Track Premiere: Blasted Heath – “Europa”
Brace for incoming Uranus jokes.
Space, man. Famously discovered in the 1960s, it’s proven to be an intriguing mystery for about as long. From prog and space rock to atmospheric black metal to weird death metal and even grindcore, metal artists have paid plenty of tribute to the great beyond in their music. There’s no question that Blasted Heath follows in a long tradition with their subject matter – if the Lovacraftian name didn’t give it away, song titles like “Big Chill,” “Neutron Star,” and “Strange Matter” from their upcoming debut Vela immediately locate the record far, far out there.
Equally out there, however, is the way in which the subject is presented here, because the Indiana quartet doesn’t really fall into just any one of the genres I rattled off earlier. I’ve had the pleasure of listening to the record a couple times now, but all I’ve come up with so far are semi-helpful descriptors and comparisons with a question mark at the end. Blackened space rock? Crusty prog? Oranssi Pazuzu making first-wave black metal? Vhöl coupled with the Deafkids‘ penchant for psychedelia and reverb?
The press text describes them as “black metal/thrash cosmonauts,” which was already enough to get me intrigued, so perhaps we should leave it at that. Or perhaps I should step aside and let you make up your own mind with today’s premiere of “Europa,” which nicely shows off everything Blasted Heath have got going for them.
“”Europa” is probably the least serious song on Vela. I like to intro “Europa” live by saying, “This song is about space monsters.” It definitely harkens to a cheesy B-movie sci-fi vibe. It’s basically about tentacle monsters attacking a science team drilling into the frozen ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa.” – Kyle Shumaker, vocals
Vela will be released via Wise Blood Records on August 12th (i.e. T minus 10 days).
Digital and physical copies are up for pre-order here.
