Bands You Should Be Hearing Pt.VII - Welcoming Oktober.

More news from the underground. Here is what I've been digging.

Cepheide from France delivering that cascadian style of black metal approach with their new release "Respire". Featuring two long tracks with rather alternating rhythm, you can expect some really raw and untamed black metal layered with some serious cold and distressed howls. Fans of good atmospheric black metal acts like Fell Voices, Ash Borer or even WITTR, take notice. Support the band, buy their tape.

 Cepheide

Patibulum are a death metal band from Seattle, Washington and introduces us their Demo "Ninurta's Call Heeded" filled with three putrid hymns of some really sick death metal. Their sound really captures that good old school vibe and it's almost impossible not to headbang to it. There isn't much info about these guys out there neither on how to purchase a physical release of this Demo. So all you can do for now is to stream it or download it on Bandcamp. If you're a fan bands like Miasmal or Grave Miasma then you'll love this.

Patibulum

Next is one of, probably one of my favorite Demos of the year. Nyght's self titled Demo released in cassette by Swedish label Ljudkassett holds that black metal I love so much. Raw production, great tunes that stick in your head for hours and that are impeccably played. Nyght is evil, grim and menacing and yet very catchy. The opening track "Begynnelse" reminds me a blend of early Throne of Katarsis but way more raw and those chants that are thrown there in the middle, are absolutely very Urfaust. From the start to the end, this Demo is just fucking addictive. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the cassette seems to be already sold out. And I'm glad that I'm part responsible for it. Ha...

Nyght

Another band I don't know much about is Shibboleth, from Victoria. Seems like this band has two members only and I must begin by saying that they did a good work here with "Language of the Night". It really captures the essence of that norwegian-second-wave-of-black-metal but splattered here with some punk and maybe some doom, since there's also some very slow, mid-paced sections here. Nothing groundbreaking here, still a very good and recognized effort.

Shibboleth

Filthy and rotten death metal from Germany is always good right? And that's exactly what these fine gents brings us. Kriegszittern, from Mülheim, Germany delivering their "Frostbite Demo". No polished production, no big production, nothing. Just filthy, primitive and apocalyptic death metal for your ears.

Kriegszittern

Keeping the track here on death metal, another great contender for best death metal demo is Altarage from fellow neighbor Spain. Altarage play this fucking visceral and diabolical death metal I mean, these guys have been listening a lot to records of bands like Portal, Mitochondrion, Antediluvian and Blasphemy for sure. If this didn't make you thirsty already, what the Hell are you waiting for? This is fucking destroying everything else out there. Limited edition cassette through Sentient Ruin Laboratories and the always amazing Sol Y Nieve Records.

Altarage

Another interesting band that caught my attention in this whole new death metal underground spectrum, are Loputon Suo from Finland. Their sound can clearly be described as death metal but they stretch it even more to other territories like black metal. The result is quite pleasing to our ears and so worth of our attention.

Loputon Suo

And for last I've chosen Witcher from the U.S. Now this Demo is a fucking killer and it got me straight out of nowhere. The drum is just amazing, so fucking relentless and as furious as a war machine... I mean.. this whole band sounds like that. The evil vocal work, the continuous storm of riffs are just fucking incredible and epic. No need to enhance that is one of the best Demos I heard so far in this year as well. Luckily for you you can download the Demo here or even better, you can get a physical copy through Runelore Productions (if interested, email them at runeloreproductions@gmail.com). Highly recommended.

Witcher

That's all for now. Have a great day.

Bands You Should Be Hearing Pt.I

I've realized that my inbox is flooded at this point with requests, and as much as I would like to, it's hard to filter most of the stuff there. I really would love to take some decent time to listen to all of the music people kindly send me, but I find that to be a very, almost, impossible task to do it in the very little spare time that I have. I know you guys would love a deep and full review of all your releases... but in the end it all comes down to use Forever Cursed as the messenger, the vehicle to your message out there, I just light the way and people will do the rest. So, without further bullshit, excuses, bla-bla-bla, here are some of releases/bands that caught my attention in the past few months.

