god that I would put next to any children or women. Odin would do anything for the hell of it.” **“Kingdom”** “A human being running is a very basic and important symbol for me. It’s an important symbol in modern culture and history. Think about the marathon or the bringing of the Olympic torch into the stadium. It’s more of a sport thing these days but running used to be for survival or for delivering messages. You had runners as part of societies—they would deliver messages over long distances. If the message was really important, they would send more than one runner. I also think about Iron Maiden’s ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.’ That title was sprinkled with gold. The song was great before I even heard it.” **“The Eternal Sea”** “The starting point for ‘The Eternal Sea’ is a very central part of our identities as people in the band. We are all Western Norwegians, and we all come from small places directly on the coast. When we were teenagers, our first drummer, his mother’s partner went out to sea for work and didn’t come home. He died on the sea. It was a very traumatic episode, but what I realized when I got older is that these small societies on the coast are prepared for this, in a sense. His mother, she knew who to call, and they knew how to take care of her and her family. It was a chilling but almost comforting experience in that way.” **“Caravans to the Outer Worlds”** “This was the title track of our last EP, but later I realized it was also the starting point for this album, so we had to include it here. We’re part of the human race who won the evolutionary battles because of the ability to bring along people who don’t have, let’s say, a victory ability, but they have maybe an ability to foresee outcomes of situations. Maybe they have a special relation to nature. But nowadays, we’re in the stage of evolution where we step on the weaker people and take whatever they have. I went from being a frustrated young man about that to going, ‘It looks like a good day to take off into space. You guys stay here, and we’ll inhabit somewhere else.’” **“Heimdal”** “I knew this song was going to be called ‘Heimdal’ before we wrote it, so I knew it had to have a certain power to live up to the title. It’s a bit like arriving at the house and seeing that the front door is several hundred meters tall. You realize, ‘Oh, shit—it’s Heimdal himself.’ We knew we had to deliver a lot to associate with this deity. And I was pleasantly surprised that we got that close to what we were trying to do.”
As the undisputed kings of death metal, Cannibal Corpse rarely messes with their tried-and-true horror show of gargantuan riffs, dizzying drums, and gruesome lyrics. But their 16th studio album, *Chaos Horrific*, was made under unprecedented circumstances. “It was written almost directly after we’d finished working on our previous album, *Violence Unimagined*,” bassist and co-lyricist Alex Webster tells Apple Music. “We normally would make a new album only after a full tour cycle for the previous one, but due to the pandemic downtime from touring we decided to get started right away.” Webster says that the back-to-back processes may have contributed to the variety heard on *Chaos Horrific*. “Since we had just finished *Violence Unimagined*, it was easy to remember not to repeat musical ideas we’d used in those songs,” he explains. “I think these two albums feel somewhat related, but they also consist of songs that all sound very different from each other. On *Chaos Horrific*, each song really stands out from the next, but they’re all full-on Cannibal Corpse-style death metal. Consistency absolutely can coexist with innovation and variety.” Below, he and his fellow Cannibal Corpse songwriters—drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz, guitarist Rob Barrett, and guitarist/producer Erik Rutan—comment on the songs they penned lyrics for. **“Overlords of Violence”** Alex Webster: “We always like to start our albums off with a really aggressive song, so ‘Overlords’ seemed like the perfect choice. The lyrics describe a group of barbarians creating chaos and mayhem, and the relentless speed of the music fits that theme well. It’s straightforward musically and lyrically, aggressive from start to finish.” **“Frenzied Feeding”** Erik Rutan: “Lyrically, the song was inspired by the viciousness and heaviness of the music. It’s about a fictitious ruler from the Dark Ages who, through extreme methods and gruesome tactics, tortured and slaughtered his own people. To command and invoke fear in his people, he would then force the masses to eat the remains—or starve and die. Survival only achieved by desperate, heinous measures—feast or famine.” **“Summoned for Sacrifice”** Paul Mazurkiewicz: “This song is about 13 people chosen to dismember and kill one randomly chosen person. One by one, they will remove pieces of his body until he breathes no more.” **“Blood Blind”** PM: “This song is about mass mutilations to reset the human race. Genocide is embraced by society. Blood covers the Earth.” **“Vengeful Invasion”** Rob Barrett: “This