Formerly a trio, the Gothenburg-based guitar/drums twosome Galvano have released their first full-length, ambitiously dubbed Two Titans. The album is out on Devouter Records, and it melds sludge immediacy with post-metallic ambience and caustic tones. The loud parts the loud, the quiet parts are quiet, and every now and then, it seems like someone just punched guitarist/vocalist Mattias Nööjd in the stomach. In a good way.

The band — Nööjd plus drummer Fredrik Käll — have made the whole of Two Titans available to stream, and you’ll find it following the album info below, which came, as ever, down the PR wire:

Two Titans sees the duo deliver sludgy powerful riffs and intense drumming combined with slowed down dark passages. They enable you to go through a full spectrum of emotions then back again. Describing the album, Mattius (singer/guitarist) comments that:

‘All these songs are personal, all the way throughout the record. They are about personal matters and demons. It’s about finding the darkest corners, the dark lord within and to show up for battle. Portrayed as two titans in constant battle: Good/Evil, Darkness/Light and so on. And sometimes wanting to embrace either side. It’s about knowing when your mind is pulling tricks and being able to stop it. It’s also celebrating our musical force as a duo.’

Galvano hail from Gothenburg, Sweden and comprises of duo Fredrik and Mattias. Formed in 2005, the band had one direction and one aim, to create something heavy. But it wasn’t until 2007 that the band let the outside world hear what they were creating when they released their first demo and started to play shows. The following years saw more touring across Europe playing alongside bands such as Black Breath and Alaskan.

Tour Dates:

Nov 30 Die Grosse Welt Hannover, Germany
Dec 01 Hühnermanhattan Klub Halle, Germany
Dec 02 Cab03 Leiden, Netherlands
Dec 03 TBA
Dec 04 L’Ecurie Geneva, Switzerland
Dec 05 Block 56 Basel, Switzerland
Dec 06 Tiefgrund Berlin, Germany
Dec 07 La Casa Cottbus, Germany
Dec 08 Plaque Leipzig, Germany

I had a genuine, “Oh yeah” moment watching Cultura Tres‘ new video for the song “El Sur de la Fe,” as in, “Oh yeah, I guess they did have cameras filming them at Desertfest in London.” Clips from that show and from another fest show up in the video alongside shots of the Pope, Bible and other Catholic-type whathaveyou, which I guess is appropriate for the song, the translation for the title of which guitarist/vocalist Alejandro Londoño discusses below.

What exactly they’re saying about it, I’m too ignorant to know, but if I had to guess, they’re not fans. In fact, they seem pretty pissed off, which in all my experience with Cultura Tres, listening to their records, seeing them at the aforementioned Desertfest, and watching past videos like the one earlier this year for “Purified,” seems to be their thing. Right on.

Enjoy “El Sur de la Fe” and the subsequent pertinent info:

The clip is produced and directed by Juan de Ferrari (guitar) and Alejandro Londoño (guitar,vocals). “El Sur De La Fe” comes from the critically acclaimed second Cultura Tres album “El Mal Del Bien”, which will see its release in CD format through the UK label Devouter Records (http://devouterrecords.co.uk/) on November 12th. The song can be downloaded for free here: http://culturatres.bandcamp.com/track/el-sur-de-la-fe

“In English “El Sur De La Fe” means something like “South of the Faith”- says Alejandro -“For us it refers to two things: the way religion is experienced in the area where we come from and the hidden side of the faith and its illusive benefits. We would like people to reflect on the impact religion has had on the lives of the original inhabitants of the Americas; how the Catholic church and it’s covered-up, gold hungry crusade practically exterminated a culture older than Christianity itself.

Come November 12, Venezuelan sludgers Cultura Tres will issue the formerly self-released El Mal del Bien through Devouter Records on CD and LP. The band, who I was fortunate enough to catch live at this year’s Desertfest in London, are a dramatic storm of metallic malevolence, and in addition to putting out the album through Devouter, they’ve booked a few tour dates to celebrate the release, also in the UK. I guess they made an impression, and rightly so.

Here’s all the news that’s fit to cut and paste in blue type, and the album in its entirety, courtesy of Cultura Tres‘ Bandcamp page:

New release from Devouter Records – Cultura Tres

Devouter Records are proud to present the release of the Venezuelan Doom-Metallers Cultura Tres’ 2^nd album El Mal del Bien, out on the 12^th November on CD and LP.

Pre-Order the CD or Vinyl at http://devouterrecords.bigcartel.com/

Previously self-released by the band at the beginning of 2012, Devouter Records have printed them to CD for the first time with distribution via Shellshock distribution.

El Mal Del Bien delves deeper into the dark atmospheric which the band had already shown at moments in debut their album La Cura. The daring album opener “Propiedad de Dios” sets the mood: it sounds like the soundtrack of a tragic cult movie. The songs that follow evoke the witchery, slavery, oppression and religious madness that influence the South American continent to this day. Being a concept album adds another dimension to the individual songs. A patient listener will be dragged into a hallucinating trip around the insane world the album paints.

Cultura Tres are now hailed as the national rock/sludge pride of Venezuela. From their first EP “Seis” (2007) the band already outgrew the South American continent. But only after releasing debut album “La Cura” in October 2008, the band started to get noticed worldwide. During the preceding year of rigorous composing, Cultura Tres incorporated many influences into their sound, ranging from sludge to doom metal and from death metal to classic rock.

The band plays 4 gigs in the UK in November:

Nov 15th – Colchester @TBA (w/ TELEPATHY & OLD MAN LIZARD
Nov 16th – TBC
Nov 17th – Birmingham @The Asylum (w/ SLABDRAGGER, GRIMPEN MIRE, UNDERSMILE and more)
Nov 18th – London @ The Purple Turtle (w/ TELEPATHY, ABRAHMA, SOLARIS, ENOS and more)