Anhedonist- Netherwards

Dark Descent continues the trend of jolting crushing records one after another this year.

The stunning piece of cover art by Alexander Brown reflects the mood, attitude and overall feel of the music which conjures large sum of emotional connection. Never a doubt in the first place with the hint of musicianship being displayed on The Drear which gives birth to a monumental piece of work entitled Netherwards. The mere tagging of doom/death will be misleading. The sound delves into sludge laden death to blackened doom to funeral doom and so forth. The bold approach to the contemporary scene with keeping old school worship in tact is nothing short of applauding. Anhedonist has arrived.

If memory serves right, my first introduction to Anhedonist was through a mixtape curated by Coffinworm last year. I followed the path to The Drear and enjoyed it to some extent but Netherwards is completely on its own league. I was in great anticipation after coming across the news of a new album and that anticipation reached to another level when the album cover and second track Estrangement got premiered  just a few days back. Now finally I got hold of the whole thing and it's growing on me like a weed. Each of the four tracks with a total spinning time of 40 minutes calls for utter devastation in the vein of causing grief and misery.

The opening track Saturnine starts off like the calmness before the storm and after around 2 minutes of floating, the first riff strikes. The doom laden death sound filters raw filthiness of Incantation, Disma and Coffins. You'll get hooked to the proceedings and there's no way out. The production is dense and also contains the perfect edginess. You can even hear clearly the guitar scream when the technique of pinch harmonics has been applied. When Anhedonist slows things down on Estrangement with funeral doom infused with melodic passages, it shows the band can successfully nurture every end of doom metal either it's Disembowelment or Loss. There is a vast difference between making a plan and executing it perfectly. It's mesmerizing how Anhedonist applied each of their ideas and polished the final product flawlessly. The track Carne Liberatus shows further variations. It even enters into blackened death territory in the manner of Mitochondrion. The strong hold of Anhedonist is slow/mid paced melodic doom channel which takes full effect on Inherent Opprobrium again. In mid way through, the track turns into doom/death sludginess of the early '90s era. The transition continues alternating between guttural and screeching vocals. This 15- minute long closer leaves a memorable mark with the presence of enough dynamics.

Netherwards is a journey into our very dreams and emotions with plentiful of dark and hollow atmosphere. Imagine walking into a void of nothingness. It's a cloud of unknowing. You can sense that a shadow is approaching; once closer, it will take away all the pain.

a look into death metal guitar sound with Deus Otiosus

This is Peter Engkjær from Danish death metal band Deus Otiosus. I’ve been asked to reveal a bit about the guitar setup behind our death metallic sound. If you have not heard the music yet, you can do so here: deusotiosus.bandcamp.com

In Deus Otiosus we are two guitarists, myself and my brother (Henrik Engkjær). We are in no way sound experts, but I will try to take you through our different guitar setups and equipment. Hopefully it won’t be to boring, and even more hopefully someone out there will be able to use one or more of our “tricks”, or perhaps just be inspired to try something new. Now remember: a good sound doesn’t make your music better, but it can sure help communicating it to others easier. If the music is poorly written it will be a waste of time producing good tone, but if the music is original and good, it will be just that regardless of production quality (within reason of course).

We use two different approaches when making guitar sound and tone; one setup for live/rehearsal and another setup for recording. 

Me and my brothers "live setup", as I will call it, is somewhat similar in concept although different in terms of equipment. Both use a classic:
"guitar -> various stompbox floor pedals -> Marshall stack"-setup.

Peters equipment

Primary guitars

Epiphone SG

Epiphone Explorer

BC Rich Warlock

All three have had their stock bridge pickup replaced with a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker, which gives a hot output as well as combats feedback at high gain. They are all guitars that I have acquired fairly cheep, but with the right modifications and adjustments, I find that they play and sound just as good as any expensive guitar out there -- at least for my use!

Pedals

From right to left (guitar to amp): Wah, Tuner, Noise Suppressor, Power Stack, Equalizer

I use the following specific brands:

Vox Classic Wah
Boss Tuner
Boss Power Stack
Boss Noise Suppressor
Boss Equalizer (rarely used)

The Power Stack pedal produces the majority of my sound. It sounds very close to the classic tube amp distortion, and is very simple to adjust and has a lot more gain available than most tube amps. The Noise Suppressor is used to suppress feedback and noise when I'm not playing. The wah is my latest addition, and I use it a lot for solos. A tuner is essential, and I'm a real tune freak. (I tune almost between each song when playing live or even rehearsing)

Amp

JCM 900 with standard 1960 cabs

A very straightforward two channel amp. I used to use the overdrive channel, but ever since I got the Power Stack I only use the clean channel and let the Power Stack produce the distortion. This gives me a very sharp tone, which I rather like.

