Hello, Decibel readers!
Hope you have a relaxing weekend with lots of free time on your hands! Or at least one that allows for a soundtrack. We’ve got a roundup of great stuff below, from well-known legends to death-doom devastators to totally weird black metal. It’s a lot to take in, so enjoy!
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Amorphis – Live At Helsinki Ice Hall
Recorded in the band’s hometown in December of 2019 (great month for shows, right?), this live release documents Amorphis playing a set heavily dedicated to Queen of Time, but with assorted tracks from the band’s history played as well. I’m just happy to see “Into Hiding” and “Black Winter Day” there myself, so the rest is just academic.
Stream: Apple Music
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Anatomia – Corporeal Torment
From our premiere of Corporeal Torment:
“Chilling ambient begins opening track “Dismemberment.” Consider it the cleansing of the torture device before the rest of Corporeal Torment crushes your bones into grave dust. But it only takes a solitary minute for the album to reveal its true face. Anatomia is Death/Doom at the genre’s most caustic. The grooves are covered in ooze and leeches.”
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Esoctrilihum – Dy’th Requiem For The Serpent Telepath
The French enigma known as Asthâghul returns from the 67493th dimension to bring another message of mystery and chaos. The album’s foundation is atmospheric black metal, but with lots of death metal and doom mixed in as well. If you’re looking for a rewarding experimental listen that stays tethered to aggression and ferocity, you need to hear this. Just check out how brutal this song is FFS:
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Majestic Downfall – Aorta
From our premiere of Aorta:
“Querétaro-based Majestic Downfall are out-doing their brethren on this side of the Atlantic, as well as weeping harder and suffering more than their European influences. Indeed, Aorta is heavily injected by Finnish doom-death (Swallow the Sun), American doom-death (Evoken), and Swedish death-doom (October Tide), but there’s a different strain of sorrow at play.”
Stream: Apple Music
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Monster Magnet – A Better Dystopia
Fun story: When I was in middle school, I had a music-snob friend who inexplicably hated Monster Magnet and would call people by the band’s name as an insult (no really, he would say “Hey Monster Magnet! Ha ha, I’m making fun of you!”). Fast forward a couple decades and I get to see the band absolutely kill it at Decibel Metal and Beer Fest. It’s satisfying when annoying people are proven wrong, even if it takes 20 years. ANYWAY. The band has a new album of covers out today, featuring renditions of old tunes from Hawkwind, Pentagram and many lesser-known names as well. When listening, you can definitely tell where Wyndorf and co. got a lot of their inspirations from.
Stream: Apple Music
