Photos by Wayne Edwards.
Links.
Mercyful Fate, https://mercyfulfatecoven.com/
The Andrew J. Brady Music Center, https://bradymusiccenter.com/
© Wayne Edwards
Photo Gallery: Mercyful Fate, Cincinnati, November 4, 2022
Copenhagen
Strychnos, A Mother’s Curse (Dark Descent 2022)
Danish blackened metal band Strychnos devastate the seen and unseen worlds on their first full-length album, A Mother’s Curse.
Lurking in the dark corners of Denmark, Strychnos animated in 1997. Over the past two and a half decades, they have released a couple of demos and the EP Undead Unsouls Unbound (2011). The new full-length album is absolutely incredible, and, listening to it, I tried not to think ahead but I was overcome by greed, wanting to hear even more. The music is a kind of active doom metal that is deeply tinge with blackening and is usually described as blackened death metal. The band is Martin Leth Andersen (bass, vocals), Nis Rode Larsen (drums), and Andreas Lynge (guitars).
“Traumer” wakes the slumbering demons with grinding mysticism from the opening notes. It is like being ground down under a rolling granite sequoia. Genuinely monstrous riffs and rugged rhythm insist on your devastation. The vocals sound like they are coming from a hopeless and hateful carnival barker at the gates of hell. “Blessed Be The Bastard Reign” is a steady-on heavy metal killer that has a catch that will leave none behind. These two songs set up the early placement of the title track, which carries on the depredation and adds exceptional lead guitar work to accelerate the blood letting.
The sound in my ears is doom – that is only one of the elements present, but it is the one I naturally gravitate toward and pull out. Black metal fans will perhaps hear the darkened lines first, and the old-school metallers will be entranced by the structure and the riff. There is a broad range here that the musicians pull together to forge their own sound. Every band would like to claim they do this, but most really don’t – Strychnos is the authentic outlier in this regard.
There are so many outstanding tracks on this record that you might as well pick them at random if you are sampling to see what is there. Whatever you do, don’t miss “Horror Sacred Torture Divine” to go along with the first three and, on the second side, “Regiments of the Betrayed” is the doom lever that will deliver your darkest dreams. I am glad I heard this record now because I am making out my year-end top twenty list at the moment and this album has made the cut. Highly recommended.
A Mother’s Curse is out on Friday, November 4th through Dark Descent Records in the usual forms. Press the links below for more info and access.
Links.
Bandcamp, https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-mothers-curse
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/strychnosterror
Dark Descent Records, https://www.darkdescentrecords.com/shop/
© Wayne Edwards
Cabal, Magno Interitus (Nuclear Blast 2022)
Danish deathcore band Cabal release their darkly charmed album Magno Interitus.
Springing up not long ago in Copenhagen, Denmark, Cabal is a relatively new band. Their two previous long-players, Mark Of Rot (2018) and Drag Me Down (2020), had all the signs anyone would need to see that Cabal was a rising force and that it had the potential to erupt. The new album, it turns out, is as deadly as spewing lava.
The show starts with an excellent sentiment, “If I Hang, Let Me Swing.” It is noisy, and loud, and sounds a little like what might happen if Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin were smashed together in an industrial hardcore press. There is a lot of shouting and screaming. Clanging abounds, and spacy warbles enter and exit. It’s a situation. “Insidious” leans at first toward the black metal domain before crooking a groove. The title track, next, is a sinister whisper, a dark insinuation, that turns brutal fast and lifts your hide away. The pace is down shifted a bit even as the sentiment harshens and penetrates. This album is a raking.
If you are in the proper frame of mind, this music will affect you. Watch out for “Blod af Mit” because it has a strong industrial stance and a plying energy. Listening to “Like Vultures” is a lot like taking a beating. “Plague Bringer” might be the clearest statement of musical intent on the record, and, in any case, it is the final word so it carries weight. This is not a casual album. It is not something you can take lightly. If you have darkness inside you that needs getting out, this music might be your catalyst. Recommended.
Magno Interitus hits the street on Friday, October 21st through Nuclear Blast Records.
Links.
