Travelling at dusk, when the horizons mix purples and orange and the sun is swallowed whole is an experience that’s always haunted me. It’s the perfect time to explore very personal, haunting music, because it feels like the art enters your veins like an IV drip, intoxicating you as you gaze at the night’s first stars.

That scene has run over and over in my head with each trip to Emma Ruth Rundle’s stunning new record “On Dark Horses,” her fourth solo album overall. There’s something about the music in these eight songs that drape you in darkness, romance, loss, confusion, and strength, and yes all of those things can work together. I’ve always found Rundle’s music enrapturing, and that’s a major reason we’ve always examined her music on this, what’s normally an underground metal site. Yes, there are edgy, bloody moments of her music, but much of what is here is haunting and delicate, a step in a different direction from her amazing last album “Marked for Death.” Some things have changed in Rundle’s life, including her relationship with Evan Patterson of Jaye Jayle and Young Widows, who lends his baritone voice to the album in spots, giving the music a different edge. Related to that, Rundle also embraces horses on the album (see the cover) and their strength and ability to run and sprawl great lengths, though many remain tethered somewhere and not truly free. These elements paint different colors over the music, some of that contributing to this record sounding so great at night.

“Fever Dreams” starts the album with Rundle singing immediately, sinking right in, as she recalls, “A life spent uneasy, in pieces, always in pieces here.” Guitars spill in as lighter tones are worked in before guitars spread their wings as Rundle calls, “Release me from fever dreams.” “Control” has a late-afternoon sunburnt feel, with an excellent chorus that’ll replay in your head. Elsewhere, Rundle urges, “It’s only the devil you know, it’s only the spirit you taste,” as guitars unleash gaze before burning out. “Darkhorse” is a showstopper, as dark clouds move in, and the verses pushing toward the night’s edge. “It’s the dark horse you give legs to, no one else can ride,” Rundle wails over the chorus, her voice splitting with emotion. The tempo of the song even has a dark pattering, as if horses are working their way toward you either to rescue you or drag you away. Excellent song. “Races” is awash in Americana vibes, as Rundle pushes, “I’ll take the wheel, but it’s the hunger that drives.” The track feels like being on a quiet train, rumbling and sending smoke into the lonely night sky.

“Dead Set Eyes” has drums driving, slurry guitars, and a harsher chorus that leaves a burning in your throat. Guitars burst and gaze later, as a dreamy darkness settles over the land and spends the evening. “Light Song” has guitars quivering, as the melody lines are burlier, and Rundle sings, “I outlive the day, I outrun the night.” Later on, Patterson’s voice joins hers, as his words slip underneath, while guitars moan, and a ghostly ambiance is tangible. Guitars power up toward the end of the song as noise gathers and fades away. “Apathy on the Indiana Border” is quiet and reflective, as Rundle observes, “I cannot go anywhere without you just following.” The track feels like an old spirit returning to old stomping grounds, as the guitars light a pathway before the visions disappear. Closer “You Don’t Have to Cry” comforts a grieving friend, and its slower, more delicate pace is that warm embrace of sorrow. “Now, you will sing to them,” Rundle urges, while spacey guitars layer hurt and hope, and the song offers a final hand to soothe a broken heart.

Rundle continues to slightly reinvent her sound each time out, staying true to her base but never repeating herself once. “On Dark Horses” is another excellent chapter of her ambitious career, and these songs eventually will work their way into your heart each time you listen. Fittingly on “Races,” Rundle declares over the chorus, “It’s my time to shine.” It definitely is that, and this record is one that should draw more disciples to her temple.

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

To buy the album, go here: https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/emma-ruth-rundle

For more on the label, go here: https://sargenthouse.com/

Surely in the past when a friend asks what a particular band they never heard of sounds like, you’ve gone the easy route of saying, “I can’t really describe it. You just have to hear it.” I’m not really allowed to do that. Actually, yes, I am. It’s my site. There’s no boss. But I try not to be that effortless, so here we go, trying to explain another record from Bosse-de-Nage.

The Bay Area-based black metal band has one of the strangest styles and personalities of anyone in the sub-genre. You should not be thinking corpse paint and skeletons and devils. Instead, imagine psychological trauma, mental torture you enact on yourself over and over because you have no sense of control, and thinking of demons long since exorcized who have come back to feast again. The band’s fifth album “Further Still” might as well describe their approach to their art, as each release they’ve built on their warped foundation and kept twisting it against its will until life’s blood was further wrung from its quivering body. The band also has operated under a guise of secrecy, only using single initials as names, though two of its members (vocalist Bryan Manning and drummer Harry Cantwell) have revealed their identities, while the others (guitarist M and bassist D) remain somewhat obscured. All that matters, though, is the band’s sprawling, unorthodox delivery, as well as Manning’s deranged diatribes and twisted stories delivered from a dank dungeon long before the advent of the treatment of mental illness. I don’t say that in jest to sufferers; as one myself, Manning’s vocals always have given a deep sense of dread and anxiety that can be tasted.

