ENDTYMER is the inevitable weekly “music news blog” series I’ve been working to avoid for some time. It hits at the end of every week with the intent of covering notable new releases, sharing news of new releases, and musing over various personal listening habits. It is a largely informal blog, has opinions, etc. so chill out a bit. I do my best to cover as much of everything I receive in some form regardless of genre or representation, don’t hesitate to send anything and everything my way: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK

The we’re ankle deep in June already and it is starting to feel like it with a number of bigger-deal releases starting to hit. That said, this week wasn’t a wild one for extreme metal. Aodon‘s ‘Portraits‘ gave us yet another tragic angle from their unique atmospheric black metal path, Torture Rack ‘Primeval Onslaught‘ reminded what magic a set of deadly pure death metal riffs can still accomplish in less than a half hour, and Innumerable Forms returned with a short cassette, ‘The Fall Down‘, which seems to be leftovers from their latest LP. All class work in general but my album of the week was split between GODFLESH‘s return with ‘Purge‘ and the ecstatic dread of blackened death metal group BURIAL HORDES as they brough some of their best work within ‘Ruins‘. Ultimately I had to go with the latter because I knew I’d end up listening to it more often over the course of this year:

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THRASH?!

JUST PASSING BY…

I’ll just put this right here…

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“NEWS”

ASPHODELUS have announced their second full-length album ‘Sculpting From Time‘ along with cover art (per Thomas Cole) and track listing. They’ve signed with the venerable Hammerheart Records for an August 25the release on all relevant formats. If you are not yet aware of the Finnish band’s work think of a particularly sweet spot between dark romanticist death/doom of the early 90’s, a hint of Greek black metal, and gloomiest Finnish death metal, all of it pulling from the darkest shades of the past. Normally I would wait until a preview track or single is available but since I’ve heard the whole thing I’ll just say pre-order it now and listen to their debut if you’d missed it a couple years back:

Awaiting the drapery of smoke and a blacked-out sun for the summer, we can look forward to pacific northwest bastion of the new dark reality thanks to UADA delivering their mastery once again with ‘Crepuscule Natura‘ which their label Eisenwald recently announced will release this coming September 8th. So far they’ve suggested there will be a bleak melodic focus which pairs the driven past with the majestic current for this album, I think that just means it will rule. The Kris Verwimp artwork is once again intensely symbolic and the album will feature photography from Peter Beste otherwise. Check out the lyric video for “Retraversing the Void”:

Greek dark media collective The Circle Music have announced the second full-length album from black metal duo MELAN SELAS will emerge from the tree line this coming September 22nd. ‘Zephyrean Hymns‘ promises to rise from the primordial rawness unto an epic, grandiose station wherein the heavy metal spirit of the band links even more tightly with Hellenic black metal traditions. They’ve promised “A quest through space and time, an ascension to something greater…” and I believe they’ve already taken me there with the first single, “Dreadful Dome”:

Iron Bonehead Productions have announced August 11th as the release date for RUNESPELL‘s fifth full-length album. ‘Shores of Nastrond‘ will arrive on CD and vinyl LP formats alongside digital. This will be the first album from the artist which features a full lineup a trio including founder Nightwolf with drummer Basilysk (Temple Nightside, Pestilential Shadows) and keyboardist Irrwycht (Grabunhold, Baxaxaxa). They’ve suggested that ‘Shores of Nastrond‘ marks a second era of the entity. I am such a huge fan of this band, see what you think and engage with “Mirrors of the Dead” now:

Swedish classic HM-2-driven death-metal group GRAND CADAVER will release their second album ‘Deities Of Deathlike Sleep‘ on August 25th by way of Majestic Mountain Records. Very much a side project between folks from very well known bands, there were no expectations going in, the band comments: “We never even planned to release a full-length album, and here we are with our second! “Deities of Deathlike Sleep” was conceived and recorded with the same mindset and the same team as our previous recordings, keeping it quick, spontaneous and enjoyable. This time it turned out a bit more dynamic, with the pummeling fury interspersed with some doom, gloom and darkness. But still, it’s simply ten tracks of Swedish Fucking Death Metal, the way we love it” Sounds like a bit of a good time eh:

Chaos Records have announced they will release a compilation of singles, splits compilations and demo recordings from TEMPLE OF VOID. The compact disc version of ‘The First Ten‘ will release this coming July 7th. The band comment on the release: “Temple of Void has always put just as much care and attention to detail into our non-album tracks as we have with our album tracks. In fact, some of the songs we put out as singles are some of our all-time-favorite songs we’ve ever written. Our mentality is that if someone is new to TOV and their first exposure is through a split 7″ or a comp song, it’d better blow them away on the first impression. There’s no room for second-tier tracks in our discography. We hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane covering the first ten years of our existence as experienced through singles, splits, comps, and our demo. The booklet is brimming with brand new content documenting the stories behind each of these eleven crushing slabs of death-doom.” Full support, since I’ve followed this band since the first demo. You can listen to the whole thing now over on Bandcamp.

