I’M NOT SURE WHAT “HUMANAE” MEANS, BUT IT’S THE TITLE OF A NEW LAETHORA SONG

The Latin phrase Humanae Vitae means “of human life,” and Wikipedia tells me it’s the title of “an encyclical written by Pope Paul VI and promulgated on July 25, 1968.” So does “humanae” just mean “human?” My sixth grade Latin fails me, but that seems like a reasonable assumption.

In any case, “Humanae” is the title of a new song by Swedish death supergroup Laethora, and can be streamed here. It comes off the band’s new album, The Light In Which We All Burn.

I really dug Laethora’s last outing, 2007’s March of the Parasites, so I have high hopes for this one. Laethora shares a member with Dark Tranquility (guitarist Niklas Sundin), but don’t sound nearly as melodic or polished as that band; Jonatan Nordenstam’s vocals always make me think of that scene in the John Carpenter version of Village of the Damned where the dude passes out on top of his grill and and they find his charred body cooking. I don’t wanna say the band is “blackened” because that word has connotations of its own, but I do think “charred” works. Everything about this music just feels bleak and cancerous.

Check out the song here. The Light In Which We All Burn comes out April 27 on The End.

-AR