GRÀB unveil the lyric video ‘Kerkermoasta’ (English ‘dungeon keeper’) as the first single taken from their forthcoming new album Kremess (English: ‘funeral feast’’ German ‘Leichenschmaus’). The sophomore full-length of the Bavarian black metal duo has been scheduled for release on February 21, 2025.
GRÀB comment: “Our first advance single ‘Kerkermoasta’ is probably the most in-your-face track of the album”, vocalist and lyricist Grànt states. “It also shows a wide range of basically everything that makes our sound unique. Some parts remind me of the best days of such bands as the Norwegians Gehenna. There is also a dulcimer that introduces the melody, mid-tempo, blast beats, groove, and a slow ending. On the lyrical side the Bavarian word ‘Kerkermoasta’ literally translates to ‘Dungeon Master’. The dungeon keeper in question is the Grim Reaper himself. In other words: Life creates the doorway, death holds the key.”
The claim that ‘New Skeletal Faces cast their own black light onto the long dormant corpse of Death Rock, shattering the mirror of modern Heavy Metal into fragments that reflect back a fresh new take on this form of music with an energised & outlandish conviction’ is a bold one. Ominous, menacing, perhaps, or deluded and deranged?
California may be known for its sun and sand, but it has a long history or dark currents which run contra to its popular image, perhaps most notably Charles Manson’s Family being based in The Golden State – which in turn drew Trent Reznor for the recording of The Downward Spiral. In between, Christian Death spawned the proto-goth / nascent death rock sound which, while evolving in parallel to the scene in the north of England, was unique and distinct, and the early eighties saw California home to a thriving hardcore punk scene. I suppose that wherever there is affluence and clean-cut TV slickness, there is bound to be rebellion, a counterculture which stands at odds with it all. No doubt some of these factors drew New Skeletal Faces to California for the recording of Until The Night, the follow-up to 2019’s Celestial Disease.
They proffer an ‘effortless blending of the spirits of old; with the seductive & spellbinding gothic prowess of bands such as Christian Death fused with the raw unbridled energy of early Swedish black metal legend, Bathory to create a bold new statement of intent, in stark contrast to the often overly-refined polish of contemporary metal. Until the Night is, as a result, something more akin to listening to the 1980’s Sunset Strip in an alternate universe from hell.’ For good measure, and to really clarify their position, there’s a cover of Bathory’s ‘Raise The Dead’.
In all, it’s apparent this is destined to be dark from the outset. Across the album’s eight tracks, they paint everything darker shades of black with densely-woven layers of sound. The guitars, while overdriven, are reverby, and quite smooth, and while the riffs take their cues from black metal, there are some overtly gothy licks, and the atmosphere is very much reminiscent of Only Theatre of Pain but with the dial cranked a few notches further over into the ‘metal’ domain for the most part. Then again, the title track, with its thunderous tribal percussion, spindly guitar laced with flange and chorus, and thumping bassline, encapsulates the sound of goth circa 1985, only with shouty vocals which belong more to the hardcore sound of the same time.
Titles such as ‘Ossuary Lust’, ‘Wombs’, and ‘Pagan War’ are fully invested in the trappings of gnarly metal and its themes, but ‘Zeitgeist Suicide’ reflects a self-awareness which may not be immediately obvious.
As I touched on in my recent review of Vessel’s cover of ‘Body and Soul’ by The Sisters of Mercy, while there is a clear interface between goth and metal – even if it does tend to be primarily a one-way street, which finds metal fans embracing goth bands, in particular The Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim – its rare to encounter a particularly successful merging of the genres. In the main, goth-metal is cliché and cack. Despite appearances, Until The Night is neither, and is perhaps the most potently-realised stylistic synergy since The End of Mirrors by Alaric in 2016.
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Chiming guitars swirl around relentless, barrelling beats on ‘Wombs’, before ‘Zeitgeist Suicide’ leads with a weaving bassline and some fizzy, treble-dominated guitar, and they go at it hard and fast. ‘Enchantment of my Inner Coldness’ brings together vintage goth with a vocal performance that evokes the spirit of Public Image Limited, and in doing so, succeeds in sounding – and feeling – both expansive and claustrophobic at the same time.
Until The Night scratches and drives its way – all the way – to the Bathory cover which drawn the curtain down on this dark, fiery, and furious album. It may well alienate goths, metalheads, and post-punk fans alike, but it feels very much like their loss, being an album strong on songs and confident in its own identity in the way it positions itself uniquely across the genres.
Swiss black metal enigma PAYSAGE D’HIVER reveal the harsh, frost-bitten track ‘Verinnerlichung’ (‘Internalisation’) as the second epic single taken from their forthcoming third album Die Berge (‘The Mountains’), which is scheduled for release on November 8, 2024.
PAYSAGE D’HIVER comment: “The title of our new single ‘Verinnerlichung’ means internalisation”, mastermind Wintherr reveals. “The album Die Berge describes the wanderer’s final journey. As is allegedly often the case when faced with death, his life story plays out before the wanderer’s inner eye while he walks and he internalises it."
