Metal Riot

TRIPTYKON have made the following statement announcing upcoming festival appearances and their search for a new drummer:

“We feel very honoured to have been invited to play Spain’s Leyendas del Rock and Germany’s Party.San festivals this August. Both festivals hold a unique significance for Triptykon: our concert at Leyendas del Rock will mark the first time Triptykon will play in Spain, fulfilling a desire we have had for quite some time.

The return to Party.San is equally important for us. Triptykon’s first appearance at the festival, in August of 2011, was heavily marred by the unexpected shutdown of the main stage due to storm damage, and by a number of local organizational issues. Party.San is a truly extraordinary festival in our eyes, and we feel privileged and delighted to be given the opportunity to finally honour it with a proper concert.

But these two festivals are significant to us for yet another, far more personal reason. These will be the final concerts we will play with our drummer, Norman Lonhard.

Norman joined Triptykon in December of 2008, thereby completing the freshly formed band. He recorded two acclaimed albums, an EP, and a single with the group, appeared in all of Triptykon’s video clips, and performed uncounted concerts around the globe with us.

We are proud of Triptykon’s exceedingly stable line-up, not least in light of some of the events that transpired in Triptykon’s predecessor, Celtic Frost. It reflects Triptykon’s internal spirit of harmony that this first departure of a member of the group occurs in true friendship and deep mutual respect. After eight and a half years of invoking supreme darkness with Triptykon onstage and in the studio, Norman has indicated his desire to explore different musical avenues in the future. It is a wish we fully understand, of course, but also one we bemoan on a personal level.

We all wish Norman the very best for any and all of his future endeavours. He will forever remain one of us.

Triptykon is thus now looking for a new drummer, before continuing work on the group’s third album and returning to the world’s stages. We are taking the required technical capabilities for granted, and we are completely open with regard to age and female and male applicants. Of decisive importance to us, however, are uniqueness, an unrestricted musical horizon, creativity, artistic courage, a stable and professional personality, and an appearance that reflects the group’s music and unique historic background.

Interested parties may contact Triptykon through this e-mail address:triptykonswitzerland@gmx.ch

[Please note that this e-mail address will only respond to serious inquiries regarding the above mentioned topic.]

Dates and more BELOW.

Infamous black metal horde Watain have announced a new album for Jan. 5th, 2018. The band are sure to continue in an uncompromising direction while furthering their pursuit of the dark ideal. Stay tuned for more details as they are forthcoming. But start getting psyched now!

Poison Blood

Some albums are simply better as a less is more statement. It doesn’t mean the music is bad, rather that the record goes for maximum impact. Hardcore is usually pretty traditionally on point about this but metal is not always adept at reeling back on the grandiose enough to actually trim enough fat to make some records all killer. I doubt half as many people would have hated Load by Metallica for example if it wasn’t so B-load-ted at over an hour of music. “Bleeding Me” is a kick ass song and over eight minutes long by itself. Does anyone even really remember how “Poor Twisted Me” goes other than that it had a so so blues intro? “Wasting My Hate” is not exactly up there with the band’s classics either. Only die hards can sing along to that or “The House That Jack Built” despite a few cool riff progressions in each, but everyone knows the damn words and every note of “Sad But True”, get me?

Below are a handful (list kept intentionally short on purpose in lieu of the topic at hand) of 2017 albums that are short, sweet and leave you wanting more.

See more BELOW.

June 12th will see Norwegian band Legacy Of Emptiness release Over The Past via Black Lion Records  (order digitall and physical copies HERE). The symphonic black metal project has Over The Past was mixed and mastered by Dan Swanö at Unisound Studios and features fantastic cover artwork created by Alex Tartsus that compliments the musical work perfectly and will draw you in.

The album features lots of new material and has a total run time of 48:45 minutes with nary a sleeper in the batch. It’s really a very strong and significantly gripping record that reminds us of the days when we all didn’t have 800 options by half invested here and gone again bands and so had to choose what albums to buy wisely, the point being that this is one you would likely play again and again and get your money’s worth. If nothing else, at least make sure you hear “Evening Star” feat. a cameo from Swanö and a compelling and melodic sound that will coerce Old Man’s Child, Katatonia and Dark Funeral fans alike.

The band comments:

As the title will hint we are now writing a new chapter. This album as been a journey to hell and back for us all. Accidents,cancer and other illnesses has been thrown our way from the day we started writing and recording this beast… Over the past! 

