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 Grizzly Butts. This’ll also include a list of upcoming releases and some preliminary notes on upcoming reviews or coverage. If I can’t hear it, I won’t cover it! 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

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THIS WEEK IN NEWS (7/04/20 – 7/10/20)

• If you’d loved the latest records from Turia and Laster no doubt Amor Fati Productions will release your next greatest thrill this August 19th when they release SILVER KNIFE‘s debut full-length ‘Unyielding/Unseeing‘, on CD whilst co-releasing the vinyl LP with Entropic Recordings. Silver Knife is a multi-national collaboration between musicians well known to post-black and modern black metal circles in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands and the music itself is some kind of rapturous rhythmic bliss, as if I were burned alive by a great celestial sun-spirit. Er, the guitar work is fantastic on the preview track “Conjuring Traces” an eight minute opus that has me sold as Hell on this record. Check out the beauteous artwork from Business For Satan and listen to the song over on YouTube: [MORE INFO]
• Via Bandcamp — If you pre-ordered the latest EMPRESS album ‘Premonition’ on CD as I’d suggested you might want to, you’ll get it. Otherwise they’ve been picked up by a (yet undisclosed) label for broader release this September 24th. I pre-ordered as soon as I heard the first preview song as this Vancouver B.C. duo are one of the finest modern/prog-sludge groups around today. [MORE INFO]
• If you can remember as far back as late 2017, you’ll note that Oslo, Norway based extreme sludge metal duo HYMN‘s debut album was among my very favorite records of that year so, great news! They’ve managed another album entitled ‘Breach Us’. It’ll be released via Fysisk Format Records this August 28th, and to mark its announcement they’ve released a music video for the first single “Exit Through Fire”. I love how they’ve expanded their rhythms without losing the core sonic attack of the band. The video is a trip but if you want the full fuckin’ boom of the brain-drilling recording spin it on Bandcamp. [MORE INFO]
• Cruz Del Sur Music have announced the first album from prog-infused proto-metal band SPELLBOOK since changing their name from Witch Hazel will be titled ‘Magick & Mischief’ and release this coming September 25th. The York, Pennsylvania band have been at it for several albums now and from the look of that gorgeous Chad Keith cover artwork and their logo, they’re up to the right stuff. No previews yet, follow the band on Facebook to keep up: [MORE INFO]
• AOP Records have set September 11th as the day and date for Austrian black/death metal band THEOTOXIN‘s third full-length album ‘Fragment : Erhabenheit‘. To accompany the announcement they’ve included a video for the track “Golden Tomb”. Now on their third album and third vocalist it seems this one has the most broad range of black and death metal expression to sling around and the guitar work and album art seem to follow suit. Very sharp first impression. [MORE INFO]
• Spanish blackened speed metal band KÖRGULL THE EXTERMINATOR have revealed the album art and title for their fifth record, ‘Sharpen Your Spikes‘, due out this September 9th via Xtreem Music. They’ve also punt up a single “Inquisitor Generalis” up on YouTube. Sharp stuff compared to earlier work, easily their best (thankfully not their cleanest) production sound while still sounding old yet not ‘retro’ as expected. Spin the single on YouTube and watch for the album to appear on Xtreem’s bandcamp: [MORE INFO]
• Los Angeles death metal upstarts TRANSCENDENCE have put in the years working out their debut full-length but it is finally done and man, is it a beauty. They’ve chosen Blood Harvest Records for the release this September 25th and titled the album ‘Towards Obscurities Beyond‘. Adam Burke artwork is on point, and it’ll look even more sweet on October 16th when the vinyl LP releases. The opener “Infernal Resurrection” recalls the early days of Hypocrisy and certainly the first Necrophobic album, a high achievement to start! Stream it on Bandcamp: [MORE INFO]
• Minneapolis, Minnesota’s finest up and coming death/doom metal act VOID ROT have finished work on their debut, set a date, and posted the incredible artwork from Timo Ketola. They’re calling it ‘Descending Pillars‘, releasing it through Everlasting Spew Records on September 11th and suggesting it will be a grand expansion of their cosmic death/doom metal approach. After their fan-fuckin’ tastic split with Atavisma earlier I am beyond excited about this one, the opening track “Descending Pillars” is enormous, ringing, and bears all of the intoxicating ruin that fans of Krypts and Spectral Voice will love. Check out the song and artwork over on Bandcamp: [MORE INFO]
• NOTABLE ALBUMS AT PRESS THIS WEEK FROM: Void Rot, Darkened, Frostvore, Silver Knife, Hymn, Maggot Heart, Shezmu, Ordinance, Serpent Omega, Theotoxin, Manticora, Comaniac, SpellBook, Primitive Man, Dunwich, Svalbard, Barfbag, Xythlia, Ruckwater, Null, Kratornas, Scolopendra, and several more. Look for coverage in the near future. Don’t see your album listed? Send it to me: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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GRIZZLY BUTTS‘ WEEK IN REVIEW (7/03/20 – 7/10/20)

