Track Premiere:
Arcanist "Drinking Blood"
8/20/21 | N.B.
A raucous, jangling and highly spirited new effort from Lord of the Moon-clan himself, Arcanist emerges from a brume of noxious marsh gas bearing nine fresh tracks known collectively as Caustic Apparitions.
Although rooted stylistically in the familiar but largely under-explored territory notably visited of old by the likes of Ildjarn, and in recent years by a host of worshippers, on Caustic Apparitions Arcanist strikes with fresh energy and flavor. The guitar work walks a perfect balance between brutal straightforwardness and frosty winter madness, rhythmically boring forth with acid-etched definition and bilious will, frequently accented with primitive, single-note lead playing. A thundering, mud-caked but hard-hitting production job encloaks the otherwise virtuosic drum performance that emanates from within the fray, as Arcanist’s wretched, delay-laden oratory spews inspired verses like those declaimed on tonight’s preview track, “Drinking Blood.”
As the moon begins to rise
The marsh is draped in glowing eyes
A chorus of insects and amphibians
Sing cacophanus nocturnal hymns
Torch in hand, I enter the swamp
Trudging through the knee-deep muck
In search of a horror ages old
Immortalized, drinking blood!…
Arcanist’s debut harnesses a notoriously unruly, punkish facet of black metal and pulverizes it with adroit execution, unique vision, and an all-around fantastic attention to detail. In short, it’s essential releases like this that keep the scene interesting and ward off stagnation.
Caustic Apparitions drops digitally in full on the first of October, and some time thereafter will have the honorable distinction of being the inaugural vinyl release from Moonworshipper Records. Wax fiends ought to stay tuned for label communications about the exact release date, but on this night we bid you—drink blood, and hail the moon:
