All the latest news from Metal Blade Records artists including updates on Batushka, Gwar, Cattle Decapitation and Sorcerer.
Polish black metal legion BATUSHKA are the latest additions to the Metal Blade Records’ roster.
Pronounced “Batjushka,” the band’s Cyrillic name Батюшка means “father” and is used to address an Eastern Orthodox priest. Despite their themes and imagery, they are not a Christian band. The identities of the members are unknown, but they are involved with other bands. Their live lineup contains eight members.
Metal Blade will re-issue BATUSHKA’s Litourgiya full-length, initially released in 2015 in limited quantity via Witching Hour Productions, on November 3rd.
Despite its relative cult status, the record earned critical accolades from journalists “in the know.” In a 4.5/5 rating, Sputnik Music championed the record noting, “Crushing intensity is a term bandied about with gleeful abandon nowadays, but it’s more than applicable when used to describe BATUSHKA’s brand of Slavonic-influenced black metal. The mysterious nature of the band’s members only finishes off the creation of a truly intriguing entity, but in all honesty ‘Litourgiya’ has done most of the hard work for them; a violent, devout, moving and sibylline affair, and one that will hopefully in time be revered as such.”
No Clean Singing concurred, “The music is dark, heaving, and very heavy – with bombastic outbreaks of wildfire and thunder – and the bleak, majestic melodies are effective at getting under the skin. But what sets the music apart and makes the album especially memorable are the vocals. In addition to the incinerating shrieks that you might expect in a black metal album, you’ll hear reverberating liturgical chants in what I’m told is Church Slavonic – the language used in the Orthodox Church in such places as Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as nations in the Balkan Peninsula.” Nine Circles concurred, “to say BATUSHKA is a band that is able to create layers is an understatement…’Litourgiya’ is a combination of ancient rites and modern blasts; a work of shocking magnitude that has gone almost unnoticed by the metal community at large,” while Metal Bandcamp hailed, “an excellent piece of work, filled with incredible instrumentality that elevates black metal to new heights.”
Physical pre-orders for Litourgiya are currently available at metalblade.com/batushka
Litourgiya track-listing:
1. Yekteniya I – Ochishcheniye
2. Yekteniya II – Blagosloveniye
3. Yekteniya III – Premudrost’
4. Yekteniya IV – Milost’
5. Yekteniya V – Svyatyy Vkhod
6. Yekteniya VI – Upovanie
7. Yekteniya VII – Istina
8. Yekteniya VIII – Spasenie
Embrace the essence of musical ecstasy, fascination, passion and the urge to create… the substitute of modernity and classical perfection, a road to freedom… It’s a distinct world of sounds lavishing us with all their divine glory, sounds of liberation, sounds of spiritual spheres, sounds of harmony…
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The wait is over, GWAR have released their latest opus The Blood of Gods today via Metal Blade Records.
Watch the video for their latest single I’ll Be Your Monster
Don’t miss out! GWAR’s new album is being hailed by critics as the greatest sonic event since the Big Bang. The Blood of Gods chronicles the massive battle between GWAR and the forces of all that oppose them. Along the way, the band challenges the sins of humanity from politics, pollution, and organized religion, to fast food, and factory farming. Humans are shown as what they are: a parasitic disease that must be eradicated before they suck the planet dry!
http://www.nervegas.com.au/gwar
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This past summer, Cattle Decapitation embarked on a European trek, during which the band filmed a tour documentary, directed by Paul McGuire / Obscenery Films. To watch the behind-the-scenes and live footage from Cattle Decapitation on the road, please visit: http://www.facebook.com/cattledecapitation, where the video is now streaming live.
Guitarist Josh Elmore comments: “For several years now, fans have been asking the band to release a video chronicle with live performance footage and enhanced or ‘behind the scenes’ documentation. During a recent European run, our friend Paul McGuire of Obscenery Films traveled with the band and captured glimpses of what day-to-day life on the road is like for Cattle Decapitation and spoke with the members as they reflected on years of touring and what their future holds. The result is an entertaining, humorous and informative documentary that shows the band as a live entity and also what goes on during their down time on tour; play-throughs, interviews, concert chaos, Euro-tourism and more. We hope you enjoy it!”
The Anthropocene Extinction is out now
www.nervegas.com.au/cattledecapitation
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Swedish Epic Heavy Doom Metal warlords Sorcerer will release their new album, The Crowning Of The Fire King, today via Metal Blade Records!
Sorcerer have now released a lyric video for the new single “The Devils Incubus”
To hear the first single, “Sirens”, please visit: metalblade.com/sorcerer – where The Crowning Of The Fire King can also be pre-ordered in the following formats:
–Digipak-CD (with bonus tracks)
–180 g black vinyl
–Clear Turquoise Blue Vinyl (EU exclusive – limited to 400 copies)
–Golden Sand Marbled Vinyl (EU exclusive – limited to 300 copies)
–Cool Grey Orange Marbled Vinyl (EU exclusive – limited to 200 copies)
–Dark Sky Blue/Gray Marbled Vinyl (USA exclusive – limited to 300 copies)
–Clear/Black Marbled Vinyl (USA exclusive – limited to 200 copies)
Sorcerer comments: “We have aimed to write an album with diversity and intensity, an album that we want to listen to ourselves. ‘The Crowning Of The Fire King’ is by far our best recording ever with songs that are strong, powerful and doomy. We have captured what Sorcerer is about and taken the songs to the next level for the band.”
The Crowning Of The Fire King track-listing:
1. Sirens
2. Ship Of Doom
3. Abandoned By The Gods
4. The Devils Incubus
5. Nattvaka
6. Crimson Cross
7. The Crowning Of The Fire King
8. Unbearable Sorrow
