It’s the middle of the year, so we’re taking a few days to round up all the metallic greatness we failed to cover in the past six months. As you can read above, this is Volume 2 of our annual Missing Pieces feature, and if you (ironically) missed the first part, you can find it here.
SGÀILE ‒ TRAVERSE THE BEALACH
released January 19; Avantgarde
The loose American English translation of Sgàile is shadow, or ghost. Tony Dunn will tell you that he chose that name for this project because it suited his station at the margins of the Scottish heavy metal scene, not really enough of any one style to be a good fit in any one place. That’s not an uncommon situation in music and sometimes it yields the most wonderful kind of uniqueness, as is the case here. Sgàile draws from many pools, including heavy metal, progressive-, folk- (Celtic/Gaelic), power-, and post-metal and -rock. The astute listener will notice black metal in Sgàile’s bones, though it comes through as a lingering sense more than a sound. Think Woods Of Ypres, Dawnbringer, and Darkest Era for similar spirit.
The music of Sgàile is epic, first and foremost, a notion foreshadowed by the title of this, the project’s second album. A bealach is a mountain pass and the act of traversing one serves as the songs’ subject matter, both literal, as Dunn is an avid hiker of Scotland’s wonderous Highlands, and metaphorical, as he navigates the same post-Covid wilderness we all have. Dunn’s clean-sung melodies radiate through the silver-grey sky, interweaving with somber harmonies and warily optimistic lead guitar, rising and falling, uncertain yet undaunted, aching deeply yet always onward to the horizon. [LONE WATIE]
INTER ARMA ‒ NEW HEAVEN
released April 26; Relapse
Friends, I am happy to report that Inter Arma has finally learned to self-edit. I’m a big fan of all of this band’s full-lengths, but it’s pretty nice to see them release one that’s under an hour long and is even shorter than their single-song EP, The Cavern. Luckily, that doesn’t mean their dynamism or love for experimentation has disappeared.
Title track, “New Heaven” is an oppressive, discordant battering that sets the listener up to think the album will be much bleaker of an experience than it is. “Violet Seizures” opens with a hint of twang and spends much of its time feeling more like a noise rock song shoved through an Inter Arma filter. “Desolation’s Harp” hues toward blackened death with an absolutely battering drum performance. “Endless Grey” is clearly the live track the band performs to keep the crowd going while the vocalist walks off stage for some throat coat or a butt bong or whatever they do during interludes. Much of “Gardens In The Dark” is a heavy metal The Cure track if Robert Smith was a touch more baritone. “The Children The Bombs Overlooked” is the most by-the-numbers song in the band’s style that would’ve been right at home on Sky Burial, but its placement is perfect as it sits between four songs where they are the most outside the “norm”. The album even closes with a song that sounds like Austin Lunn could’ve written it for the more Americana half of The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness (I and II).
Somehow, Inter Arma has managed to make their shortest album one of their most experimental. I guess you really can do more with less. Take that, adult movies! [SPENCER HOTZ]
HORRIFYING ‒ DREADFUL PARASOMNIA
released March 27; Veins Full Of Wrath Productions
Looking at pictures of Los Lagos, it’s one of the last places one would expect the hellish book of nightmares known as Dreadful Parasomnia to emerge from. The debut album from Chile’s aptly-named Horrifying is a well-greased death metal terror generator, taking heavy atmospheric cues from Incantation with a Sadistic Intent engine swap. It’s a finely tuned machine, indeed. Tightly played while retaining a feeling of raw intensity, beefily produced without sacrificing grit, written and composed with dripping malice.
Given the band have been somewhat consistently releasing material in short formats for the last twelve years and the working pedigree of its members, it’s not surprising that Horrifying sound like they know precisely what they are doing here, sometimes to a fault. Not to say the almost funeral doom paced unraveling in “Wild Human Fragility” or the black metal influence creeping its way between the sheets on “Petrifying Hallucinations” don’t add dynamics to the album: it’s well-paced, well-written, well-executed. Dreadful Parasomnia is a strong debut by a band that could probably capitalize on taking a few risks and perhaps bending the edges of the sandbox a bit in the future. Horrifying are more than capable, and as much as I am enjoying this record, I just wanna see what really makes them wet the bed at night in this little paradise tucked away in the Andes. [RYAN TYSINGER]
KORPITULI – POHJOLA
released April 19; Korpituli Productions
A reliable Finnish export of inarguably stellar second wave black metal, Korpituli dip their toes – nay, dive headfirst – into folk/pagan black metal on Pohjola, their third full-length. Previously a one-man operation, Pohjola is apparently a two-man job. Somehow, these two changes feel radical for such a boutique operation. Seismic shift notwithstanding, this may be the band’s finest hour (or 45 minutes, to be precise).