Greek black metal collective Eldingar is excited to announce the release of their second album, Lysistrata, due out on November 1st via Vinyl Store. Following the success of their 2021 debut Maenads, the band’s latest effort builds on their intense and philosophical approach to music.
The band shared their thoughts on the track: “’ODE’ is a hymn to the enduring pain and the human struggle to assimilate grief, often finding it difficult to express sorrow through tears. The lyrics touch on the emotional states that can lead people to despair, and in some cases, to suicide. Psychological dead ends, a timeless affliction, plague humanity and ultimately bring destruction—both in our era and throughout history.”
Lysistrata delves into themes of the dissolution of armies and the rejection of power, while exploring emotional liberation from submission. Eldingar’s music combines anti-war sentiments and reverence for nature, drawing inspiration from ancient Greek philosophy and weaving them into their sound.
US Black Metal innovators NACHTMYSTIUM drop the next advance single ‘A Slow Decay’ taken from their forthcoming ninth album Blight Privilege. The full-length has been scheduled for release on All Saints’ Day, November 1, 2024.
NACHTMYSTIUM comment: “The song ‘A Slow Decay’ concerns itself with the disintegration of society that is going on all around us”, mastermind Blake Judd muses. “It does not even matter which side you are on. We are all being played.”
Following the announcement of their new album Syv and the release of the wonderfully brutal first single ‘Utbrent’ last month, Norwegian black metal masters Mork are back today with their latest instalment of filth and misanthropy, ‘Heksebål’. An epic and progressive piece journeying back to the old times of judgment, fear and witch burning, ‘Heksebål’ arrives alongside a haunting new video by Matt Vickerstaff.
Watch the video here:
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When asked about the new single, Mork creator, frontman and mastermind Thomas Eriksen said “A depiction of mankind destroying what they don’t understand. Witch-hunts and witches at the stake burned to a crisp. Probably one of the more progressive songs with spellbinding riffs of witchery. May the spell curse those in doubt to a lifetime of bad luck and misery!”
Now marking twenty years since inception – which has seen a strong rise through the tiers of the black metal scene – Mork was created by Thomas Eriksen in 2004 & was primarily a side-project from inception until the debut album, Isebakke, in 2013. Since then, with a constant flow of releases and live performances spanning various continents including a hugely successful slot at this year’s Hellfest, the band has rightly earned the accolade as one of the top Norwegian black metal acts of recent years.
UPCOMING MORK SHOWS
14th September – Royal Metal Fest, Aarhus, Denmark
21st September – John Dee, Oslo, Norway (SYV release show)
28th September – The Bell Festival, Enebakk, Norway
12th October – California Deathfest, Los Angeles, USA
30th January -> 2nd February – 70.000 Tons Of Metal, Miami, FL – Ocho Rios, Jamaica
APTORIAN DEMON have announced the details of their sophomore full-length Liv tar slutt (‘Life Ends’), which will be released on November 15, 2024.
The underground Norwegian black metal act from Trondheim also unleashes a first advance track taken from Liv tar slutt. The single ‘Når livet tar slutt’ (‘When Life Ends’) is available here:
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PTORIAN DEMON hail from Trondheim, Norway. They were founded by vocalist, guitarist and sole member Storhetsvanviddets Mester, who has also been known as Ghâsh.
APTORIAN DEMON embody black metal in its original bleak and raw form. Their mastermind is neither apologetic about this, nor about the hateful, misanthropic, and satanic content. This is what black metal is about. Storhetsvanviddets Mester is a lone wolf, who does not want to be associated with previous bands or the Nidrosian scene.
APTORIAN DEMON have previously released the EP Angst, jammer og fortvilelse in 2005 and the debut album Libertus (2012), which gained the band a dedicated following in the underground. Naturally, there are no social media outlets.
APTORIAN DEMON have deigned the time to be right for their sophomore full-length. Entitled Liv tar slutt (‘Life Ends’), this album keeps every ‘promise’ of a strong black metal statement made by the previous releases and will delight dark souls with its cold, harsh, and razor-edged songs. This is Norwegian black metal! Take it or leave it!
RAT LORD, the Norwegian trio known for their ferocious energy and tongue-in-cheek approach, is back with a brand-new single, ‘Now Diabetical’.
“If you dig the idea of grindcore and powerviolence while poking fun at black metal, Rat Lord is gonna be your new favorite band,” says Decibel scribe Addison Herron-Wheeler about this unorthodox Norwegian act.
Following the success of their debut album This Is Not A Record, Rat Lord returns with the brilliantly titled Blazed In The Northern Sky. The band—comprising guitarist/vocalist Yngve Andersen, drummer Sigurd Haakaas (both from Blood Command), and bassist Martine Green—continues to push boundaries with their unique blend of powerviolence and grindcore.
