Greetings, Decibel readers!
I don’t know about you, but I feel like this year has been a little slow to deliver knock-out releases. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of bands doing cool stuff, but I feel like the end-of-year lists will be pretty easy to stack up as the weather cools down. However, this week has been a real exception, giving us new ones from Spectral Wound and Nile, along with unexpected triumphs from Koldbrann and Gravenoire. And hey, if theatrical, well-produced metal is your thing, the new Fleshgod Apocalypse will probably be big news to you as well.
I’m just stoked about the new Spectral Wound, so this week is a great one regardless.
—
Fleshgod Apocalypse – Opera
The Italian institution’s sixth album, Opera, shows Fleshgod Apocalypse following the path they began walking after their first album. At this point, the band is synonymous with theatrical technical death metal, reliably providing a captivating and heavily adorned take on their country’s special penchant for tech-death.
Stream: Apple Music
—
Gravenoire – Devant La Porte Des Etoiles
Speaking of theatricality, here’s a new black metal band from France with a particularly theatrical take on raw, melancholy darkness. For fans of raw black metal who crave something with that spirit but with an added sense of drama and panache, this is the band for you. The album is an absolute hurricane of riffs and screams, one that’s easy to get lost in while still comprehending every movement with clarity.
Stream: Apple Music
—
Koldbrann – Ingen Skånsel
Speaking of no-nonsense black metal, here’s the long awaited fourth album from Norway’s Koldbrann. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did, a document of cold, black metal art with moments that stand tall among some of the style’s highest peaks. There’s an urgency beneath the guitars, a warning buried in the vocals, and a foreboding tearing into the sky with every drum-beat. Absolutely glorious stuff.
Stream: Apple Music
—
Nile – The Underworld Awaits Us All
MEANWHILE. THERE’S A NEW NILE ALBUM OUT. BCAHMEGTDXUKEAHCKURSCMEGSCEJYACFEKSTCYKSE.
That’s the best way I can express the excitement anyone should feel about as we dive back into the haunted sarcophagus of….UUUUUUURRRRRGGGGHH!!!!
Stream: Apple Music
—
Spectral Wound – Songs of Blood and Mire
Anyway. More black metal. This time from one of the very best bands to emerge in any style over the last 10 years. I had the honor of meeting Jonah, the band’s vocalist, at Maryland Deathfest this year and got to tell him how much I enjoyed seeing Spectral Wound live over the years. Songs of Blood and Mire continues very much along the same lines as A Diabolic Thirst, in that it takes the chaotic energy channeled on Infernal Decadence and hones it for maximum effect. And thus the band continues on its bloody way with thunderous rhythms, melodic riffs and ferocious vocals — forever frigid and spellbound.
Stream: Apple Music