Event Horizon

So, how did we all fare in the month of June? Did you get a hold of that Howling Sycamore album? Wow, you need a month off to even process that shit. And Jason McMaster? A Lord. How about those albums from Nucleus and Atlas Entity; they do the job for you? And while it’s only been a few days since their release, if Black Metal and Gothic Doom is on your radar, then christ yes, Yellow Eyes and Bloody Hammers want your money!
If you are counting your pennies, then I’m sorry to inform you that Metal in July won’t help you keep any of it. In particular, the Transcending Obscurity and 20 Buck Spin labels wish to fleece you dry! Yep, the fourth installment of Event Horizon is upon you. Follow the path of least resistance. Read on!
Give solace to the following nine albums – July’s Event Horizon!

ABBATH – Outstrider
RELEASED: July 5th
STYLE: Black Metal
LABEL: Season of Mist
LINK: “Harvest Pyre” on Youtube

When Abbath announced that he had left IMMORTAL, it sent massive shockwaves through the metal scene. The iconic frontman had long become the “face” of the Norwegian black scene, his image synonymous with the genre. Upon releasing his debut album with his eponymous new band, ABBATH, in 2016, trve fans were satiated with a dose of icy, blackened fury.

Now, the Norwegian giant returns for round two, armed with a refined lineup and ready to strike with a sophomore effort that is sure to once again exceed the expectations of Abbath’s loyal fanbase. ‘Outstrider’ sees a maturation in sound, delivering a tighter, well-rounded offering from the band as they come into their own identity.

While there are moments that certainly channel the frosty hallmarks of IMMORTAL, there is no danger of ABBATH repeating that formula. ABBATH draws from NWOBM and melodic influences, adding a fresh new flavor to the sound that the band’s founder came to define.

‘Oustrider’ consists of eight, crushing original songs and concludes with a fiery BATHORY cover. The album promises a full-on aural assault from start to finish with frigid riffage and a robust pocket that are layered with vocals from one of the most identifiable voices in black metal. If you thought ABBATH came in hot with their last record, just wait until you hear this! (from SOM Bio)

BURIAL REMAINS – Trinity of Deception (review by Count Vlad)
RELEASED: July 12th
STYLE: OSDM
LABEL: Transcending Obscurity
LINK: Bandcamp

One of the most promising old school death metal bands with members of FLESHCRAWL, GRIM FATE, etc. give us their debut full length titled ‘Trinity of Deception’. Mixed and mastered by Jonny Pettersson of WOMBBATH, HEADS FOR THE DEAD and more, with guest vocals by none other than Ralf Hauber of REVEL IN FLESH, HEADS FOR THE DEAD, this is one death metal release that will send out shock waves in the underground. With phenomenal artwork from Mortuus Art of SADISTIK FOREST fame, every little aspect of this release has been taken care of by known professionals. Musically, this is a devastating slab of old school death metal that is worthy of being mentioned alongside the genre’s greats such as CARNAGE, DISMEMBER, ENTOMBED and GRAVE, with the difference being that these guys are faster, hungrier, and play with maniacal energy. It’s a breath of fresh air when most bands are trying to play safe and these guys are just rampaging through everything in their path. (From TO Bio)

Lineup
Sven – Vocals (FLESHCRAWL)
Wim – Guitar (GRIM FATE, BOAL)
Philippus – Guitar and bass (DIMAEON, BOAL)
Danny – Drums (DISINTEGRATE, DIMAEON)
Vocals on Burn With Me by Ralf Hauber (REVEL IN FLESH, HEADS FOR THE DEAD)
Mixed and mastered by Jonny Pettersson (WOMBBATH, HEADS FOR THE DEAD, NATTRAVNEN, HENRY KANE)
Artwork by Mortuus Art (SADISTIK FOREST)

TOMB MOLD – Planetary Clairvoyance
RELEASED: July 19th
STYLE: Death Metal
LABEL: 20 Buck Spin
LINK: Bandcamp

20 Buck Spin declares the July release of Planetary Clairvoyance, the dominating third LP by Toronto, Ontario death squad, TOMB MOLD, a label priority for 2019, and one of the anxiously awaited death metal albums of the year. Alongside the album’s release info, cover art, and track listing, the advance single “Infinite Resurrection” has been issued for public consumption.

Recklessly devouring the world into a vortex of alternate dimensional planes with Manor Of Infinite Forms, TOMB MOLD has crashed through boundaries with the impact of an ocean sized asteroid. Somewhere between outer space, inner space, and the unseen dark matter in between all space they’ve devised an alchemical formula both crushingly oppressive and rapidly expanding outward in every direction.

