Welcome to Metal Lair’s Seven Deadly Songs weekly feature where we curate songs from the past and the present for your listening pleasure.
Written By Kevin McSweeney
Welcome to this week’s Seven Deadly Songs, where we’ll be looking at some of the best heavy music to be released in the first week of April. This month is due to be huge for metal, with new albums due from such big names as Epica, Bleed From Within and the mighty Machine Head to name but a few. We’d like to shine a light here on some of the albums to be released to less fanfare, but that are well worth checking out all the same. You’d be an April Fool to miss out on these releases.
Unbounded Terror – Divine Virtue
Something is rocking in the state of Spain. OK, now I’ve made everyone including myself cringe with that reference to the Shakespeare-inspired title of their new album Something is Rotten in Humanity, we can concentrate on celebrating the return of the pioneers of Spanish death metal, the legendary Unbounded Terror. The album, released via Xtreem Music on April 1st, is only their fourth full-length record since their inception in 1991, due to the band being on hiatus for 26 years while guitarist and founding member Vicente J. Payá continued to pioneer extreme music in Spain with Golgotha. Divine Virtue is an example of old-school death metal at its best, from the doom-laden intro to the blast beats, furious finger-grating riffs and guttural vocals from Andrew Espinosa that seem to emanate from the bowels of Hell. With music of this quality, we hope there won’t be another hiatus anytime soon.
Wrath of Logarius – Long Dead the King
We love Season of Mist here at Metal Lair. The label consistently presents us with music of the highest quality, and Crown of Mortis, the debut album from Californian formless black metal band Wrath of Logarius, is no exception, if Long Dead the King is anything to go by. The vocals alternate between tried-and-true black metal shrieks and growls more akin to death metal, and are complemented by carpal tunnel syndrome-inducing riffs and the kind of beats that resemble a spin cycle so fast, the drum could break free of its axle and drive belt and fly across the utility room at any moment, with devastating consequences for anyone in the vicinity. The album is released on the 4th of April, and is highly recommended to all fans of black metal and its many variants.
Past Glories – The Fear I Inherited
Progressive metal band Past Glories released Damiano’s Fallon the 4th of April via the WormHoleDeath label. The Swedish four-piece describe their sound as “…based on heavy guitar tones, ethereal vocal lines, melodic yet technical writing combined with orchestrations that enhance the emotional character of the music.” They cite The Devin Townsend Project among their influences, and The Fear I Inherited, as well as the aforementioned description of their music, offers plenty of evidence as to why. It’s a plaintive number, with a mournful violin intro and a melancholic melody throughout that is never overwhelmed when the heavy guitars and unconventional time signatures present themselves later on. It’s a fairly modest length at just over five minutes as well – a blessing for those who don’t have the patience for the more self-indulgent excesses to which practitioners of the genre are sometimes prone.
Benediction – Crawling Over Corpses
What is it about Birmingham? The list of highly innovative and influential artists who hail from the English city is simply staggering. There must be something in the council pop*. The place that gave us such game changers as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Napalm Death also gave us Benediction, one of the foremost names in British death metal since 1989. The Brummie band, who boast Napalm Death vocalist Barney Greenway among their alumni, have returned with their tenth studio album, Ravage of Empires, released via Nuclear Blast on the 4th of April. Crawling Over Corpses is a perfect example of the kind of brutality this legendary band have been meting out over the course of their incredible 26-year career, and Dave Ingram’s vocals are every bit as intense as those of his illustrious predecessor. The lyrics are delightfully grisly as well!
*Council pop is a colloquial term for tap water in Birmingham.
Fractal Universe – Causality’s Grip
We’ve had death metal, and we’ve had progressive metal, so now let’s have some progressive death metal, courtesy of French band Fractal Universe, who have returned with their fourth studio album, The Great Filters, released via M-Theory Audio on April 4th. The video for Causality’s Grip dropped about two months ago, and it’s an appetizing hors d’oeuvre for the album. The guitar almost sounds like a jaw harp in the intro, and from then on, there’s a high level of musical proficiency on display throughout, with an intricately constructed groove that could come undone so easily in less capable hands. The vocals alternate between beauty and brutality, and the whole thing exudes an adroit insouciance that is just so gloriously French! It’s a timely reminder that the great Gojira are not the only outstanding metal band their nation has to offer.
Flagg – Storming the Gates
Finland’s flag is a blue Nordic cross on a white background. Finland’s Flagg, on the other hand, are pure black, as in purveyors of black metal of the highest quality. The band are a duo consisting of Flagg himself on guitar, bass and keys, and Tyrant on vocals. Their third full-length album, Diabolical Bloodlust, will be available from the 4th of April, courtesy of Purity Through Fire, and Storming the Gates is the opening track. All of the essential elements of black metal are present: the blood-curdling shrieks, the relentless blast beats, the furious tremolo picking, the eerie and ominous atmospherics. This is black metal as it was done in the 90s, and it’s so much the better for it.
Captain Black Beard – Read Your Mind
And finally, we have something a little bit more melodic after all that unrelenting heaviness, courtesy of Swedish hard rock band Captain Black Beard, who return with their seventh full-length album, Chasing Danger, on April 4th, released via Mighty Music. With its vibrant vocal harmonies and prominent synths, this anthemic number could easily be the soundtrack to a training montage in a Rocky movie. There’s even a key change and a keyboard solo, just for extra Eighties authenticity. It’s a nostalgic treat for those of us who are old enough to remember this kind of music the first time round to see a new generation taking up the torch, as so many of us no longer have the hair for hair metal.