“The Trench” starts off with melodic riffs, deranged howls, and a pace that’s continually stirring. The vocals reach around corners and spread themselves heavily over everything, while later on, Manning wails, “Once I’m too old to perform even these simple functions my only value will be of the nutritive sort,” as the track takes on proggy storms and bleeds raw emotion. “Down Here” has thick bass prowling, while Manning starts off, “I am old and filthy. My body is rotten. The disfiguration of my physique is so advanced that my appearance is practically unimaginable,” which is nightmarish. Melodic riffs twist with stern strikes, as the tortured wails take this song barreling downhill into doom. “Vestiges” has guitars racing, shouts and growls tangling for control, and any sense of sanity slowly boiling away. The terrifying tale eventually calms a bit, letting post-rock style melodies in for added color before the song gains speed again. From there, the ride rolls and clobbers, the pain builds, and we’re out in a warm rumble. “A Faraway Place” has a fiery vocals tradeoff at the start, reminding, oddly, of Converge, as the guitars surge and tangle. Manning’s prose is howled forcefully over the flow, as the drums attack, guitars charge and compel, and then everything goes ice cold before the sounds bleed out into a furnace. “Sword Swallower” is a fast explosion that has the guitars cutting through, with Manning howling about the main character shoving the sword down his throat, only to have it protrude from his backside, which the performer displays to the audience. It’s fucked up.

“My Shroud” starts with clean guitars, as noise hums dangerously, and the track slowly bleeds toward its breaking apart. About two minutes into it, the madness arrives, with Manning barking, “I was born dressed in a shroud, and I have been wearing it ever since. I will die wearing it.” The track speeds up and into a heavy storm, with the pace jerking back and forth before it flies downhill and charges closed. “Dolorous Interlude” is built on synth waves, strings sighing, and noises scraping, feeling mournful and hopeless as it bleeds out. “Listless” is disorienting right away, as the vocals battle with the melody lines, and guitars slice their veins and spill crimson. There are blind yells behind the wall of horror, with all of the parts tangling like orphan cords, and the track pushing into the void. “Crux” interjects indie rock energy into the quotient, something for which Bosse-de-Nage is known, and then things get devastating, as the growls cry pain, and melodies rain down. Sorrow and fury meet, as the drums crush rock and send it catapulting to earth, as everything comes to a dramatic, terrifying end.

Bosse-de-Nage’s journey more than a decade into their existence remains disturbing and emotionally punishing, with “Further Still” delivering a new, potent dose of black metal strangeness. They’ve managed to both carve out a sound and change their DNA with each record, making their sound familiar yet also alien. They’re not a band to be sampled lightly, though if you’re new to their bizarre display, you really are better off holding off all words and taking the trip yourself.

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

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

For more on the label, go here: https://theflenser.com/

Not sure what’s up here on the East Coast, but it’s hot as hell. It’s like mid-July heatwave/humidity trauma that is relentless and offers very little comfort, unless you can duck out into some air conditioning. It feels like an all-out assault, one that makes it hard to breathe, walk, live, you name it.

It is fitting, then, that the first full-length from Infernal Coil is getting ready to land, though by the time it does next week, things should be more seasonal. But after spending plenty of time with “Within a World Forgotten” the past two weeks, the band’s brand of ultra-violent death metal matched the near-infernal temperatures around us.  The Boise, Idaho, death trio only has been around for four years now, but over their first two EPs and this devastating first record, the band—guitarist/vocalist Blake Connally (also of Dead in the Dirt), guitarist Glum, and drummer Blight—proved a commitment to filth, madness, and bloody intensity. On this seven-track, 36-minute record, they hold listeners faces to the blaze, delivering a smashing that never quits over the course of this fire-breathing display.

