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

---

BEST OF THIS WEEK

[#1] ELEVENTH RAY (‘Reviving Tehom‘, Dark Descent)
[#2] BLOOD MONOLITH (‘The Calling of Fire‘, Profound Lore)
[#3] DESEKRYPTOR (‘Sarcophagal Corridors‘, Nuclear Winter Records)
[#4] STEVE VON TIL (‘Alone in a World of Wounds‘, Neurot)
[#5] BELL OF MIMIR (‘Nocturne‘, Octopus Rising)

---

UPCOMING RELEASES

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

---

Sentient Ruin and Lower Your Head have announced the fifth full-length album from Oregonian sludge/drone doom metal act HELL will arrive this coming July 11th. ‘Submersus‘ will be available on vinyl, CD and cassette formats via Sentient Ruin and digitally by way of Lower Your Head. This is a great surprise following the impressive split they’ve just done with Mizmor and I’m looking forward to diving into it after hearing the album opener “Hevy”. Check out the song over on Bandcamp:

Nameless Grave Records have announced the sophomore full-length album from United States-based traditional power/heavy metal band HELMS DEEP will arrive this coming June 20th. ‘Chasing The Dragon‘ will be available as a three-sided double LP (silkscreened Side D) as well as digitally. Album art is rad and overall it is cool to see they’re going bigger with this one. Their previous LP was way underrated as a debut, any fan of power-thrash, Priest-inspired speed metal and USPM in general should appreciate their sound then and now. Check it out on Bandcamp:

As part of Japanese black/progressive metal legendry SIGH‘s celebration of 35 years in action the band, namely maestro Mirai Kawashima, have decided to rerecord their well-loved breakthrough album ‘Hangman’s Hymn‘ (2007) and the result ‘I Saw the World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV‘ will be release by way of Peaceville Records this coming June 13th. It was the band’s first concept album and one they describe as a blend of 80’s extreme thrash and German classical symphonies. Expect this re-recording to be more of a reimagination in some respects as it brings the band’s current sound and sonic lustre and applies it to one of their more notable their past lives. I am a geek for this band’s discography and their unique vision/philosophy, so, I am looking forward to this.

Caligari Records have announced March 30th as the release date for Norwegian death-thrashing black metal quartet NITHE‘s third demo tape. ‘Funeral Death‘ will release on limited cassette tape. Been a fan since the first demo tape but totally missed any warning on this one, solid band if you’re interested in stuff like Morbid, Nifelheim‘s first LP, Vorum and such. Pure evil sounds and what not, you can hear most of the demo over on Caligari‘s YouTube channel:

Everlasting Spew Records have announced Québecois death metal quartet DISEMBODIMENT are readied up with a debut full-length album title ‘Spiral Crypts‘. I wasn’t a wild fan of their ‘Mutated Chaos‘ EP a handful of years ago but I like this “Stygian Overture” song, it sounds like they’re chasing their riffs with more action in general and love that cover art. Should be a solid album based on what I’ve previewed thus far:

I finally checked out the latest and last (?) album from PUTERAEON in preparation for its release and hey, it is a pretty damn good record in previews. ‘Mountains Of Madness‘ will release May 30th via Emanzipation Productions and I’m looking forward to reviewing it while looking back at their discography. This week they’ve put out another single from the record, “Watchers At The Abyss”, and I think it does a good job of signaling not only the style of death metal they’ve been after for a long while but also returns with their signature treatment of Lovecraftian themes:

New York-based heavy metal band CASTLE RAT have announced their upcoming sophomore full-length album ‘The Bestiary‘, which will be released this coming September 19th by way of King Volume Records (NA) and Blues Funeral Recordings (UK/EU). Vocalist The Rat Queen comments on the album: “‘The Bestiary’ is a conceptual book of beasts containing a collection of mystical creatures from a world forgotten. The last remaining souls of each have been gathered and preserved by ‘The Wizard.’ Cautionary tales of each beast and The Wizard himself are woven through the power of traditional heavy metal song and spell.” Ok, but are there riffs? I missed the hype for the first record so I figure I’ll check this one out right off the bat. No preview or whatever, go follow the band on Instagram to keep up there:

https://www.instagram.com/castle.rat/?hl=en

KAYO DOT have released a video single, “Oracle by Severed Head” taken from their upcoming album ‘Every Rock, Every Half-Truth under Reason‘, which will release on August 1st this year by way of Prophecy Productions. Maestro Driver comments on this song: “The song ‘Oracle by Severed Head’ is about prophecy, but not the clean, transcendent kind that we’ve been taught to expect. This is prophecy as defilement – a sacred voice ripped from the past and forced through a severed head – a voice no longer truly its own, but distorted, fragmented, bleeding into the present. It is a song that interrogates the ways in which manipulated versions of the past continue to invade the present, asserting themselves in violent ways. These voices might be real and they might speak some truths, but who, through the obscene fracture that brought them back, are we really listening to? And at what cost? Musically, ‘Oracle by Severed Head’ pulls us into that space of rupture. It is built on a large ensemble – guitars, drums, bass, strings, woodwinds, trumpet, and vocals – an orchestration that calls back to the earliest Kayo Dot works. The song is a perfect choice for a first single, as it celebrates our return to form while marking the passing of time since ‘Choirs of the Eye’. The music is expansive but controlled, allowing tension and release to breathe in real time. Its beauty is at odds with its plaintiveness, as aching melodies and delicate harmonies evoke a sense of loss and longing. The climaxes feel inevitable, yet somehow unexpected. In these moments, the music mirrors the emotional intensity of our most powerful moments, but also speaks to the underlying disquiet of the present – trapped between what was and what is yet to come.” The review practically writes itself eh, but seriously glad I’m seeing references to ‘Choir of the Eye’ and such, looking forward to putting more time into this one since I kinda couldn’t give ‘Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike‘ enough attention back in 2021.

Portland, Oregon-based “acoustic doom” project DOLVEN have announced their third full-length album, ‘In My Grave…Silence‘, will be released this coming June 13th on vinyl via Winding Stair Records, on CD and Cassette via Fiadh Productions, and digitally by the band themselves. Dolven comes by way of main songwriter Nick Wusz (Travellers Rest) and the recording line-up includes folks from Agalloch and Canvas Solaris. Give this one a chance, I hadn’t heard of the band before but I enjoyed this single, “Sun Bleached Bones”:

---

YOUTUBE / VIDEO REVIEWS

Please follow and subscribe to my YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@terraasymmetry

---

NEXT WEEK’s REVIEWS:

Here are the six longform reviews I have been working on for next week, these are subject to change or rescheduling to a later date.

DARKSIDE RITUAL – Chamber of Deathlessness [May 30th, Chaos Records]
COLTSBLOOD – Obscured into Nebulous Dusk [May 30th, Translation Loss Records]
WEEPING SORES – The Convalescence Agonies [May 30th, I, Voidhanger Records]
ZIG-ZAGS – Deadbeat at Dawn [May 30th, RidingEasy Records]
PUTERAEON – Mountains of Madness [May 30th, Emanzipation Productions]
NITHE – Funeral Death [May 30th, Caligari Records]

---