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Singled Out (10/18 – 10/23): New Music From Cryptopsy, Pomegranate Tiger, Frontierer, and More!

Singled Out is our weekly column to round-up the singles and new tracks from the past week dropped by bands we cover. Consider this our weekly mix to help keep

8 years ago

Singled Out is our weekly column to round-up the singles and new tracks from the past week dropped by bands we cover. Consider this our weekly mix to help keep you all on top of the latest releases from across the metallic and progressive spectrums. Read past entries here, and go on ahead below to get Singled Out!

Belphegor – “Totenkult – Exegesis Of Deterioration”

Yes, new Belphegor! Revealing a new song as a live-in-studio recording instead of an album version is a great idea if your live sound is as powerful as Belphegor’s. This song has a crushing, slow pace which works very well as it makes the song very heavy. Reminiscent of Behemoth‘s slower songs later into their career, this song also has a mesmerizingly memorable quality to it, and it spans the range between Morbid Angel-esque groovy death metal and blackened death metal. Overall a very solid new track, and makes me very excited for more material from them soon!

-Noyan Tokgozoglu

Cryptopsy – “The Knife, The Head and What Remains”

I’ve already sung praises to the upcoming Cryptopsy EP with the first track revealed from it, and “The Knife, The Head and What Remains” is more of that great stuff. Just crushing, blazing death metal. Standouts from this track are the Gorguts-esque guitar squeals in the middle, the classic Cryptopsy riffage and the solo at the end. At this point, I don’t think anyone can speak negatively of what the band are doing, which can only be called top notch death metal. Bring on the EP already!

Listen to the track now at Decibel Magazine.

-Noyan Tokgozoglu

Frontierer – “Exposure & Aperture”

Have you been missing that mathy, chaotic, dissonant goodness that Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza provided in spades? Have no fear; Frontierer are here! Throwing some additional electronics onto the tried and true “danzacore” formula, this track is 100% barn burner. Immediately hitting you over the head with sledgehammer blow after sledgehammer blow of crushingly heavy riffage, and throwing in an extra-spicy, furious solo in the middle, “Exposure and Aperture” shows a band ready to kick ass and take names. Watch out for the full album, Orange Mathematics, coming to a gladiatorial arena near you this October 30th.

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-Simon Handmaker

Kardashev – “Lux”

Kardashev‘s back, baby! Okay, so they never really left, but their 2013 EP, Excipio, has had many a deathcore fan chomping at the bit for an additional helping of their delicious brand of progressive, spacey, atmospheric deathcore. And “Lux” certainly delivers: conjuring up nostalgic feelings a plenty of the great Exoplanet, the first single from the upcoming album feels almost like an updated sound on that classic. The spacey, washed out cleans, the synths and crunchy rhythms, and the bombastic blast beats mix into a furious combination absolutely drenched with atmosphere. Featuring guest work by James Martin, the former vocalist of fellow spacecore band Aegaeon, it’s a great combination. Take a listen yourself; you won’t be disappointed.

-Simon Handmaker

Pomegranate Tiger – “Cyclic”

After nearly three years, Canadian experimental prog extravaganza Pomegranate Tiger (aka Martin Andres ft. guests) are gearing up to release the follow-up to 2013’s instru-metal debut, Entities. Entitled Boundless, the sophomore album is set to drop December 11 and, if the lead single “Cyclic” is any indication, it’s one to look out for. Cascading guitars are intertwined with nimble keyboard strokes and punctuated by a generous dose of both breakdowns and bass grooves in this balanced display of Andres’ musicianship – all atop some stunning, if not trippy, graphic visualizations. Though very much in the vein of what you’d expect given Entities as a reference point, “Cylic” offers enough interesting ideas to make December 11 a date for any progressive metal fan to mark on their calendar.

-Elizabeth Wood

Watchtower – “Arguments Against Design”

Metal’s history is a field sadly dominated by misconceptions and half-forgotten giants. Everything before the 90’s seems to be hazy, dominated by a few massive, obscuring names. Within the fog of this period however lie the nascent pillars of metal is we know it today. One such forgotten foundation is one many that goes by the name of Ron Jarzombek and a band called Watchtower. Fusing technical guitar playing and writing with Iron Maiden-like, British heavy metal, those two names forged technical metal as we know it today: anything from Dream Theater, through Atheist and Cynic to Obscura and Death.

And now, they’re back. Watchtower has emerged from the deep black to release three new tracks from the long awaited Mathematics. We had received a glimpse of it with another single released in 2010 but it was deemed lost forever. Perhaps that is not so; based on these three tracks, Watchtower is very much alive. I choose only one of these tracks for this post, “Arguments Against Design”, and let me tall you, it’s fantastic. The signature guitar playing is once again very much in the center, backed by intricate and rich bass. Lending the Iron Maiden vibe is vocalist Alan Tecchio, crowning over everything with his high pitched charisma.

The other two tracks are just as good. If this means that the album is actually coming (2016 maybe?) we would all do well to be super excited. We’ll keep an eye out for it and keep you posted. In the meantime, you can download the new tracks here, which I urge you to do immediately.

-Eden Kupermintz

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Published 8 years ago