terraasymmetry Features

SYNCHRONY: Music News, Week in Review & Upcoming (8/24/2019)

SYNCHRONY is a weekly feature focusing on relevant heavy music news, new releases, upcoming releases, as well as a week in review to help folks keep up with all of the content on GrizzlyButts. This’ll also include a list of upcoming releases and some preliminary notes on upcoming reviews or coverage. Some Seattle, Washington area live shows will be intermittently featured. If you have New Releases, show announcements, or important heavy music news that’ll be relevant or interesting to folks contact me at: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com Priority to PR/label submissions and straight up if I can’t hear it, I won’t cover it.

THIS WEEK IN NEWS

  • Norwegian mastery descends black and cold upon your neck and caresses the ear before hitting the drum. This attack comes from the electric progressive black metal engineers themselves, DOLD VORDE ENS NAVN who are comprised of fellowes responsible for Satyricon, Dødheimsgard, Ved Buens Ende and Nidingr. Soulseller Records fling a handful of gold and silver into the air proclaiming September 13th for release as we gasp at the reveal of their upcoming debut EP, ‘Gjengangere I Hjertets Mørke’ and this first chilling roller coaster of malignant beauty: “Vitnesbyrd”, that which would make the very soul of man ache to be so free of its corpse: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • Put on those galoshes and get your prophylactic antibiotics jammin’ because Blood Harvest Records/Rotted Life have incited an outbreak of sinister corpse-stomping, blood tsunami spraying, plague and death by setting October 18th as the release date for the cracking open of a coffin! Portland, Oregon’s COFFIN ROT offer their debut full-length ‘A Monument to the Dead‘ on all formats. Check out that raw Skadvaldur (Carnal Tomb, Ripped to Shreds) cover art, love it! They’ve released “Miasma of Barbarity” as the first single, gross!: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • Osmose Productions cradles in their halls of extremity the coming hatchling from the egg of HORROCIOUS, revealing its birth for October 25th with the debut ‘Depleted Light and the Death of Uniqueness‘. Comprised of members involved in Sarinvomit and Eggs of Gomorrh expect ruthless bestial black metal from a band that describe their purpose as “a two-man black metal band to spread the infernal sounds that symbolize the destruction of the universe under the infinite chaos and eternal dominance of diabolic nothingness.” Nice, sounded like early Marduk and Impiety to me on the demo. Preview track soon, pre-order info: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, SAMMATH have a new album out on October 9th through Hammerheart Records and the first song is even more savage and raw than ‘Godless Arrogance’ was back in 2014. The Netherlands based war metal heathen now count ex-Centurian and Inquisitor drummer Wim van der Valk among their ranks and his intensity takes their revived sound to a new level of brutality on ‘Across the Rhine is Only Death‘. Now in the bands 25th year the theme is war, the sound is war, and “Ferocious Mortal Fire” is the fuming destruction you deserve: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • Burn away the cobwebs and stomp the bones to dust and prepare the ritual altar to reanimate the dead army from the underside of the world. Prepare for the coming ritual of CARCINOID‘s ‘Metastatic Declination’ on October 7th through Memento Mori who in their infinite underground death metal wisdom smartly pluck this Australian band from the dank basement scenes of Melbourne. No quarter, no life, just death and the malevolent conjurations that would spread it across the globe. Primitive and mortifying horror, pure doom from the dead! Incantations commence, light the altar, may the “Suffering Reborn” wipe out all hope among men: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • For well over a decade I sat with SARCASM‘s ‘A Touch of the Burning Red Sunset’ and Ekeroth’s Swedish Death Metal book and dreamed of their dead album which would suddenly become available in the last decade; Then a follow-up that was just as incredible would release in 2017 and now the entire universe echoes with the riches of Heval Bozarslan‘s presence in Third Storm, Deathswarm and Sarcasm have announced a new full-length on Chaos Records that’ll be here on October 14th! ‘Esoteric Tales of the Unserene‘ is soon to be unleashed and I could not be happier to receive its gifts! Two preview songs are up on Bandcamp: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • Inspired by the simpler yet infinitely more electrifying musical landscape of the 70’s and 80’s in heavy music Finnish epic doom metal band THE LONE MADMAN seek to unveil a multitude of influences within their introductory full-length ‘Let the Night Come‘ through the exceptional fellowes at Saturnal Records. The world will have roughly two months to prepare for the October 25th release. The album art is lovely, earthen, and the sound is warmly traditional epic doom metal from what I’ve heard thus far. A brief preview of the Helsinki band’s sound is available on YouTube: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • Seance Records have announced October 21st as the awakening of the third eye to the darkness within, a pour from the font into the infinity of shapes as ‘Mahasamahdi’, a new vision from an auld fixture of the Austria black metal circles of the 90’s known for Golden Dawn and most recently his time in Schattenfall and Wallachia; SELENITE is a vision of genius that demands mid-paced extreme doom metal collude with symphonic black metal. Ruins of Beverast meets Officium Triste? Indulge yourself with the clairvoyance afforded by “Final Reckoning”: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • Heads up! Brown Acid – The Ninth Trip is coming up on October 31st. If you love heavy psych and proto-heavy rock from the 60’s and 70’s you’re about eight compilations late to the party. Tons of work goes into these compilations so show some love to RidingEasy Records and Permanent Records for putting in the hours. I’m feeling that Fiberglass Vegetables’ track they’ve put on on Bandcamp, hurts so good the pain: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • Swedish progressive death/doom metal band IN MOURNING must’ve felt a bit awkward singing without mics on this video for “Black Storm”, the first single from their upcoming full-length ‘Garden of Storms‘. Agonia Records will release the record on October 4th, the same day as Insomnium’s album and a week after Opeth’s so… epic melodic death influenced prog-tinged music fans should save up their pennies now. “Black Storm” is sweetly atmospheric and the guitar tone is just organic enough that I enjoyed the composition of this track. Check it out for yourself when you’ve got a spare eight minutes: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • Seven years in process and the alchemical occult fury of Danish black metal legends DENIAL OF GOD is arisen with ‘The Hallow Mass‘ the third full-length from this fine project since forming in 1991. There is much to be excited about here and especially if you enjoyed ‘The Shapeless Mass’ single from earlier this year. It won’t be a long wait as ‘The Hallow Mass’ will release through Osmose Productions/Hell’s Headbangers on October 25th. Familiarize yourself with the band’s melodic old school black metal mastery in the meantime: [Click/Tap HERE for more info]
  • HYPE ALBUMS AT PRESS THIS WEEK FROM: Sarcasm, Coffin Rot, Belenos, Raventale, Carcinoid, Phobophilic, Exhorder, Imperial Cult, Sammath, Jade, Mosaic, Dikasterion, Keres, Kringa, Vordr, and several more. Look for coverage in the near future. Don’t see your album listed? Send it to me!