Henriks equipment

Primary guitars

Gibson Explorer

Epiphone SG

Gothic Les Paul

Again, these are guitars that can be bought very cheap, but they play very well and sound great.

Pedals

Right to left (guitar to amp): Tuner, Noise Suppressor, Tubescreamer

Henrik uses the Tubescreamer in combination with his amp distortion, which produces a very old school heavy but distinctly sharp tone. He also uses a Noise Suppressor to combat unwanted feedback and noise. A tuner goes without saying.

Amp

JCM 2000 with standard 1960 cabs

A newer and bit more advanced amplifier than my own, in terms of available settings, but their sound is quite similar I would say.

Notes on equipment

As you maybe can tell I am somewhat more of a gadget geek than my brother, but despite this I think that our guitar tones are quite similar. I think it just comes down to having an appropriate amount of distortion and the right equalization. Since it’s death metal we like to have a lot of distortion, but too much sounds awful and tends to introduce feedback and drown the tone. As for equalization I like it when the guitar has both the low and high frequencies, so it sounds both heavy and sharp in tone. (So lots of "low" and "hi", very little "mid")

Our equipment is in the cheaper end of the spectrum, but in my experience it doesn’t require much to make a big metal sound, just the right settings and maybe a few modifications. We are not trying to make music that sounds beautiful -- it's old school, rotten death metal! I will say however that we've had bad experiences with cheaper pedals that has broken down or not functioned optimally. I would therefore recommend to buy higher quality pedals, such as Boss or similar, as these are built like tanks and can take a lot of abuse, and always work as you expect them to!

If you, like us, have some cheaper-end guitars, and you are not completely satisfied with it or them, try giving it an adjustment (move the strings closer to the fretboard, intonate each string, etc.) or maybe even change a pickup. These things are not as complicated as they sound, and you can get a lot of help online. Don't be afraid to try, because if you fuck up you can always get a professional guitar tech to correct your mistakes or finish the job for you.

Recording setup

We use a trick that our trusty studio engineer Pede showed us, where the guitar goes through a guitar pedal that simply produces two identical outputs (could be a Boss Chorus or similar, with the effect off, of course). One line is fed through a tube amp stack (on “Murderer” I think it was a Peavey Triple X) that is recorded with a microphone, the other goes through a Line 6 Pod and then into the recording station. This way we can record a single rhythm guitar, that produces two independently adjustable tracks, that together forms a big enough sound for one side. Henrik records one of these for one side and I record one for the other, and they are panned out (not 100% I think, but close to it). We might use different equipment for the next album, but the "one guitar, two tracks"-trick will probably be used again, as it gives a big sound and saves a lot of valuable studio time.

Feel free to try out or rip off any ideas, but more importantly: make some killer songs!

an interview w/ Weregoat for Cvlt Nation

http://www.cvltnation.com/an-interview-with-weregoatabsymal-bestial-filth/

turn your attention to Thevetat

NYC is currently swarming with quality old school death metal bands. After raw maggot ridden offering from Mutant Supremacy earlier this year, now Thevetat has arrived with bone wrecking classic death metal in the vein of Bolt Thrower, Malevolent Creation, Possessed etc. Not much is known about the band yet but they are all set for a Demo Rehearsal Tape release which will contain three songs. The band described, "Songs were crafted to unleash the ultimate death metal with intensity and dark feelings." So far they have released one track Lifeless which you can listen above. For more info, visit here.

Weapon's Vetis Monarch : ALBUMS IN HEAVY ROTATION

As many of you already know that at the end of last month, Weapon entered studio to record the third full length and Relapse debut Embers And Revelations with producer Terry Paholek scheduled for the Fall of 2012 release. In an official press statement, guitarist/ vocalist Vetis Monarch commented, "Weapon loyalists can expect no-holds barred, satanic death metal that the band displayed on it's previous work, but further refined and sharpened to ferocious perfection. Embers And Revelations will be the apex of malice via music." Around two weeks back, I had an opportunity of contacting Vetis Monarch and despite his busy schedule, he arranged some of his recent favourite albums for Grave Dig readers. Enjoy!

