EVENT HORIZON September 2019

So we are well into the back half of the year and looking forward to the final Metal push across the coming months! Next up is September, and let me just say, if your bank account took some time out during the month of August, then brace yourself for a tidal wave of metallic mayhem that is about to drop!

Resistance is futile, succumb to your Metal needs – you know the truth! Below is the 6th installment of Event Horizon. With only a selected sample of what the next month will offer, I give you The September Seven!

MIZMOR – Cairn
RELEASED: September 6th
STYLE: Black/Drone/Doom
LABEL: Gilead Media
LINK: Bandcamp 

“Cairn” is an emotional exploration of the absurdity of life – man’s constant search for meaning in a chaotic universe devoid of an ultimate purpose. This absurd premise prompts the individual to choose between a leap of faith into an ultimate purpose, suicide, or acceptance of reality. “Cairn” asserts that there is but one viable option, acceptance, and that one must build monuments to the other two as guide posts forbidding return. It declares that one must revolt and live in the present face of this absurdity and create in enjoyment the meaning necessary for life.

From A.L.N

“Cairn” clocks in at just under one hour of new original music. I recorded the album over the course of three months in my home studio. I took the long way, sparing no expense or detail in my recording. I sought to take the project to a new territory tonally, starting with my education. I won’t get into too much detail lest I bore the majority of you, so I will leave it simple: this is the highest resolution recording of the most thoroughly written and rehearsed MIZMOR material there’s ever been. I was purposefully the pickiest I’ve ever been with myself at all stages of this album’s production and coming through the other side, I’m extremely happy with the result. I’m incredibly honored and thrilled to again have worked with Sonny DiPerri and Adam Gonsalves). Together, the three of us crafted the sound of “Yodh” and have now taken “Cairn” well beyond the prior’s sonic limits. I am also floored by the final product of the extremely personal commissioned painting by Mariusz Lewandowski. Continuing in the vein of the polish surrealist master, Beksinski, Lewandowski has beautifully interpreted the theme’s of “Cairn” into his painting “Time Immemorial,” which sprawls to grace both covers of the album.” (From Mizmor Bio)

ATLANTEAN KODEX – The Course of Empire
RELEASED: September 13th
STYLE: Epic Doom/Power Metal
LABEL: Van Records
LINK: YouTube

ATLANTEAN KODEX was founded by Manuel Trummer to create an alternative to modern metal. Key influences were old Manowar and Bathory. The band plays epic, based on the Doom Heavy Metal, which was described as a mixture of Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus with Manowar, Iced Earth, Bathory or Solstice. Another influence is the hard rock of the 1970s, like Uriah Heep or Rainbow. For the lyrics Trummer was inspired by ancient European mythology, writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard or Carl Amery as well as Bavarian culture. The musicians are considered to be advocates of analogue recording techniques and have spoken out repeatedly in interviews accordingly. The Course of Empire will be their third album!

CRYPT SERMON – The Ruins of Fading Light
RELEASED: September 13th
STYLE: Doom/Heavy
LABEL: Van Records
LINK: Bandcamp 

CRYPT SERMON return with their highly anticipated new album, “The Ruins of Fading Light”! A follow up to 2015’s critically acclaimed debut “Out of the Garden”, “The Ruins of Fading Light” is a collection of existential meditations set to the backdrop of looming, apocryphal vestiges from a lost dark age. The lyrics explore the limits of faith and family, life and loss, strength and pride. Between thundering riffs and plaintive moments of acoustics, the music explores new territories on the landscape of epic doom and heavy metal. Still, one message echos as CRYPT SERMON march onward, “We’re doomed.”

“The Ruins of Fading Light” was again recorded, mixed, and mastered by Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Eternal Champion, Sumerlands, and more) at Creep Records. (From Crypt Sermon bio)

ARCTOS –  Beyond the Grasp of Mortal Hands
RELEASED: September 20th
STYLE: Melodic Black
LABEL: Northern Silence Productions
LINK: Bandcamp 

ARCTOS is the voice of the mountains, the call of the rising wild.

Inspired by the Godless wastelands of Northern Alberta as well as the jagged monoliths of the Canadian Rockies, ARCTOS brings together a unique blend of sounds to craft a form of Black Metal rife with atmosphere and melody. Formed in 2014 by a group of veteran musicians, Arctos is well steeped in musical tradition.

With the 2017 release of their debut EP “A Spire Silent”, ARCTOS stepped into the light after almost three years of writing in secret. Arctos was finally unleashed upon the public and laid waste with their brand of savage Northern Black Metal

In September 2019, after years of successful shows and touring across Western Canada, ARCTOS finally release their debut full length “Beyond the Grasp of Mortal Hands” and continue to set their sights ever higher. (from Northern Silence Bio)

CULT OF LUNA – A Dawn to Fear
RELEASED: September 20th
STYLE: Post- Metal
LABEL: Metal Blade
LINK: YouTube 

Building on twenty years of creating some of the most epic, emotive and inventive heavy music unleashed on the world, there is no denying that CULT OF LUNA‘s A Dawn To Fear is a monster of a record. An album comprised of eight tracks running seventy-nine minutes, it embodies everything the band’s faithful have come to expect from them while covering new ground. “Going into the process, we knew the album we wanted to make, an antithesis of what we’ve done before,” says vocalist/guitarist and lead songwriter Johannes Persson. “For pretty much every album there’s been a very concrete theme. We’ve known from the start the kind of story we wanted to tell, and I didn’t want that to be the case. I’ve seen a lot of subtle changes and patterns in my own behavior and my own thinking the last couple of years, and I wanted this to be a completely spontaneous process. I just wanted to see what came out of me, and ‘A Dawn To Fear‘ is the result of that.”