is about victims of human trafficking eventually escaping after years of abuse. As they\'re fleeing the house that held them captive for so long, they decide to turn around and execute the ultimate reprisal—a home-invasion slaughter of their captors.” **“Chaos Horrific”** PM: “This song is about fighting for your life from a zombie attack, using an axe, a knife, a machete—whatever it takes to kill these things.” **“Fracture and Refracture”** AW: “This song’s lyrics are about a psychotic surgeon who is holding a person captive and slowly changing their physical form against their will. As is usually the case, the music was written before the lyrics on this one. Some of the riffs have a really dark, twisted sound, so the terrifying concept described in the lyrics complements that aptly.” **“Pitchfork Impalement”** PM: “This song is about a lunatic going on a killing spree with a pitchfork. Wrought-iron tines will penetrate skulls.” **“Pestilential Rictus”** AW: “This is a song with a cannibalistic, post-apocalyptic theme. We’ve had other songs that cover that type of scenario; this one specifically deals with a disease that causes flesh to rot and fall away, often leaving the victim’s teeth permanently exposed in a perpetual ‘grin’ of horror.” **“Drain You Empty”** ER: “This was the final song that I wrote for the album. Musically, it flows and weaves through depths of darkness and insanity. The dreary and dismal vibe inspired me lyrically to create an engulfing vision of a force, a power, an entity draining the life and soul out of one’s being, through the conscious and the subconscious, overpowering every sense of being, invoking insanity and fear until inevitable death.”
Ventura, California’s heavy metal institution Night Demon return with their third full-length album, Outsider, via Century Media Records on March 17, 2023. For more than a decade, Night Demon have defiantly flown the flag of traditional heavy metal, unwavering in the face of shifting industry trends and unscarred by global calamities. Even as they spent 2022 touring heavily worldwide in support of their compilation album, Year of the Demon, the trio consisting of Jarvis Leatherby (vocals/bass), Armand John Anthony (guitar) and Dusty Squires (drums) continued working tirelessly behind the scenes. The objective? To perfect their first collection of all-new material since 2017’s acclaimed Darkness Remains album. Make no mistake: Outsider represents Night Demon’s boldest, most ambitious effort to date. Never content to rest on their laurels by rehashing past glories, the band have challenged themselves musically and lyrically, pushing creative boundaries and evolving their sound far beyond their NWOBHM-worshipping origins into something truly singular. From a lyrical standpoint, Outsider marks Night Demon’s first full-blown concept album. To be sure, the band have always experimented with embedding thematic linkages between songs on each release, dating back to their 2015 debut album, Curse of the Damned. On Outsider, however, lyricist Jarvis Leatherby has dialed into a fully cohesive tale of alternate realities, mysterious portals, and the supernatural, intertwined with universal human feelings of alienation, loss, regret and revenge. Inspired by Leatherby’s lifelong affinity for horror movies as well as his pandemic-induced exile in the countryside of Northern Ireland, Outsider weaves a compelling yarn from its pastoral beginnings to its heart-pounding finale. Of course, this kind of epic storytelling demands an equally expansive musical backdrop that ebbs and flows to convey the full emotional range of Outsider. To achieve that result, Night Demon have reimagined the band’s songwriting and arrangements by embracing progressive elements and a newfound sense of dynamics that lend the music a decidedly cinematic quality. Longtime fans should not be alarmed. Outsider sounds like Night Demon through and through. The songwriting is perhaps the catchiest in the band’s discography, boasting massive hooks such as those found on the earworm title track, which is also the lead single. Elsewhere, there are plenty of adrenaline-fueled, headbanging moments on display in songs like the rollicking “Obsidian” and “Escape from Beyond,” with its searing guitar riffs, pounding drums, and urgent vocals. The difference this time lies in the peaks and valleys, the highs and lows. “Beyond the Grave” and “A Wake” showcase a somber dimension of Night Demon only hinted at on previous releases. The masterful closing track, “The Wrath,” encapsulates all of these dynamics in a roller coaster of wildly swinging emotions, tempos and feels. Simply put, Night Demon take the listener on a journey with Outsider. It’s a heavy and intense ride, so buckle up. You may never be the same again. And Night Demon are breathlessly awaiting the opportunity to bring Outsider to life on stages all over the world. Plans are afoot to perform the album live in its entirety when time and logistics allow, so keep your eyes peeled for dates at a city near you. Don’t wander in the dark, because Night Demon will find you.
