Howls of Ebb / Khtoniiks Cerviiks (split 2017)

Howls of Ebb and Khtoniiks Cerviiks are easily among the best, more interesting and innovative recent death metal bands (their latest albums were on my favourite albums list for last year). So obviously this split beetween the two of them is more than welcome. It had to be done. and it does not disappoint. It brings the expected amount of chaotic free Deiphago meets Voivoid death metal madness highs. Excellency in expectedly unexpected forms. It's not just higly recommended it's mandatory.

The Bandcamp page.

The 2016 list

Here we go, you'll find below my selection of albums released in 2016, those I enjoyed the most and / or found the most interesting (as usual I will do later a specific list for grind). Aside the name you'll find the link to the review I wrote. Of course feel free the post comments or suggestions.

In alphabetical order :

Aluk Todolo - Voix   the review
                                    and the interview

Anaal Nathrakh - The Whole of the Law  the review 

Brainbombs - Souvenrirs   the review

Guillame Perret - Free  the review

Haikai No Ku - Temporary Infinity  the review

Howls of Ebb - Cursus Impasse : The Pendlomic Vows  the review

Khtoniiks cerviiks - SeroLogiikal Scars (Vertex of Dementiia) the review


Landskap - III  the review

Martyrdod - List  the review


Narcosatanicos - Body Cult  the review

Ruined Families - Education  the review


Seremonia -  Pahuuden äänet the review

Skaphe - Skáphe²  the review

Skullfuck - Day of the Black Sun  the review

Youth Code - Commitment to Complications  the review

Howls of Ebb - Cursus Impasse : The Pendlomic Vows (2016)

Howls of Ebb, from San Francisco (or is it from some Lucifer's psychotropic dreams?) plays a kind a death metal you don't know existed. A kind of "free and psychedelic" death metal. Death metal use to be very predictable but Howls of Ebb brilliantly shows that it can be completely otherwise. Cursus Impasse : The Pendlomic Vows is their second album, also on I, Voidhanger records. It's a bit different from their preious release The Marrow veil EP (read HERE my review), the songs are less atmospheric, faster and more concise. But still they're far from following traditionnal structures and the drumming and guitar playing is far from traditionnal death metal (. They maintain your attention through the album, surprising you at every turn, displaying a level of creativity hard to match. And it's far from experimenting for the sake of it, no, it's free from standard songwriting structures, but manages to be "catchy" and memorable. It makes other albums sounds flat and one-dimensionnal. If you listen to just one death metal album these days, try this one. Highly recommened!

The Bandcamp page.

Howls of Ebb - The marrow veil MLP (2015)

This album (or MLP or EP) is as completely nightmarish as its cover. The marrow veil is Howls of Ebb first release after their excellent first album last year (Vigils of the 3rd eye, also on I, Voidhanger records). Their death metal gets here maybe even more unconventional than on the album. The length of the two songs, 19 and 12 minutes, plus a short interlude between the two, makes more evident the complete lack of the traditional song structure in the composing. This is really loose, sounding almost" free" death metal. The metal parts are mostly mid tempo with dissonant riffing, weird leads and ritualistic drum pounding, and they are interwoven with slow ambient minimalistic noisy  / drone guitar and percussion parts. This is really successful in creating a special and bizarre atmosphere with a dark and chaotic feel. Overall it could be described like somewhere between Khtoniik cerviiks and Chaos echoes. If you are tired of the often too "standardized" nature of metal (even "extreme" metal, often following song after song the pop / rock song structure that you can hear all day long on the radio), then this is a really recommended listen. Strong stuff!

The bandcamp page.