Season Of Mist Is Poised To Have A Very Big 2017

Since its conception in 1996, Season Of Mist has definitely become more of a niche label within the heavy music world. But that doesn't mean that this French/American label don't put out quality releases - they most certainly do! You just may not have heard about some of them is all, and least, not their new releases. Hence the purpose of this article, as 2017 is already looking pretty damned good for this label. 

Let's begin.

Due to my raging hard-on for the cosmic horror genre and H.P. Lovecraft's works (despite the fact that he was a complete and utter racist fuck), and that From Software's Bloodborne is my all-time favourite video game, the very second I heard The Great Old Ones moniker (pictured above), I was completely sold. And I hadn't even heard their fucking music yet!

Suffice to say, this French outfits brand of epic, atmospheric black metal is a grand, thunderous one, though it's nothing all that new for black metal generally speaking. Still very good, though.

Going even further with their Lovecraftian gimmick (and let's be fair, it is a gimmick) the first proper song of their latest record, 'EOD - A Tale Of Dark Legacy', is called 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth', which was the same name given to Lovecraft's famous 1931 horror novella. Furthermore, this eight track album, as a whole, actually acts as some kind of conceptual sequel to Lovecraft's notable literary work of the same. To continually stoke my flames of admiration for The Great Old Ones, the band's previous album, 2014's Tekeli-li' is even named after the repeated phrases spoken by the fictional Shoggoth creatures that exist in Cthulu Mythos, which were expanded upon in what was perhaps the 20th century author's best, At The Mountains Of Madness; a personal favourite book of yours truly.

They also use a real fucking photo of Lovecraft in their band promo photos too. So, at least they're going all in with it!

Anyway, you can pick up this dark, haunting and wonderfully dynamic black metal release from The Great Old Ones right here. Season Of Mist really made the right call picking these guys up.

From a band that has a new album out right now to a band that will have a new album coming out, Catalonia's Foscor is the latest inductees to the Season Of Mist family and the trio will be releasing their upcoming fifth full-length album on the label sometime in 2017.

As stated, this metal trio hail from Catalonia, which is still to this day a largely unwilling part of modern day Spain - political groups protesting for their state's independence has stood in opposition to the state for over a decade now as they continue to push for national separation from Spain. Now, Barcelona is that region's capital city and this is where Foscor are based in. This particular region has many deep rooted artistic and musical traditions, and perhaps it's this autonomous community mentality labelled over Catalonians that lights a fire under bands such as Foscor and to further their own art and music. In this case, extreme metal.

Foscor, being a typically black metal focused band, are attracted to and take inspiration from the rather morbid, decadent, and sick reflections on the rapidly changing society that has drastically shaped their homeland's artistic landscape since the end of the 19th century. Considering that their name translates to "darkness" from their native Catalan tongue, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess that their approach to metal music is just that - dark. So, you know, that shit is right up Season Of Mist's alley.

Geographical and political inclinations aside, Foscor's first three albums showed off their knack for classic second wave black metal around, all wrapped around a dark, melancholic core. But it was with their 2014 full-length 'Those Horrors Wither' (the title track can be streamed below), which marked a clear departure from the black metal waters they usually charted as they turned to more progressive and avant-garde ideas. Either way, their new album should be a solid black metal release, dabbing its feet into various styles and influences of metal and probably featuring many political undertones.

Or it could be utter pants. Guess we'll find out this year.

Stepping far outside of the extreme metal realm, we now also have Barcelona's Obsidian Kingdom. (Hey, maybe they know Foscor?)

This Spanish band's music is self-proclaimed as a "hard-to-classify heavy sound with plenty of contrast". Wow, a band that has a pretty pretentious yet fully accurate detailing of their own music. Christ, that's rare! As for the band's lyrics, they are rather cryptic at times (see the lyrics to 'Darkness' as a good example). Which is also a really nice way of me saying that they're almost fucking nonsensical, in an At The Drive-In fashion. But the lyrics do act as solid background dressing to a band that presents their noisy, experimental, post-metal sound so, so very well.

Their 2016 full-length, 'A Year With No Summer' is a solid listen, one that sticks with you long after you're done with it. Culled from that release is its shortest song, 'The Polyarnik' ('polyarnik' is Russian for a specialist/meteorologist that studies in the North Pole), which has just been released as a new live video. It's the album's main reverie; it's main sonic reprieve if you will.

The band commented that "As the echoes of 'A Year with no Summer' start to recede, we would like to share with you one last memory of our foregone European tour. 'The Polyarnik' was recorded live in Gdańsk on last November 9th before the watchful gaze of a mesmerized crowd. Thank you so much for walking with us through this surly year. It has been a rough journey, but also a wonderful and transformative experience, and now it's time for us to move onto new territories."

If the below live video gets a few hooks into you, and you're looking for another good place to start with their record, I urge you to check out the 'Darkness'. That was my favourite track from the whole record actually, and you know you can trust your old pal, Alex, right?