Formed in Tokyo, Japan in the summer of 2017, KRUELTY has emerged as the most notable artist to find that sweet spot where the amalgamation of heavy beatdown hardcore and ‘90s American/Scandinavian death/doom metal becomes the blueprint of brutality and slam KRUELTY unleash. With KRUELTY you will hear the ultimate convergence of some of the most punishing death metal riffs and the most mind-blowing breakdowns influenced by Japanese and ‘90s East Coast hardcore bands. 2020 saw the release of KRUELTY’s debut album “A Dying Truth” and revealed itself as one of the heaviest albums that year. With their new LP “Untopia”, KRUELTY will release an album even bigger in scope and ultimately heavier than their debut. Expect KRUELTY to crush stages live in your city in 2023 with tours planned in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia etc.
“It’s actually something my girlfriend wrote in a poem.” So says Obituary drummer and songwriter Donald Tardy when asked about the killer title of the Florida death-metal band’s first new album in six years. “We just knew it was a perfect title for an album that was written during the pandemic and all this crap that’s going on in the world right now.” Not many bands are writing some of their best material as they’re about to enter their fourth decade of making music, but somehow Obituary are doing just that. Original members Tardy, his brother John (vocals), and Trevor Peres (guitar) have kept their patented death-metal groove on lock with help from bassist Terry Butler and guitarist Kenny Andrews. “I’m proud to say we didn’t take any different approaches,” Tardy offers. “We’re comfortable in our skin, and we know what fans are looking for when they buy an Obituary album. We like our style; we like our feel. We didn’t want to change any of it.” Below, he comments on each track. **“Barely Alive”** “This is officially the fastest Obituary double-bass song there is in our catalog. I’m very proud of that. Why I decided to play bass drums at this tempo, at 52 years old, I have no idea. I’m not looking forward to what the hell I’m supposed to do now if we start performing this song live. But it’s just a blazing fucking song. I knew right away this was going to be the opener.” **“The Wrong Time”** “If an alien came down and said, ‘I’ve never heard Obituary—give it to me,’ this would be a track that we would be happy to let them hear because it’s classic Obituary. It’s got that groove. It’s midtempo. It’s what we call our meat and potatoes. We picked this one as the first single knowing we were going to be performing it every night on tour. And it’s gotten great crowd reactions so far, so we’re super stoked.” **“Without a Conscience”** “A lot of drummers tend to think that you make things heavier by trying to go faster and do more shredding. But this song is the perfect example of how you have to stay in the pocket, playing super solid at the same time. The ending of the song is the classic Vinnie Paul. He’s one of my favorite drummers. Pantera was one of my favorite bands growing up, and now they’re good friends of mine. I took that part right out of Pantera 101.” **“War”** “Many Obituary fans know that we do not write a ton of lyrics. It’s more about the mood than what’s being said. This is one of those moments where my brother knew his voice was just going to fit the song, and he just had the line ‘waaaaaar!’ stuck in his head. It was his idea to have all the tanks and machine guns and war sound effects. There’s a moment where Trevor is playing his Strat, but it’s not plugged in. It’s just the sound of his strings, and then it punches you in the face and goes back to the heavy groove.” **“Dying of Everything”** “This is one that Ken and I wrote together. I guess you’d call Ken the new guy, but he’s been in the band for 10 years now. He did a great job on this. And my brother just did a killer job on the vocals. In the middle part, he did like a nightmare, talking-in-your-sleep kind of thing where it builds from a whisper to kind of getting mad, and then there’s a brutal sound effect on his voice when he says, ‘Your only choice is death!’” **“My