ENDTYMER is the semi-weekly recap, occasional blogspace, and new release round-up column. It hits at the end of (most) every week with the intent of covering notable new releases, sharing news, and musing over various personal listening habits. It is largely informal, might contain 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

---

FIVE BEST OF THIS WEEK

[#1] MAYHEMIC (‘Toba‘, Sepulchral Voice)
[#2] LACERATION (‘I Erode‘, 20 Buck Spin)
[#3] VOID WITCH (‘Horripilating Presence‘, Everlasting Spew)
[#4] DEATH RACER (‘From Gravel to Grave‘, Dying Victims)
[#5] GODS & PUNKS (‘Death‘, Electric Valley Records)

---

UPCOMING RELEASES

Catch up with the latest new release announcements for albums I am likely to cover.

---

German avant-garde death metal duo INGURGITATING OBLIVION have announced their latest full-length album will be a double LP titled ‘Ontology of Nought‘ and will release this coming September 27th on CD, 12″ vinyl, cassette, and digitally by way of Willowtip Records. Seven years beyond their last record they’ve come prepared with a well thought statement or two: “Ontology of Nought is the result of approximately five years of incessant work. It documents whatever has been instilled into Ingurgitating Oblivion and the two minds pulling the strings behind the scenes: Norbert Müller and Florian Engelke. Trying to pinpoint some trite conceptual undercurrent would be to defile the beauty of creation. It feels alienating to us talking about our music and lyrics, as these stem from dichotomic dynamics of meticulous planning on the one hand and perfect intuition on the other. In like manner, the lyrics cannot be explained further here, but listeners are invited to do some work themselves and take a plunge into what could potentially encapsulate the world or denote nothing at all. Musically, we just do our own thing, celebrating our Death Metal heroes, more progressive Rock, jazz, folk, classical music. We do not strive to stand for any particular brand, but we simply enjoy being torn down the torrent of haphazard ideas, premonitions, and visions. And that’s that.” and you’ll get what they mean as “The Barren Earth Oozes Blood…” before you:

French death metal legendry LOUDBLAST have announced their new album ‘Altering Fates And Destinies’ will release this coming October 25th once again through Listenable Records. Now arriving upon the 40th anniversary of the band (in 2025) they’ve remarked this new album will have an ‘old school’ feeling to some degree as founder, vocalist/guitarist Stéphane Buriez comments: “It’s a good synthesis of what we stand for in 2024. We don’t forget where we come from yet we didn’t set any boundaries and vowed to do whatever the fuck we wanted. ’Altering fates and destinies’ is a very dark album, powerful and more mid paced than its predecessors , it’s definitely one of our heaviest album so far in terms of patterns, sound and production wise.” And you can see longtime fans will find some references to the band’s past with this new track “From Beyond II (The Return)”:

On September 20th AOP Records will release the third album of German melodic black metal band SERVENT. ‘Death Devil Magick‘ will release on CD and vinyl LP formats and marks the third album from the band in a short period of time. Suggesting they’ve taken inspiration from Baudelaire, Nietzsche and symbolist painters the lyrics on this album seek to explore the human experience, and the dark sides of human nature. Expect this song “Litany” to set expectations well enough:

Polish black metal band ODIUM HUMANI GENERIS will release their second full-length album ‘Miedzyczas‘ by way of Malignant Voices on September 27th on CD, vinyl and digitally. They’ve suggested this record is an evolution of the band’s sound beyond their start in 2020, an album of grief and emotional distress. With a sound that takes inspiration from atmospheric and depressive black metal of the last two decades. Expect an melancholic but introspective record based on what they’ve said so far. Check out the title track for now:

On August 24th Personal Records will release the CD version of ‘Emetic Imprecations‘ the latest EP from “caveman” death metal band VOMITROT. Their sound is bestial to say the least, a gory mesh of ‘old school’ death metal and stinking grinding war-metallic thumping. Entertaining stuff, they should have a preview song up sooner or later:

https://personal-records.bandcamp.com/album/emetic-imprecations

On August 16th this year Invictus Productions and Stygian Black Hand will conspire to release the CD and 12″ vinyl + cassette versions (respectively) for the latest mini-LP from USBM goons HORNS & HOOVES. ‘Spectral Voyeurism‘ once again looks to provoke, punish and disgust with their own ragged traditions of black metal in mind. I’d enjoyed their album so I’m looking forward to this one and the cover art is great:

The latest EP from black metal duo HAMMERFILOSOFI, ‘SOLUS (Igne Natura Renovator Integra)‘ will release by way of ATMF this coming September 13th. The epic yet thrashing Bathory inspired band return to continue on from their debut LP and their goals are stated simply enough: “Both musically and conceptually we want to bring back some of that rebellious pride, wrath, and danger – some Blood, Fire, and Death – that for us are mandatory ingredients in Black Metal.” and I think that is enough said to at least warrant a listen.

