Ireland

Coscradh, Nahanagan Stadial (Invictus 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

The debut full-length album from Dublin’s Coscradh is a menacing dark wonder.

Formed in Ireland in 2015, Coscradh is a death metal band that integrates black metal and doom elements to produce profoundly heavy music. They have released a demo and a couple of EPs over the years, and now they present their first long-player, Nahanagan Stadial.

The title of the album refers to a time in history usually called the Younger Dryas in the US. It is thought to be a time of cataclysm, with meteor impacts and coronal mass ejections from the sun causing the sudden onset of a short-lived ice age that destroyed civilizations across the globe. In Ireland, these events wreaked havoc, decimating the population and driving them off. Keep this in mind when you listen to the album, because that is what it’s about.

The set opens with the title track. It sounds like a catastrophe is underway. You can hear and feel the destruction; if you close your eyes you can see it. Guitar riffs impact you like granite slabs dropped from a great height, pulverizing your senses. The vocalizations are warnings that come too late. The lead guitar describes the rending of reality, and the grimy end to your own existence. The track is ten minutes long and there is no respite at any point.

“Feast of the Epiphany” follows and it is more actively aggressive, like an attack. You might say this track leans more in on the death metal side than doom, and ends in screaming. “Plagues of Knowth” offers a similar pace, even faster, in fact. The music breaks into chaos in the second half and your ability to reason flees as well. “Cladh Hàlainn” is a black metal upheaval, a rattling so severe its echoes might never leave your ears.

The record ends on the twelve-minute epic “Feallaire Dóite.” The mass of the doom in this song has a planetary equivalent. There are pace changes throughout, and magnitude of the musical presence remains dense. For a time, you can hear the howling wind of the ice age grow and the whispering of lost souls freezing in their places of ethereal torment. The is album is a dark destructive wonder. Recommended.

Nahanagan Stadial is out on Friday, August 5th through Invictus productions. Stream sample tracks for free and buy the album at the Bandcamp link below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://coscradh.bandcamp.com/album/nahanagan-stadial

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Coscradh/

Invictus Productions, https://invictusproductions.net/shop/

© Wayne Edwards

Coscradh, Nahanagan Stadial (Invictus 2022)

Abaddon Incarnate, The Wretched Sermon (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Irish grindcore band Abaddon Incarnate release their sixth album, The Wretched Sermon.

Abaddon Incarnate started out in the early nineties, and even before that under a different name. They broke ground with black metal and death metal, evolving over time toward the grindcore side of the field. It has been eight years since their last long-player, Pessimist, and fans are more than ready for new music. The band is Steve Maher (vocals, guitar), Bill Whelan (guitar), Irene Siragusa (bass), and Olan Parkinson (drums).

There are thirteen tracks on the new album, mostly in the short and savage territory. To wit, “Rising Of The Lights,” which opens the show. It is bewilderingly aggressive at the jump, with screeching vocals and positively pummeling percussion. “Veritas,” at seventy-seven seconds, is even more to the point. It is amazing how much the musicians can pack into to such a compact delivery vessel, from the squealing guitar instantiations to the insistent pulsing bass, the music is designed to disrupt.

With so many short, fast, loud songs, you might worry they’ll all run together, but they absolutely don’t. “Gateways,” one of my top picks from the album, has a killer lead break and a dire, eerie atmosphere unique to it – no other track on the album sounds like it at all. “Parasite” breaks sour and twists you up while “Into The Maelstrom” is a slight of hand behind a dark veil that raises a sense of terror throughout. Great song. “Resurrected From A Mass Grave” has a delightfully caustic groove.

The brevity works to advantage, overall – get in, do it, get out. “Isolation And Decay” is a long piece that stands apart because of its size and, more importantly, due to its unique construction. The song contains a few movements and pace shifts, although the intent itself never dissipates even when the sounds move from valley to mountain to sea. The last word is “Silent Indifference,” and it takes the set out on a howl. Killer track.

If you haven’t heard Abaddon Incarnate yet, it is time to get with it. Start here, because this album will shake you up. Recommended.

The Wretched Sermon is out on Friday, August 5th through Transcending Obscurity Records. Touch the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://abaddonincarnateband.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/abaddonincarnate

Transcending Obscurity Records, https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Abaddon Incarnate, The Wretched Sermon (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Soothsayer, Echoes of the Earth (Transcending Obscurity 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

The first full-length album from the Irish band Soothsayer is a mystical slab of doom rendered in gargantuan proportion.