GRIZZLY BUTTS‘ WEEK IN REVIEW (8/17/19 – 8/23/19)

WEEKLY FEATURES:

  • Of Aethyr & Apeiron: 40 Overlooked & Underground Doom/Sludge Metal Releases (2019)
    • This week I chose to cover a 40 doom and sludge metal related records from 2019. It took a long time to put together but I figured this was how I wanted to catch up with albums I haven’t been able to mention yet on the site. Lower viewership than usual, won’t do a big list again for a while.
    • Must hear: Forlet Sires, Haze Mage, Druids, Consecration.
    • Next week (8/26) will be 10 requests from bands.
  • Thrash ‘Til Death #34: Insanity (United States) 1985-1994
    • Insanity are one of my all time favorite bands despite their relatively thing catalog and a really tough history of hard lives and harder metal. Not only have they stuck it out (namely Dave Gorsuch) but these hell raising horror tunes out of the Bay Area have retained their value from the mid-80’s extreme metal race and kept it going well on through today. ‘Death After Death’ in its three versions will always be one of the most important albums I was able to hear thanks to the accessibility of the internet.
    • Next week (8/27) will feature a look at a band that are probably better known for their influence upon underground black metal, Poison (Germany) from 1982-1993 along with some mentions of side/postmortem projects R.U. Dead? and The Real Massacre.
  • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (2019) REVIEW
    • I don’t plan on doing many more video game reviews this year but I will be buying both The Surge 2 and The Outer Worlds at the very least. In the meantime I picked up Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and blasted through at least 90% of the games seemingly endless content in about a week. It is a fine game that will sate the nostalgia of folks who haven’t been satisfied by a metroidvania since Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.

REVIEWS: Between work, home ownership, and insomnia I’ve had trouble keeping up again this month. I’ve got the listening done for the August in terms of what to review and have a schedule of items ‘to do’ but sitting down and reviewing has me falling asleep at my desk and sometimes waking up at like 3:00am to finish a draft here and there. No excuses! The big releases this week were: Hagzissa, Darkened, Abysmalist, and Greve. I did not receive Isole, Sacred Reich, Dead Feathers or Illdisposed until after release or during the week but, they are good upon first listen.

UPCOMING SHOWS: [That I’ll likely attend]

  • DARSOMBRA 9/04/19 Cryptatropa – Olympia, WA
  • ACID KING w/Wizard Rifle, Warish 9/21/19 @ Highline – Seattle, WA
  • VOIVOD & REVOCATION w/Skeletal Remains 9/25/19 @ El Corazon – Seattle, WA
  • ELIMINATOR FEST 2019 w/Deceased, Morbid Saint, Witch Vomit, R.I.P. & more 9/27/19 @ El Corazon – Seattle, WA
  • ORANSSI PAZUZU w/Insect Ark 10/27/2019 @ Chop Suey – Seattle, WA
  • KING DIAMOND w/Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats @ The Paramount 11/25/19
  • HIGH ON FIRE, Power Trip, Devil Master & Creeping Death – 12/02/19 @ Neumos – Seattle, WA

RELEASED/OVERLOOKED THIS WEEK (8/17/19 – 8/23/19)

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NOTE: This small sample includes overlooked releases that are not yet reviewed or covered but are recommended. Some of these will still be featured in other coverage. An asterisk (*) indicates that a review is drafted or in preparation. Click/Tap on RECORD LABEL name for preview, stream, or store.

UPCOMING RELEASES (8/24/19 – 8/30/19)

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NOTE: This is not a comprehensive list, some titles are already reviewed and/or covered and some have yet to enter the final queue for consideration and processing. An asterisk (*) indicates that a review is drafted or in preparation. Click/Tap on RECORD LABEL name for preview, stream, or store.

Did I miss something important this week? Send me an e-mail and tell me about it. It is always worthwhile to speak up for the lesser known stuff. Please remember you can donate to help keep me in front of the computer writing about metal. Thanks.

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