The record tears apart with a pair of quick tracks, both utterly devastating. “Wounds Never Close” begins as a death grind assault, as hellish chaos spreads everywhere, Connally’s horrifying growls aim to melt your flesh, and the track crushes you without mercy in under two minutes. “Continuum Crusiatus” stretches just over two minutes and is blinding and sudden, with the growls eating away at your insides. The guitars hammers as we enter into volcanic chaos, a violent explosion that damages you before you have a chance to react. “Crusher of the Seed” has mind-splitting drums barreling your way, as ugly growls and a bludgeoning attack seek vengeance. The growls are spun to death by a beastly assault, ending in a pile of ash in hell. “49 Seeds” is the longest track, clocking in at 9:41 of total mindfuck. Grinding madness mix with strange melodies and furious death, though while the assault is unraveling, doom horns spread into the scene, signaling the end is near. The drums begin a heinous slaughter, as wild shrieks peel paint, and then, the assault subsides, cosmic noises spread, and strange knocks arrive, as the track spends its final minutes floating like a ghost bringing pestilence.

“Reflection of Waldeinsamkeit” boils over dangerously with the drums mauling and the band thrashing you to the point of decimation, which feels like the opposite of what its title seems to indicate. It’s trudging and volatile and not even close to anything soothing. “Bodies Set in Ashen Death” has noise swelling before doomy death spills over, letting the temperature rise before the lid pops. There are bouts of dizzying weirdness woven in before a flood of complete terror strikes. Guitars cut through the guts, while a fiery ending heads right into 7:59-long closer “In Silent Vengeance” that hangs over like a poisonous cloud. Deranged voices encircle you before the track swallows you whole. The attack goes in and out of glazy tunnels of noise, disorienting right before the blades strike again. When they do, the track splatters all over again, spraying blood and body parts, pounding heavily and with rage, until the whole thing dissolves into the dust.

Infernal Coil are a menacing, relentless band, and “Within a Forgotten World” is one of the more smothering debuts we’re heard in some time. Each track here goes for the throat, seeking blood and muscle, and they succeed with each strike. This is an album that’s terrifying on the surface and when you dig deeper into the songs, once you’re there, there’s no chance of turning back.

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

To buy the album, go here: https://profoundlorerecords.merchtable.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.profoundlorerecords.com/

You know those times when people tell you not to look up a certain thing in your search engine of choice because you’ll be horrified by what you see? And then you do it anyway? And then you see the thing you should not have looked up, and you can’t sleep for an entire week because the images were too horrifying? Yeah. Maybe don’t look up hyperdontia.

That is unless it’s the death metal band Hyperdontia, who are about to deliver their blistering debut record “Nexus of Teeth.” So, if you’re unaware, hyperdontia is a condition where people grow extra teeth, sometimes in horrifying fashion, and seeing images are said situation online is, uh, disturbing. But let’s focus on the band instead, whose members stretch from Turkey to Denmark and contains members of notable other groups including Burial Invocation, Phrenelith, Undergang, Taphos, Sulphurous, and a shit ton more. The band came together by chance, as its members organically met, discussed their musical interests, and realized that, together, they could come up with a devastating death metal force. They were right. Its members—vocalist DM, guitarists MG and M, bassist MC, and drummer PMDT—sound channeled and ferocious, as if they always were meant to be, and these eight tracks spread over a vile 34 minutes are here to kill.

“Purging Through Flesh” starts the record with a death rumble before the brutal assault arrives, and the guitars chug hard. Ugly growls stir, while the guitars create a menace of terror, with the track coming to a disorienting finish. “Of Spire and Thorn” has guitars churning and burning, while misery spills like a thick mudslide, and the growls are pained and nasty. Speed arrives with a growl that blasts out of a throat of blood, while the ugliness continues to build. The leads catch fire toward the end and race to devour everything in front of it. “Teeth and Nails” erupt right away, with a clobbering pace and guitars that chew through muscle. Soloing spirals as a punishing sequence arrives and powders bones, bringing with it a charging end. “Aura of Flies” is punchy and clobbering as the pace hammers recklessly ahead before changing on a dime and turning into a different beast. The song gets thrashy, with the soloing cutting through the center like a hot sword, ending in massive pain.

“Majesty” has calculated riffs and pulverizing tones, while infernal growls rip you apart and send the parts flying. The track gets thrashy and dangerous, though it teases atmosphere for a moment before ending in a bludgeoning. “Euphoric Evisceration” is chunky and deadly with beastly growls striking and the track melting into a spacey vortex. More wild screams are emitted before the track dissolves into lava and flows threateningly ahead. “Escaping the Mortal Embodiment” has guitars twisting and mauling, before a proggy section emerges and makes things strange and exhilarating. The back-end smashes apart everything in its wake, leaving only rubble behind. Closer “Existence Denied” has guitars folding and transforming while the track turns into a massive assault. Bloody growls are smeared, while the song bursts with color, weird basslines confound, and the track bleeds away into oblivion.

