A Quick Turnaround
to be cut to the quick.
Lavadome Productions has a full slate this year. Two of which will be mentioned here. First, Garoted - Bewitchment of the Dark Ages. This KCMO act recalls the glory days of American death metal. In fact they remind me of quite a few of my favorite things from the yesteryears - Angels Dark and Morbid, Necrosis - Acta Sanctorum, Sindrome and Dim Mak. Short, sharp, concise, bone rattling and caustic. After this first dose of the upcoming release, be sure to check their back catalog on bandcamp.
I believe AthanaTheos - Cross. Deny. Glorify is, in fact, the first Lavadome Productions discharge for 2023. Jan curates his label with a quality over quantity mindset which many others should adopt rather than contributing to this age of obsolescence where artists are fighting to remain relevant. AthanaTheos is forward thinking while delving into the past in terms of historical context for lyrical themes in addition to musical inspiration build upon.
Maniaco does brutal death metal right. A Hate Eternal / Morbid Angel fusillade of riffs and double kick throttle. Now and then these Chilean death mongers add an Immolation, Gorguts and Gigan twist to the riffing to keep a listener on their toes. A concise, brevity kills aesthetic under an avalanche of sonic mayhem.
From tech to glorious primitive death: Feeding.
The next two are projects from Krystian Lukaszewicz. Most recently Krystian’s black metal section of his brain conceived Dione. On the preview track he receives a vocal assist from Gabriele Gramaglia. Musically this is black metal fashioned with Ulcerate guitar riffs that hang and burn across a northern sky.
I was first introduced to Krystian’s Embarla Firgasto project last year. This is a master class of dissonance that again has more than a couple nods to Ulcerate or DsO with the cycling and hanging chord patterns. There feels to be more of a bass undertow involved with Embarla Firgasto in addition to utilizing growling, guttural vocalizations and the approach to song writing focuses on long form arrangements. Embarla Firgasto is the darker in tone of the two projects, but, I feel there could be a more confident, focused approach with Dione; but, that is judging one song against a full length, so I could be mistaken once the entirety of the Dione release is unleashed.
New release from German black metal entity Non Est Deus has been announced. First deconsecration from Legacy is “Thousand Years of Sand.”
please support: Everything Went Black, The Metal Dad and his fiendish five podcast, No Clean Singing, Stereogum: The Black Market, The Devil’s Mouth, Aversionline, Invisible Oranges, Horror Wolf 666, Into the Necrosphere, Sol Nox Podcast, The Book of Very Very Bad Things, Plague Rages, Thrown to the Abyss Podcast, Freedom Has No Bounds, and Doktor Dismemberment’s Midnight Murderplex…. these sites update daily and weekly.
The death doomsters Hesper Payne return to spin a tale of Cthonic terror and Hammer Horror. This beast is a tentacle under The Axis of Perdition’s Brooke Johnson’s mantle.
Keeping with the theme of cosmic horror, Origami Swan brings Radioctivity Breath and Mysteries from Space. Unlike the death doom from the UK act above, Origami Swan bring an obliterating, overdriven noise grind to the table. Band page with the digital, Bent Window Records with the cd, Granite Tomb with the cassette. Each with distinct art presentation.
Love for NYIA, KOBONG, SAMO, etc that isn’t from yours truly? You get it this time from Ian Chainey at Stereogum’s Black Market with this beauty of piece… It’s as if it were raided from my wall of cds and youtube history from 18 years ago. https://www.stereogum.com/2218691/nyia-head-held-high/columns/the-black-market/
Sophmore release from Moral Collapse is pending early June, 2023. N Arun (label head of Subcontinental Records) alongside Hannes Grossmann (ex Necrophagist, Obscura, Blotted science) and Sudarshan Mankad comprise this trio devoted to old school tech death supremacy.
Keeping it on the technical edge. dEEmtEE have something new in the works. Enjoy the first glimpse into the work in progress.
More help from friends, NCS with the introduction to the realm of Reva. One person’s melodic black metal rallying cry against the isolation and indifference in an urban environment.
Pestilength & Necronauta (who I believe to be Andrea Collaro of Devoid of Thought and bassist for industrial act Kollaps) collaborate on “Aesporeh.” Experimental sound, ritual noise and ambient textures meet metallic abstractions over a 13 minute shifting soundscape. This is geared far more to those into the sonic abstractions Pestilength has conjured than those looking for straight up death metal. Either way, “Aesporeh” is an exercise in unease and sonic sculpture.
From the sound warpsmithing of Pestilength & Necronauta we shall wrap this up with the death metal attack of A Pretext to Human Suffering.
