News round-up, Dutch edition, featuring an intriguing upcoming full-length of Dead Neanderthals, as well as a split between filth-mongers Throw Me In The Crater and Witches Brew. For reasons that become clear below, we also use this as an excuse to briefly visit Hadewych‘s most recent reccord.

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Dead Neanderthals announces «Life»

Dutch heavy jazz duo Dead Neanderthals has announced the upcoming release of «Life», an album which, in the band’s own words, “is quite experimental, even for us.” That is saying something, given that we are talking about the band that released «The Depths» last year, an experimental piece in which drums and saxophone were on opposite ends of a 100 meter-long tunnel. The reason for the statement lies precisely in the chosen instrumentation, as “it feat features NO saxophone and NO drums!”

Another already known aspect of «Life» is its dope-looking cover, designed by Alexis Ziritt and displayed above. It was further announced that the album will be played live in its entirety, perhaps for the only time, later this month in the Harmonics and Nonadaptive Sounds festival, which will also include performances by thisquietarmy and Nadja.

Neither release date nor label for «Life» are known at this moment. Until that happens, it’s not like there is a lack of Dead Neanderthals music to be digested, with the band having released five works last year alone. The aforementioned «The Depths» can be heard below and purchased here. There is also «Airhead», a fascinating short documentary about the creation of «The Depths», which can be seen here.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that Death Neanderthals’ drummer Rene Aquarius was a guest contributor to «Welving», a fascinating record by Hadewych, which seamlessly incorporates so many genres that it is almost preferable to go with the “black rituals channelling the ultra-grotesque” line employed by its creators. The record, composed by the project’s mastermind Peter Johan Nÿland, further includes presences of Th.Toth XIX from Trepaneringsritualen, Turia‘s T., Dutch singer Greetje Bijma, Griet Menschaert from De Grot, and Down In Norway. Released on February 7 by Malignant Records, «Welving» can be heard below.

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Throw Me In The Crater and Witches Brew to release split

A double dose of sludge nastiness is about to be jointly unleashed by Throw Me In The Crater and Witches Brew. For Throw Me In The Crater, this will be their first eruption since their aptly titled EP from 2016, «EP». The track comprising their contribution to the split, «Volcanic Winter», was recorded at Evolution Eindhoven back in 2015 and subsequently mixed and mastered by Jos Driessen at the Sandlane recording facilities. Below, you can stream the nine and a half minutes of slow filth, aptly described by the sample that kicks around the 6:25 mark, “the slow moving flow of molten material is damn destructive in its own way, but slow, very slow.”

As for the Nijmegen duo Witches Brew, the split comes on the heels of their 2016 digital EP «Reefer II», which you can listen an purchase here, an outing that has as much of their powerviolence / grindcore side than it does of sludge. The last of their five tracks set to be part of the split, «Circle Of Vengeance», can already be streamed below and displays a considerable shift in approach. The production is as dirty as one could have hoped for, the track is surrounded by an absolutely filthy atmosphere and somehow manages to seamlessly include a mouth harp on the proceedings. Recorded on October 2017, «Circle Of Vengenace» might not be the biggest departure to come from the powerviolence / sludge mix that characterized the early days of the band. When we caught the duo at the pre-party of last year’s Bloodshed Festival, it struck us how different the new tracks were, going as far as reminding us of Bone Awl style black punk – where and when will those influences manifest themselves in a record, remains to be seen.

The Throw Me In The Crater and Witches Brew split is set for release by Vleesklak Records and Grindfather Productions on March 30 on cassette format.