Saturday, December 10, 2016

Bandcamp Picks - Setentia, Burial in the Sky, Virvum, Mausoleum





In the wake of Ulcerate's success, more bands from New Zealand are gaining traction worldwide; witness Auckland's Setentia, who were snapped up by Blood Music Records earlier this year. Darkness Transcend is more straight-forward than anything their more famous countrmen are known for,  but shares a similar knack for tricky riffing, atmospheric interludes and dizzying drumwork. Things are definitely heating up "south of heaven". The album is available as a "name your price" download.



Can death metal be both brutal and uplifting? Pennsylvania's Burial in the Sky make a strong case that it can. Their debut full-length Persistence of Thought is as cerebral as anything to come out of the tech/death hemisphere while avoiding the djenty pitfalls that plague the genre. A thoroughly enjoyable and thoroughly modern death metal album. [$6]



Zurich's Virvum play death metal as clean and precise as a Swiss watch. Illuminance divides its time between hyperspeed blasts, proggy leads, and spacey keyboards, arriving at a point that's almost "post-death". If you ever wanted a mash-up between Decrepit Birth and Explosions in the Sky, this will probably hit your sweet spot. [$9]



I haven't been able to dig up much info about Leeds band Mausoleum - except that they're one of a dozen metal bands to share that name. Which is unfortunate, because their self-titled debut EP is definitely not run of the mill,  throwing Pantera-esque grooves and keyboards into their death/thrash assault - impeccably produced and flawlessly executed. Hopefully they'll put as much thought into a name-change as they do their music. The EP is available as a "name your price" download.