Late last year, a couple of Swiss guys operating under the moniker Bölzer unloaded an EP of truly bizarro death metal that wound up being one of the best releases of 2013 despite its brief 3 track length. It's understandable if you missed Aura upon its release last October; Iron Bonehead, the label distributing the EP, was perpetually sold out of the vinyl and the band didn't get much coverage from any of the major heavy metal outlets. Fortunately, Aura is much easier to find nowadays, and you should purchase it in anticipation of Bölzer's next EP that's set for release sometime this year.
There's no release date available for the band's sophomore EP, titled Soma, but to whet fans' appetites Bölzer just uploaded a track from the EP onto Soundcloud several days ago. The name of the new song is "Steppes" (close enough in the headline) and while it's a bit more traditional sounding than anything on Aura, it's still a bonafide freak show. "Steppes" begins ordinarily enough, but after roughly a minute and a half the track breaks down into a passage of extended tremolo picking, weird time signatures, spoken word vocals, and what sounds like throat singing. As with Aura, the music here is somewhat challenging to listen to and undeniably odd, but it's also melodic and catchy.
Soma is going to be released at some point (hopefully sooner rather than later) on Invictus Productions. If you like what you hear below, keep an eye on the label's website for a release date, and order Aura through Iron Bonehead in the meantime.
