Promoting Bands Part 34

Hey,

Here’s another part of Promoting Bands for you. Hope you enjoy the bands in here!

If you want to check the earlier parts of Promoting Bands, you can do so at the following links: 
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33

Do you want your band to be part of an upcoming part of Promoting Bands? Don’t hesitate to send us an email, Facebook or Twitter message!

\m/

Tim van Velthuysen

Undawn

We start this part of Promoting Bands with a band coming from own soil. Michiel Brinkhuis, Leon Kloosterman (both guitar/vocals), Thijs Brinkhuis (bass/vocals) and Tom Brinkhuis (drums) are the guys of Undawn. In 2011 they released their debut titled Jumpers, back then without Leon Kloosterman, but with his predecessor Jord Brinkhuis. Four years later their second full-length album Justice Is… followed, which we reviewed here. Last November they again released new material, this time it’s an EP titled Solidarity. Solidarity is about breaking with negative patterns that withhold us from growing in life and become solidary with ourselves again in an era of (fake) perfection. Recently the band asked themselves whether their songs were still metalcore enough, which resulted in inspiration for this EP. Solidarity is melodic and catchy, but at the same time heavy and brutal. Without overdosing it Undawn also threw in some quite refreshing elements, so that Solidarity stays interesting throughout its entirety. A few examples of that being the grooving start of Implode and the atmospheric part followed by roaring guitars towards the end of Head of Doubt. Whether your opinion is that Undawn’s music on Solidarity is metalcore enough or not, it’s almost impossible to deny that Undawn sounds very refreshing on Solidarity. Whatever you want to call Undawn’s music, it definitely is clear that they released a very strong EP with Solidarity.

Undawn Official Website
Undawn Facebook
Undawn Instagram
Undawn Twitter

Popiół

Popiół, maybe you recognize that name. For the people to who that name says nothing: it was the title of Thy Worshiper’s debut, released back in 1996. Soon after the recordings of that debut album Thy Worshiper had quite some new material ready for a second album, which was planned for a 1998 release. There surely was a second Thy Worshiper album released, but in 2005 instead of in 1998 and not containing the above-mentioned material. Twenty years after that long hidden material was written, Thy Worshiper’s Marcin Gąsiorowski (MAG in Popiół) and ex-Thy Worshiper’s Bartek (Bard in Popiół), Adam Tuchowski (Kubov in Popiół) and Michał Kowal (DQ in Popiół) decided to form Popiół to finally release this material. Last February they released it via their fellow Polish record label Godz ov War Productions. This debut of Popiół is titled Zabobony. Popiół plays black metal in a very mysterious way that regularly sounds very pummeling, such as in Chmury, but also contains quite some very calm moments without losing that dark, mysterious vibe, such as in A Kysz and Czerń.

Popiół Facebook

Warfist

The next band, Warfist, also hails from Poland and also plays black metal. While Popiół played pagan black metal, their fellow Poles of Warfist play more thrashing black metal. In 2014, after releasing one EP and a few splits, Warfist released their full-length debut. The title of that debut, The Devil Lives in Grünberg, refers to the old German name of the former German, currently Polish, hometown of Warfist, nowadays called Zielona Góra. That debut full-length was followed by another full-length album titled Metal to the Bone, which we reviewed here, and a split with Excidium titled Laws of Perversion & Filth. Last February drummer Pavulon and guitarist/vocalist Mihu, Warfist’s current line-up, released a new full-length the title of which again refers to Grünberg. That album’s title is Grünberger and is released via Godz ov War Productions. Do you like listening to some heavily pummeling blackthrash? Then be sure to listen to Warfist’s Grünberger!

Here you can also read our earlier interview with Warfist.

Warfist Facebook

Malignity

The next band, Malignity, also comes, just as Undawn, from own soil. Earlier we already wrote a live review about their show on Army of Metal, here, as well as a review of the Army of Metal compilation, here. Since their formation in 2005 this band only had one line-up change, guitarist Patrick Pardoel isn’t a member of Malignity anymore and is replaced by guitarist Bas Verkleij. Furthermore Malignity consists of guitarist Albert Cromwijk, vocalist Alexander Schuilenburg, bass player Sjors Bogaart and drummer Paul Stijntjes. In 2014 Malignity released their debut full-length, titled The Promise, on which they show a combination of black and death metal together with some old school heavy metal influences. So far The Promise is Malignity’s sole album, but they are working on a second album. The tracks Darkness of Hell, Dark War, Warrior Thougths and Immortal Hate, off of this upcoming album, are already hearable on Malignity’s website. Recently they also released a video for Immortal Hate, which you can watch below.

Malignity Official Website
Malignity Facebook

Cattle Decapitation

Of course Cattle Decapitation is very well-known within extreme metal for quite a while already. The band around very powerful frontman Travis Ryan recently released their eighth full-length album. Death Atlas, as this album is titled, is the first album on which we can hear bass player Olivier Pinard and guitarist Belisario Dimuzio, who both joined Cattle Decapitation in 2018, next to Travis Ryan, guitarist Josh Elmore and drummer David McGraw. As we are used to from Cattle Decapition, Death Atlas has become a very strong and powerful album that crushes in a very well executed way. Of course, since it’s released, the entire album is now hearable, but I want to give some special attention to the short movie that was released a week before the album release. That short movie is made in collaboration with Wes Benscoter, the man responsible for Death Atlas‘ artwork as well as many other pieces of Cattle Decapitation artwork. That short movie, titled The Unerasable Past, merges one piece of the track with the same name with Death Atlas‘ title track, the last two tracks on the album. This merged piece, just as Death Atlas in its entirety by the way, sounds very impressive and the visuals that Wes Benscoter added to it are very impressive as well. So, this definitely is very recommended, the The Unerasable Past short movie as well as the Death Atlas album!

You can read our live review of Cattle Decapitation playing in Doornroosje, Nijmegen together with Suffocation and Abiotic here.

Cattle Decapitation Official Website
Cattle Decapitation Facebook
Cattle Decapitation Instagram
Cattle Decapitation Twitter