It was while spinning my wheels at the mercy of a delayed flight from London to Berlin, on about the fifth listen to As Gomorrah Burns, the forthcoming record by Montreal, Canada’s Cryptopsy on Nuclear Blast Records that the album finally opened up, like a poisoned flower, and revealed its full merit.
2018 © Tina Korhonen/ www.tina-k.com
Time is running out in the Ghost Cult contest to win tickets to see Death Metal supergroup Vltimas, featuring Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen (ex-Mayhem, Aura Noir), David Vincent (ex-Morbid Angel) and Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy) at an EXCLUSIVE concert in London on 21st of June at Underworld! The band released their excellent new album, Something Wicked Marches In, this spring via Season of Mist. The band has booked festival dates like Copenhell, Tons of Rock and Wacken and Ghost Cult is giving away tickets for you and a friend, plus a digipak CD version of the album. To enter just like and share our Facebook post for the contest and tag a friend you want to bring! Winners will be chosen at random, and the contest ends June 7th, so enter today! Continue reading
2018 © Tina Korhonen/ www.tina-k.com
Death Metal supergroup Vltimas, featuring Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen (ex-Mayhem, Aura Noir), David Vincent (ex-Morbid Angel) and Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy), released their excellent new album, Something Wicked Marches In, last month via Season of Mist. The band has booked festival dates like Copenhell, Tons of Rock and Wacken and an EXCLUSIVE concert in London on 21st of June at Underworld! Ghost Cult is giving away tickets for you and a friend, plus a digipak CD version of the album. To enter just share our Facebook post for the contest and tag a friend! Winners will be chosen at random so enter today! Continue reading
The term Supergroup is often used to describe any band consisting of musicians from other acts and thus disappointing when it ends up lacking household names, or consisting of dream groupings who do not live up to the expectation their legacy suggests.
Fortunately, new entity Vltimas have offered a debut that smashes those notions.
Made up of former Mayhem man Blasphemer, Cryptopsy’s Flo Mounier and David Vincent (formerly of Morbid Angel), Vltimas is a solid who’s who of Extreme Metal royalty. Notably, this is Vincent’s first Metal outing since the polarising Illud Divinum Insanus (Season of Mist), thus potentially leaving him with a point to prove. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long for Something Wicked Marches In (Season of Mist) to ease any lingering doubts there.Continue reading
I think as Extreme Metal fans we can all agree that we were getting a little antsy awaiting new music from Baltimore’s loudest sons, Misery Index. Watching the news every day through my fingers I know that the world and a certain leader are shit, so I figured Misery Index are in no shortage of material to convert into awesome grind sounds. But wait no more, children; Rituals Of Power (Season of Mist) is finally here.Continue reading
Multi-media artist Nader Sadek is streaming “Descent”, off The Malefic: Chapter III here, here and here.
In other news, NADER SADEK will be performing at Neurotic Deathfest in Tillburg, Holland (April 17-19, 2015).
NADER SADEK’s new four-song EP The Malefic: Chapter III was released as a free CD insert in November and December via Decibel Magazine (#122), Terrorizer Magazine in the UK (#254) and Legacy Magazine in Germany (#94). The Decibel release has a different mix and master from the UK and German versions. .The album will be available digitally in the coming months.
Deformation by Incision
Carrion Whispers
Entropy Eternal
Decent
Returning to the fold are main songwriters Flo Mounier of CRYPTOPSY fame, master composer and guitarist Rune Eriksen of black thrashers AURA NOIR and ever-rising, multi-voiced growler Travis Ryan of CATTLE DECAPITATION. Bobby Koelble, whose jazz-influenced technique mixed with tinges of Eastern passion, brings a fresh flare into the sound. Depending mostly on what sounds like millions of notes being touched at ungraspable speed, Koelble is best known for his work with genre creating band DEATH, as he collaborated in creating their most revered record, Symbolic. Lastly, the solos of Brazilian guitarist Andreas Kisser from yet another genre defining band, SEPULTURA bring an emotion that is both chaotic and yet full of feeling, and whose whammy-bar twisting and dragged notes introduce a wicked counterpoint to Koelble’s style. Shimmering on the surface are the angelic sirens of Carmen Simoes formerly of the AVA INFERI and current MOONSPELL backing vocalist, who conjures a sense of depth to the song “Descent”.
The EP was recorded in various location and with multiple engineers. Most notably are Christian Donaldson, who recorded guitars and Drums in his Montreal Studio, the Grid. Vocals were recorded by Casey Smith and Jay Newman in New York, with additional vocals recorded by Sam Lathrem and Martin Rygiel in San Diego.
Multi media artist Nader Sadek has released a teaser video of in-studio performances for “Entropy Eternal” from their new EP The Malefic: Chapter III, here. The video features performance clips of Travis Ryan (CATTLE DECAPITATION), Martin Rygiel (ex-DECAPITATED), Flo Mounier (CRYPTOPSY), Andreas Kisser (SEPULTURA), and Rune Eriksen (AURA NOIR, ex-MAYHEM).
NADER SADEK’s new four-song EP The Malefic: Chapter III was released as a free CD insert in November and December via Decibel Magazine (#122), Terrorizer Magazine in the UK (#254) and Legacy Magazine in Germany (#94). The Decibel release has a different mix and master from the UK and German versions. .The album will be available digitally in the coming months.
A video for EP track “Deformation by Incision” was released previously and features in-studio performances from Mounier, Ryan, and Eriksen, as well as Alex Webster (CANNIBAL CORPSE) and Bobby Koelbe (ex-DEATH). Check it out here.
The Malefic: Chapter III Track Listing:
Deformation by Incision
Carrion Whispers
Entropy Eternal
Decent
The EP was recorded in various location and with multiple engineers. Most notably are Christian Donaldson, who recorded guitars and Drums in his Montreal Studio, the Grid. Vocals were recorded by Casey Smith and Jay Newman in New York, with additional vocals recorded by Sam Lathrem and Martin Rygiel in San Diego.
This is a curious proposition. With previous albums and now this EP release The Malefic: Chapter III (self-released), Nader Sadek is a death metal super-group which has seen a variety of members on its releases, all curated by its namesake, one Nader Sadek, who has worked as stage artist for the likes of Mayhem and Sunn O))).
On this latest reincarnation, the personnel includes Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation on vocals, Rune Eriksen (Mayhem), Martin Rygiel (formerly Decapitated) and Flo Mounier (of Cryptopsy fame). Following on from the album In The Flesh (Season Of Mist), which was an impressive slice of death metal if lacking in some cohesion and clear production, this latest EP does see some refining. The production here has a lot more clarity and precision without sounding sanitized, whilst musically it sounds a united and flowing piece, and more straightforward in nature. The vocal contributions of Ryan truly stand out, further showcasing his presence as one of death metal’s most versatile and powerful voices.
A crisp, impressive EP which will admittedly won’t turn the genre on its head but represents a good exhibition of the talents of those in its ranks. Not a world beater, but worth a listen.
6.0/10
CHRIS TIPPELL