Premiere: Drelnoch - "Scorched & Screaming"
7/8/22 | J. Proust
From that sliding byoing at the very beginning to its epic ending glory, tonight’s track premiere “Scorched & Screaming” hits like a flaming arrow and spreads instantly into a wild conflagration. When the blasting, clamoring, nocturnally reverberating bedlam erupts, one can almost envision all the woodland animals scattering to seek refuge. But, as Rilke assures us in his Sonnets to Orpheus, it was not fear, nor cunning that roused the animals from their nests and dens, but listening.
Drelnoch remains the solo endeavor of the inimitable Lord Bill. And for all its country twang and unflinching lyrics, the project is arguably his most personal output known publicly. What began early last year as a black metal-influenced country/hardcore/punk anomaly, something like Circle the Wagons-era Darkthrone meets early Dead Moon, over the course of three demos and three split tapes, has grown into a formidable raw black metal beast that will fight tooth and claw to proclam eternally its roots in bluegrass and country music. The transformation has been incredible if not a little bewildering to witness. Most recently, the epic “Jacques” showed us Drelnoch’s capacity to make raw and heart-ripping DSBM. Only to—halfway through—upend and wreck whatever sentimental feelings were welling up. Indeed, “Jacques” is a song that’ll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up whenever you hear it. It’s charged with an energy that feels like they’re there in the room with you. No, not Drelnoch. Them.
Tonight’s premiere on the other hand bears witness to a much more metal-minded Drelnoch. As the title would suggest, and as the guitar leads confirm, this is Drelnoch’s “Fight Fire with Fire,” if you will. This is Lord Bill, at his most mature and focused, turning his fear and his disgust outward. This is the brutal remonstrance of Drelnoch, full of malice, executed with poised, barely restrained fury.
This is “Scorched & Screaming,” the opening track from Anthropocene.
Anthropocene comes out September 2 from Moonworshipper Records.
