Sequels can be hit or miss. Actually, if we’re being totally honest here, sequels generally are way more miss than hit. A lot of times they are created not necessarily because the creator has more to say, but instead to reap in the cash awards that will come with droves of people wanting to see the follow-up. Therefore, substance takes a back seat to style.

But not all sequels are disappointments. Take, for instance, “Landless,” the new record from Portland-based band Eight Bells, who created this piece as the follow-up to their excellent debut “The Captain’s Daughter.” The person who was lost at sea last time has returned only to find no one is waiting on the other side. The idea is crushingly sad. If we’re equating this record with any movie sequel, you could make the argument that this is “Empire Fucking Strikes Back” levels of fulfilled anticipation. That, obviously, was the original title until George Lucas Lucas’d out. Don’t argue with me. This second record not only should catapult Eight Bells into the hearts and minds of metal fans who don’t mind crossing a ton of boundaries, but it’s an early album of the year candidate that fascinates with every damn listen. And I’ve spent a ton of time with this thing.

So, I mention metal, and this is a metal site for the most part, but that’s not an completely accurate tag to put on this band. There is so much more. From the progressive sections, to the enthralling arrangements, to the lush vocal harmonies that push the story, to the propulsive drumming, this group–guitarist/vocalist Melynda Jackson (formerly of Subarachnoid Space), bassist/vocalist Haley Westeiner, and new drummer Rae Amitay (Immortal Bird, Thrawsunblat) create weaving, winding tapestries that are melodic, dark, hypnotic, and often leave you breathless. This also is an album you should digest as a whole from the opening sound bed right through to its abrupt finish five songs later. This is an adventure, especially emotionally, and it manages to take what they accomplished on their first record and blow it into the stratosphere.

“Hating” opens the record with sounds emerging and stretching over the horizon, and as the song develops, so do the layers. The track moves coolly until it finally bursts open, with power swelling, atmospheric guitars lapping, and the singing pushing its way through. The track settles into a stormy mid-tempo, with the final minute letting the bass bubble to the surface, a glaze of keys add a shimmer, and the drums rumble out. The 12:46 title track follows, and it’s one of the best songs to be released so far in this young year. We begin with kinetic riffs, the tempo charging, and the music exploring, reminding of Rush on more than a few occasions. Jackson’s and Westeiner’s voices meld together before the earth tears apart and wild shrieks take control. But it sweeps back to the calm again, following this pattern over the bulk of the song. As the song progresses, it gets spacier and foggier at the same time, feeling dark and lonesome for stretches and sinking into what feels like eternal nightfall. Then the final minutes strike, and it is explosive. Furious growls smother, while the main riff returns, each member pours all of their emotion into the song, and the end mixes dreamy gaze and volcanic thunder.

“Hold My Breath” has another great riff that feels like it jolts electricity, with great, harmonious singing leading the way, and punchy, yet scenic, playing setting the scene. The song hits the gas, speeding along and doing some bruising, though it eventually sinks into calm and comes out the other side bleeding colors. Jackson and Westeiner join forces again, making you think you’re shifting into softer waters until the blazing starts anew. The vocals are howled, the pace rips apart everything in its wake, and the calls of, “Hold my breath,” rings out to bring the song to its finish. “The Mortal’s Suite” is a shorter one, opening like it’s going to be an interlude with classical splashes to the music and a rush of sound. But then singing trickles in and numbs the senses, while the guitar calls out like a lonely siren. “Touch Me” brings the record to a close, starting with swirling vocals, interesting textures, and the body of the track seeming to float into the clouds. The music hovers, with the guitars churning and burning and melting over top the song. As the piece moves along, the intensity builds and works into a dizzying display. The guitars mesmerize and disarm, while the playing crunches and pounds away, and the abrupt ending tears your breath away. There are parts of this record that stay jammed into my head, and it usually results in me going back and taking the trip again.