As early as 2013 Soothsayer was coming together and forming its identity. They released an EP in 2015, The Soothsayer, and another the following year, At This Great Depth, then a live set last year, Live In Malta. Echoes of the Earth is the first full-length studio album, and while its formation could be seen in the distance and its arrival was predicted, the size and impact of it could not have been fully imagined nor accurately reckoned in advance. The music is doom metal played heavy with attentive disquietude and depth. The musicians are Líam Hughes(vocals and soundscapes), Con Doyle (guitars and vocals), Marc O’Grady (guitar), Pavol Rosa (bass), and Sean Breen (drums).

“Fringe” is a think piece comprised mainly of eerie voices and what sounds like someone swinging an eight-pound hammer in chains. “Outer Fringe” is a continuation of the former and it is where we get the first massive barrage of Doom Metal. “War of the Doves” turns up the direct aggression with a resounding thunderclap. The driving, pounding guitars are relentless, as is the overwhelming vocal assault.

“Cities of Smoke” pries open side 2 with a succinct and nuanced all-in engagement. The quiet moments are surrounded by distant howls of suffering and in the end the calamity has to come. “Six of Nothing” paired at the end with “True North” offer more than twenty minutes of unrivaled imagination. In this space is the heavy doom we have been hearing in other songs beside and between episodes of blistering pace and passages of strange narration accompanied by upsetting collateral drones. The elements are too numerous to delineate and the experience is diminished in description – you must put it to your own ears.

The music is inescapable – while you are listening you cannot tear yourself away. From the subtle effects and captured sounds to huge guitar riffs and the imminently compelling rhythm to the narrative and emotion conveyed by the unique and unforgettable vocals, this album demands your attention and gets it. Highly recommended.

Echoes of the Earth is out now in many forms from Transcending Obscurity.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://soothsayer.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/soothsayerdoom

Transcending Obscurity, https://tometal.com/

Soothsayer, Echoes of the Earth (Transcending Obscurity 2021)

Dread Sovereign, Alchemical Warfare (Metal Blade Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , ,

Dublin Doom trio Dread Sovereign sets a raging fire with their third album, Alchemical Warfare.

The driving force in the band is Nemtheanga, known otherwise as the vocalist for the band Primordial. He started Dread Sovereign some time back, releasing an EP in 2013 followed by two LPs, All Hell’s Martyrs (2014) and For Doom The Bell Tolls (2017). Joined by JK (Johnny King) on drums and Bones on guitar, there is an urgency to the music on the new album, unmistakably circling the chasm of Doom. The vocals are mostly clear, and the themes walk the Black Metal road. The band’s motto is “the world is doomed,” and the theme is a through-line explained this way: “The subject matter and aesthetic are particular to the three characters on the front cover of each release, the time travelling trio who appear on the debut flaying Saint Bartholemew, on the second album hanging Sarah Wildes Averill in Salem and now as lab assistants to Isaac Newton as he tries to discover the secret of Alchemy.” The songs are sinister odes from dark moments in history.

There are seven tracks (four of them over eight minutes long) with an intro piece and an intermission segue. That intro sounds a little like swirling bells and whispering dark witches casting spells. “She Wolves of the Savage Season” then picks up the doom and slams it back down. The frenzy gets really whipped up on “Nature Is The Devil’s Church” with its pressing riffs and pleading vocals. There are also extended guitar passages here, in this song and well distributed throughout where the narrative concepts are given musical form. “Her Master’s Tomb” is almost a Doom ballad while “Devil’s Bane” rips and roars and finishes with a raging shred. The album wraps on a single-length banger, “You Don’t Move Me (I Don’t Give A Fuck)” – they decided to go out swinging with a heavy punk punch. This is an great album, front to back. Highly recommended.

The full album drops on Friday, January 15th and preorders at Bandcamp will get you two tracks now while you wait for the week to end. Metal Blade Records has CDs and vinyl if you want to go that way.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://dreadsovereign.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/DreadSovereign

Metal Blade Records, https://metalblade.com/dreadsovereign/

Dread Sovereign, Alchemical Warfare (Metal Blade Records 2021)