Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Deathspell Omega - The Synarchy of Molten Bones

The band has no official band photos so blame pinterest if these are just four dudes

France's Deathspell Omega are kind of the go-to answer for anyone looking to get into current/latter iterations (2nd/3rd-generation, whatever) of black metal -- they do it and they do it well, to the point that any song of theirs can be identified by insane drumming and generally a cacophony of evil that separates them from anyone else doing it.
I became a late fan with their 'Paracletus' album, and admittedly the following 'Drought' EP didn't grab me quite the same.  Regardless, their latest full length 'The Synarchy of Molten Bones' is a fast favorite among their discography, something Deathspell fans would probably admit is a blending of their earlier work and production values of 'Paracletus'.  The compositions are seemingly way more complex, at times to the overall detriment of conventional thinking of songs with your hand held from transition A to B.  Instead, the listener is bombarded with 4 pulverizing songs that shift and swerve, only coming down from the chaos during brief harmonization/synths at the beginning and end of the album; everything in between is an all out assault that's so calculated it's easy to get stuck on an individual instrument or voice and surrender to its unwavering madness.







Behold...The Arctopus - Cognitive Emancipation



Latest record from New York's instrumental/tech-metal/Warr-guitar giants Behold...The Arctopus.  I am especially digging tracks 3 & 4.  In their own words:


"THIS IS NOT AN EP
time is eleastic. length is subjective. don't discriminate.

recorded july 2016 by Colin Marston
at Menegroth, The Thousand Caves

artwork by Terry Grow

music by Marston feb 2011 - oct 2013
solos by Lerner

thanks:
Weasel Walter and Lille Gruber for also playing some of this music,
Mick Barr at Hathenter Records A&R and Justina for saving arctopus,
my name is Eliane at “Only Hits” corp,
Kevin, Jeff, Luc, Pat, Masterblaster, the fans, the idiots, fieldy."

released November 8, 2016

Colin Marston: warr guitar
Mike Lerner: guitar guitar
Jason Bauers: drums