I have no idea if any readers take my recommendations to heart, but seriously, go out of your way to hear this record. Eight Bells have created something expansive and uniquely creative, and “Landless” is an album that will stimulate you mentally even if it makes heavier your already bruised heart. As far as sequels go, this one raises the bar insanely high. Hell, if it was just a stand-alone journey, it still would be insanely rich and rewarding.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/eightbellsband

To buy the album, go here: https://www.facebook.com/battlegroundrecords

For more on the label, go here: http://www.battlegroundrnr.com/

From a pure weather standpoint, winter has completely sucked where I live. We have had one major snowfall. Beyond that, we’ve been treated to a few nuisance snows and a whole lot of really mild days that feel like a combination of March and October. Considering this is a time where I visit a lot of specific music based on the season, it’s been a disappointing stretch where my mind has been left confused.

If the cold weather ever truly returns this season, I have a bank of music ready to go so I can enjoy while I watch the flakes falls. One of those is the stunning debut record “I” from Fuath, the new project from Scottish musician Andy Marshall. This has everything one needs when the ground is covered, you’re trapped inside, and you have no worries other than what kind of dark beers will be enjoyed during it all. I was pleased when I went through the bio materials and learned that Marshall also had winter in mind when making these songs, which meant I was on some sort of same wavelength. The music is atmospheric, frosty, majestic, and melancholic, and it puts me in the mood to embrace the cold winds and get swept away on mental adventures.

Marshall has been making music in all different realms of metal for years. His other current project is the folk-tinged black metal Saor, who you need to seek out now if their music is foreign to you. He also was a member of Falloch, a band that still claims a place in my heart, as well as many others, and here, he is blending all sorts of different shades and colors into his concoction. There are long, swirling passages that could arrest you and have you staring, almost the way your brain can trick you into thinking you’re spinning while driving through a blizzard. There also are harsher element, furious growls that are situated underneath everything, and the four songs here create a hypnotic, repetitive (in a good way) scene that envelops you.

“In the Halls of the Hunter” blasts open, putting an explosive burst at the front of this 9:04 track. The growls are buried beneath the din, with gorgeous, sweeping melodies charging in, and heaviness piling on. The pace drills pretty hard, but then it’s onto majestic wonder, with the growls rushing into the melodies, the elements cascading like a storm, and the track disappearing into a misty cloud. “Blood” runs 10:34, and it punishes right off the bat. The sounds here are elegant in spots, with the playing gushing feelings and colors. There is a strong ignition later on, bringing a force along with it, and the blistering drumming and vicious growls deliver a sense of violence. A numbing vortex of sound emerges, pushing you back and forth, and then calm arrives, letting the air settle before a final assault kicks up and ends the track in a rage.

“The Oracle” has the music washing over everything, with the vocals bubbling underneath, and the tempo surging ahead. There is a flush of melody that bursts like a swelling stream, feeling rich and adventurous and leading into a long, pulsating section. Your mind is tingling and later swimming as the layers thicken, and while the storm holds up and seems ready to depart, it’s actually just about to make its final push and drive the song to its burning conclusion. The 11:58 closer “Spirit of the North” seems aptly titled as it churns frost at the start, with the growls bursting and sounding ominous, and the song taking on a wintry rush. The riffs pierce and cut before power blows in, the growls get thicker and more forceful, and a dizzying stretch begins. From there, the riffs gallop hard, the dust-up from the march hovers overhead, and all of the clubbing makes one last stand before fading away.

Marshall’s work over the years is unquestioned, and Fuath is perfect for the colder months where you want to wrap yourself in warmth in front of a crackling fire and imagine trudging through the forest. “I” is an excellent adventure, one that conjures an icy environment that pelts you with power and emotion. It’s another riveting step in Marshall’s creative path, one that will warm the heart if the cold air and snow ever decided to arrive in full.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/fuathmusic

To buy the album, go here: http://www.neuroparecords.com/

For more on the label, go here: http://www.neuropa.be/site/

Any band that is going to throw piss at the concept of conventional creativity already has a head start on gaining my interest. With the myriad bands and records that come my way each day, not everything is going to stand out as something worth hearing. I’m not, like, Mr. Important or anything. It’s just the nature of things.

