Hello, loyal Decibel readers!
This week your patronage has been rewarding with a generous endowment of melodic death metal, sword-wielding trad-metal, and however you’d like to categorize Tombs.
And if you’re feeling generous in other ways, now might be a good time to donate to Feeding America. It looks like it’s going to be a rough winter for a lot of people, and while the onus should be on congress to pass another massive relief bill, the least we can do is make the holidays a little less lonely.
Here’s some new music:
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Dark Tranquillity – Moment
The latest from Swedish meldodeath legends Dark Tranquility is this week’s Best New Noise, here’s what we had to say about it:
Dark Tranquillity, bastion of consistency and one of two NWOSDM holdovers from the ’90s, find a new path on Moment, the group’s 12th full-length. Actually, it’s not a new path per se, but a revolution or two on albums such as (Swedish) Grammy-nominated Atoma and Fiction. What’s different isn’t how the guitars sound as the Swedes turn 31, but rather who’s playing them, and how they’ve been smartly woven into the band’s sonic fabric.
Stream: Apple Music
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Eternal Champion – Ravening Iron
The spirit of classic heavy metal lives on in the galloping beats and epic riffs on Eternal Champion’s latest effort. This is the sound of pure swords-and-sorcery escapism set to music. One interesting element is Jason Tarpey’s understated, subtle vocal approach, which allows his voice to sink more into the dramatic atmosphere rather than punctuate it with the high notes common with similar bands. Additionally, the spirit of Frank Frazetta lives on in the artwork of his nephew, Ken Kelly, displayed with the cover’s prominent display of … well, just look at it, lol.
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Lie In Ruins – Floating in Timeless Streams
From our premiere of Floating in Timeless Streams:
Known for constructing massive albums, both of their previous full-lengths ran an hour each, but on their new full-length, the Finns present 8 tracks of straight-for-the-throat atmospheric death metal hostility and two truly murder scene-setting ambient pieces in under forty minutes.
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Subterraen – Rotten Human Kingdom
Blackened-doom in longform. France’s Subterraen makes everything count on Rotten Human Kingdom, filling their lengthy tunes with libraries fill of haunted volumes of screams, shrieks and distortion. There’s a lot of death/black-doom bands out there making extremely boring music, those looking to improve matters should turn their ears this way.
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Tombs – Under Sullen Skies
Take it from Waldo:
First thing to be noted here is that this is more black metal, which Tombs has been flirting (if not full bore) with for years. That’s not to say this is pure kvlt Norwegian black metal, there are changes in the songs that really mix this thing up. There are some samples, keys, and slight nods to “gothic rock” making it not just a black metal record.
Stream: Apple Music