Hyperdontia’s very creation may have been by chance, but it sure seems like their existence was carved into death metal’s rotting carcass long ago. “Nexus of Teeth” is a tremendous, punishing debut album that’s even better than the sum of its impressive parts. This is another violent entry into 2018’s death metal contributions that are bordering on obscene.

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

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

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

Conan (Photo by Matt Negus)

There you are, face to face with a behemoth with no mercy, with saliva dripping from his rotting mouth, blood marking his battle club that’s even larger than you are. You have a switch, and somehow, you’re supposed to make this some kind of fight. Guess what? You’re not going to win, this doesn’t have a miraculous finish, and it never could because the beast always prevails.

This is what it’s like taking on a new record from UK doom battalion Conan, who are back with more artillery on their fourth platter “Existential Void Guardian.” Over the past half-decade or so, this band has been one of the top delivery machines of clubbing, caveman-like doom metal. It comes slow, calculated, and bludgeoning, and no one who stands in their way survives. If you catch them live, it’s an even bigger task, as they blow out your goddamn hearing by barely even thinking about it. They plug in, and it’s doom for your eardrums. This new effort is a tight and tidy seven-track, 35-minute effort (expanded versions come with four killer live cuts) of blood-caked new Conan fodder, and anyone who has been along for this ride joyously since their 2012 debut full-length “Monnos,” you won’t be asking off anytime soon. Guitarist/vocalist Jon Davis, bassist Chris Fielding, and new drummer Johnny King (Dread Sovereign, Malthusian) sound as sharp and channeled as ever, sometimes even speeding things up, and once you’re done with this thing, you should be emotionally and physically spent.

“Prosper on the Path” starts the record, and it’s a ripper, as their brand of doom mauls you with reckless abandon, Davis’ trademark wailed roar launches, and we’re head-first toward the killing machine. The track kicks up the pace later, as the vocals intensify, with gang shouts splattering all over the song’s end. It’s a motherfucker. “Eye to Eye to Eye” revels in static before the burly riffs kick in, and meaty roars get blood surging. “Bow before the altar!” Davis commands, while the guitars swirl and sicken. The tempo is faster in spots than your typical Conan jam, with the back end bringing hammering fury and spurts of mud. “Paincantation” is the most unexpected Conan songs ever, as it’s a 54-second explosion of grind and death terror, with pure chaos and vicious growls making up its body. “Amidst the Infinite” melts slowly, though it drives hard. Davis wails about “the dying king we all adore,” as warmer tones arrive,  the leads bleed over the top, and noise buries the cut forever.

“Volt Thrower” is aggressive, as one might expect from the title alone, and the pace is punchier and crunchier than usual. The riffs swelter as the band digs in and aggressively wrestles you to the ground, with Davis’ final declaration of, “All hail, volt thrower!” the last thing you hear before expiring. “Vexxagon” starts with Davis wondering, “Is this the end of days?” before the band settles into a track that soaks in their classic sound. It’s sludgy and ugly, with guitars chugging and drawing blood, and Davis’ wails mixing with Fielding’s death growls that actually take over at one point. A cosmic whir smears the battle, as the track hammers over the final minutes. Closer “Eternal Slant Legend” starts with drums kicking in, the bass buzzing, and the song locking into place. This one also delves into outer space but mostly stays there, giving the song a heavy fuzz treatment. The band shoves into weighty, crushing terrain, though there are spacious melodies, atmosphere, and eventually a dissolution into static.

Conan’s force in the doom metal world is unquestioned, and “Existential Void Guardian” is another mammoth release from a band that has yet to leave us lacking in violent chaos. This massive trio knows how to get their battle plans ready, mobilize their force, and come at you with blades whipping. There’s a reason Conan are revered the way they are, and albums like this are all the evidence you need as to why.

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

To buy the album, go here: https://shop.napalmrecords.com/

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

It’s alarming how much our society in America has changed in the past few years. And mostly not in a good way. The bullshit quotient is an alarmingly high level, and there is so much noise out there that it’s nearly impossible to concentrate or even calm down for a second because everything is burning.

Here to drop a tanker full of fuel on the fire come grind masters Pig Destroyer and their long-awaited sixth record “Head Cage,” an album that comes six years after their last release “Book Burner” and thrusts them into a volatile world that practically matches their sonic vitriol. It’s actually a relief to have this band back in our grasp now, during these times, though this record isn’t some sort of reaction to that necessarily. Well, parts are. It’s just that their jackhammering sound feels about as right as ever, as they continue to expand their grind base toward thrash, death, and noise, something they hinted at last time around but really nail on this 12-track, 33-minute beast. The band—vocalist/lyricist JR Hayes, guitarist Scott Hull, bassist/vocalist John Jarvis, noise/sample master Blake Harrison, and drummer Adam Jarvis—sound more at home as their borders expand, and while it took me a few stabs to fully get this record, it’s become one that has really resonated. Plus, it just full-on bulldozes.