Cabal website, https://cabalcult.com/
Bandcamp, https://cabalcph.bandcamp.com/album/magno-interitus
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/cabalcph
Nuclear Blast Records, https://shop.nuclearblast.com/en/products/sound/cd/cd/cabal-magno-interitus.html
© Wayne Edwards
Dead Void, Volatile Forms (Dark Descent 2022)
Danish doom band Dead Void bring their debut album to the surface, Volatile Forms.
Dead Void is a band of mystery. There is virtually nothing about the personnel in the press materials. The band appears to be a trio – guitar, bass, drums – who started off at some indeterminate time in the past. The Metal Archives does list three demos from them having been released in 2017, 2018, and 2021, respectively. And now we have the new one, a full-length album that is probably the band’s long-player debut. Let’s give it a blind listen.
There are five thunderous tracks on the new album. “Atrophy” takes off with a slow, ominous strum, matched in time by bass and percussion. It is a dark, heavy doom that turns into funeral doom, deepened by treacherous vocals. The song is a warning of an eventual, slow-moving catastrophe. The strum does pick up and the music turns fast and fierce, almost avant-garde at times. Then it winds down and fades out. Contrariwise, “The Entrails of Chaos” starts like a hail of missiles with savage intensity. The doom comes in later, and a kind of groove walks in and out.
“Sadistic Mind” plays like slowed-down Black Sabbath. Absolutely crushing. Death metal tags in toward the middle then bows out. Similarly, “The Reptilian Drive” has a familiar overall arc, but no guiderails at all. Again, the groove in the middle is killer, and it offers a look you almost never get in this manner of music. The final track is “Perpetually Circling the Void.” How’s that for a title? Oh, this eleven-minute opus delivers on its titular promise, have no fear.
This album is excellent. I am a doom fan, and so I appreciate how well those elements are executed in the music. The additional layers of death and groove are what raises the compositions to the next level. Recommended.
Volatile Forms hits the streets through Dark Descent Records on September 15th in CD form, with vinyl provided by Me Saco Un Ojo.
Links.
Bandcamp, https://deadvoid.bandcamp.com/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/TheDeadVoid/
Dark Descent Records, https://www.darkdescentrecords.com/shop/product/dead-void-volatile-forms-cd/
Me Saco Un Ojo Records, https://www.mesacounojo.com/shop/dead-void-volatile-forms-lp/
© Wayne Edwards
Lucid Grave, Cosmic Mountain (Electric Valley 2022)
Stoner doom band Lucid Grave release their debut long-player, Cosmic Mountain.
Situated in Copenhagen, Denmark, Lucid Grave has been haunting stages for a few years. After a demo and an EP, they have now put together an impressive full-length album for their ever-expanding fan base to groove on. Heavy psych, doom, ritual, and stoner vibes infiltrate every nook in this music. The band is Malene (vocals), Jon (drums), Alex (bass), Casper (guitar and synth), and Kriller (guitar and synth).
There are six tracks on the new album, three long ones and three very long ones. The title track kicks the set off with opening ambient tones and an eerie, emotive vocal. The voice is mesmerizing, having the effect of a chant in this context, rather like ritual metal. It is nearly three minutes in before the first big guitar riff lands, and when it does the impact is titanic. The pace is slow but determined and meaningful. “Old Spirit” follows in a completely different way, reminding me at times of a Nina Hagen – digging in with punk attitudes and contemporary sentimentiation [I made that word up just now]. The lead break toward the end is very trippy.
The differential existence of both faster-paced and slow-paced songs works exceptionally well on this record. “I’m Still High” is next and it has an arc the other songs largely avoid. “I Feel The Fire” is somber and not at all sober. “Stay Away” is a Pink Floyd tonic and the closer, “Curse Of the Crow,” digs in deep. The massive natural musical weight of the composition gains access to your deepest inner self if you have prepared for it properly and if you are open to the experience. The ramp out could be effective in an Ayahuasca exploration. This song, and this album, could change you. Recommended.
Cosmic Mountain is out on Friday, July 15th through Electric Valley Records.
Links.
