Notes from a May bandcamp Friday past

not much to tell but at lot to sell.

Driving home from work on Friday and this blast from the past comes across the radio. I don’t think I’ve heard this in at least 30 years.

May’s Bandcamp Friday came and went. Not too much damage to the wallet but some of the usual suspects that I’ve written up here already: U Sco, Thunraz, BLVGTH, and others I will get into below as well as things that dropped a day prior or two later.

First, a couple days in the aftermath of bandcamp friday, new Yurei Ad Aqua landed 11 years since Night Vision. Given this is Bjeima (Bjørge Eide Martinsen) one can expect when he’s metal adjacent the Ved Buens Ende, Virus, Manimalism currents flow. Absolutely electric and eclectic jazz influenced magic.

Sentient Ruin Laboratories continue its scorch the earth campaign with Portugal’s Concilium. Primitive, cavernous blackened death cacophony. Concilium are more about oppressive atomosphere than riff craft and while that could read as a negative thing it works to the trio’s advantage.

Italy’s Dead Chasm, like Concilium, is a trio with personnel involved in many underground acts you are possibly familiar with and too many to begin to mention so head to Metal Archives for the particulars. So if you think the vocalist sort of sounds like the singer from Pyra, well, it is. When they join forces as Dead Chasm they are aligned in raging, no frills old school death metal aesthetic.

King George, Virginia’s Gutterance dropped a self-titled release prior to bc friday and I can only find it on YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify. This is an exercise in old school brutality with modern embellishments that makes me think of a cross between Immolation and Necrosis - Acta Sanctorum. Even if you had only one or the other as an influence victory would be yours. Killer musicianship featuring an energetic drum performance, riffs for days, ferocious vocals and compact, dynamic arrangements.

Tempestarii with five long form tracks of blackened glory across Temple of Skies. Passages of lush acoustics, frenzied mouth foaming rabid furor that is not far from raw black metal nor too distantly removed from the western black metal trappings of Wayfarer or Blackbraid. If Tempestarii didn’t take the deliberate raw production aesthetic to heart they could very well line up more closely to that epic western Wayfarer feel. Huge moments at play throughout. First taste near the end of opening track when the rhythm section throttles it out while the synth waves permeate the background and hoarse vocals intermittantly roar.

Self described as a “Cavernous Death/Doom side project of Burier,” Flesh Megalith ascend on atonality from whatever pit of Aussie hell toward whatever heavenly body to devour. With apologies to Fabio Frizzi this recording could function as the alternate soundtrack to City of the Living Dead/Gates of Hell… case in point “Disasterrains.”

Enigmatic collective Mnajdra with a doozy of a self-titled debut. Dissonant, atmospheric black metal that would sound at home in Iceland, Poland, France as it would on Malta where the band’s name originates. Similar to the prehistoric temple grounds the name is derived from the music emanates a timeless quality that could be a throwback to early black metal as it is to modern distillations. There are throwbacks in terms of aggressive style, hypnotic cyclical drones, more complex merges of discordance and harmony. Nothing too complicated, but, all very sturdy and built on strong foundations and given varying degrees of ornamental embellishments whether they be guitar textures or synth washes.

New Rannoch announced. Always a welcome thing. And always great to see more visual artwork from Black Harvest/Heavy Meta’s Kishor Haulenbeek. I do believe this is Rannoch’s first release with Willowtip and it should bring more ears and eyes upon their work. These guys craft their trade in a similar fashion as Damim where they have classic death thrash of Carcass (Necroticism and Heartwork), heft and progressive edge of Nevermore coursing through their veins subverted to their own nefarious ends. Absolute technicians on the musical front without losing focus of songwriting.

Tsalal from somewhere in Antarctica perhaps trapped within Shackleton’s Endurance or the frozen remnants of U.S. Outpost #31. What disturbances we find here are eerie reverberations of metal clatter, stringed instruments, coded messages in frantic programmed beats, echoes from beyond time and space. This first track would sit nicely beside or inside the ambient output from Pestilength, Altarage, Portal. What unfolds in its entirety will be revealed later in July. For now, a seasick kaleidoscope of sound under the auspice of “The Same Dawn.”

Unholy trinity of Disillumination, Temple of Nihil and ANGR unite on Ex Mundi Ad Nihil - Gnosis of the Unbeing. Disillumination’s Во Т​ь​м​у П​р​е​д​в​е​ч​н​о​г​о С​л​о​в​а is a late 2021 death metal gem that offers Immolation angularity, Ulcerate(d) DsO hanging chords, and Abyssal downtuned guttural riffage. This newer track, “Womb” has a softer master, darker recording and musically in league with what transpires on Во Т​ь​м​у П​р​е​д​в​е​ч​н​о​г​о С​л​о​в​а. More emphasis on speed at the onset and taking a couple minutes before tipping its hat to any quirky, off kilter melodicism. Two new Temple of Nihil tracks here are hot on the heels of last year’s Psalms Of The Omnivorous Flame. These two songs have a darker, grittier guitar tone than that album. The second of which with its trumpet attack evokes a Celtic Frost to mega therion or Laibach opus dei aesthetic. Nice dual guitar work interplay in spots. ANGR has ties to Temple of Nihil - most noticeable being the vocalist - but musically this is more mid tempo and riff-centric black metal and though it does utilize guitar layers here and there it doesn’t have the feel of two distinctly different guitarists. Overall an excellent three way split. Not sure why this isn’t compiled under one bandcamp page, but, that’s neither here nor there and you can find each piece of the puzzle below.

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, probably more frequently than what I am capable of.

New Obliveon album has a kickstarter campaign which already exceeded its goal, but, you can still climb aboard.

Post metal done correctly: Ingrina. Of course this is French. Has strains of Rosetta and Khoma recontexturalized as a synthesis of conventional and pedal tech. A dreamlike, futuristic cinematic feel to the music. I believe this is the first track for a full length in progress. We can only hope this arrives sooner than later from this dual drummer, 2 guitarist, 1 bassist innovative juggernaut.

More cinematic metal on tap. This coming from the dynamic multi-diverse duo of Doktor Dismemberment and the PHD of Sonic Sorcery have a new project with Celestial Furnace which they so graciously did the legwork and describe as “Whacked out space-trance-thrash/ psychedelic-crust-punk... Equal parts Tangerine Dream, Killing Joke, Voivod, Amebix, Terveet Kadet, Bloodstar, Circle, and Hawkwind.” You will definitely get all of these influences (and some) after this 13 minute pummel. Pandemonium era KJ pitching a soundtrack for Dr. Who.

Good god almighty… the tonnage and crush of Erdve. I may not always be on board with their song writing, but, Erdve are so destructive and powerfully recorded it’s a thing of wonder to behold. Though Savigaila on the sonic spectrum is otherworldly, personally I prefer the debut album’s songs to the sophomore effort as I feel Savigaila has too much of a post hardcore lean whereas Vaitojimas pushes more progressive boundaries.

In closing, and once again, The Tubes, “Talk to Ya Later.”