Short Story Cenotaph II

This week on the cenotaph: Encyrcle, Trenchrot and Morthus.

Encyrcle-

Today we start again in Scandinavia but with a band that actually released a second full length last year...and fucking broke up since. Hailing from Odense,Denmark, I initially had this band recommended to me by the fountain of knowledge himself, Asrok from Slægt.  When I heard it, I thought to myself two things - A. Wow that's some angry, wicked Speed right there and B. It makes total sense Asrok would like them.

Why? Because they have the trifecta of excellent Speed Metal down to the dot on the i. First of all the guitars are sharp and have that excellent rolling quality to them that is the hallmark of good Speed Metal since the days when Fredrick Barbarossa was king of the Holy Roman Empire and Running Wild was on their first three albums.  Second, their vocalist hits that sweet-spot between epic and Metal. He reminds me more of early Thrash vocalists with a splash of Maiden than full-on bordering Euro-Power which is not my thing.

Third and perhaps most saliently, their mix of elements gives the band a personality that's all their own. It's a bit Running Wild here, Maiden there but its never drowning in another band's personality. Recommended as all hell.

Trenchrot-

I'm not a massive fan of the current up and coming USDM scene, that's well attested, but Philadelphia seems to be an exception. There are a slew of interesting bands coming from the city of brotherly love and vehicular homicide at the moment and the scene at large has started waking up to it.

I'm sure you're thinking of Crypt Sermon and Daeva... actually you probably aren't because this section is titled Trenchrot. Anyway Trenchrot was a precursor band to those two acts in a lot of ways. Brooks Wilson who's vocalist of Crypt Sermon did both guitars and vocals for Trenchrot while Steve Jansson did guitars for both and Daeva. It really is a who's who of who has them, to quote Goniloc, googoo gaga riffs.

The best way I can describe Trenchrot is Asphyx adjacent but without the Doom elements. Brooks really outdoes himself vocally and manages to evoke that rough exhorting sound Martin Van Drunen perfected.  It all comes together in this grimy but sharp sense, like a brisk spring rain in a trench.

Morthus-

I kind of went back and forth on if I could include Morthus ethically. They were and are friends of mine to this day, but I was championing the quality of their music since before we became friends or even met. Seeing as the band's debut and last recording so far saw light in 2016, I feel I can. Plus it's my website so nananananana.

Well Morthus was a black/ death metal band from the Warsaw suburb of Warka. What drew me to the band, on the eve of their debut "Over the Dying Stars," were the very epic compositions being worked into a very organic sound. The band painted these massive soundscapes that incorporated everything from death metal to black metal and back again while recording live.  All while remaining catchy and etching my memory for good.

Besides the LP they released a demo called "Legacy of Asteroth" and an EP called "The Abyss." You can see how the beyond excellent guitar work and dynamic was present from the band's earliest days by digging deep into the discography. Of course the dynamic evolved, but songs like "Morbid Process" are so unique in their own right that that it makes the early work different and interesting but never obsolete.

Babalon's Note on the "Fate" sections- I decided to do away with these as I found myself searching for ways to rephrase "I don't know" three times. Reality is that bands appearing here are either in extended silence or broken up. If they weren't, they wouldn't be here. Simple as that