So, when “SeroLogiikal Scars (Vertex of Dementiia),” the debut record from German weirdos Khthoniik Cerviiks landed in my inbox, that thing got ingested immediately. Not digested. This is a band and album that doesn’t just hit the gut and settle itself with no problem. These guys are out there, and their totally unconventional brand of death metal stands way, way out in an otherwise flooded pack of bands. You have the weird spelling of their name (these guys love the shit out of the letter “I”), their mouthful song titles that sound like they were transcribed from an alien space lab (and who says they weren’t?), and their own brand of communication that leaves your brain mangled and completely overwhelmed with strangeness. How does that not sound like a band and record you have to experience immediately?

Khthoniik Cerviiks formed just two years ago and combine members of fallen bands Zuul and Ignis Uranium, with the idea of keeping the spirit of both groups alive. This band is comprised of interestingly named crushers Okkhulus Siirs (bass, vocals), Khraâl Vri*ïl (guitars, vocals), and Ohourobohortiik Ssphäross (drums), and the concept of this record focuses on diseases and pathogens contained within one’s own body that may never even rise to a level of being something that impacts the person. As a hypochondriac, let me go take a couple of deep heaving breaths. Anyway, the music is so twisted, so not of this world, that it might catch many listeners off guard at first. If your musical tastes fall somewhere in a sludgy mix of Gorguts, Wormed, and Voivod, you’re the most likely recipients to grasp this thing first time out.

As noted, the song titles are long and packed with weirdness, starting with opener “Schizophradio (KC Exhalement 2.0: Technocide Inertiia)” that spits mechanical noise and alien atmosphere before opening up and starting its metamorphosis. Some of the guitars sound inspired by classic death, while the cut crushes harder and harder as it goes, with a proggy sequence landing toward the end and thrashing to a finish. “SeroLogiikal Scars (Sequence 1.0: Vertex of Dementiia)” lets guitars spill and splash, with vile growls bubbling, the pace pulverizing, and the speedy runs pulling at your brain stem. The assault is tricky and challenging, moving along at a cartoon-like pace, disorienting before it makes its gargantuan final statement. “Miindwrecked (Project Eigengalaxy)” is rubbery and spidery at the start, and it would be interesting watching this thing growl legs and carve its way across the earth. The playing is all over the map, with melodies hiding underneath the surface, dark and burly playing slithering, and the track spinning out.

“Biinary Epitome (Spyder’s Web)” sounds a little washed out at the start, cooling your senses before the guitars light up and the bottom drops. A thrashy, mystical assault pushes forward, with the guitars exploring, the tempo baffling, and the vocals sounding grim and monstrous, with everything ending in a flurry of motion. “SeroLogiikal Scars (Sequence 2.0: Veiled Viiral Vektor)” begins with speed bursts and then travels its way into thick doom. The sounds flood and overwhelm in no time, with the growls grumbling and the band hitting a nice groove. The skull bashing arises again, with unruly chaos dominating and the cut coming to an abrupt end. “Cranial Leftoverture (Angel’s Pyramiid)” goes off right away, feeling like something that lurches out of a cosmic station, and the growls blowing heat. The track is vicious and perplexing, with the infernal storytelling slashing its way, and the track later settling. Melody pours over the ugliness, the track grinds its way through, and the final moments drub you heavily. Closer “Voiidwarp (KC Inhalement 2.0: Meta Material Monoliith)” is a weird outro, a smear of noise that injects a final dose of strangeness into your bloodstream before fading away.

Khthoniik Cerviiks regurgitate something that could make for the darkest episode of the “X-Files” ever. The music is so brutal in an alien-like fashion, that it might make one wonder if it isn’t going to awaken some of those microscopic bodies lurking within us. On top of all the off-balance things about the band, one can’t ignore the fact that these guys are really fucking good. A great, warped death metal band for the future that just so happens to inhabit our world today. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go wash my hands 87 times in a row.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/Khthoniik-Cerviiks-1667196730203180/

To buy the album, go here: http://shop.ironbonehead.de/

For more on the label, go here: http://www.ironbonehead.de/