To cap this week, we have the bombshell announcement of Tragedy to play Bloodshed Festival, the release of Bruce Lamont‘s new album, and a new song of filthy death metal from Oksennus.

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Bloodshed Festival announce Tragedy

Whichever way we’d try to phrase this, the organisers of Bloodshed Festival did it better, saying they could “barely believe our eyes when typing this announcement.” Given the festival’s past line-ups, that’s saying something, but what else can you do, it’s fucking Tragedy.

That being said, it’s worth mentioning that the Eindhoven-based festival is set to change location this year, from the good old Dynamo to the slightly bigger and more modern Effenaar, just a couple of minutes walking in the direction of the city’s train station. Moreover, Tragedy is not the only already confirmed band so far and it was already from the first batch that they weren’t fucking around when it comes to booking the first edition in a new venue, having confirmed the legendary and recently reformed Enemy Soil, partially the seed from which Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Pig Destroyer sprang, as well as a double dose of Denver bringers of doom in Primitive Man and Vermin Womb.

The second batch of confirmations included the announcement of a collaboration with Denmark’s Kill Town Festival, which takes place a few weeks earlier and also has a tendency for killer line-ups. This collaboration signals an increase on the amount of death metal on Bloodshed. Given that they’re doing it by confirming the likes of Spectral Voice, Triumvir Foul (here’s hoping for Serum Dreg to join as well), and Undergang, we couldn’t be happier. Oh, and that second batch also included -(16)- and Extinction Of Mankind, so there’s that.

We should be done, by now, shouldn’t we? Almost there – the last piece of news is that the festival will now include an official afterparty, which, as an homage to Roadburn, is called the The Afterbleeder. Combining that with the now usual pre-party, this brings the total bloodshedding-length to four days. Lovely.

The 2018 edition of Bloodshed Festival will take place on the 14^th and 15^th of September at the Effenaar in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

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Bruce Lamont releases «Broken Limbs Excite No Pity»

Today, Bruce Lamont, of Corrections House, Yakuza, Brain Tentacles, and Bloodiest fame, is releasing his second solo LP «Broken Limbs Excite No Pity», which you can stream below in its entirety. For those wanting to get into the record’s mood in a visual manner, it might not be a bad idea to watch the two following black & white videos shot by Chicago film-maker Jessica Price, one for «Goodbye Electric Sunday», and one for «8-9-3». They also serve as a glimpse of part of the contrasts present in the record, definitely one of its most interesting aspects. «Goodbye Electric Sunday» is, in Lamont’s own words to Noisey, “a little more sing-song-y, it has some pop elements to it”, while the latter video is for one of the most intense songs in «Broken Limbs Excite No Pity».

Produced by Stanford Parker, «Broken Limbs Excite No Pity» was released today via Lamont’s own War Crimes Recordings. It can be purchased at this location on cd, digital, and vinyl formats.

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Oksennus vomit a third of «Kolme Toista»

Eccentric Finnish death metal trio Oksennus is gearing towards the release of their third LP «Kolme Toista» (a play on words, evoking both “three others” and “thirteen”). The record consists of one 39 minute-long piece broken into three tracks, each lasting exactly thirteen minutes and all called «Toinen», the first of which can be streamed below. The piece, excruciatingly complex and abrasive, departs from the bare sound of its predecessor «Sokea idiootti», thus drowning its tenuous balance of precise order and suggested chaos into a haze of filth.

If the track’s quality is not enough of a reason to mouth at the water with the prospect of witnessing all three «Toinen» as they were intended, the press release adds yet another layer, informing us that the second movement is “more unified; almost hypnotic, but melodically complex,” further explaining that “although the passage is rhythmically consistent, the sequences of melody never quite repeat. The track slows to near stasis, like atoms as liquid freezes to solid.” The description is ripe with details, as apparently we can expect that at “the 26-minute mark, the track erupts into unbounded territory. Vocals spill over the mix, summoning and directing the music, which is increasingly freeform as the final movement gets under way. The vocals die out, and the drums dominate the track, with the guitars receding, forming a roiling undercurrent of distortion. Extraneous sounds produced by an array of sources, including a number of unusual instruments (piano, trumpet, accordion, harmonica, kantele) emerge to fill the space and lull the listener into a nearly transcendental state as the third movement winds down.” If you feel somewhere between tired and excited just reading this, you’re not the only one.

«Kolme Toista» is set for release through Nuclear War Now! Productions on April 15 in cd format and on May 13 in vinyl.