We guess you all know we’ve been doing a monthly show for Radio Quântica. Well, our initial plan was to continue with our 45 minute episodes. We thought it would be no big deal. Plenty of music out there, no talk needed. We’ve done 51 of those. And we absolutely enjoy them. The flow, the mood, it’s a completely different beast. Well, the fact is when all is said and done, we just don’t have enough time to keep doing it on a regular basis. So each one is feels more like a “special”.

This is episode 52. It’s basically a collection of some of the songs we’ve been putting off, waiting for a good opportunity to play them on the radio show. Well, after a while they become like one of those tasks on your “to do” list that lie at the bottom of the stack and never get done. We wanted to do them justice. Get them out of the basement. So take this episode as some sort of compilation of B-sides from our main show at Rádio Quântica.

Click for show notes and a complete tracklist.

Episode 52 – Out Of The Basement

You can tell things are not gonna be ok just by Ritualization’s intro alone. The name says it all: “Conjuration of the Howling Depths”. Out of the basement.

This is mostly a black/death based episode. We start with… who else?, Bölzer. This swiss duo have been under the gun for some time now. After a couple of monstrously good EP’s and being hailed as the next big thing on the black/death scene, they got a lot of shit by so called fans as soon as their debut album, “Hero”, was released. Mostly because said fans hate Okoi Jones experimenting with his voice and his composition. The more the metal scene changes, the more it stays the same. Then Okoi Jones got into this post- Charlottesville PR shitstorm because of his alleged Nazi sympathies and had to come out and explain himself on social media. Both accusations are uncalled for. SATAN MADE ME DO IT completely support “Hero” and Okoi’s Facebook post (which by the way was completely misrepresented by extreme-right assholes). Even if Okoi’s defense of swastika and summer wheels tattoos are naïve at best.

New York’s Luminous Vault are all about death metal, but being  a Profound Lore release it’s fair to expect slower stuff. Throw in synth and heavy machine beats for good measure and you’ll get exactly what they promise to give you: an amalgamation of ‘90s Greek black metal and Godflesh.

From Luminous to Lantern. Pretty bright stuff, then. These guys are from Finland, but there’s no doom here. This is more indebted to the oldschool Florida and New York heritage. And is it just us or Necrophilos’s voice is not completely unlike Peter Steele’s voice, Carnivore era?

Things get a bit more edgy and thrashy with France’s Venefixion. We played them before at Radio Quântica, namely the outstanding “Morbid Casket” from their “Defixio” demo from 2015. This track, “Armorican Deathrites”, from their 2016’s eponymous EP, is not as good, but it’s still pretty decent.

“Consecration of the Temple” from London’s QRIXKUOR is the centerpiece for this episode. Clocking almost 11 minutes, this is one fucking heavy death metal monolith. It’s cavernous, it’s complex, it’s progressive, it’s thick, it’s moody. They’ve been getting some rave reviews from the underground scene. We like them. But still… there’s a long way to go for them. Mostly, it feels unfocused and superfluously ambitious (just like these choice of words).

Next up are a bunch of Asphyx, Autopsy, Morbid Angel, Death and Pestilence offspring. First of are Canadians Sabbatory with “Ascension To My Holy Tomb” from last year’s split “4 Doors to Death” (in which they also play a Mortuary Drape cover song) released by Unspeakable Axe. This feels more punk, so we make a small intermezzo with “Untitled” by the excellent Pure Disgust, and tackle what remains of this episode with more obvious and slightly generic but entertaining old school death metal: Live Burial comes first with “Hung Above the Meat Grinder” followed by Surgikill’s “Realm Of The Resurrected”, both from 2016 albums.

We close shop with Mystic Charm’s “Shadows of the Unknown” for purely atmospheric purposes. It’s the only pre-2016 release on this episode.

— Tracklist

1. Conjuration of the Howling Depths | Ritualization (FRA) | Sacraments to the Sons of the Abyss, 2017 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ritualization/145905645471417
2. Spiritual Athleticism | Bölzer (CH) | Hero, 2016 https://bolzer.bandcamp.com/
3. Kyrios | Luminous Vault (USA) | Charismata [EP], 2017 http://luminousvault.bandcamp.com/
4. Cleansing of the Air | Lantern (FIN) | II: Morphosis, 2017 https://www.facebook.com/lantern666
5. Armorican Deathrites | Venefixion (FRA) | Armorican Deathrites, 2016 http://venefixion.bandcamp.com/
6. Consecration of the Temple | QRIXKUOR (UK) | Incantations from the Abyss [compilation], 2017 http://qrixkuordeath.bandcamp.com/
7. Ascension To My Holy Tomb | Sabbatory (CAN) | 4 Doors to Death [split], 2016 http://soundcloud.com/kier-keating/sabbatory-demo-2012
8. Untitled | Pure Disgust (USA) | Pure Disgust, 2016 https://puredisgustdc.bandcamp.com
9. Hung Above the Meat Grinder | Live Burial (UK) | Forced Back to Life, 2016 http://liveburial.bandcamp.com/
10. Realm Of The Resurrected | Surgikill (USA) | Sanguinary Revelations, 2016 http://www.surgikill.bandcamp.com/
11. Shadows of the Unknown | Mystic Charm (NLD) | Shadows of the Unknown, 1994 https://www.discogs.com/Mystic-Charm-Shadows-Of-The-Unknown/master/551588