At the Magoth-gig last saturday I met the guy behind The Crawling Chaos Records who sold some stuff on his distro table. We talked about black metal in general and Ildjarn in particular and he advised me a band named EKPYROSIS, whose latest release is published by his label. To be honest, until then only knew the Italian death metal band of the same Name ( I found out that there are some other bands called EKPYROSIS). On their newest release named "Deathtrips", that is only available on tape (limited to 150 handnumbered copies and as digital download here), you can hear six tracks with a duration of 18 minutes. EKPYROSIS are labeled as avant-garde black metal, and I don't totally disagree, but hearing the term avant-garde within a black metal context I think to bands such as newer Dodheimsgard / DHG, Arcturus, Fleurety or Ved Buens Ende, and all these examples sound totally different, much more progressive, more complex and technical. EKPYROSIS on the other hand sound very primitive and reminds me very often to Sort Vokter or an atmospheric version of Ildjarn due to the use of sometimes unusual, but always well-integrated synthetic sounds that really enrich the sound image of EKPYROSIS. Just listen to the first track called "Forest of Destruction I" and you'll know what I'm talking about.
Serching the world wibe web for more details concerning EKPYROSIS I found out that the band was founded in 1999 and is located in or around Bonn, Germany and released three albums via Zeitgeister Music, a label which is very well-respected in some parts of the underground scene and known for releasing bands such as Valborg, Klabautamann, Owl and Island. The only person behind EKPYROSIS prefers to remain completely anonymous, which is extremely likeable in times of exorbitant narcissism and reminds of some 90ies black metal bands. Please check out the higly remarkable cover-artworks of all EKPYROSIS-releases as well.
I make an absolute recommendation for EKPYROSIS and "Deathtrips"!
