New Music Roundup: Destruktor, Invincible Force, The Slow Death, Shroud of the Heretic, & More!
It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, but as long as there are groups of dummies willing to waste their time releasing metal music for pennies in return, this group of dummies will waste their time writing about it for even less (exactly $0), and new music roundups live on.
First up and – if subscribe to my shit taste – most importantly, Destruktor recently unleashed a brand new earhole-assaulting jam called “Besieged” (from Opprobrium, the impending follow-up to 2009’s Nails; set for release on May 29th via Hell’s Headbangers). It’s thrashing old-school death metal excellence, and if you tell me that first riff hasn’t wrought a change within you – be it an urge to chug pales of innocent blood, the engorgement of a certain appendage, or both (probably both) – I’ll be all like, “Yeah right.” According to vocalist/guitarist Glenn Destruktor (lol, Glenn Destruktor), Opprobrium “thrashes, deaths, blacks, and even dooms…” I’ll take it. After this song, they have my attention.
If you’ve been exposed to some brouhaha concerning Invincible Force lately, it’s because there’s been some. And there’s a good reason for that. Hopefully you know by now, but their debut full-length (set for release via Dark Descent on March 16th) is streaming in all of its blackdeaththrashingly inglorious glory. It’s called Satan Rebellion Metal; do you really need any more information than that? Toilet ov Hell community member Celtic Frosty whipped up a nice mini-review over at his personal blog. Check it out, then stream the satanic shit out of this sucker right here.
Demona is a one-woman speed metal project that originally caught my attention when I learned of an upcoming 7″ on which Stefan Hüskens / Tormentor (Desaster and Asphyx) is handling drums. The EP (titled 2015) will be released through Hells Headbangers on May 28th. The first half (“Chasing the Speed”) is some damn good old-fashioned speed. If nothing else, it should at least liven up your shitty day for 3 minutes and 49 seconds. Blast it. Hit things with your face.
The next one comes to us through Chaos Records (which, by the way, happens to be the home of one of my favorite discoveries of last year – Pyre). I’ll cut to the chase, The Slow Death is a death/funeral doom band and this song is long as hell. I know many of you don’t have the patience for this sort of thing, but if you happen to have 17 free minutes with which you can stare into nothingness and just sulk (the majority of my day consists of variations of this activity anyways), “Adrift” is as good a soundtrack as any. A slow, expansive build of piano and distortion, enhanced by good melody and some beautiful singing from a Mandy Andresen. It’s poignant if you give it the time it demands. I know you’re busy, so just opt out of a less important 17-minute pursuit to make up for it. Like showering. Ark comes out on March 16th. Listen below.
Iron Bonehead Productions just picked up Shroud of the Heretic yesterday, and are currently preparing to release their second album, Unorthodox Equilibrium (expect a “late May” release date). They also just premiered the album’s first single “Metempsychosis”, a word which I was pretty they made up before I Googled it and learned about “the supposed transmigration at death of the soul of a human being or animal into a new body of the same or a different species.” I’m not relating that to the music in any way, I just thought you might like to know that. You’re way fucking welcome. “Metempsychosis” showcases some filthy, slow-paced death metal crawling right along the lines of bands like Grave Miasma and Cruciamentum. Check it out.
