Western Australian death metal voyagers Crypt Crawler have announced the release of their second full-length album entitled Future Usurper.
Future Usurper reflects a dystopian world where leaders control civilization to the absolute extreme. It talks of ideas about overbearing control in the future, rewiring human thoughts and emotions. It’s also a slap to the face slice of death metal blending in elements of the old school with current day brutal force.
Hardware, the third solo album from ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons, has wrapped recording and post-production and is set for release June 4 by Concord Records.
The album was recorded at Escape Studio in California’s high desert, near Palm Springs, and was produced by Gibbons along with Matt Sorum and Mike Fiorentino with engineer Chad Shlosser providing additional production.
If you closely follow what I premiere at Decibel, you’ll notice patterns with certain labels and genres I favor. But one pattern that sticks out is Feculent being the third project I’ve highlighted involving Brendan Auld (Black Blood Audio) in the past 15 months. Snorlax and Resin Tomb were both killer albums with nearly impenetrable heaviness. But new death metal project Feculent brings even more suffocating filth to accompany their putrid name. The album was recently unleashed on vinyl through Brilliant Emperor Records, while Caligari Records handled the cassette. We invited Feculent to describe the themes and musical influences of their The Grotesque Arena debut with a track by track breakdown. Scroll down and read thoughts from the band about shitty people and which bands they consider some of the dirtiest in death metal.
Press play and succumb to Feculent’s septic assault.
The Grotesque Arena by Feculent
“This was written about bad faith entities with ambitious agendas using the victims of public tragedies as symbolic avatars and unofficial martyrs to further their causes, manipulate people and preach to the already brainwashed. As for the music, Brendan wrote this song on guitar and drums before the inception of the band. This song was constructed under the influence of some really filthy bands like Knelt Rote and Pissgrave. This song laid out the main format for the rest of the writing process on this EP. Great efforts were made to keep all the momentum of the faster songs constantly intense without having to rely on skank beats to fill in the gaps. The only gears we wanted to use were pummeling brute force and a conservative amount of slow, weighted doom riffs to mix things up.”
“[This song] is about predatory types. Those who see the world, consciously or not, as a landscape full of opportunities to defraud, fuck over and suck others dry. Whether it be interpersonally, in business or through an institution. This is reflected in the music as well, having intentionally catchy riffs spliced between aggressive death metal to give a sense of false reality.”
“Track 3 conceptually ties back to the theme of the first song and the over-arching theme of the album. Lyrically, this hones in on our lizard brain reactions and worst impulses being cynically harnessed by corrupt forces and powers. Instrumentally, this song has so much crammed into it I can’t even remember why we took such a dynamic shift half way through the song. It’s one of our favorites to play though because the first chorus is so catchy with the broken-up blast beats.”
“This song is about the mire of being interpersonally entwined with an empty yet all-consuming abyss of a person, and the depths you’ll sink to if you don’t escape. This ties in well with the music as the first riffs give a sense of being chased or dragged down into a pit, continually building until the final progression offers a more blackened perspective musically.”
“This song is about parasites that feed off hysteria, societal decay and tragedy because they subconsciously enjoy it and like to make it all about them. Being the only slow song on the record meant we could fully indulge in making this one sound as crushing and depraved as we wanted. Bands like Innumerable Forms and Primitive Man do this style really well and that’s what we wanted to put forward. It makes for a great contrast between all the death metal.”
This song again ties back to the record’s overall theme while continuing with the topics touched on in ‘Beneath Bedlam.” It also aims to put a spotlight on those pointing fingers while their noses are blocked to the stench of their own hypocrisy, and while their eyes are blind to all the ways they contribute to the rot in the world they so adamantly campaign against. This was one of the first songs Brendan [Auld, drummer] and Kaleb [Doherty, guitar] wrote together, challenging themselves to write something intentionally doom-infused with most of the real estate still being heavy elements of death metal. This felt like the most appropriate song to close with as it finished with a reinforcing double kick section over the last riff, and of course the menacing outro.”
The post Track by Track: Feculent – ‘The Grotesque Arena’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.
Australia’s original camp out heavy music festival, Blacken Open Air, is back for the ninth year since its inception in 2013. It runs across three nights from Friday, July 30 to Monday, August 2. Festival ticket sales will coincide with the half-price domestic airfare sale launching tomorrow (1st April).
Gathering on Arrernte country, against the stunning, ancient backdrop of N’Dhala Gorge, Blacken provides a uniquely Australian experience.
Continue reading BLACKEN 2021 Dates Announced at HEAVY Magazine – Rock, Punk, Metal Music & Beyond.
Mat Robins is one of the nicest guys in the Melbourne music scene and when he isn’t producing or helping other artists with their music he is busy with his own band – the might Cicadastone.
Well the boys have been hard at work over the past few months and the result is the magnificent new album – Cold Chamber. Recently Dave Griffiths sat down and had a chat with Mat to see what people can expect from the album.
Radio stations right around Australia have called it one of the biggest party bangers of 2021, and they are not wrong. Hailing from NSW St Sinner And The Revelators have surprised everybody with their awesome track Dead For The Weekend.
To find out a little bit more about the band who have released such a killer track and what we can expect to hear from them for the rest of the year Dave Griffiths caught up with front-man Rory MacLean.
Sunshine Coast indie rockers Swimsuit Issue have had a pretty busy start to 2021 with the release of two singles and are now preparing for the release of their forthcoming debut album.
Recently frontman Danny sat down with Dave Griffiths to talk about their singles and of course the album which has everybody waiting with baited breath.
Take a listen to the interview right here:
If you are part of the Adelaide heavy music scene then you will have known that Heartline have been a band to watch for quite awhile now. The band exploded onto the scene at a very early age and very quickly made those stages their own.
With the respect of the local scene earned the band then surprised everybody with the release of their critically acclaimed debut album. Now the band return with their new I Call For Sinking Warmth EP and this week frontman Luke Taylor sat down with Dave Griffiths to chat about what fans can expect from this album.
Northlane are emerging from the post-COVID musical landscape perhaps quicker than other Australian bands, mainly due to their headlining status on the travelling Fult Tilt Festival which recently included a Sydney date to add to the Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide shows.
Not only will the band be headlining those four dates, but they have also released their latest single “Clockwork” in the lead up so things are really starting to ramp up for the band and their fans.
Brisbane metal outfit Diskust have announced yet another date on the road to Kilfest in Melbourne, with the band securing a show at Crowbar in Sydney on April 29.
Diskust will be bringing Gold Coast melodic metal machine Awake In Time for the show, with Sydney metalcore band Through It All and locals Engraved rounding out the line-up.
Continue reading DISKUST Announce Sydney Show at HEAVY Magazine – Rock, Punk, Metal Music & Beyond.