Korpituli waste little time embracing this new folk/pagan sound, which feels equal parts Isengard, Storm, Moonsorrow, Fintroll, and, of course, Korpituli. The production is notably, and appropriately, cleaner than The Ancient Spells of the Past and As Infinite Shadows of the Nightsky. Not a bright clean, mind you, but a forceful, live-sounding clean. And the Pohjola mythology theme and Lalli/Bishop Henry cover art give the music a meaningful backdrop.
If there were ever a time to jump on the Korpituli bandwagon, that time is now. I can’t remember the last time I felt so enamored with a folk metal album. An eventual Part II would be nice, but if this is the band’s one and only foray into folk, it was a satisfying one. [CHRIS C]
BRODEQUIN – HARBINGER OF WOE
released March 22; Season Of Mist
It’s been twenty years since the last Brodequin, Methods Of Execution, and almost a decade since these East Tennessean brutes reformed after a brief lay-off. Methods and the two full-lengths that preceded it were each solid examples of a certain choppy bloodsoaked brutality, falling somewhere in a death metal spectrum between Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation, redolent of the likes of Disgorge (US) or Gorgasm. Each one was better than the one before, all lightly techy arrangements, relentless oppressive heaviness, Jamie Bailey’s low indistinct grunt, and songs inspired by humanity’s historal penchant for colorful torture devices… Since the reformation, they’ve released a two-song EP in 2021, and here we are…
Harbinger Of Woe takes that established base and advances it ever further, sporting what is easily the best production values of any Brodequin album so far (although that has not been a traditionally high bar). The drums are punchier; Mike Bailey’s guitars are heftier, sharper, fuzzed-out and oozing; the vocals are still that low inhuman burp. For Harbinger, the Bailey brothers have pared the riffs down a bit, in a good way, eschewing technical flourishes in favor of a more direct and hooky pummeling, trimming away any unnecessary fat to leave the muscle beneath. Flashes of atmospheric tinges color the edges, adding an almost horror-movie element atop the unflagging flagellation — a brief spoken-word bit in “Diabolical Edict,” ominous monk-like chanting and droning melodies in “Theresiana,” the dark arpeggiated latter half of “Of Pillars And Trees.” Each of those subtle inclusions adds a different shade to the proceedings, moving Harbinger a few steps farther away from (and above) the standard chug-and-squeal, gurgle-grunt sickness. There’s plenty enough headbashing brutals to keep the pit-vipers churning, just now with an added depth and vibe.
Harbinger is not only a welcome return for an oft-underrated outfit, it’s their best effort yet. Maybe don’t take a decade for the next one, fellas… [ANDREW EDMUNDS]
SAVAGE OATH ‒ DIVINE BATTLE
released March 15; Postmortem Apocalypse
Despite having grown up with heavy metal through the ‘80s, I don’t really consider myself old. I suppose that is very much a matter of perspective, though. Perhaps consider this: Don’t call me old, call me trad. I have a trad bod (i.e., one that is often draped in a King Diamond shirt), I wear puffy high tops whilst mowing the lawn, and I like listening to metal that sounds like the metal I grew up with—something that’s now merrily deemed “trad” due at least in part to… the presence of swords on stage? Well, Miyamoto Musashi, Savage Oath makes epic heavy metal that’s custom-built for all the trads roaming the hills and valleys of our world, and Divine Battle, the band’s debut full-length, sports all the elements necessary to award them a cozy spot on a trad throne (not a toilet: the only place trad dads can go for some peace and quiet) alongside other modern noteworthies such as Visigoth, Eternal Champion, Herzel, Gatekeeper, etc. ad infinitum.
High points abound here, but you can’t walk away from the experience without underscoring the majestic pipes of one Brendan Radigan, whose voice has achieved equal heights via complementary outfits such as Pagan Altar, Sumerlands, Stone Dagger and one-time doom rockers Magic Circle. But as much as Radigan continues to shine throughout Divine Battle—heartening these songs like the world’s most barrel-chested bard—the element that jumps out as the album’s single greatest strength are the absolutely scrumptious leads that leap from nearly every corner, courtesy of Leeland Campana of (well, lookie thar) Visigoth. His is a fiery style often reminiscent of Matt Johnsen / Pharaoh, who himself is begat from moderately unsung heroes like Criss Oliva, and tying that key feature to the bumper of an outfit that produces galloping epic metal of this class makes Divine Battle one of 2024’s easiest slam dunks. [CAPTAIN]
