NEW MUSIC ROUNDUP: LITURGY, BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE, AVA INFERI
Rather than devoting a whole post to each of the many new tracks released by metal bands today, how ’bout bringing them all together the way Axl does with his cinemetal round-ups? A good idea, you say? Alright, let’s get to it.
Our besties at the Deciblog are streaming a brand new Liturgy track called “High Gold.” I’ve never been able to get into Liturgy; though I appreciate that mainman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix is well-educated in music and is trying to do something outside the box (so to speak), I’ve always felt it was way too far outside the box to be considered metal, or even listenable. Their first album was so full of ambient noise I could barely find the actual songs. But if the new track is any indication, it seems as if they’re taking cues from their Brooklyn brethren in Krallice and focusing more on the black metal side of their sound this time around… and on making actual songs. “High Gold” is catchy, in a good way, and tighter than I remember the band being too; check it out here.
Next up is a new one from progressive death metallers Becoming the Archetype. I’m not sure why this band doesn’t get more attention; they’re really fucking good, as their 2008 release Dichotomy proved. It’s probably because they’re Christian / on Solid State, but my new year’s resolution is to not get caught up in that because I rarely listen to metal lyrics anyway. Their new song “Magnetic Sky” is more technical than I remember their past material being — specifically in the way of lead guitars being used as devices to carry the melody — but this isn’t a bad thing. The song is quite catchy, diverse, and don’t worry, it’s plenty heavy too. Celestial Completion comes out March 29th.
While our last entry should technically fall under the Cinemetal category, I’m more concerned with talking about the music since I’ve never listened to this band before. Our own Vic Vaughn revealed yesterday that their new album Onyx is their fourth, but I’d never listened to these dark metallers until reader Cristian Dita sent in a link to the video for “Majesty,” posted below. It’s definitely dark, and it’s definitely “gothic” as Vaughn noted, but it’s not that kind of gothic with all the ridiculous imagery you’re thinking of. Despite the simplicity of the riff that comprises most of the song, I found myself liking this tune to some degree; it’s headbangable, it’s catchy, and the vocals make it unique, if not exactly groundbreaking.
-VN
