Hell Awaits is a column by Kim Kelly and Andy O'Connor that shines a light on extreme and underground metal. This time, Kim sizes up new metal from Alraune, Sea Bastard, Triumvir Foul and more.
Alraune:“Exordium”
Following hot on the heels of a two-track cassette recently released by the peerless Graceless Recordings (snag a copy here), Nashville black metal perverters Alraune have just announced final details for their debut full-length. Dubbed The Process of Self-Immolation, the album is due out on June 24th on CD and digital via Profound Lore, with vinyl to follow from Gilead Media on July 15th. This is an awfully highly anticipated album for those who have been paying attention to Alraune’s relentless progress, and it’s no surprise that The Process of Self-Immolation is an absolute beast of a recording. The band’s take on occult black metal stylings draw from the Scandinavian masters, the French introverts, and their own depraved visions, singlehandedly creating a new standard for USBM to strive towards and sneering at weaker acts whilst they’re at it. The cold, biting melodic scourge of second track “Exordium” exemplifies the band’s uncompromising approach to black metal fury beautifully. It’s as elegant and lethal as a vintage blade.
Sea Bastard:“Nightmares of the Monolyth”
Ever since Iron Monkey glotted the refined tradition of UK doom with crippled punk beats and absolute muck, sludge’s stumbling spectre —with its whiskey fumes and nodding tempos—has clouded the country’s output and given rise to abominable heavies like Conan, Dead Existence, Iron Witch, and the slavering wretches in Sea Bastard. This Brighton quartet is primed to release four new songs’ worth of dripping, waterlogged doom filth, and will let loose ‘Scabrous’ digitally and on double LP from Dry Cough Records, Mosh Tuneage, Black Reaper Records, and Catface Records (preorder it here). "Nightmares of the Monolyth” is a lumbering death dirge that slogs through upteen layers of sludgy, stoned, droned fuzz over the course of its ten-plus minutes, yet leaves us howling for more. This shit is so heavy it’s a small wonder their practice space hasn’t sunk into the sea by now. Let’s hope they’ve stocked up on sandbags, for our sake as much as their own.
Triumvir Foul:“Abhorrent Depths”
Triumvir Foul burbles out deranged, putrid death metal riffs that bump and collide beneath a smothering veil of distorted murk. The deathlike early '90s sound is proudly present, caveman grooves and all ( hell, there’s even an Autopsy cover!) But this quick’n’nasty release is veined with evil and dusted with something stronger than whatever Entombed was snorting way back when. As far as I can tell, the whole sordid mess is the work of two Portland-based individuals, and what it may lack in originality, it more than makes up for with sheer naked aggression. An Oath of Blood and Fire is the band’s self-released debut recording, and is available both digitally and in a run of 100 hand-numbered cassettes here. They’re new, and it’s raw, but this thing positively reeks of potential and you’re going to want to keep one eye open in anticipation of Triumvir Foul’s next move. Big ups to Dave from Coffinworm for pointing me towards this latest blasphemous racket!
Musk Ox:“Arcanum”
Musk Ox is the brainchild of neoclassical guitarist Nathanaël Larochette, an Ottawa-based composer and spoken word poet who has dedicated the last eight years to creating the gentle, pastoral take on neofolk he dubs “chamber folk.” Whatever it may lack in heavy metal thunder or ravishing grimness, Musk Ox more than makes up for with its richness in atmosphere and emotion, created in tune with the natural world and its terrifying beauty. Joined by cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne and violinist Evan Runge, Larochette has sought to push Musk Ox’s progressive-minded sound even further on the trio’s upcoming second album, Woodfall. Larochette’s skill as a classical guitarist is unsurpassed, and has not gone unnoticed, either; keen ears will pick up shades of the acoustic interludes he composed for Agalloch’s latest album ‘The Serpent & The Sphere’ within Woodfall's five songs. The abridged version of “Arcanum” below is a lush, deeply affecting folk epic that flits between sadness and triumph, and would surely make Larochette’s spiritual forebears in Empyrium, Nest, and Tenhi proud.
Vilkacis:“Wolf’s Eyes”
Michael Rekevics is almost frighteningly prolific. Since he arrived in NYC a few years back, the California transplant has continued to push black metals’ fragile boundaries close to breaking with a rush of new projects. Though Rekevics is probably best known for his work with Fell Voices, those of us on the East Coast know him primarily as the drummer of the dearly missed Ruin Lust as well as main provocateur in the new and deadly Vorde, and now for his latest diversion (and second solo effort), Vilkacis. Psychic Violence and Dead Section Records will co-release an LP version of Vilkacis’ debut, The Fever of War, on June 10th, a few days before the band appears at a Northside Festival showcase curated by Show No Mercy & Hell Awaits (tickets available here). Savage minimalism culled straight from the Second Wave is the order of the day here, tempered by droning ambient passages and cloaked in all-consuming darkness. “Wolf’s Eyes” is an feverish orthodox din, all buzzing tremolo and strangled rasps with only the slightest hint of brittle melody.
Iron Hawk:“Hunger for Power”
Tasmanian metalpunk scum trio Iron Hawk has just dropped its debut EP, Boozehounds From Hell on Heavy Chains Records, and it sounds exactly what the beginning of this sentence would lead you to expect: raw, spiky speed metal crossed with mangy Motorpunk that dives in hard then bails in three minutes or less. The band has only been active since mid-2013, when Simön Slaughter, Ängie Climax, and Vyvyan Bästerd decided to start making beautiful music together. The result is a blackened speed punk orgy of drunken d-beats, thrashy riffs, and heavy moments of dark, foreboding crust. The production quality is nil, which is to say, it’s exactly how it should be. A spit shined recording is the last thing Iron Hawk needs; they’re all about keeping it mean and dirty. Pick up a copy of the tape here, and satiate your hunger for power! (Cheers to Jeff Treppel for the tip—as much as he loves lame symphonic metal, he’s got a nose for the good stuff when it counts).