Gimme Metal Program Director Brian Turner delivers the week's top 5 office buzz-worthy tracks.
BLODTÅR – Svartsejd
Blodtår's new self-titled release on Black Lodge finds this Nordic troupe creating a surging brand of dark song structure that sways with folkloric swagger, punctuated by stylish breaks and melodic interludes. Ultimately they pull back into pure blasted mayhem, a suffocating attack surrounded by a heavy atmosphere of hopelessness that still manages to be brutal and filled with color and variety.
WOLFTOOTH – Broken Sword
Spawned in 2017, Indiana's Wolfooth rep for some classic elements of proto-metal and doom, infused with elements of thrash and bloozy-ness on their new 'Ahab' (Napalm Records). They decorate your Xmas week with some ornate sonic pleasure on their forthcoming Gimme takeover December 29th as well!
HEIRESS – All Ends
In sync with the notion that all HC vets eventually smoke a bunch of pot and slow things down a tad, Seattle's Heiress come from a fairly aggressive pedigree but over the last 15 years have slow crawled into a sludgy den of heavy slow-mo melodies and tempered sidesaddle approach that is most pleasing. The smothering sound of their amps tapers into chiming harmonics, periods of silence, and a somewhat post-rock shuffle that all accents the metallic movements of epic proportions. Check out their latest 'Distant Fires' out on Satanic Royalty.
NEGURA BUNGET – Brad
Romania's Negura Bunget suffered the devastating loss of founder/drummer Gabriel "Negru" Mafa in 2017, and the band strived to finish this last final piece of his vision for the new 'Zău' release out last week. A frosty flight through ancient epic landscapes of their homeland, NB's sound is of graceful darkness, surrounded by misty ambience, synths, reverb-drenched female voices weaving through the mix. A beautiful modern, mystical mirror of Romanian folklore.
THE DARKNESS – It's Love, Jim
At the height of The Darkness' hit single mania in 2003, I did a trip to the UK and based on the overwhelming number of pub flyers I saw touting Darkness tribute bands playing therein, I knew that what might have been a bit of a novelty to us yanks was certainly a heavier and more entrenched level of respect over there (and of course the band was completely annoyed at the stateside press' lack of it, likely based on what was quite a comical video). And yeah, despite their new video also being pretty goofy (the singer's garb looks like he escaped from a fire at a 1972 Thin Lizzy show, crowing in a field while cows hump), The Darkness still rip in 2021. Full of crunchy riffs, operatic vocals and epic production, the band still entertains but sternly stomps a platform boot heel in your face to remind you they are completely serious about their songcraft, ideology, and seamless ability to channel great NWOBHM forces.
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