I became aware of the Pennsylvania duo Capa since the "Shallow Towers"release, at this point many of you probably know them too. The band plays a more contemporary, avant-garde and technical style of black metal. I look at Capa's sound and I interpret it as "progressive metal with black metal influences" and not as simply "black metal" because it's not. Although I'm not the most avid fan of this style of over polished kind of production, "The Droves" turned out a very interesting listen and it's one of those releases that you will put on repeat for the next couple of hours or even days. The whole production behind it is very keen and the songs are pretty solid. Like I said, the percentage of black metal influence is strong on this one, although after lifting up Capa's cloak (Fact: "Capa" in portuguese means "cloak") and after dissecting their sound, it I also found some "djenty" and post-metal riffs that are thrown in the middle of the tracks. In the end the result is this very tragic, almost theatrical, if you look at it through this point of view, style of metal. What a nice surprise. Check them out below.

The Droves | Alternative DL Link

This next band crashed in a very mysterious and simple email with the just the Bandcamp link in it. The band is Home Is Gone (No, it's not a His Hero Is Gone covers band) from New York and they introduce us to "Triptych", that's right: a three song release that consist of this blasting, furious, industrial sounding black metal sound. Almost as a bastard child between Genghis Tron and Liturgy (wait..) and the result is, at least, interesting. Check them out below.

Home Is Gone

From Finland, Maze of Roots, a doom duo releasing their fifth Demo, well they've released two Demos last month, simply called "Chapter One" (or was it supposed to be Three?) and "Chapter Two", two chapters of what it seems a trilogy. Maze of Roots plays a very bleak, depressing, anguished and traditional style of doom metal, following the Finnish heritage of doom bands like Umbra Nihil and Majesty for example. I must confess I wasn't very impressed with their first Demos, I really didn't like the vocals at all but maybe it was just me back then. Here, Maze of Roots, successfully created some very nice tracks filled with a very gloomy and melancholic atmosphere. (Sorry I took so long Joel)

Chapter I | Chapter II

Next is Cepheide, a brand new band, formed this year, coming from France. The band describes their sound as raw cascadian black metal in the vein of bands like Ash Borer or Fell Voices. Indeed Cepheide's style of black metal drinks up in a insatiable way, the influence of the Cascadia style of bands. It's good to see bands like this coming out of Europe, the truth is that there aren't many bands playing this style here. So it's always good to witness the rise of bands Cepheide. In "De Silence et de Suie" (that was created under a very DIY spirit by the band itself) expect four great tracks of passionate, uncompromised, energetic and raw black metal. A great release by Cepheide. Bravo!

Cepheide

Idre, a trio from Oklahoma who quote names like Neurosis, Ennio Morricone, Swans, OM, and Khanate when describing their music. Interesting, no? It immediately makes me just go out and press "Play" as I forget what I was doing. This self titled album consists of 2 songs spanning over 40 minutes. The first track "Factorie" last almost half-hour and its melancholic tone reminds me a lot of the style of Across Tundras. The more we dig in, the more weird it gets, as more entangled we get in those slow and atmospheric layers. In the second track "Witch Trial" I really get the OM influence. The sound is Ok, I get their thing here but I'm not a big fan of the vocals. These guys are trying to do something different here but I believe that they still didn't reached it.. yet. I wasn't too excited with this released. Please Idre, prove me I was so wrong in a very near future. Take your own conclusions below. A CD and LP versions will be available later this summer.

Idre

Oh yes! Filthy, nasty, sickening sludge doom from Keeper. From what I've seen so far, these guys are escalating quickly with their "MMXIV" Demo. Formed by ex-Tiger Lily (whom I've talked about here on the blog some time ago) member, Keeper is the answer to every sludge/doom aficionado. You dig Thou? You dig Hell? You dig The Abominable Iron Sloth? You dig Old Witch? Then this band is for you. Just one word to describe this release: Crushing! Support these dudes. Tape out now on Grimoire Cassette Cvlture.

Keeper