Waking from stasis for the third time in three years, new record Planetary Clairvoyance is the sum of knowledge gained and aeons absorbed, concentrated into a single massive tome of arcane wisdom and implausible physics. Like the album’s cover art, it exists in a domain of alien anatomical abnormality, malign flora and cold void desolation, warping and deforming the familiar into unknown obscurity.

Once again tracked by Sean Pearson at Box Car Studios in Toronto and then mixed and mastered by Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Volahn, Scorched), the amalgamation of the huge sound of Manor Of Infinite Forms and the gritty particle chaos of Primordial Malignity come into boundless unity on Planetary Clairvoyance. The album is completed with cover art by Jesse Jacobi with additional artwork by Lucas Korte.
With the explosive weight of a collapsing black hole TOMB MOLD accelerates unhinged toward infinite resurrection.

Planetary Clairvoyance will see release on July 19th, with digital, CD, cassette, and LP formats in production. The first vinyl pressing will be packaged with a bonus gatefold insert with additional artwork. (From 20BS Bio)

DISENTOMB – The Decaying Light
RELEASED: July 12th
STYLE: Death Metal
LABEL: EVP Recordings
LINK: Bandcamp

In their 10th year since conception, DISENTOMB now stands as one of the most unique and commanding bands in modern death metal. The pursuit of unrelentingly brutal death metal has lead them down a dark and twisted path and into a unique sound completely unlike their beginnings, combining lacerating energy with a bleak dissonance that embodies a focused sonic malice like no other. Following on from 2010’s Sunken Chambers of Nephilim and 2014’s breakout Misery, the band’s long-awaited third album The Decaying Light features 13 tracks of doomed out brutality, undoubtedly their most accomplished and suffocating work to date. The July 12, 2019 release date will be facilitated by worldwide death metal institution Unique Leader (Europe/USA) and EVP Recordings (Australia). With new material and literal years of global road training now behind them, the four-piece will take their high-energy and visceral performance to five Australian cities in July to showcase a new era in a band that has cemented themselves as an explosion of metal muscle not to miss. (From EVP Bio)

ENFORCED – At The Walls
RELEASED: July 19th
STYLE: Thrash/Crossover/Hardcore/Metal
LABEL: War Records
LINK: Bandcamp (Only the demos are available for stream)

Formed in 2016, ENFORCED picks up where Sepultura and Cro-Mags left off and infuses their own volatile, hardcore fury into the hardcore/thrash crossover sound of the late ‘80s. Fronted by a voice that could only belong to that of a madman and unloading nonstop blazing riffs and pummeling breakdowns in every track, the band demolishes everything in their path, leaving a trail of smoldering wreckage and pure decimation anywhere they perform.

ENFORCED’s impending At The Walls LP features a remixed and remastered version of the 2017 demo and their “Retaliation” promo, and introduces two brand new songs to the mix. All tracks were recorded by Bob Quirk and mixed and mastered by Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Cavalera Conspiracy, Candy). In addition, Dwid Hellion (Integrity, Psywarfare) provides guest vocals to the track “Skinned Alive” who also created the apocalyptic album artwork for the LP.

Expect nothing but total war on stage from ENFORCED as they explode into 2019; a must-hear for fans of classic crossover/thrash from Nuclear Assault, Demolition Hammer, and Devastation, as well as modern shredders Skeletal Remains, Foreseen, and War Hungry.

GATES TO THE MORNING – Return to Earth
RELEASED: July 19th
STYLE: Progressive Post-Black Metal
LABEL: War Records
LINK: Bandcamp

GGATES TO THE MORNING are a New Jersey post black metal band driven by the singular vision of Sean Meyers. Having started as a bedroom black metal project whilst still attending Montclair State University for Jazz Performance, Meyers started to collect material in 2016 for what would become the bands debut, Return To Earth. Pulling from a myriad set of influences, ranging from Opeth to Art Blakey by way of Tool, Gates To The Morning have rapidly refined a sound that is wholly their own and speaks to a dark unreality. Full of bombastic imagery and transcendent choruses, GATES TO THE MORNING is finally taking form.

With his jazz background balanced with a long history in the infamous New Jersey DIY scene, Meyers hoped to create something powerful and thoughtful with Return To Earth. Fully invested in his work, he found himself recording drums at Backroom Studios with Kevin Antreassian of The Dillinger Escape Plan and then collaborating with friends to finish the studio process both at Backroom Studios and in various home setups. It was during this process that he chose to embrace the ethereal vocals of Meg Moyer for the project in addition to his own, further growing the bands sonic palette. The end result, and consequent live band, features performances from a variety of players, ranging from childhood friends to fellow jazz musicians.