Admitting he is perhaps still too close to the record to objectively describe the sound of A Dawn To Fear, Persson believes that it has a more organic feel to it, largely achieved through the use of organs and other acoustic instruments in place of electronic keyboards, and that it is perhaps a more melancholic collection. It is also arguably heavier than their last full-length, 2013′s Vertikal and their 2016 collaboration with Julie Christmas, Mariner, both in terms of the sheer density of the music and its tone. When it came to tracking the album, the band opted to work at Ocean Sound Recordings in Norway, which, as the name suggests, is located right by the coast, far from the nearest town. For eleven days the band lived at the studio, and enjoyed the process of constructing the record. With the finished product running to the length of a double CD, there was some discussion of cutting a track, but this did not get far. “We sat down and looked at that song list and we couldn’t. It would make it easier for us and everyone involved to cut one song, making it no problem when it comes to LPs and CDs, but we just couldn’t see the album any other way. These songs are the songs that make sense. If we cut this song or that song, it would screw up the whole dynamic of the record.” (From Metal Blade bio)

EXHORDER – Mourn The Southern Skies
Released: September 20th
STYLE: Groove/Thrash
LABEL: Nuclear Blast
LINK: YouTube 

After 27 years of waiting, fans can rejoice as New Orleans’ face-melting thrash legends EXHORDER will be releasing their forever-awaited third studio album later this year. The band has officially wrapped recording of their first record since the long celebrated ’92 classic »The Law«. EXHORDER will celebrate their return with a festival date in Europe and a North American tour with KATAKLYSM in September. Dates are coming soon.

Commenting on the long journey to recording their third record, the band’s founding guitarist Vinnie La Bella says, “27 years? Man, that’s a big number! A lot has transpired over the course of such an extended amount of time, and this record touches on it all. There is material on this record that is literally 27 years old along with material that was written just 6 months ago, and everything in between. There are truly no words to express the emotions which are connected with this moment. And that’s pretty convenient because I prefer to do my talking in the ring/stage anyway. But the people who really made this what it is cannot go without mention: My incredible band mates; Simon and crew at AISA Management; all at Nuclear Blast Records; and Duane Simoneaux at OCD Recording, Jens Bogren was an unquestionable genius! So honored to have him on this. This is, without a doubt for the first time in our career, the album we intended to give you. Production, sound, art, it’s all there, with no compromise! I’m eternally grateful for all who helped make it happen. And to all that have waited for it, prayed for it, begged for it, or even dreaded this moment, much love and I’ll see you in the ‘Ring!'”

EXHORDER‘s enduring legacy began in the mid-80’s when they defined the sound of Louisiana thrash and groove metal. Their initial formation was short lived, lasting nearly a decade with two critically acclaimed, classic albums, but their impact on the metal genre can be felt through a generation of bands that followed. EXHORDER dissolved in the mid-90’s but briefling reunited in 2011. Now, the band has returned to reclaim their throne of NOLA metal with their awaited new album and an all-star line-up that includes Kyle Thomas (founding vocalist; TROUBLE, HEAVY AS TEXAS), Vinnie La Bella (founding guitarist), Marzi Montazeri (guitarist; ex-SUPERJOINT RITUAL, ex-PHIL ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS, HEAVY AS TEXAS), Jason VieBrooks (bassist since 2011; HEATHEN, GRIP INC.) and Sasha Horn (drummer; FORBIDDEN). (From Nuclear Blast Bio)

BORKNAGAR – True North
RELEASED: September 27th
STYLE: Post- Metal
LABEL: Century Media
LINK: YouTube 

The upcoming album by Norway’s avant-garde Metallers BORKNAGAR, entitled “True North”, will be released by Century Media Records/Sony Music on September 27th, 2019. Following up 2016’s acclaimed “Winter Thrice” release, the new BORKNAGAR effort has once again been mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden.

BORKNAGAR founder and guitarist Øystein G. Brun comments:

“This has indeed been a thunderous ride, and we are truly excited to finally start revealing some news about our upcoming album. We have spent almost 2 years writing, recording and producing ”True North” and we are extremely proud of what we have achieved this time around. On behalf of the whole band, I can firmly say that we have pushed the limits of our musical exploration, while our musical roots have grown even deeper into the northern ground. This is the most diverse, powerful and grandiose BORKNAGAR album to date! Let there be no doubt!

Yet again we have been working with Thor Erik Dullum and Marcelo Vasco for cover and layout design. From the very beginning of the process, we wanted this album to have a very clear, crisp and organic cover that spearheads the cold and northern essence of the album. So what could be more natural than basing it on our very own Nordic surroundings? Furthermore, we are also very happy to reveal that we have extended our deal with Century Media Records. (From Century Media Bio)

Carefully selected by KMaN

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