Being a closet Nazi does not make you a cool force of evil lurking in the shadows or whatever nonsense people tell themselves while listening to Skrewdriver alone and hating “weaker groups” but secretly wanting to be dominated by Terry Crews these days. Want a competing arena or marketplace of ideas and freedom? Fine. But many are simply too afraid to own their racist shit in public for fear of being ostracized by reasonable human beings. And yet you mock people closeted in the gay community or other  minorities who’ve feared for lives through history?

Some people praise Halford for being brave enough to come out in metal yet still help nurture conditions that make it hard to do so. Black metal has a massive problem with the cult of ambiguity. Black metal, for example, historically covets a sense of murky ambiguity often that can create occult or moral mystery or in actuality simply enable room for a lot of bs to go down.

Yes, it is easy on paper to agree with Trevor Noah when he says that Ann Coulter’s free speech must be protected, but when GOP groups, people with serious self-hate denial issues like Milo or goofy Proud Boy dorks are willingly going where they are overwhelmingly not wanted and the President is dog whistling Andrew Jackson enthusiasts because he is too much of a little slug to actually admit he is a racist piece of shit, there is a problem. The enabling of a larger platform at private institutions or elsewhere for controversy seeking scum who want to incite violence and then blame the oppressed groups for protesting is the epitome of gaslighting. It is generations of racism, white supremacist prison industrial complex prison for profit free labor crushing the spirits of black communities and then blaming them for their own unrest while simultaneously profiling and shooting them disproportionately. Go fuck yourself.

More BELOW.

Photo by Johnny Edward Photography

American black metal band Nightbringer have released their latest opus Terra Damnata, one of the highest hopes of the year for the genre. It does not let the listener down, a lengthy meditation on the dying world in the age of Kali with many passages that blaze by faster than you can say Austin Osman Spare while choking yourself. It has some of the most unrepentant passages of sheer assailment I have heard on any black metal since perhaps 1349’s recent primarily ferocious Massive Cauldron Of Chaos but the guitar playing here is way more experimental for the most part.

The record releases today, in case you weren’t already spending most of your day with the new Kendrick album and want to be actually damned, not just say DAMN. Blasting this is also a great way to piss off Jesus freaks on Good Friday. Stream Terra Damnata HERE or at Bandcamp HERE. I’m really enjoying the end sections of “Midnight’s Crown” past the 4:11 mark where things get downright Emperor level grandiose. Bad ass.

Regarding the album, vocalist Naas Alcameth comments: “With Terra Damnata we have tread even deeper into the labyrinth of certain esoteric traditions and sacred mythos, closer to the heart of the living darkness that destroys all and liberates but few. The spirit of the album is one of an ever backwards turning and embracing of both terror and ecstasis, love and death, before the gods and daemons of the Age of Misrule.”

Dimmu Borgir‘s resurgence is clearly firmly at hand with the level of excitement very high surrounding the new double DVD Forces Of The Northern Night (4/28). Check out “Gateways” below. Man, that stage production is friggin’ awesome.

Glorior Belli are streaming “Lies-Strangled Skies” from excellent new Agonia Release Sundown (The Flock That Welcomes). The record is out May 6th but you can stream the newest dark single at Bandcamp HERE.

The album is killer, more black metal and speed leaning than the last record but with one real epic avant garde stomper as well, the highly recommended bass heavy “Rebels In Disguise”. “Upheaval In Chaos Waters” is another highlight, guitars positively gleaming with malice over roared, pained vocals and precision drumming. “World So Spurious” even has a bad ass Celtic Frost-esque death grunt that any metalhead will get pumped hearing.

“Lies-Strangled” skies is the opening track from this anticipated release, the perfect soundtrack to a reading of Paradise Lost or for burning down the house. The stage is set with a military beat building up faster and faster under a commanding guitar line before the album pulls you into a grand majesty of no return.

“The production is by far one of the best that Glorior Belli ever had” – comments the band. “Drums & Bass are absolutely devilish and placed under the spotlight. Everything was recorded, mixed and mastered in our own studios, having an absolute control as usual over the sound. The guitar work overall will bring you back to the origins of Glorior Belli. Conceptually wise, Sundown (The Flock That Welcomes) will smother you with darkness and light, both stuffed down your throat with the same rage that could be heard on Glorior Belli’s ealier records. When the Night is coming down on you, will you find a way through the dark? A record for the very few of us who truly embrace the desire to break from the cosmic prison”.