Return To Earth is a concept album with lyrics orbiting around the twin concepts of challenge and triumphs, the pitfalls and mountaintops found on a journey of awakening and enlightenment. This opening ululation is powerful and deeply emotional, hinting at much more to come from these Garden State musicians. After years of deliberation and struggle their unique sound has finally come together. GATES TO THE MORNING are plotting their first live shows around the release of Return To Earth and are steeling themselves for the stage.

HEX – God Has No Name (Transcending Obscurity)
RELEASED: July 5th
STYLE: Death/Doom
LABEL: Transcending Obscurity
LINK: Bandcamp

Spain’s best kept secret, HEX, return with a pummelling new full length of death/doom metal music with unconventional riffing and delivery. This is mid-paced death/doom metal that is reminiscent of early RUNEMAGICK, BOLT THROWER, PARADISE LOST, HYPOCRISY and UNLEASHED. But there’s more than meets the eye, as the music is interspersed with exotic riffing, female vocals, interludes and even breakdowns. There’s a certain appeal to their music that makes it stand out from the derivative lot as this doesn’t owe too much to any particular style or band. It’s a cohesive fusion of various influences melded into a sound that Hex can now call their own. With members of experienced bands in the lineup such as VIRULENCY, TOMB, INCURSED, to name a few, the outcome is simply phenomenal. The fiercely titled release ‘God Has No Name’ will go down as the breakthrough album for the band and perhaps even the whole of the current death/doom style with the band’s innovative and thoughtful approach towards it (from T.O.Bio)

ROGGA JOHANSSON – Entrance to the Otherwhere (review by Count Vlad)
RELEASED: July 19th
STYLE: Death Metal
LABEL: Transcending Obscurity
LINK: Bandcamp

ROGGA JOHANSSON is the eponymous band of the unheralded death metal legend who’s responsible for masterminding other bands such as PAGANIZER, REVOLTING, THE GROTESQUERY, NECROGOD and many others. This here is his solo project and he’s created some of the best music you’ll hear where classic Swedish death metal goes. He’s found a way to incorporate searing melodies without compromising on the trademark heaviness, and it’s a balance that few have managed to pull off in recent times. With a magnificent artwork by Mariusz Lewandowski (EREMIT, BELL WITCH, JUPITERIAN) bringing to life Rogga’s glorious vision of pristine death metal that disregards all trends and pays homage to the genre’s progenitors, ‘Entrance to the Otherwhere’ is immaculately put together and promises to linger in the minds of listeners long after the album is over. There is little doubt that this is Rogga Johansson’s finest hour. (From TO Bio)

Line up
Rogga Johansson – All music and lyrics
Session drums – Brynjar Helgetun (THE GROTESQUERY)
Cover artwork – Mariusz Lewandowski (EREMIT, JUPITERIAN, BELL WITCH)
Logo – Christophe Szpajdel (EMPEROR)
Layout – T.G. Rantanen (DEMIGOD)

IMMORTAL BIRD – Thrive on Neglect
RELEASED: July 5th
STYLE: Progressive Death/Blackened Hardcore
LABEL: 20 Buck Spin
LINK: Bandcamp

Bands mixing subgenres in underground metal often do so with mixed and inconsistent results. Not so with Chicago’s IMMORTAL BIRD who wield their eclectic savagery with meticulous cohesion and sharpened ferocity. Returning with Thrive On Neglect, the band’s second LP, and first for 20 Buck Spin, IMMORTAL BIRD takes the perilous road of musical diversity and command it with a bloodthirsty rage.

With a multi-layered sound running the gamut from pummeling grind and death metal to dissonant blackened metal, angular noise, and complex hardcore, IMMORTAL BIRD defy simple categorization. The band’s compositions fuse into strikingly savage songs, vast in their scope and more than the sum of their disparate parts, merging the progressive and destructive into a maelstrom of raging fire. Rae Amitay’s seething vocal exorcisms and targeted lyrical aggression provide the connective tissue holding the stylized violence together.

Aided and abetted by the incomparable Dave Otero (Archspire, Cattle Decapitation, Khemmis) Thrive On Neglect features a punishingly heavy production ideally suited for IMMORTAL BIRD’s tumultuous arrangements and orchestrated chaos. Nearly four years in the making, Thrive On Neglect is a blistering statement of intent from a band ascending into full bloom. Fans of Pig Destroyer, Krallice, Converge, Full Of Hell, Noisem, Cretin, Cannibal Corpse, and Cult Leader, pay heed (From 20BS Bio)

Carefully selected by KMaN

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