Lvcifyre- The Calling Depths

Hail of Bullets- On Divine Winds

Rudra- Brahmavidya: Immortal I

Origin- Entity

Loss- Despond

Nightbringer- Hierophany of the Open Grave

Absymal Dawn- Leveling The Plane of Existence

Mitochondrion- Parasignosis

Aosoth- III

Nader Sadek- In the Flesh

Weapon will be touring with Marduk, 1349 and Withered throughout the month of June. For more information, visit here.

Wormridden (Anatomia + Undergang) Demo in the works

Wormridden created by the members of Anatomia (Japanese death/doom band who are preparing a new album entitled Decaying In Obscurity soon to be released on Nuclear War Now! Productions; listen to Cadaveric Dissection here) and Undergang (Danish filthy death bringers who already set underground on fire by the release of Til Doden Os Skiller this year) are all set for a demo release on Extremely Rotten Records. The tape entitled Infesting The Grave has been sent for pressing and hopefully it will be released soon. So far the band has released a killer track Infested By Worms which you can listen below or from the bandcamp page. It's distorted, loathsome and raw as the band perfectly described : Slowly decomposing Death metal rising from the graves of Tokyo and Kill- Town.

Deathronation's Exorchrism

Deathronation's Exorchrism, released in the year 2011, may or may not be a full length as it contains songs gathered from what Deathronation had written in the period from 2004 to 2010 and one song known to be composed for Embodied Grief (a band of guitarist and vocalist Stiff Old) back in 2001. Exorchrism follows 2006's demo "A Soil Forsaken..." and despite being promising there was room for improvement on the earlier demo. The band took some time to release their next offering and what a great punch they managed to throw forward! This is old school death metal done with a great intensity. Last year I wasn't aware of the fact that they released this one; just a week ago I got hold of Exorchrism and since then it has been on the heavy rotation playlist.

With the album progression you would notice that they are not breaking any sort of boundaries or something but surely they have found a sound which literally stimulates everything in its wake. The production is rugged up to the point perfectly giving an aura of filthiness. The riffs are like the buzzing sound of a chainsaw with the gain turned up; listen to the track One Once Forgotten. The vocals are drilled through enough magnitude with the pursuit of bass playing under the lines of variable drumming. Most of the songs are around 5 minute mark and the monster Scorn Dominion hits around 8 minute mark making the whole thing to clock over 28 minutes long.  It's very clear that the band is heavily inspired by Death, old Florida scene, Immolation but throughout the entire length they managed to keep the tension with some sort of dignity by which you can't say that they are one of those copycats. All the signs on this effort, as a whole, positively indicates the band's potential to come up with further great materials when they get set for a proper album release as said earlier that Exorchrism contains collective songs.

I'm not entirely sure about the reasons for taking forever to release Exorchrism; maybe the members were busy with other projects but certainly we don't want to see another long gap. Although you can't argue much if they keep continuing the trend of coming up with greater songs. Deathronation needs more exposure atleast from the German underground base if not from all over the world and also I do feel like the band members need to make the band as their top priority now. Once in the limelight, Deathronation will be unstoppable.



Deathronation's Exorchrism came out last year on Dead Master's Beat/GodEater Records.

an interview with Abyssal (UK)

Cover art for Denouement

Abyssal, hailing from UK, has unleashed the debut album Denouement which fits with the current form of black/death metal venturing more towards into technical side of things infused with sheer progression and dissonance. The overall atmosphere is dense and enriched in structure. Abyssal shows exactly how to execute and inject own mentation taking some of the ideas from the predecessors resulting in quite a unique product. The moment you turn on the album, it grabs you with unearthly force, hurling you into darkest breach. The songs are executed perfectly with thick production and the composition stands out on its own.

Behold the detuned and heavy gut crunching riffing along with discernible blackened and progressive passages with blasting chaos and versatile drumming which make the songs to take abrupt brute changes. The consistent guttural and sepulchral vocation with crushed out utters are exceptional throughout reminiscent of Demilich's Antii Boman. You can't help but take notice. This monster which spans over fifty minutes came out in early January and I had a good grasp of it in mid February. Since then Denouement did not fail to amaze me; it's a constant grower for sure. I got in touch with Abyssal and asked some questions regarding the band, album and it's future. Here is the extract.

Your debut album Denouement has created a lot of waves in the underground scene recently. Did you expect it?

Frankly, no. It is very encouraging that there is a bubbling appreciation for music which is quite unconventional and challenging.    

As far as quoting genre wise, Abyssal has been tagged with blackened death metal mostly. Did you want it this way or is it something you don't care and just write the music?

Abyssal never started out to play to a specifically death metal or black metal template. The sound is largely a culmination of influences from these genres, as well as doom, ambient, sludge and post-rock to some degree. Black/death metal is however a fairly apt category to put the music in for convenience.