“The Tunnel Under the Track” is a quick intro cut that sets old-timey music with warnings about the dangerous noises you’re about to hear, like something right out of “Fallout,” and then we’re into “Dark Train” and its storming assault. It’s total grind ferocity, which will make long-time fans happy, and then it’s into “Army of Cops,” featuring vocals from “The Grindfather” Richard Johnson of Agoraphobic Nosebleed. This is a pointed, molten assault lyrically, digging partially back into issues that inspired the band’s name in the first place. “Tell me, where does it stop? This tower of law, this army of cops?” Johnson wails before delivering the dagger of, “Why would god create something so weak unless he wanted us to suffer?” “Circle River” has electro-charged guitars chewing away, as the pace chugs and batters, the vocals shred, and everything drowns out in noise. “The Torture Fields” is a healthy burst of grind terror, with the delivery a blinding fury, and the band thrashing away, leaving no bones unbroken. “Terminal Itch” is a fucking jackhammer, with the vocals spat out (Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s Kat Katz wails away on this one), riffs swirling, and you getting entangled in the gears and wholly crushed.

“Concrete Beast” has riffs swaggering, Kat lighting everything on fire with her savage wails, and the pace playing games with your mind. Later on, raw shouts and a thrashing assault brings the song to its end. “The Adventures of Jason and JR” is sung partially by band friend Jason Hodges and contains a narrative that is absolutely ridiculous, which is why it’s fun. I guess we don’t often call Pig Destroyer songs fun. Anyway, this one is (Hayes terms it his stoner comedy), but it’s also a death stomp the entire time, with the track ending in blistering chaos. Then we’re back to the blackness with “Mt. Skull,” a furious, speedy cut that has Hayes looking back on the place he grew up and realizing everyone is gone. “Everyone on Mt. Skull is dead, everyone I love,” Hayes cries as the song breathes its last. “Trap Door Man” blasts by in no time, with the band unloading chaos, as raspy howls and mangling playing shred up muscles and veins. “The Last Song” gets back to groove and sludge, as thick bass lines, spacey noise (Full of Hell’s Dylan Walker guests here), and junkyard barks comprise this bruiser that deals a sweltering dose of violence. Closer “House of Snakes” is the longest track, clocking in at 7:08, and its guitar bleed in reminds of the opening strains of Metallica’s “Blackened.” Voice samples strike as the song takes on a humid, swampy feel, with Hayes’ cries piercing any sense of calm. The track has a few pace changes that continue to give the song a new face while, later on, the band steers forcefully into hardcore-style terrain, outright crushing you, pushing every last drop of breath from your lungs. The assault continues to deliver as a stinging noise bed rises up and sweeps the song to its grave.

Pig Destroyer were made for these times, and “Head Cage” smothers fully and provides no chance at clean air or submission. It’s a beating that lasts until every fragment of its target is obliterated, making for a really satisfying, yet bruising experience. This is a heavy, uncompromising record that might take some time to sink in, but once it does, you’re finished.

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

To buy the album, go here: https://store.relapse.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/RelapseRecords/

In the midst of a long drive over the weekend, I was treated to these billboards from some kind of Christian sect basically taking a shit on things most sane people have come to accept and respect (such as science!), along with some batshit phone number to call. One of them def insinuates evolution is a lie (fuck you, science!), which always makes me laugh.

Evolving is a purely natural phenomenon, and all of us are a part of it in one way or another. Some people change in their way of societal or political thought. Some find their career aspects shape shift as they gain more experience. Some people go from asshole to open-minded thinker. The opposite also happens, but that’s more de-evolution. Some of the more interesting bands in the world also evolve, and one that has done that dramatically is Infera Bruo. The Boston-based band that includes members of other notable acts such as Trap Them, Cul de Sac, and Pillory has returned with a thunderous, daring third full-length record “Cerement,” their first for Prosthetic Records after releasing their last album “In Conjuration” on Bindrune Recordings. We loved that one. This one also is a crusher. Their black metal has changed a lot and taken on more progressive and spacey elements, something that matches the personalities of these songs quite well. The band—Galen (guitars, lead vocals), Neutrino (bass, vocals), Germanicus (synth and effects), and Ardroth (drums, vocals)—has progressed nicely the past few years, and this record is bound to be one that takes some time to fully settle but also will shake psyches.

