Deathchain video premiere

May 2, 2013 –
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Deathchain, a Finnish band that shares members with Demilich, Winterwolf and Jess and The Ancient Ones, recently released a video for their song “Seven Asakku Shadows” taken from their latest album, Ritual Death Metal.

The video is a slow motion celebration of flowing metal haircuts, complete with a guy pouring milk on his head and Antti Boman providing backing vocals in a robe and Cthulhu mask.

Ritual Death Metal is out now on Svart Records.

Demilich compilation CD call for artifacts

April 24, 2013 –
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demilich-nespitheIn a Google+ post, Demilich guitarist/vocalist Antti Boman both announces the arrival of a Demilich compilation CD on Svart Records, and calls for those with “artifacts” of the Demilich era to send them to him or end a link to where to download the material.

“The Demilich demo compilation CD and LP will be coming out in autumn. If you have old photos, flyers, or other Demilich memorabilia, good quality scans or originals will be gladly received,” Boman wrote, then added: “Thanks for the idea, dear brothers of Svart Records.”

For those who are joining death metal later in life, Demilich was one of the first death metal bands to break out of the fast and brutal and get into the weird and nuanced. Its style, featuring spidery lead rhythm playing slowly rotating to reveal a melodic core, influenced all that came after it.

While many in the early 1990s were slow to catch on to the value of technical death metal, perhaps fearing the wankery of the 00s that haunts us to this day and was dominant in “progressive” hardcore at the time, Demilich‘s return in 2006 brought huge crowds of maniacs to hail this unique and powerful band.

Standard Whore (Demilich)

April 22, 2013 –
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standard_whore-band_photo

Continuing our series of metalcore bands, a brief look at Standard Whore shows us an exceptional version of the modern metal style combined with a guitar rock outlook.

From the mastermind guitarist and drummer of Demilich, this style in post-Gorguts Obscura era metal hybrids uses the post-hardcore tendency to string together surprising and alarming riff combinations with a stoner rock or guitar rock tendency to stitch it all into a big jam session. One thing’s for sure: if you’re looking for metal, look elsewhere.

The same quirky riffing that made Demilich distinct is here but with more groove, less complexity, and its weirdness has been redirected to a sense of catch and hooky sounds. The result is really easy to listen to, and joins other mostly-instrumental projects like Blotted Science in trying to forge a new late model of the old influences.

Boman’s guitar is the organization voice here and gives to this style a new dimension into which it could expand, which is to remove the pretense of deconstruction and allow a jam to bleed itself together out of these spacy riffs and tortuous tempi.

Somehow I missed this back in 2010, but it’s good to give it some air and light now. These songs are from a live rehearsal session featuring material written 2008-2010.

Demilich, Jess and the Ancient Ones, and Winterwolf live streaming concert

February 18, 2013 –
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jess_and_the_ancient_ones-astral_sabbatMark your virtual calendar for Fri, February 22, 6:05 PM EET (which translates to 10:05 AM Central time here in the States) for a live concert which will be streaming over the internet to your screen.

In particular, this is reportedly the last ever concert of Finland’s Demilich, who despite being legendary and making legendary music, have probably seen their last days since guitarist Antti Boman is happily ensconced in Jess and the Ancient Ones.

Also playing will be Winterwolf, a band that calls to mind the buzzsaw guitar and dark melodies of God Macabre and Amorphis. Most likely the luminaries of the Finnish death metal underground will be there as well.

The concert, entitled Farewell to Rubble, includes the following bands:

  • Demilich
  • Jess and the Ancient Ones
  • Winterwolf
  • Blind Men of Doom
  • Standard Whore
  • Aben Erikois Housu Miehet
  • Cypher Acid

If you’re interested, you might as well go on over to the Google+ page for the event and add yourself. Then hit up the site to watch the video when it’s live.

20 years ago: Nespithe

January 29, 2013 –
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Demilich-NespitheAlmost exactly two decades ago, Nespithe, the sole full-length album of Demilich, was released, like a snake swiftly escaping its cage. That simile is not entirely off: trying to explain what this now classic death metal album sounds like, one almost inevitably comes across likenesses to slippery serpents or, considering the “cut-off” melodies played, to dismembered slimy worms twisting and turning. And growing anew.

What about the vocals? Metal fans seem divided and either hate those belching croaks or love them to death. In any case, I think they fit the idea of the album pretty darn well. The world of Nespithe seems like a cavernous microcosm of life and death, an evolutionary breeding ground hidden away from the rays of the sun, where Antti Boman‘s murky vocals comment on developments like a detached god. Penetrating those underground worlds (that are surprisingly free from tremolo riffs) feels like being thrown down a dark hole, and, after hitting the ground, you realise the floor is “moving”. And the listening experience is much like that: the mind is forced to pay attention to every single movement in the dark despite its complexity. Challenging, terrifying, beautiful.

23 years since its conception, the band Demilich is no more (it now seems definite), but Boman, the mastermind behind it all, is involved in other interesting projects (e.g. Winterwolf and Jess and the Ancient Ones) and we will always have the ever so generous Demilich download page.

Demilich merchandise re-printed and available

December 14, 2012 –
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From Antti Boman:

You once requested to be notified when new Demilich stuff is available. Well, a new batch of Demilich shirts is ready for sale at Record Shop X ( http://www.recordshopx.com/artist/demilich/ ). Currently there’s the classic design in T-shirt, long-sleeve, and for the first time also in zipper hoodie! When the sales start rolling, I’ll also order more of the other styles, and patches + other shit.

This also means Demilich stuff moves from An Entity Shop to Record Shop X, completely. The good thing is that you’ll be getting your stuff a lot quicker, the bad thing is that it costs more now. I’ll try to keep the prices as low as possible, though.

If you want to get info on the future Demilich releases (new merchandise and the compilation CD/LP), please add your email address at http://www.anentity.com/demilich/merchandise.php

If you don’t want to hear the news, just ignore this. I won’t be using these email addresses again, unless you signed for notifications on the compilation CD/LP at http://www.anentity.com/demilich/discography.php .

It’s hard not to love this progressive death metal band from way before this was a trend. Ignored for most of the 1990s and early 2000s, the band experienced a renaissance in 2005-2008 and has been returning slowly to the fore ever since. Frontman Antti Boman now plays with Jess and the Ancient Ones.

Chthe’ilist

December 7, 2012 –
7 comments

Fan of Finnish Old School?

Québécois band Chthe’ilist (pronounced “K-tee-list”) play an exciting mixture of death/doom metal influences, where the music is kept crawling among maggots by a healthy dose of Demilich, but is tastefully highlighted by Chthe’ilist’s own twisted inventions.

This is their full demo (also available as a free download from the label), Amechth’ntaas’m'rriachth (I won’t even try to pronounce that):