For five years, Kentucky deviants Black Knife have been setting the devil’s rock ‘n’ roll on fire. Like contemporaries Midnight and Devil Master, their blackened metallipunk is possessed by the spirit of Venom. Their eponymous debut made the Grim Reaper smile. Their 2019 Spellcaster LP dragged listeners to Hell for a good fuckin’ time. And they’ve embodied the DIY punk ethos with a number of split albums with Whipstriker, Ritual Moon, and Abigail. Now it’s time to sharpen your favorite blade, because it’s officially Murder Season. Black Knife’s new album released on March 5th, but vocalist/guitarist Hellwulv joined Decibel to offer his diabolical descriptions of each track. The album was released digitally and on CD from Husk Records. Morbid and Miserable Records released cassette tapes. Husk Records and the JEMS Label teamed up for vinyl.
Murder Season begins with horror atmospherics and a lurching, ominous march. That creeping dread soon explodes as the title track’s savage attack scatters shrapnel of flesh and teeth. “They Kill at Night” and first single “Bloodbath Orgy” surge with punked-up sleaze and a gang-snarled chorus. “World of Piss” is a steady stream of Motörhead momentum and Hellwulv’s contagious vocal hooks. The band teased some death metal aspirations on Spellcaster‘s “In Satan’s We Name We Pray.” But “Death Divine” feels like it crawled from that genre’s primordial ooze, and “My Knife in Your Skull” features supporting growls reminiscent of Exhumed. “Unholy Ritual” offers greasy solos from Hellwulv and bassist Bast before a shadowy denouement. Murder Season is a half-hour of tireless rampaging. Picture black leather slick with blood, lit by burning churches. Press play and let Murder Season begin.
Stream Black Knife’s Murder Season below and read degenerate vocalist/guitarist Hellwulv describe the album with track by track analysis.
Track by Track analysis with Black Knife vocalist/guitarist Hellwulv
- “Leaking Christ (Intro)” : We all switched instruments on this song. We also used additional horror synth from our friend and noise master David Reed!
- “Murder Season” : Sets the tone for car wreck of musical vomit to come. A storm is definitely brewing.
- “They Kill at Night” : The fangs are out and we are out for fucking BLOOD! Probably our fastest tempo song to date.
- “Bloodbath Orgy” : First time using dual vocals from more than one band member. Who doesn’t like a good ol’ Bloodbath Orgy emerite???
- “World of Piss” : A total Punk F.O.A.D. banger. I’ll grind you’re bones into a pile of dust,then throw you in the wind if you fuck with us!
- “Death Divine” : Big tempo and mood shift. Leans more into the Death Metal realm, and is a good halfway point in the album. Total sleaze.
- “My Knife in Your Skull” : Crack of the whip D-Beat style punisher with super pissed vocals. High energy and raw!
- “Satan’s Wolves” : Borrows heavy from our Venom influence with the tempo, riffs, and attitude. Also has some Punk shifts throughout.
- “Leatherface” : A really fun song about backwoods cannibals and murder. A song our drummer Mad Matt wrote 15 years ago! Stoked to finally use it!
- “Feed the Beast” : A bit of D-Beat angst and lyrics themed around summoning demons to kill all the human swine. Feel good hit of the Summer!
- “Unholy Ritual” : A song wrote many years ago with my one-man Black Metal project Glass Coffin. I thought a revamp with a full band and proper studio would be sick, and it was! We also got to flex a bit more of our musicianship on this one. We sampled more of David Reed’s amazing sound bits he sent us to close out the album the way it started with his horror soundtrack style synth.
Order Murder Season digitally or on CD from Husk Records HERE
Order the cassette tape from Morbid & Miserable Records HERE
Follow Black Knife on Facebook for updates HERE