“Poison Waters” is a quick intro cut with eerie strangeness, winds picking up, and dusty acoustics, leading into “Shroud Enigma” and its massive melodies and driving guitars. The vocals are shrieky, while a proggy collection of clouds gathers, and psychedelic noises cut in and bring death. We then are sucked into the stars, as the vocals pierce, the tempo remains fired up, and we’re off to a blistering end. “Effigy of Reason” is a quick instrumental built on strange, spacey wooshes, acoustics, and a solar storm that begins to warm your face. “End Notes” kicks off with guitars charging, as the pace is enthralling, and the shrieks arrive to bloody lips. Clean singing emerges to add a different element before harsh wails return and rain down, the riffs get speedy and urgent, and synth and guitars burst, leading to a furious ending.

“The Lunar Pass” opens in a bath of proggy keys, as riffs begin to churn, and the pace tears apart sanity. Harsh growls and droning fire combine, as clean singing returns along with strange sci-fi keys that should chill your flesh. Guitars meander through stardust, while the storm kicks up again for one last explosion before all fades into the night. “Draped in Sky” has a calculated starts that slowly does damage, as spindly guitars work their way into the scene, and the growls begin to engorge. The track gets creaky but spacious, while clean singing brings in cooler breezes, and the song goes from fluid wonder into prog-infused hell. Weird noises spread, the guitars charge hard, and the track twists and slices to its finish. “Scorne” has guitars jarring before a huge black metal surge arrives and covers the earth in molten lava. Savage growls erupt as the band drives dangerously to the brink, stomping and clobbering until only ash is left. Closer “Temporial” is an instrumental closer that feels similar in sense to the other tracks like this that came before it, almost as if it’s closing the book on that triptych with strange sounds, acoustic washes, and calming, buzzing passages that feel from an alien world.

Infera Bruo not only should have their profile raised with Prosthetic behind them but also should find a hungrier audience of open-minded listeners with the thunderstorm that is “Cerement.” It’s the portrait of a band growing and evolving, embracing every new aspect along the way. The cosmic wonders and atmospheric drama woven into this record makes the album equally fascinating and devastating.

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

To buy the album, go here: https://store.prostheticrecords.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/prostheticrecords/

Autumn is not here yet, but its cold, deadly clutches are not far away. The time of the year when all nature meets decay and death is the ideal time for dark, heavy music, because it very much reflects the imminent absence of life that in the offing. These will be grim times.

So, it is fitting that the debut full-length from Irish black/death metal crushers Malthusian soon will be in our laps. “Across Deaths,” their five-track, nearly 41-minute first offering is a poisonous amalgamation of horrifying death metal and mind-warping black metal, put together in such a way where it creates a kind of beast we really haven’t seen before. It’s not that they’re rewriting the book on death and black metals, but they are doing their best to rewire the brains of both. Every moment of this record is harrowing and violent, pouring heinous power and ill intent into their music, which is the embodiment of mental duress. The band—vocalist/guitarist AC, vocalist/guitarist MB, bassist/vocalist PG, and drummer JK—lays waste from moment one, and over the next 40 minutes, the pummeling you take is thorough and mean, but it’s one you’ll find you enjoy. Not in that way! Perv.

“Remnant Fauna” is an infernal assault right off the bat, as savage pounding and warped growling enter into the tornado and create nausea. The drums splatter while the pace thickens, and eventually things get disorienting, like the room is spinning wildly. Multiple voices swirl together, as the pace decimates, and a savage beating spills out to the ending. “Across the Expanse of Nothing” has guitars firing up and the song being shoved into a blender, Portal style. It’s an ugly, menacing thing that keeps having layers of filth applied over top of it, nearly to the brink of suffocation. The pace stumbles into hell, with guitars cutting veins, wildness pouring out of every crevice, and a damaged aura gurgling on its last drops of blood “Sublunar Hex” sends shrapnel flying everywhere, with devastating growls, tricky riffs, and dizzying playing. Warped screams lash out, while the song continues to corrode and leaves behind trails of rust. The track then gets slurry and gritty, ending in a pit of chaos.