Bandcamp, https://lucidgrave.bandcamp.com/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/LucidGrave
Electric Valley Records, https://www.electricvalleyrecords.com/category/electric-valley-records-releases
© Wayne Edwards
Chaotian, Effigies Of Obsolescence (Dark Descent 2022)
Death metal trio Chaotian renders their first full-length album from the depths, Effigies Of Obsolescence.
From Denmark, Chaotian is a fairly new band having come together in 2017. They released a couple of demos in the ensuing years, and fans have been on edge for a long-player as time has passed along. And now here it is: Effigies Of Obsolescence. This is death metal music turned up past ten. Prepare yourself before dropping the needle because this band leaves nothing on the stage. Chaotian is Søren Willatzen (guitar, vocals), Jonas Grønborg (bass), and Andreas Nordgreen (drums, vocals).
There are seven tracks on the album, each one a new revelation. A sense of suffering and hopelessness is established immediately with “Gangrene Dream.” The feeling of chaos hits hard on “Into Megatopheth” with the unpredictable guitar injections ripping into the status quo. The title track seals the tomb with its irrepressible growling vocals and crushing guitar riffs, its pulverizing percussion. If you are a death metal fan and you hear this song you know you have reached a pinnacle. It is stunning.
“Adipocere Feast” inveigles you with its speed and misdirection, its stabbing guitars. “Etched Shadows” plays a longer game in a deadly slow pace at the front that gets paired with breakneck speed that sends you over the edge of the abyss. “Fustuarium” and “Festering Carcinolith” are the final two turns on this wheel of devastation. The presentation and combination of elements are delivered with expert hands, ultimately leaving you without breath.
I have not enjoyed an album this much since the last Tomb Mold record. Chaotian has changed my expectations for death metal, ratcheting the bar up. Highly recommended.
Effigies Of Obsolescence is out on Friday, June 24th through Dark Descent Records and Me Saco Un Ojo Records.
Links.
Bandcamp, https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/effigies-of-obsolescence
Chaotian store, https://chaotian.storenvy.com/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ChaotianOfficial
Dark Descent Records, https://www.darkdescentrecords.com/shop/
© Wayne Edwards
Mortiferum ~ Hyperdontia, Split 7 (Carbonized Records 2020)
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts with the new Doom split by Mortiferum and Hyperdontia.
This split release was meant to be a companion EP for a tour the two bands were going to do together in 2020. We all know what happened to every tour this year. Still, the split exists and is being released now at the end of the year as a sort of prelude to the tour that will happen as soon as live music rises from its temporary grave.
One side is Mortiferum, a Washington state Death Metal band that made big waves with their album Disgorged From Psychotic Depths last year. Playing to the Doom side of the field, they contribute “Abhorrent Genesis,” a lurker drenched in cemetery fog. The beautiful distortion and foreboding riffs slowly squeeze the life out of you for a minute and a half or so until the tempo lurches forward and escape is clearly no longer possible. The low register vocals are a surrounding force and the noticeable lead guitar work is a defining characteristic of the band.
Another side is Hyperdontia, whose members come from Turkey and Denmark. Their first full-length appeared in 2018, Nexus Of Teeth, and they have issued a bevy of EPs and singles as well in the past few years. The Doom lives in the ever-present background of “Punctured Soul,” encircling the Black and Death Metal centerpieces in a dark cloak. The music is aggressive and understandable; the sentiments and intentions, joinable. Whirring guitar work and determined drumming are interspersing agents in the caustic dankness of the music. It is a whetstone for your imagination.
Available now at the links below, this seven inch will definitely get you into the appropriate headspace for the holidays. Recommended.
Mortiferum band photo by Carter Murdoch.
Links.
Mortiferum, http://mortiferum.bandcamp.com
Hyperdontia Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/hyperdontia
Hyperdontia Bandcamp, http://hyperdontiaofficial.bandcamp.com
Carbonized Bandcamp, http://www.carbonizedrecords.bandcamp.com
Me Saco Un Ojo, http://www.mesacounojo.com
Me Saco Un Ojo Bandcamp, http://www.mesacounojo.bandcamp.com
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