Black Light Media and Metal Blade Records have announced the second full-length album from South Carolina-based black-thrash metal band DEMISER will arrive this coming August 23rd and looks to stretch beyond their fairly straight forward debut. ‘Slave To The Scythe‘ seems to make a step toward balancing their interest in streamlining black metal within a speed metal framework, using each as a palette for their blunt and tuneful songwriting. “Hell is Full of Fire” seems like a simple enough place to start, I’m interested thus far:

War Anthem Records have announced a September 13th release date for German death metal band APEP‘s sophomore full-length album. ‘Before Whom Evil Trembles‘ features an eye-catching artwork from Paolo Girardi and seems to more-or-less continue down thier path of technical death metal of the mid-2000’s feeling with some Nile and Hate Eternal vibes to get things started. Check out the first song “Before Whom Evil Trembles (Goddess of Carnage)” over on YouTube:

Italian symphonic death metal band FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE are back from injury and hiatus with an anticipated sixth full-length album titled simply enough as ‘Opera‘. The album will be released this coming August 23rd through the long-standing Nuclear Blast Records. With their maestro back in good condition beyond 2021 it sounds like with “I Can Never Die” they’re back to bigger, bombastic style where they’d left off years ago. While I didn’t like all of the previous album I’m curious to spend some time with this one:

Vikingr black metal band EREB ALTOR have released a new single “Skogsrået” digitally and I assume this pre-empts a new album on the way soon as they reissue some of their past work. The band/info explains the lyrical theme: “This song is inspired and influenced by old Swedish folk music in the melodies. Lyrically it deals with the old myth and legend ”Skogrået” or ”Skogsfrun”. A female creature from the folklore that rules in the nature and in this case the forests. Sometimes they trick people to get lost but its not an evil creature, Skogsrået can also aid people in need.” Nice song either way.

---

THIS WEEK’S VIDEOS / REVIEWS

Catch up with the latest YouTube video review/features and written reviews here. New videos post each week for the most part. You can click on the link provided to read the review/article, each review has the related video embedded in the original post as well. Videos are fairly casual and meant to accompany the written review with some extra context and generalized notes. The written review and the video review are complimentary -not- interchangeable. Please subscribe, share, and leave a comment, etc. if you feel like it.

Still editing a number of videos (about ~12) which’ll post this weekend or on Monday evening.

.

---

NEXT WEEK:

Here is a tentative list of what is coming up next week in terms of reviews. The following records have been listened to extensively, a preliminary review has been drafted (or completed), and I’ve locked them in for coverage. In terms of the “Short Written Reviews + Video” column, these are more tentative, some of them may be cut if I do not have enough time to get around to everything. These choices are subject to change as the final drafts evolve and other releases might potentially take priority:

LONGFORM REVIEWS + VIDEO:

ZEPTER – Inferno [August 8th, Ironbound Records]
OXYGEN DESTROYER – Guardian of the Universe [August 9th, Redefining Darkness Records]
FULCI – Duck Face Killings [August 9th, 20 Buck Spin]
DARK TRANQUILLITY – Endtime Signals [August 16th, Century Media Records]
VILE RITES – Senescence [August 16th, Carbonized Records]
CEMETERY FILTH – Senses of Detriment [August 16th, Rotted Life Records]

SHORT REVIEWS + VIDEO:

Short Reviews will be changing into a different format starting in July. You’ll see once we’re there.

MORCAINT – Mornië Utúlië [July 26th, Nordvis Produktion]
RESPIRE – Hiraeth [July 26th, Dine Alone Records]
L’ESPECTRE QUE ALIMENTA LA FLAMA DELS ANCESTRES – Funesta Epifania [July 26th, Negra Nit]
CARNOPHAGE – Matter of a Darker Nature [August 2nd, Transcending Obscurity Records]
MOURNERS LAMENT – A Grey Farewell [August 2nd, Personal Records]
SVARTELDER – Trenches [August 2nd, Soulseller Records]
ACID MASS – Worship [August 2nd, Morbid and Miserable, Motorpunk, Vicious Witch]

---