Albums That Will F*ck Your Face Off in 2013: Angist, TBA
Angist
TBA (Abyss Records)
Release Date – Summer/Fall 2013
There are already a few contenders for best of 2013 floating around (can you guys even deal with the thought of year-end lists yet? I can’t): Inter Arma (because ‘Sky Burial’ is nothing short of amazing) and Darkthrone (because fuck you) are going to kill it, Grave Miasma have most of their long-awaited full-length written, and hopefully Kongh will capitalize on their momentum from last year. In the spirit of this yearly ritual of reading the tea leaves, studying the oracle bones, and eyeballing our respective inboxes to see what’s being shoved the most vigorously down our collective throats, though, I’ve got to say that the album I’m most interested in hearing is still being written somewhere in Reykjavik. Angist have utterly captivated me, and I’m really fucking antsy to hear some new tunes, having listened to their 2011 EP ‘Circle of Suffering’ about four times in the last week alone.
Guitarist Gyða Hrund Þorvaldsdóttir offered a few vague words about the album’s progress, piquing my interest even further:
“We’ll start recording in May and we have few songs completed and we are working on the rest of the album. We are now on a gig hiatus for a while to concentrate on the album. The release date is yet unknown but will be this summer or fall. We at least hope it won’t be long after we’ve finished recording! As for what to expect from the new album…well, our new material is more mature, we know where we are going with our music, it has a firmer direction and so far we’ve gotten great response for our new songs when we do them live, so we are hopeful that our fans will like the new album.”
The record’s due out on American label Abyss Records, who’ve done well to snap these guys up. So, what’s the big deal about Angist? Yeah, their backstory is unique – how many Icelandic, 50% female black/death metal bands have you met? – but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Their insanely listenable blend of death, black, and thrash metal is utterly addictive, with well-crafted, thoughtful songs wrapped in a cold, evil atmosphere straight outta black metal’s Second Wave. The interplay between Gyða and vocalist/guitarist Edda Tegeder Óskarsdóttir is dynamic and fluid, held down by Haraldur Ingi Shoshan’s muted basslines and drummer Tumi Snær Gíslason’s frenzied blasts and fills. Edda’s vocals are an obvious point of interest, and are some of the most savage I’ve heard issue forth from bowels of any gender. Her barbaric howls and bestial roars come off like a (slightly) more feminine Dave Vincent or less thrash-obsessed Sonia Sepulcral, and lend an aura of malevolence to the EP’s five compositions. In short, she rules, and so does Angist as a whole. The band’s next big adventure will take them overseas and onto a stage with Pentagram, Ramesses, Pagan Altar, Cough and about a billion other bands for this year’s Desertfest in London, UK. I’m excited to see them play, but even more stoked to hear what they come up with next!
