Today, Iron Bonehead Productions sets November 14th as the international release date for Deogen's highly anticipated second album, The Graves and Ghosts of Yore, on CD and vinyl LP formats.
Continuing their crusade to shine a (black)light on ancient-minded black metal from American shores, Iron Bonehead makes a bloodpact with Deogen for the band's second full-length, The Graves and Ghosts of Yore. Much like now-labelmates Storming, Deogen's black metal is at least a couple decades behind the times, and proudly so. As such, The Graves and Ghosts of Yore is almost perfectly titled: like a lost relic from 1998, its raw mysticism variously recalls the super-cult likes of early Maldoror, Helgrindr, Italy's Midgard, France's Lord, or especially the almighty Winter Funeral. Deogen take no half-measures here, but never belabor their ugly-yet-aristocratic sound; songwriting, execution, and production are all in hellish harmony, eschewing any modernity or "progression" for purity of aesthetic and vampiric splendor.
Taken on songwriting alone, The Graves and Ghosts of Yore is a sterling study in brisk-but-never-busy pacing, conveying energy during the most solemn moments and also pensive during the most uptempo ones; however, not one remotely standard blastbeat is to be found. That patient pulse established - at times, suggesting the grander end of the classic Hellenic sound - Deogen heave forth mid-range guitars, Demoncy-esque vocals, and both synth and piano at the forefront, the lattermost conveying sorrow, magick, or some bewitching mix of the two depending on the track. And the production is astoundingly vintage: again, instilling visions of the above, but more importantly, suiting the songwriting & execution for black metal of this most honorable ilk. Extra points, too, for the tasteful use of pick-slides.
To coincide with the release of this second album, Iron Bonehead will be reissuing Deogen's debut album, 2020's The Endless Black Shadows of Abyss, on CD and vinyl at the same time.
In the meantime, hear the brand-new track "Spectral Winds Rise" HERE at Iron Bonehead's official YouTube channel. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Deogen's The Graves and Ghosts of Yore
1. Pernicious Prayer
2. By Torchlight
3. Desolation Bestowed
4. Nightfall Premonition
5. Of Abominations To Come
6. Clawing Into Sphere And Sun
7. Cataclysm And Deluge
8. Spectral Winds Rise
9. Echoes Of Eternity
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