On August 25th Dying Victims Productions will release Italian traditional doom metal trio BOTTOMLESS‘ second full-length album, ‘The Banishing‘, on CD and vinyl LP format. Bottomless comes from the trustworthy hands of vocalist/guitarist Giorgio Trombino and drummer David Lucido alongside bassist Sara Bianchin all of whom you should know from quite respected bands in the extreme/atmospheric doom and death metal spaces though the style here is 80’s doom metal with a bit of epic heavy metal tempered in. Check out the first preview song “Stand in the Dimming Light”:

Athens, Greece-based extreme thrash metal band BIO-CANCER have teamed up with Hammerheart Records for the September 8th release of their new album ‘Revengeance‘. Formed in 2010 and generally active since their sound is a decent mix of classic and modern day sounds. This album finds them searching for their own sound and identity even more intently and I suppose you can check out the first single and see if you’ve find it stands out.

Portland, Oregon-based sludge/doom metal band VIRAL TYRANT hit the deck as they promote their debut full-length ‘Vultures Like You‘. The video for “Blunt Force and Sheer Ignorance” is an homage to classic early 90s thrash and skate videos as the band suggests: “It was made by a couple dudes coming up in the local Portland skate scene and is a combo of footage from a couple of our recent live performances as well as their recent skate footage! Portland has always had a killer skate culture and a couple of us are skaters from way back (Eric and Mitch specifically). This video is all about featuring some of the local skate scene, and the hijinks and gnarly bails that are always a part of skate culture. Combine that with some more live footage of the Tyrant, and we felt it was an appropriately old-school vibe! This song was once described as “a punk 45 played on 33 speed” and we love and agree with that assessment. The start of this video features a clip of our bass player Casey laying a savage chairshot on local wrester Evin Archanos “The Non Prophet”, taken from a combined heavy metal/pro wrestling show here in Portland called MetalMania.” having grown up in the Portland area around this time I can say this one too me back in a serious way. ‘Vultures Like You‘ is out July 21st via Ripple Music:

Norwegian black n’ roll mainstays VREID have released a spur of the moment piece “Flammen” which is the result of spontaneous creativity as it was written, recorded, and released within weeks of creation. It serves as a standalone single which feels like a grab at the original spark, mourning a bit while also appreciating the path ’til today. Though I’m not always a fan of their work this did feel like it had some of the energy of the early post-Windir days. Check it out, comes with a music video:

Everlasting Spew Records have shared two new tracks from the upcoming album from New Jersey grindcore group ORGAN DEALER. ‘The Weight of Being‘ will release this coming July 28th on CD, cassette, and digitally with the vinyl coming later this year. Fans of Misery Index and Nasum check out “Panoramic” b/w “Solitude is Death”:

AOP Records have announced an August 18th release date for the second full-length album from German black metal band THE CIRCLE. ‘Of Awakening‘ will arrive on CD, vinyl LP and digitally. The trio were founded in 2021 centered around ex-Wintersun vocalist Asim Searah intending their work to “take you on a voyage through the facets of egoism, devastation, self-hatred, and reflection and the results of destructive behavior that lead to a higher level of self-actualization.” The first single “Ashes and Fading Tides” definitely has me interested:

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THIS WEEK’S VIDEOS / REVIEWS

Catch up with the latest YouTube video review/features and written reviews here. New videos post each week for the most part. You can click on the link provided to read the review/article, each review has the related video embedded in the original post as well. Videos are fairly casual and meant to accompany the written review with some extra context and generalized notes. The written review and the video review are complimentary -not- interchangeable. Subscribe, share, leave a comment, etc. if you feel like it.

ORDER OF DECAY – Mortification Rites (2023) | REVIEW

LEATHÜRBITCH – Shattered Vanity (2023) | REVIEW

BURIAL HORDES – Ruins (2023) | REVIEW

CLAUSTRUM – Claustrum (2023) | REVIEW

TORTURE RACK – Primeval Onslaught (2023) | REVIEW

HELLWITCH – Annihilational Intercention (2023) | REVIEW

Short Reviews | June 8th, 2023

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COMING UP NEXT WEEK:

Here is a tentative list of what is coming up next week in terms of reviews. The following records have been listened to extensively, a preliminary review has been drafted (or completed), and I’ve locked them in for coverage. In terms of the “Short Written Reviews + Video” column, these are more tentative, some of them may be cut if I do not have enough time to get around to everything. These choices are subject to change as the final drafts evolve and other releases might potentially take priority:

LONGFORM REVIEWS + VIDEO:

ADVERSVM – Vama Marga [June 23rd, Moribund Records]
SATURNUS – The Storm Within [June 16th, Prophecy Productions]
BLACK EUCHARIST – Inn of the Vaticide [June 23rd, Stygian Black Hand]
HELLERUIN – Devils, Death and Dark Arts [June 16th, New Era Productions]
SAINT KARLOFF – Paleolithic War Crimes [June 2nd, Majestic Mountain Records]
COFFIN MULCH – Spectral Intercession [June 30th, Memento Mori]

SHORT REVIEWS + VIDEO:

JAG PANZER – The Hallowed [June 23rd, Atomic Fire Records]
VILE RITUAL – Caverns of Occultic Hatred [June 16th, Sentient Ruin]
NOCTURNAL BREED – Carry the Beast [June 23rd, Dark Essence Records]
PYLAR – Límyte [June 23rd, Cavsas/Cyclic Law]
DUIVEL – Heiligschennis [June 15th, Nomad Snakepit/Van Records]
FORGED IN BLACK – Lightning in the Ashes [June 20th, Fighter Records]

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