It’s the first Friday of December, and that means two things Decibel readers. One, it’s the last month of 2020, and that can only be a good thing at this point. But! Another good thing: it’s Bandcamp Friday. Yes, one more time, Bandcamp is waiving its revenue share of online sales to directly benefit artists on its platform.
So if you have some lesser-known underground favorites you’ve been thinking to support, or you just like what you hear from the selection below, today is good day to act on that impulse!
Cheers!
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The Deviant – Rotting Dreams of Carrion
Featuring the iconic vocals from Dolgar (that shivering voice of the ghost from Gehenna), The Deviant is an energized, death-laden storm of black metal fury. If you wished that Angelcorpse integrated a late-90s variation of Norwegian black metal into their sound, you’d come close to what this band captures on Rotting Dreams of Carrion.
Stream: Apple Music
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Nominon – Yesterdeath
Swedish death metal heroes Nominon have treats for you, they’re out back, in the old graveyard. Yesterdeath is a collection of rarities and obscure EP releases. These albums are always a cool way to hear a band’s deep cuts and discover new favorites to blast in your own black chapel.
Stream: Apple Music
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Paradise Lost – Draconian Times (25th-anniversary reissue)
Speaking of reissues, here’s one for the true fans of Decibel darlings Paradise Lost. Draconian Times was the ultimate triumph of the band’s second stage of artistic development, as it saw the visions developed on Shades of God and Icon fully culminate into a landscape of gothic glory. This reissue includes new liner notes, an exploration into the album’s lyrics, and some reminiscences from the band. You can order the vinyl or CD versions from the band’s official store.
Stream: Apple Music
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Pothamus – Raya
Chilling, eerie, spooky, evocative. Pothamus is the sound of a ritual for the death of 2020. And yet, it’s also the sound of a continuous transformation and coming into being, inspired by the band’s Belgian heritage, describing “Orath” as “the genesis of the Earth, portraying the primary creation within the band’s own mythology. Rather than a cosmogonic myth in which the earth is created ‘ex nihilo’, Orath expresses the coming-into-being of earthly matter as a process of transformation: a continual development of what already exists.”
Stream: Apple Music
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Undergang – Aldrig i livet
The latest from Denmark’s masters of grime and filth. Check what frontman David Mikkelsen had to say in our recent interview, in which he describes some of his non-metal influences:
“like Alice in Chains, Meat Puppets, Nirvana and so on. Likely not pleasing some people, but being born in the ’80s rather than growing up in the ’80s, I had the ’90s variety of rock to fuel my first interest in music leading to the discovery and love for death metal that has since formed a lot of my life.”