FEATURES:

• …From the Tomb 7/06/20: “Wonderfully still and vast like the cold stillness of space.”
  • This year Ten From the Tomb changes to …From the Tomb and is no longer limited to ten releases. It will post every Monday with a list of at least ten new releases coming out during that current week and a short review will be included for each one.
  • This week I chose to cover 9 New Releases from July 1st-July 10th. There wasn’t a ton that really worked for me this week and I hope I wasn’t too harsh! Next week will find me in better spirits.
  • Favorites: Disabled, Deathsiege, Puro Odio, Meridian Dawn.
• Subsistence by nature or concrete, an early stream of OCI VLKA’s ‘Demo’ (2020) | PREMIERE
  • The first premiere on the site since Saturnalia Temple’s last record finds us exploring the world of Russian literature, the forests of Czechia, the hopelessness of being born into a civilization without purpose, and some thrilling black/death metal the defies conventions in some hypnotic ways. Check it out! Gratitude to Caligari Records and their PR partners.

REVIEWS:

Big releases this week from Lantern, Skeleton, Maggot Heart, Taake/Deathcult [Split], Voivod, and Inter Arma. Folks are sleeping on Lantern‘s album a bit, wake up! I’ve done my best to start catching up with backlogged reviews, these remain in motion: Feed Them Death, Fellwarden, Fordomth, Trainer, Enshadowed, Gates of Tyrant and I probably won’t end up reviewing Decrepid‘s album after all, it will be on Monday’s …From the Tomb entry.

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RELEASED/RECOMMENDED THIS WEEK (7/04/20 – 7/10/20)

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

• LANTERN – Dimensions [July 10, Dark Descent Records]+
• SKELETON – Skeleton [July 10, 20 Buck Spin]+

• ILS – Curse [July 4, Pogo Records]*
• MAGGOT HEART – Mercy Machine [July 10th, Rapid Eye Records]
• DECREPID – Endless Sea of Graves [July 7, Xtreem Music]*
• RITES OF DAATH – Doom Spirit Emanation [July 6, Godz Ov War Productions]+
• ETERNAL ROT – Putridarium [July 6, Godz Ov War Productions]
• UERBEROS – Stand Over Your Grave [July 6, Godz Ov War Productions]
• DISABLED – The Final Exhumation [July 10, Xenokorp]
• TAAKE / DEATHCULT – Jaertegn [July 10, Edged Circle Productions]+
• MERIDIAN DAWN – The Fever Syndrome [July 10, Seeing Red Records]
• DAWN OF A DARK AGE – La Tavola Osca [July 10, Antiq]
• MERLOCK – That Which Speaks… [July 10th, Self-Released]

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UPCOMING RELEASES (7/11/20 – 7/17/20)

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. A plus (+) indicates that the album has already been reviewed. Click/Tap on RECORD LABEL name for preview, stream, or store.

• KHTHONIIK CERVIIKS – Æequiizoiikum [July 17, Iron Bonehead Productions]*
• THE FUNERAL ORCHESTRA – Negative Evocation Rites [July 15, Nuclear War Now! Productions]*
• NEKUS – Death Nova Upon the Barren Harvest [July 17, Blood Harvest]*
• MYSTRAS – Castles Conquered and Reclaimed [July 17, I, Voidhanger Records]
• YSENGRIN – Initiatio [July 17, I, Voidhanger Records]
• HERXHEIM – Incised Arrival [July 17, I, Voidhanger Records/Nuclear War Now! Productions]*
• ENTRY – Detriment [July 17, Southern Lord Recordings]
• ASCENDENCY – Birth of an Eternal Empire [July 17, Iron Bonehead]*
• INISANS/SEPULCHRAL FROST – Death Fire Darkness [July 14, Helter Skelter/Regain]*
• EISENKULT – …gedenken wir der Finsternis [July 15, Purity Through Fire]
• OCI VLKA – Demo [July 15, Caligari Records]
• CAEDES CRUENTA – Ερείπια Ψυχών [July 16, Helter Skelter/Regain] LP reissue
• PAZUZU – Revenant of Blasphemies [July 16, Dunkelheit Produktionen]*
• EREMIT – Desert of Ghouls [July 17, Transcending Obscurity Records]*
• CARTHAGODS – The Monster in Me [July 17, FDA]
• KRUELTY – Immortal Nightmare [July 17, Creator-Destructor Records]
• VÄKI – Kulolleen Maan Omaksi [July 17, Redefining Darkness/Saturnal Records]*
• THE LIGHTBRINGER – From Void to Existence [July 17, Self-Released]
• SNOGG – Ritual of the Sun [July 17, Self-released]
• SCOLOPENDRA – Those of the Catacombs [July 13, Nuclear War Now! Productions]

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