Necrolust: Arnaut Pavle, Shever, Under the Church, Link
I’m on tour with Orange Goblin right now and free time is at a premium, so I’ve been saving up these next few bands until I got a moment to do ‘em justice. That being said, this installment of Necrolust bounces between dark hardcore, black metal, weird doom, and death metal, so at least a couple of you should be stoked with the following gems. If not, come fight me at the merch table.
ARNAUT PAVLE
There is such a huge early Darkthrone sound to this band, from the rusty chainsaw riffs to when “Eat the Soil from this Grave” finds the vocalist doing a better Nocturno Culto than ol’ Ted himself. “Skeletonized by Demon” totally bites a “Kathaarian Life Code” riff and I’m not even mad about it. Hell, if Darkthrone doesn’t feel like being Darkthrone anymore, Arnaut Pavle suits me just fine. True to the band’s Finnish origin, there’s a sick punk vibe snaking through, too, though we’re talking more Fuck the Universe than any Exploited record. Add in plenty of well-placed d-beats and a healthy appreciation for rock’n’roll simplicity, and it’s no wonder that this thing is already in the reissue stage. Thanks to the always-rad Fallen Empire, you can snag the tape while listening to the pay-what-ya-want Bandcamp download:
(Cue someone writing an astonishingly clever comment along the lines of “too kvlt for me lol this sounds like it was recorded in a trashcan.”)
SHEVER
I first came across the Swiss witches in Shever a few Roadburns ago; they were playing the smallest stage during Tom G. Warrior’s “Only Death is Real” showcase, and my friend Nate insisted that I just had to go watch them. As always, he was right, and I was blown away by the morbid theatrics and destructively heavy sludgy doom that the then all-female lineup doled out. They were knocking around a couple years before that whole female-fronted doom thing exploded, and subsequently remained fairly obscure even though their last release, 2012’s Rituals LP, was fucking immense. Now they’re back with some new material and a new lineup, and I’m hoping they’ll finally get some attention for their eerie, out-there take on ritualistic doom. A new 10” split with German fuzz freaks Spancer is now available from new label Nocebo (buy it here) and Shever’s side is streaming via their Bandcamp page:
UNDER THE CHURCH
Even though, yeah, there are tons of great new death ‘heads out there rumbling through various crypts and catacombs, the theory and execution of old school death metal is generally best left to those who were there in the first place; see Carcass, Incantation, Death Breath, and Pentacle for ample proof of that. Things went quiet for Swedish OGs Nirvana 2002 after their much-ballyhooed reunion gig at MDF, but that may have proven to be a blessing in disguise, as it gave drummer Erik Qvick and bassist Lars Henriksson the time to concentrate on other projects. Qvick contacted me about their newest endeavor, Under the Church, and it’s fucking brilliant! Total vintage death done right. If you’ve got a Nihilist patch on your jacket, an Entombed shirt, or an Autopsy longsleeve, you are gonna need to hunt down this band’s 2013 demo pronto. Qvick hinted at some exciting developments for the band, too, so expect to hear a lot more about them in the coming yet. Get inb4 the press releases below:
LINK
I usually don’t pay much attention to Southern Lord-core, but if Greg Anderson is still interested in feeding his dark hardcore habit, he’d do well to pick up this new split from Irish label Distro-y Records, and focus heavily on Link’s side. This Belgian unit fuse moody hardcore in the vein of Tragedy or earlier Downfall of Gaia with a very Swedish approach to crusty immediacy (think the newest Wolfbrigade record). Absolutist’s slightly doomier leanings add a nice balance. Listen to both and snag the vinyl (or mp3s) via Bandcamp:
On a similar tip, Agrimonia (you know, that Swedish band that released the best record of 2013 while dudes were busy jerking off all over Watain) are plotting a US tour! I am very, very excited, and if you live in the US and give even the slightest runniest shit about good music, you should be too. Anso already mentioned it once, but it bears repetition.
