ENDTYMER is the inevitable weekly “music news blog” series I’ve been working to avoid for some time. It hits at the end of every week with the intent of covering notable new releases, sharing news of new releases, and musing over various personal listening habits. It is a largely informal blog, has opinions, etc. so chill out a bit. I do my best to cover as much of everything I receive in some form regardless of genre or representation, don’t hesitate to send anything and everything my way: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Slow news week, plenty of new releases out though. In terms of legacy releases we get another decent enough Katatonia record and I imagine they’ll possibly do something for ‘Dance of December Souls‘ thirtieth anniversary this year. Otherwise we’ve got some avant-garde death metal (Nothingness), gothic death/doom (Tribunal), traditional doom metal (Lord Mountain), some more “traditional” takes on death metal (Deiquisitor, Re-Buried) and a brilliant work from the guy in Apokatastasis which marries the melodic with the brutal. What will actually stick in the long run? For my own taste it’ll have to be a close race between ‘The Consecratory Secretion‘ and ‘The Oath‘. Ultimately it comes down to Lord Mountain hitting that sweet spot between epic heavy metal and traditional doom metal, I’ve been completely obsessed with ’em:

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INTO THE BEAST’S EYES

Pagan Records have announced they will release a NECROMANTIA-centered biography from The Magus in English this coming March. The Serpent and the Pentagram: The Official Chronicles of Necromantia was co-written by the Necromantia co-founder and Aris Shock who you might know from Rites of the Abyss, a book about the history of Greek black metal. The foreword for the book comes from Kostas Chronopoulos (Metal Hammer Greece). The book details the early beginnings of the band, notes on all of their recording sessions, and generally covers all bases in terms of the practical and the spiritual aspects of their work which extends to side projects and scene specific things like zines and such. There are three versions of the book, check those out depending if you’re collecting or just skilling up.

The Magus comments on the book: “Time is ruthless and cruel. But is also healing and forgiving. Necromantia‘s time was not due, but it’s Time’s cousin, Death decided otherwise and moved Baron Blood to another plane a few years ago. Therefore Necromantia wrote their final chapter with the album “To the Depths We Descend”. So the book was completed….and now is available in printed form.” He continues “This is our complete and official biography dating from our school years up to 2021. A full history including rare photo material documenting our journey through the realm of the extreme music, which you and us love, black metal. We always stayed true to our principles and you can read all about it. Not only that but we are offering you a very rare recording of our early days as a gift. Through you, the fans, we shall always be Eternal. Salutes.” All hail the possessed.

https://www.pagan-records.com/en_GB/p/NECROMANTIA-The-Serpent-The-Pentagram-BOOK-7-VINYL-PRE-ORDER/12855

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DAIMOOOON… ÅÅÅÅÅ!

DARKTHRONE recently announced ‘Goatlord: Original‘ would be released in just a couple of weeks (February 10th) but before you begin to wonder if it is just another reissue, the fine print counts here a bit. ‘Goatlord‘ was essentially a complete pre-production of a follow-up to ‘Soulside Journey‘ in their evolving doomed yet technical (for its time) style of death metal, of course most people know this by now if you’d kept with with their reissues, remasters and commentary tracks for each album over the years. The interesting trivia for the record is that the vocals were added later (in 1994) and some unfinished songs were completed at the time, so, the idea for this release seems to be pulling it back to the rehearsal grade tapes from 1990 without the vocals added and having those restored by maestro Patrick Engel (Temple of Disharmony) who has done fine work with early tapes from Destruction, Razor, and many more over the years. The catch for many fans who particularly love the death metal side of early Darkthrone is that this rehearsal/demo has always sounded terrible in every form and though the detail is discernable it is more of a collector’s ghost than a die-hard listener’s choice. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out, I am too big of a fan of the ‘Soulside Journey‘ era to pass it up.

https://peaceville.merchnow.com/catalogs/Darkthrone

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“NEWS”

Chaos Records have announced they will work with Canometal Records and Burning Coffin Records on the release of Chilean death metal group SEPULCRUM‘s debut full-length album ‘Lamentation of Immolated Souls‘. The album will arrive on CD, vinyl LP and cassette tape this coming March 17th. You might not know the name yet but you’ve heard their work in other old school groups Horrifying, Hallux Valgus and several others — Expect top tier early to mid 90’s death metal with plenty of violence behind the kit. Biggest kicker I’ve heard all week with this “Schizophrenic Amputation” song:

Inhuman Assault Productions have announced March 31st as the release date for SMALLPOX AROMA‘s debut album, ‘Festering Embryos of Logical Corruption‘. The album will release on CD and cassette tape to start and the vinyl LP edition will follow later this summer. These Bangkok, Thailand based folks play brutal ‘old school’ grindcore which is variously d-beaten and kicked up by brutal death blasts. Fans of early Nasum, Insect Warfare and Magrudergrind should find an instant like in the first preview song “Eleven Corpses Disentombed”:

Agonia Records recently posted a guitar playthrough for the song “Psyche” from AENAON‘s latest full-length ‘Mnemosyne’. Guitarist Achilleas C. (also of Varathron, Katavasia, et al.) runs through the song in style here. I’d really appreciated the real guitar tone, doesn’t sound overdubbed, and we get a sense of his unique rhythmic style, which I feel like we can hear him having developed way back as far as ‘Stygian Forces of Scorn‘ but of course in a different way. I will have to consider this my pro guitar lesson for the year:

Brooklyn, New York-based heavy rock band THE GOLDEN GRASS have announced the release of their latest full-length album ‘Life Is Much Stranger‘ will arrive this coming April 7th on renowned Italian label Heavy Psych Sounds. They describe their sound as an “amalgamation of hard rock boogie, jazzy progressive rock, psychedelic exploration and incendiary proto-metal all bursting with soulful harmony-layered vocals, masterful instrumental technicality and an otherworldly creative ambition.” and, yes, actually that holds up as we crack into their new stuff. Listen to the guitar worship of their brand new track “Howlin”, I was personally sold around ~2:38 minutes in where we start to hear ambition in rock and not typical retro pandering. Huge song:

Full-length albums are few and far between when we look back at San Francisco-based trio ACID KING‘s history and that makes the announcement of ‘Beyond Vision‘ a pretty big deal. Blues Funeral Recordings will release the album this coming March 24th and they’re suggesting a lean into psychedelia and avant-garde influences. Bandleader Lori S. explains the change: “The band was never really that psychedelic, but this is definitely more trippy because we’ve got keyboards and synthesizers. That’s something we’ve never had before on Acid King records. The songs really have no beginning or end — they all just flow into each other. It’s meant to be listened to as one piece. The whole point was to have the listener feel like they’re on a journey. If you put headphones on, it’ll take you to whatever places you’d like to go to.” Bigger picture, big sound as always. Check out “Beyond Vision”:

Sardinia-based occult doom metal band 1782 have announced the release of their third full-length album ‘Clamor Luciferi‘ come this April 14th by way of Heavy Psych Sounds. The label will likewise reissue their first two records at the same time. The first preview track from the album is “Succubus” a look at the mythos of the creature: “Attractive and seductive, she enters your nightmares, takes possession of your body and with ancient echoes drags you towards the deepest darkness. Follow the riff and watch out for evil echoes!“. Has that ancient occult rock with a big modern buzz to it, check out “Succubus”:

POSEIDON is an Italian avantgarde/folk group featuring members of Spite Extreme Wing, Forgotten Tomb and Hiems and they are set to release their debut album in late February. Brucia Records have announced the self-titled debut form the project will land on CD alongside a special edition (which includes a notebook) this coming February 28th. Check out the first preview song over on Bandcamp:

Amor Fati Productions have announced March 17th as the release date for black metal trio VERMINOUS SERPENT‘s debut full-length album, ‘The Malign Covenant‘, which arrives on CD and vinyl LP. You haven’t heard of ’em but you definitely know their other bands (Slidhr, Malthusian, Primordial), this one has an early 90’s bestial blackened feeling to it, a mid-paced blast and a snarling focus that makes “Transcendent Pyre” a damned thrill of an introduction. Check out the song over on YouTube:

Classic French death metal duo CATACOMB have recently revealed the cover artwork and first single from their first full-length album. You know the band from their 1993 demo ‘In the Maze of Kadath‘ and they’ve recently re-recorded that (last year) if you’d missed it. The new album will be called ‘When the Stars Are Right‘ and it is coming on 12″LP, CD, Cassette and digital this upcoming March 23rd by way of the good folks at Xtreem Music.

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