“Primal Attunement – The Gloom Epoch” is the longest track, clocking in at 12:57, and it is outright fucked up from the start. It begins sludgy and brutal, grinding through warped tunnels, with maniacal growling landing blows and black metal melodies raining down. The track turns into slow-driving, deliberately delivered death, as things are swallowed into a sarlacc-style pit, while the guitars begin chugging and producing smoke. The vocals sound like squeals delivered from deep inside a cavern, while deranged howls meet up with them and generate havoc. The band then enters into what sounds like freeform punishment, as strings strikes, and everything fades into darkness. Closing cut “Telluric Tongues (Roaring Into the Earth)” starts with drums disrupting the calm, punchy guitars drawing blood, and engorged growls belching out panic. The pace flattens as heavy death draws near, and guttural growls add ample bruising to the beating that’s long been under way. The band actually finds a way to be more damaging in the final minutes, with the last thing you hear being echoed screams that indicate the fate of all is not going to be pretty.

Malthusian’s debut has been highly anticipated ever since their 2013 demo and 2015 EP “Below the Hengiform,” and lucky for us, “Across Deaths” answers the bell over and over again. Its sick blend of death and black metals is treated with a warped sense of madness, and dark sickness forms from the air around it and spreads its vicious wings. This is a beast of a record, one that will go down as one of the more memorable debuts of a very rich 2018.

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

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

Or here: https://invictusproductions.net/shop/

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

And here: https://invictusproductions.net/

Um … Thou (Photo by Craig Mulcahy)

There are bands whose records you cannot just put on and let the music play in the background while you remain emotionally unaffected. There is nothing wrong with bands like that at all, as there is something valuable in putting music on and zoning out. But there arguably is more value in music that almost literally climbs inside of you, operates your heart and mind, and leaves you a different person. Thou, at least for me, always have been one of the bands that do that every time out.

This year has been a hell of a year for any Thou fan, as they delivered four incredibly varying releases that show different sides of their personalities and musical DNA. Now comes the big one, “Magus,” their fifth full-length effort and first for Sacred Bones. This 11-track, 75-minute excursion is a mammoth, a record you never will unpack in one or even five listens, and another volcano of an emotional experience from a band that doesn’t give a single fuck about your metal aesthetic. This record isn’t a huge departure from 2014’s “Heathen,” our album of the year that year, but it’s not a repeat or a reworking of ideas. It’s an album that moves the earth with themes of alienation, boredom, futility, decay, the awfulness of history, agony, pain, and personal introspection at a time when so many people are fast to point fingers. A lot of these themes are woven throughout their monstrous catalog, and this feels like their natural evolution in the Thou story. The band—vocalist Bryan Funck, guitarists Andy Gibbs and Matthew Thudium, bassist Mitch Wells, and drummer Josh Nee—delivers this cataclysmic conclusion to their latest body of work that also includes noisy “The House Primordial,” lush and quiet “Inconsolable,” and grungy and awesome “Rhea Sylvia,” and they do so in a way that will level you.

“Inward” starts like a swirling storm you can hear in the distance when, all of a sudden, it breaks. The music, while traditionally doomy in the Thou sense, also swims in atmosphere, as Funck’s wild wails spit nails. The guitars cut through the heart, while things get heavier and muddier toward the end, bleeding into a bath of light and interlude track “My Brother Caliban” that’s situated in buried shrieks and fuzzy sound. “Transcending Dualities” has guitars churning and a calculated melody emerging. The pace sounds like it’s hunting prey, while Funck wails about “shapeshifting through life,” as the melodies bleed, and the tumult rises and falls. “The Changeling Prince” has leads barreling in, while the song then openly clubs you, with growls lurching and even some lighter tones spreading later on. Funck’s vocals stab at a “haunted fractured reality,” as things barrel toward a climactic finish, where Funck repeatedly howls, “Behind the mask, another mask,” while he digs for his subject’s true essence. “Sovereign Self” starts solemnly, with Emily McWilliams lending her haunting voice, and the track bursting with emotion. The vocals rip things apart, while burly riffs send shockwaves through the earth, causing pavement to ripple. The pace applies devastating pressure, with melodies raining, the drums rumbling out, and focus heading toward “Divine Will,” where an angelic chorus calls back, “We are the sages reincarnated, up to our old tricks again.”

