Two years following the release of their Dead End EP, Portuguese melodic death-metal group KARNAK SETI are ready to drop a new EP titled Restos on January 12th.
Throughout four new tracks, the four-piece now comprised of António Jesus on guitars, Cláudio Aguiar on bass, Luís Erre on vocals and Luís Freitas on drums, continue to churn out a powerful and melodic combination of thrash and death metal elements.
Listen to leading single and title track ‘Restos’ here:
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Since 2001, Karnak Seti have consistently blended all the very best elements of thrash and melodic metal, having released three demos, four studio albums and their latest EP Dead End, proving they’re one of most resilient and determined coming from the Portuguese island of Madeira.
Swedish melodic death-metal newcomers After Earth recently revealed a music video for a brand new song of the band’s forthcoming debut album The Rarity of Reason, which is set to be released on August 18th.
Titled ‘Prometheus’, this video was produced by After Earth and J. Nyman Photography. Watch it here:
The Rarity of Reason was produced, recorded and mixed by Robert Kukla at Obsidian Recording Studios, drums were recorded at Nordic Sound Lab, and it was later mastered by renowned producer Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman, and will available just in time for the band’s European tour supporting Swedish death metal band Mara.
After Earth was created in the fall of 2017 in Skövde, Västra Götaland, Sweden, but it was only in mid-2019 that the band found a stable line-up and crafted enough material to start playing live shows.
Then, the global pandemic forced them to cancel a few shows so they opted to record new songs instead,and in 2020 After Earth self-released their debut EP ‘Before It Awakes’, which was met with great critical acclaim.
The following two years were a bit turbulent for the band as they suffered some line-up changes, yet the Swedes still managed to release a single ‘From Age to Aeon’ in 2022, which was a heavier track clearly showing where After Earth was heading musically.
In early 2023, just a few weeks before the recordings of their debut album The Rarity of Reason started, After Earth suffered another setback when both guitarists decided to leave for various reasons. The remainder of the band (Marcus Rydstedt: vocals, Anton Vehkaperä: drums and guitars, Olof Öman: Bass and acoustic guitars) then spent two weeks together with producer and studio engineer Robert Kukla at Obsidian Recording Studios to work on the album. Anton Vehkaperä recorded the majority of electric guitars on the album (bar solos which were outsourced to Christoffer Nilsson) while Olof Öman recorded the acoustic parts as well as chords.
Drums were recorded at a later date by Anton Vehkaperä in Nordic Sound Lab. The album was mixed by Rob Kukla and then mastered by death metal studio legend Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman.
We are living in troubled times and it is hardly surprising that this is reflected in any form of art including music. On Mazzaroth, SODOMISERY have spun a dark lyrical yarn about mental illness in society, religion, and the struggle of the individual, which is running like a red thread through their sophomore full-length. The Swedish melodic death four-piece are underlining their loosely conceptual approach with a remarkable musical evolution.
Check ‘Delusion’ here:
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SODOMISERY are expanding their original sound that combines the power and precision of death metal with the frenzied and cold aggression of black metal, and they have now added a layer of dramatic depth by including keyboards. It is hardly surprising that the Swedes, who are counting DIMMU BORGIR, CRADLE OF FILTH, and CHILDREN OF BODOM among their major sources of influence, came to steer towards such a course.
The band from Stockholm did not take this decision lightly. When all the new tracks were written and pre-produced, SODOMISERY decided to create two versions of the album. One mix included keyboards and orchestration, while the other version had no such additions. After an extensive period of deliberation and many listening sessions, the Swedes decided that the new dimension and cinematic feeling added by the keyboards was exactly what their songs needed.
The speed with which SODOMISERY expand and mature their sonic nature is breathtaking, particularly since the band was born out of a studio project originally envisioned by Stockholm based guitarist Harris Sopovic in 2015, who enlisted the help of NETHERBIRD frontman Johan Fridell, bass player Niklas Sandin (KATATONIA, LIK) and drummer Pär Johansson, who is best known for his work with CRAFT and DIABOLICAL This resulted in the eponymous 3-track EP "Sodomisery”, which was digitally released in 2017. When the EP was heaped with massive praise, Sopovic recruited new members and decided to continue the band under the name SODOMISERY. Their debut album "The Great Demise" (2020) can be viewed as a deliberate statement of intent, not to blindly follow in the giant but also somewhat worn out footprints of the legendary Stockholm death metal scene. Instead, these Swedish newcomers favoured a more melodic and versatile approach.
In the short time period from their inception to the forthcoming second album, SODOMISERY have progressed by leaps and bounds and Mazzaroth is the audible proof of this bold statement!
Aural Aggravation 