Will to Live”** “In my opinion, this is my brother’s best performance on the album. Again, he’s not the dude that’s going to write a thousand words per song. He uses his voice more than he uses his words, but this one is definitely the most lyrically powerful song on the album. The groove is just nonstop on this one, and I think the fans are going to love it. We’re probably going to end up playing it live.” **“By the Dawn”** “This is about as close as you’re going to get to Obituary ripping off Nasty Savage. They’re one of our earliest influences, so I’m proud to say that we somehow drummed up a Nasty Savage type of feel at 50 years old. It was so apparent to us that we invited David Austin, the \[former\] Nasty Savage guitar player, to put down two solos with Ken on this song. And they came out killer.” **“Weaponize the Hate”** “I think this is probably the first song we wrote for the album. It was one that’s been in our back pockets for a while because it’s been six years since the last album. It’s straight double bass, totally punishing but easy to listen to. In the middle part, we had to drop the 808 sub in the middle so anybody that’s got a killer stereo, they’re going to be in for a treat. I think it’s one of the better songs on the album and one of my brother’s better performances as well.” **“Torn Apart”** “This is Ken’s song. He was doing everything he could to come up with something killer. He was working on this on his own at his house, and when he first sent it to me, the drumbeat was totally different. It was more of an upbeat hardcore gallop. But, again, Pantera is one of my favorites, so I changed it to more of a Pantera-type beat. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album. I’m very proud of what Ken did on this one.” **“Be Warned”** “This is the slowest, most doomy, heaviest fucking thing that Trevor and I ever wrote. When we were working on it, it just kept getting slower and heavier. But at the same time, I kept hearing an Alice In Chains feel to it, even though it’s a death-metal song. When Ken was at home working on the solo, I was about to text him, ‘Just think Cantrell.’ Before I hit *send*, I got a text from him going, ‘Check this out.’ Obviously, we were on the same brain wave because he nailed that Cantrell feel without me even telling him.”
"Propelled by the inhuman vocals of John Tardy, the obscenely brutal guitar tone of Trevor Peres and rhythmic brilliance of drummer Donald Tardy, Obituary redefined heaviness throughout the 1990s. From undisputed classics Slowly We Rot and Cause of Death, through an unexpected hiatus to their current creative renaissance, Obituary have pioneered, defined and expanded extreme metal, becoming one of the underground’s most recognized and respected acts." - Decibel Magazine The legendary Death Metal icons OBITUARY return with their highly anticipated new album, Dying of Everything. Dying Of Everything destroys in the time-honored tradition of early OBITUARY classics Slowly We Rot and Cause of Death while maintaining the killer studio sound that the band has been perfecting in their own studio since 2007’s monstrous Xecutioner’s Return. You can hear the results on lead single “The Wrong Time” which boasts a slamming mid-tempo groove. Meanwhile, the title track boasts punishing riffs and songwriting by Ken Andrews. The album’s third single, “My Will To Live,” is a total skull-crusher. Track after track, OBITUARY solidify their legacy as a Death Metal institution, churning out some of the heaviest riffs in their career. Like just about every album in OBITUARY’s vast catalog, Dying Of Everything is instantly memorable; it’s a skill that OBITUARY have only improved upon over the years. It’s unusual for a band that’s been around since the ’80s to be doing some of their best work in the 2020s, but that’s exactly what OBITUARY have accomplished through their do-it-yourself attitude and relentless touring on a worldwide level. “I think it comes down to passion,” vocalist John Tardy offers. “I say this all the time, but if something’s not fun, I’m not gonna do it. And we’re having more fun than ever.”
