New Music Roundup: Deiphago, Hate, Torche, Deathhammer, Gouge, and More
They say every 3.7 seconds a metal band is born in a billowing cloud of body odor and social ineptitude. That makes for a lot of new music. Usually shit. Some of it is so lousy that it makes me wonder if there might be a better use of my time than listening to metal on the internet for 14 hours every day. But when the sifting pays off and I find something listenable, it makes all those consecutive weeks of neglecting my wife and forgetting to feed my cat worth it, and I offer it up to the toilet.
First: Deiphago is gettin’ all ready to to drop the follow-up to 2012’s Satan Alpha Omega via Hell’s Headbangers sometimes this Spring — the most metal of all seasons. It shall be called Into the Eye of Satan. The bestial warriors in Deiphago have churned out particularly suffocating manifestations of black/death in the past, and from the looks of this here teaser (I fucking hate the word teaser), we’ll be getting more choice chaos this year.
According to the band: “Recording of the fourth album with Colin Marston has been completed, and we have the final mix/master on our hands. This is a powerful, massive record that will push the limits of black metal to new grounds! Colin has captured the essence of Deiphago and unleashed it in its fullest sonic potential! Into The Eye Of Satan explores very angular and challenging song structures, with unorthodox guitar scales and arpeggios, without losing all the chaotic elements that only Deiphago can deliver! We continue to challenge the current black metal scene that has become lame and stagnant. Forward movement under chaos!”
Check out the teaser below, where you can watch the vocalist teach us how to be not lame at around 2:15.
Second: A few roundups ago, Christian shared the teaser (goddammit) video for Hate’s upcoming album, Crusade:Zero (February 10th via Napalm Records). Now they’ve released an official video for a new song called “Valley of Darkness,” wherein they play their instruments and set some nice religious art on fire. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that this first riff isn’t good and heavy, but – and this has been said here before – Mr. Konrad Ramotowski should be spending less of his time burning shit and more of his time convincing his bros in Kriegsmachine to give me more Mgła.
Third: I don’t know anything about pretty much anything, and Torche is no exception. However, it has come to my attention that many people enjoy the music that they make, so here’s this. The band has already released the lead single for their upcoming album Restarter (listen to “Minions” here), which is set for release through the ladies and gents at Relapse Records on February 24th. A few days or something ago they released a second song from the album, “Annihilation Affair.” It’s heavy and sludgy.
Fourth: Deathhammer is responsible for one of my favorite demos of the last ten years – Savage Poser Hunt. You may know them as “that one band on that one weird guy’s jacket on that one Darkthrone album cover.” Onward to the Pits made some noise in 2012, and now they’re bringing the Satan back with “Satan Is Back” (from their upcoming full-length Evil Power, set for release on March 9th). It’s a hellish, no-fucks-given thrash attack that should have you thrashing and giving no fucks in record time. Blast it. Blast your enemies.
Fifth: The Norweigan upstarts in Gouge (also responsible for the blackthrashing Condor) have premiered a track from their upcoming full-length debut Beyond Death (also March 9th via Hells Headbangers). “Devil’s Debt” recalls the olden, gore-soaked death metal of bands like Repulsion and early Death. It’s only barely over two minutes long, but brevity is part of the appeal. It gets in, pukes its charmingly squalid guitar tone all over your face and upper body, and gets out. The riff at 0:55 speaks to me. It says – smash your head into everything and bury the innocent alive.
Sixth: Iron Bonehead is back yet again to save us from frustrating mediocrity, only this time with equally frustrating mystery. Here’s what I don’t know: 1) the band’s origin, 2) the band’s location, 3) the band’s members, 4) the band’s name – it’s either Swarth or Swarp or Swarþ or something. Here’s what I do know: 1) whoever they are released a compilation last year called Omines Pestilentiae, 2) Iron Bonehead just premiered this song (“I”) from an upcoming 7″ entitled Veneficivm which should be available let February, 3) it kicks ass. “I” is introduced by a gloriously grotesque pairing of creeping dissonance and the recurrent tolling of funeral bells before it breaks into gurgly, blasty furor. I’m not telling you what happens after that because I need to go grocery shopping like right now. But I will tell you that it rules.