There are lots of bands under the same name Abyssal from different parts of the world. It's possible that people can get confused easily. Is it something you initially thought of when making a name for the band or did you guys just happen to stick with it once the things were working out well?

Abyssal was actually a fairly uncommon name in meta music when the band was first coming together. There seems to have been an explosion of “Abyssals” quite recently, including another from the same region of the UK. It presents no real problem, as we hope the music is recognisable enough to be considered our own regardless of other artists.

People are comparing Abyssal with Antediluvian and sometimes Portal. Did you hear about these bands? I think Abyssal is much more cleaner sounding production wise. What are your thoughts?

Both Antediluvian and Portal are strong influences to us; however we hope that the sound on Denouement is sufficiently unique as to avoid being labelled a clone band. The production of the CD came together as fairly middle of the road I find: far less “lo-fi” than many atmospheric bands, but also far dirtier and imperfect than the often overproduced sound of more modern death metal. We were quite happy with this.

There's somewhat good market or interest for blackened/ progressive death or extreme acts in USA. Since Abyssal surfaced from UK, I want to take this opportunity by asking you about the extreme scene in UK. If we look deeper, bands like Bolt Thrower, Benediction, Akercocke or particularly young ones such as Cruciamentum, Spearhead and now Abyssal did manage to come up. How hard is it exactly to work through the scene in UK?

The UK extreme scene is fairly strong, but very one-dimensional. There is essentially a monopoly on death metal by brutal and technical bands that are all playing variations on the same theme, with a handful of “old school” bands bringing up the rear. Black metal is slightly more daring, but still fairly static. The only other bands which spring to mind who play music which is unique and refreshing are Acatalepsy from Scotland and Sarpanitum from the Midlands.  

How does the song writing process blend together? 

All of the material and lyrics for Denouement were written by Axiom before being modified and refined by the band. The writing process for the upcoming release may be slightly different.

There are a lot of atmospheric interventions in Denouement adding depth in constructing distinct layers. Are these taken samples or created and written by the band itself?

The vast majority of atmospheric passages are “written” or at least organised by the band. There are obvious exceptions, such as Christopher Hitchens’ polemic between the first and second tracks.

What were your inspirations when you wrote Denouement?

Denouement grew out of a need to write music which was dark and foreboding in the spirit of old death metal, but also emotive and powerful with unique atmosphere. We find these are things that are sorely lacking in a great deal of modern extreme metal.

The logo of Abyssal is fuzzy yet crypted in a wonderful way that we get to see in rawer black metal bands mostly. Also the cover art for Denouement is well thought and observative. Any interpretations on these?

The artwork was selected specially from the portfolio of a Lithuanian artist called Kristina Gentvainyte. She is an incredible visual artist and photographer and we find her work to fit very nicely with our music. She has also provided the artwork for the upcoming CD, and even preliminary work for the one after that.

Can you give us more insights on the lyrical themes and concepts?

Abyssal’s lyrics dwell solely in reality as this is really the only honest way which we feel we can write. We find that lyrics about Lovecraft, occult Satanism or standard anti-Christianity almost always fail to deliver any degree of power or meaning to music (obviously with some exceptions). By the same token, a lot of reality driven bands tend to fall into the same old clichés of anti-war, political commentary etc. We attempt to encapsulate the chaos, uncertainty and tragedy associated with being a human being, but in an honest and poetic way. The truest darkness is that which is real, not imaginary.

What kind of label are we going to see Abyssal signing with in future? Are you going to disclose any information regarding this matter?

There are no hard plans to sign to a label in the near future. We have not yet begun to contact any labels with our release, however there is a preliminary “wish-list” for the ones which would be good to work with.

Are there any plans for overseas touring? 

There are no current plans, but here's to the future.
=====================================
Thanks to Abyssal for the time.


Abyssal bandcamp page
Abyssal bigcartel page


[ Abyssal is currently working on a new album entitled Novis Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius which will come out next year ]

freedigger: Vulgaari's S/T

[ edit: description pulled out due to some issues ]

Asphyx brings on Deathhammer

Heard the title track Deathhammer before right? Now there is a video too. It's a performance video and I dare say it's a typical one but much better oriented; angry faces, close up shots on vocalist, speedy fingers moving on fretboard, drummer hammering the shit out of drums. The real deal for the video is the song itself though. The video just flows with the grooves and speed of this crushing song. Positive reviews are weighing in and the anticipation for the album is now huge but we got to wait till Feb 28 when it comes out via Century Media.