“In the Kingdom of Meaning” has airy guitars that hint at calm before the track slowly breaks open, and Funck’s vocals delivering bruising. The playing here, while filthy and mashing, also is daring and exciting, as the guitars carve new paths, extending Thou’s kingdom. Later on, the track gets slower and liquidy, as the band looks to carve into hearts, and McWilliams returns to add a ghostly touch to a song that burns itself into the air. “Greater Invocation of Disgust” threatens from the start, as growls explode, and fluid melodies pour from the track’s mouth. “We’ve got nothing but hatred,” Funck cries, more as an observation than a comment on self-state, and great leads and a muddy path make this song tougher and meaner. “Elimination Rhetoric” starts with harsh cries, slow-driving menace, and a riff that feels gothic and dark. Acoustics wash under the madness, with the leads adding warmth, emotional, moody melodies spreading, and the vocals scorching the earth. “I can help myself, don’t talk to me,” Funck repeats, with thing coming to a hammering end. “The Law Which Compels” is the final interlude track, built by noise, smothered growls, and guitars bubbling, heading toward the 10:54 closer “Supremacy” that launches into slow-grinding pounding, even with some cleaner lines woven within the soot. “Consumed by inner fires!” Funck howls, as beauty and carnage twist together, weird melodies rewire your brain, and noise simmers, threatening overflow. The band then bludgeons over and over and over again, thrashing your head, leaving you clinging to metallic sound clouds that eventually dissolve into mystery and leave a vapor spray on steel.

Thou remain one of metal’s most important, genuine bands, even if the group itself eschews labeling itself that type of force in the first place. “Magus” is another landmark achievement from the band, a record you will remember where you were and what you were doing the first time you heard it and the first time it truly struck a nerve. There is no one else out their making music quite like Thou, and even though they don’t put themselves above anyone, we’re all still looking back up at them anyway.

For more on the band, go here: http://noladiy.org/thou/

To buy the album, go here: https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr205-thou-magus

For more on the label, go here: https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/

Photo by I Breathe Needles

Metal is filled with wolves. They’re in band names, album titles, song lyrics, merch, you name it. Same goes for a lot of other animals, both fictional and real, as bands use imagery and the creatures’ traits to color in their own characteristics and personalities. One animal we don’t hear from in the metal world nearly enough is the lynx, that silent predator can be on top of you before you know it.

Luckily for those carnivorous cats, Swedish black metal spirit Nachtlieder is paying tribute with their new, second album “Lynx.” Not only are these animals, some of which are highly endangered, known and feared for their stalk-and-ambush hunting approach, they also are given credit for their ability to see the unseen, something that’s been carved into mythology as these animals having the gift of knowledge and clairvoyance. On Nachtlieder’s third record, an eight-track effort that’s arriving imminently, Dagny Susanne, who handles all aspect of the record but drums (Martrum once again performs those duties), delivers carnage and fury on a record that focuses on death and isolation. You can feel the assault coming, smell the blood on Susanne’s teeth, and feel the fury of her work as this record tramples you underfoot.

“Claws and Bone” gets the record off to a stormy start, as fog envelops, riffs swirl, and Susanne’s harsh growls grab you by the throat. Black metal melodies wash through like a blackened stream, while the back end disappears into pure chaos. The title cut has guitars encircling its prey, while sinister growls rip through, and outright hell erupts. “Come predators, come hunters, I turn my gaze to the skyline, and the night belongs to me,” Susanne howls, as the song goes on a fire-breathing tear, ending at the bloody corpse of its enemy. “Song of Nova” unleashes powerful melodies, as the growls go for the guts, and the drums begin to destroy. “There is no escape!” Susanne wails, while a deathly black mix floods to the surface, and the finish is decimating. “Nameless, Faceless” has guitars that fire up, with Susanne’s creaky growls getting under your skin, and melodies cascading. Gritty riffs and crushing cries join together and wash out into madness.

“Law of Decay” tears calm apart from the start, as blistering chaos and ferocious growls pile up and head toward your chest. Guitars swim through the filth, while deadly mashing ends the song on a heap of bones. “Dark Matters” has a fluid start, with weird keys whirring behind and growls scraping the surface of the earth. Black metal melodies wash up on shore, as a thick bassline picks up the path, and the track disappears into an oncoming storm. “Eyes Ablaze” is smothering at the start, with growls tearing through, and brutal, fiery riffs setting fires. The terrifying riffs add more levels of damage, with Susanne’s hellish cries landing before an abrupt end. Closer “Moksha” splits open faces when it starts, as guitars light up the night sky, and fiery vocals roast flesh. “Forlorn travel of the forsaken, for the lonely mortal, the spirit moves only in circles,” Susanne cries, as the pace swelters, making you feel dizzy, before speed emerges and ramps up the danger. From there, the vocals shred the senses, the guitars ring out, and the track disappears into a cavern of sound that swallows you whole.

This is the most savage, unrelenting record of Nachtlieder’s run so far, as “Lynx” reflects its subject matter’s sudden and ferocious assault tactics. The music is full of torment and fury, and Susanne’s violent vocals add that much more bloodshed to her compositions. It’s about time the lynx got some love in the destructive metal world, a place that could use a few more hungry predators among its ranks.

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

To buy the album or for more on the label, go here: http://www.nigredorecords.org/