The full album is set to drop on August 30th via Loyal Blood Records, but you can get an early taste of the chaos with the new track ‘Now Diabetical’ here:
The band comments: “‘Now Diabetical’ is a song about eating healthy, so you don’t catch diabetes type 2, which is a big problem for some. The title may or may not be making fun of Satyricon’s ‘Now Diabolical.’”
The follow-up to the band’s 2022 debut album This Is Not A Record, sees RAT LORD churning out the same gritty and destructive powerviolence/grind sound that received strong praise from various publications along their humorous lyrical content, this time parodying some of the most famous songs and events from the Norwegian Black Metal history, the album title for instance clearly nods at Darkthrone’s A Blaze in the Northern Sky.
I tend to give releases a wide berth if there’s anything that could be construed as iffy about them or the artist or anyone else involved, not because I’m fearful of controversy, but simply feel it better not to provide a platform. Of course, some will argue that silence is tantamount to complicity – and I’m painfully aware of the extent to which that it’s true that many bad things happen while no-one speaks out. But I like to think that overall, my positions on matters of politics and beyond are fairly obvious on account of what I do cover, and some of the discussions around them, and I’m not about to virtue-signal with a list of releases by abusers and shady shits which have landed in my inbox to be immediately deleted.
But this one stood out. I sift through emails and divide them into ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘maybe’ for review, and have a separate flow for those that I’ll likely not have time or energy to review, but might be posting as a stream.
I’d never heard of Nachtmystium, but was intrigued to learn that they were back, although the tone of the press release struck me as a little different, more muted, perhaps: ‘…after all that was said and done, mastermind Blake Judd aka Azentrius is still standing. Not only that, but Judd has clawed himself back from the abyss of a most extreme life imaginable to a much more quiet, observant, and matured artist and person… His return will not be met with universal applause – even from the black metal scene. For anybody following the tumultuous career of Blake Judd and his pioneering band that has pushed the borders of their genre into new territories, this comes hardly as a surprise.’
But the video… on first play, I figured it was perhaps a Day Today or Brasseye type spoof, or that Nachtmystium was the Bad News or Spinal Tap of Black Metal. But no. Comparatively cursory research reveals Blake Judd’s long history of junkiedom, thieving, scamming, fraud, and unpaid bills, not to mention connections to the National Socialist Black Metal scene – something Judd is on record as renouncing and denying direct involvement with, but saying ‘We don’t oppose people’s right to be ‘NS’ or whatever… Even though I personally, my band(s) and my label have absolutely no interest in being a part of that scene, I will ALWAYS take their side when it comes to their freedom of speech being imposed upon.”
Freedom of speech has become a battle ground like no other in recent years , and thanks to social media, it’s a debate that’s taken the ugliest, most divisive of shapes, largely splitting along lines of left and right, with the left calling out fascists and twats, with the right calling the left fascists and twats for wanting to suppress their right to be fascists and twats. But, just as opposing Antifa is, effectively to align oneself as being Profa, to say ‘hey, free speech, it’s their right to be nazis’ is not only spineless, but a tacit statement in support of the nazis, even if it’s one born out of ignorance of just how much harm their ‘free speech’ can cause – and I find it hard to believe any adult could truly be that ignorant nowadays.
So, to return to the video… it contains some stills of the man himself, treated with grainy effects overlayed, with some lyrics flashed up, flickering, as the main focus of the visuals to what is, in real terms, some pretty standard black metal. But throughout, presented as ‘cuttings’, snippets of comments from social media and various other sources, essentially decrying what a deplorable scumbag he is.
It seems perverse that while he’s growling about ‘the return of a rightful might’, there are comments to the effect of ‘fuck this guy’ and ‘he owes me so much money’ to ‘good luck, Prophecy’. And against snippets reporting on his jail time and drug addiction, he snarls ‘No remorse, no remorse’.
Prophecy is a label which has released countless fantastic acts, and continues to do so, but I can’t help but feel that this is something of a mis-step – not even releasing new work by Nachtmystium, necessarily, but the pitch may be rather misjudged. These aren’t a few ‘oops’ moments – which should be approached apologetically even if they were – but to market the release in a way which celebrates all of this? Even if intended humorously – which there’s nothing to indicate that it is – it’s not very funny for the victims of his wrongdoings. And yes, they are victims, however desperate his drug plight or whatever at the time.
Musically, ‘Predator Phoenix’ is fine, and although the title seems both dubious and self-aggrandising, it’s par for the course in black metal. But the way this comeback is being heralded… not cool, man, not cool.
LIMBONIC ART release the third and final advance single ‘The Wrath of Storms’ taken from the forthcoming album Opus Daemoniacal. The new full-length of the Norwegian black metal legends is chalked up for release on June 28, 2024.
Check it here:
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LIMBONIC ART comment: "The track ‘The Wrath of Storms’ unleashes a relentless metal onslaught of dark negative energies", mastermind Vidar "Daemon" Jensen explains. "As nature’s destructive fury rages across the planet and lays the domains of feeble entities and deities to waste, this track relates a profound tale of horror through the eyes of the beholder."
Aural Aggravation 