German atmospheric noisemakers Black Shape of Nexus have a new full-length in progress. When it arrives, it will be the follow-up to 2012’s Negative Black (streamed here) and the Mannheim six-piece’s fourth long-player overall, their self-titled debut having come in 2007 followed one year later by their sophomore outing, Microbarome Meetings. Their most recent release is a 2014 split with Lazarus Blackstar (streamed here), which boasted two new tracks including the irreverently titled “Honor Found in Delay,” an 11-minute basher playing off the name of the last Neurosis record.

The new demo “Sachsenheim” offers a first taste of the new Black Shape of Nexus material, through whether it is meant for inclusion on their next full-length — due tentatively in 2016 — or their upcoming four-track EP, which is set to release before the end of this year, I don’t know. It’s a demo, so it shouldn’t necessarily surprise that the sound is kind of raw, but it should give some idea of what the band is shooting for in following up Negative Black and that split. If you’re wondering, they’re going for something heavy. Also noisy. And heavy. Did I mention heavy?

Black Shape of Nexus will also take part in an upcoming tribute to Hellhammer to be released by Fucking Kill Records. Vocalist Malte Seidel sent the following update down the PR wire:

First of all we are currently working on a new record. Working title is “You Must Relax”. IF we are not too lazy the release will be in 2016.

Furthermore we’ve covered Hellhammer’s Triumph of Death for the “A fucking tribute to HELLHAMMER” compilation on Fucking Kill Records. Don’t ask me when this thing will be released.

Also: we’ve recorded a four track EP which should be released by the end of this year. It is called – surprise, surprise – The BSON EP.

https://www.facebook.com/blackshapeofnexus/
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http://blackshapeofnexus.bandcamp.com/

Black Shape of Nexus, “Sachsenheim” Demo

Generally, a split release is a good way for one act to build a bridge to another. When bands team up, it’s not just about putting their own material out there, but also about joining forces with a community and saying, “This represents us too.” One imagines that if there was anything drawing British sludge riffers Lazarus Blackstar and German post-metallurgists Black Shape of Nexus together, it wasn’t so much the desire to build a bridge as the shared affinity for laying waste to infrastructure in general. This coming February, they’ll issue two sides of sonic oblivion via Alerta Antifascista Records that highlights both the commonalities and the differences between the two acts.

In the case of Lazarus Blackstar, their two extended inclusions — “Command and Control” and “Whispering through Broken Teeth” — continue the pummeling course that was found on their 2012 third full-length, Hymns for the Cursed. The British outfit will mark a decade under their moniker in 2014 (they started out earlier as Khang), and the 10 years of experience bleed into both these tracks in thick tones, deviations into deathly gurgles, and the glee with which the five-piece seem to jump to either side of an extreme sensibility. Concocting a massive lurch in “Command and Control,” they move a bit faster initially in “Whispering through Broken Teeth,” but though they slow down later, the even bigger shift is in the inclusion of Mellotron sounds in the song’s second half along with cleaner, chanting vocals.

The 11-minute “Honor Found in Delay” from Black Shape of Nexus has the distinction of being not only a ridiculously clever reference — you’ll recall the name of the last Neurosis record — but also the longest song present, and the atmosphere and effects live up to both the name and the allusion. There’s a linear build throughout and a near-constant feeling of propulsion that emerges, reminding some of Souls at Zero‘s unmitigated intensity, while “Always and Only” a more straightforward root in its undulating noise rock groove, like the creeping moments in latter-day Unsane, and builds to a suitably bombastic, feedback-drenched conclusion, throaty screams seeming to be swallowed by the distorted morass from which they emerged as a rising swirl and concluding sample from 1984 takes hold.

As a conclusion, that one at least fits with the band and label’s stated anti-fascist stance — “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever” — and given the melee of noise preceding, it’s an image that works on multiple levels. It might take a few listens for the full brunt of the Lazarus Blackstar and Black Shape of Nexus tracks to sink in, but considering the split doesn’t come out for another two months, there’s plenty of time. Check out all four songs on the player below, and please enjoy:

[mp3player width=480 height=300 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=lazarus-blackstar-black-shape-of-nexus.xml]

Lazarus Blackstar and Black Shape of Nexus‘ split is set for release Feb. 13, 2014, on Alerta Antifascista Records in an initial pressing of 500 (100 grey, 100 white, 300 black) 180g vinyl with heavy stock cover and obi strip. Info and updates at the links.

Lazarus Blackstar on Thee Facebooks

Black Shape of Nexus on Thee Facebooks

Alerta Antifascista Records

Alerta Antifascista Records on Bandcamp

Next Tuesday, June 5, marks the North American release of German atmospheric sludge outfit Black Shape of Nexus‘ third album, Negative Black. It’s their first outing through Exile on Mainstream and follows four years after its predecessor, 2008’s Microbarome Meetings. The delay is fascinating enough — since it was only a year before that B.SON, as they’re acronymically known, released their debut — and I’d love to speculate on what perhaps might have caused it, but it seems my skull has suddenly been pummeled by a massive sledge of inhuman tonal weight and darkly hopeless ambience.

I guess that means I’m listening to Black Shape of Nexus, because while they’ve put huge effort in the past into their aesthetic presentation — releasing albums in golden tin boxes, etc. — the density of their atmosphere has always been at the fore, and it remains so for Negative Black. The record is a confounding 80 minutes long and takes the churning malevolent tempest of rhythm that Neurosis‘ Through Silver in Blood so readily conjured and marries it to an expansive and vicious experimentalism that’s indebted and irreverent in like proportion. Atop a bed of abrasive electronics and noise, the riffs of a song like “60 WV” make the listener feel all the more doomed.

And for an intro? Well, how’s six minutes of punishing-as-fuck feedback set to a crawling drumbeat? The Mannheim post-sludge six-piece have no problem working in indulgent spheres, but Negative Black, ultimately, is immersive the way you think of an undertow as something that consumes, and the more it plays out, the further into your skin it seems to be burrowing. That’s not mixing metaphors (well, it is, but it’s on purpose). It’s in you as you’re in it. Communion.

You’ll find the monolith in its entirety streaming on the player below, followed by the release info from Exile on Mainstream. Please enjoy:

[mp3player width=460 height=300 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=black-shape-of-nexus.xml]

Available on CD in a matte-varnished six-panel digifile and on 180g double LP in a ultra-heavy gatefold cover (LP is limited to 500 copies).

Awaiting a new release hasn’t been that unnerving ever, as EOM signed B.SON four long years ago and since then the band has been working to get this new album done. They underwent numerous lineup changes, short-term hiatusses, phases of utter productivity and periods of calm as well as those of energy. This all has been channeled into an album drawing a true emotional landscape of current Black Shape of Nexus. We hope you enjoy it. It’s a task! 80 minutes long!!! Yes, you read that right. 80 minutes of pure sonic assault!

Recorded in the mild winter of 2011/12 and twisted into shape at the mighty Tonmeisterei studio this album marks a new step for Black Shape of Nexus, postulating a path into their foreseeable future. We don’t need to rave about the fact that this is their best recording to date and we have never heard anything better from them or any other band in the entire known universe, do we? You wouldn’t find this band on this label if we wouldn’t be 120 percent convinced that these guys can save the world. Or tear it down. Whatever…

For more, including tour dates, check out Black Shape of Nexus‘ website, or hit them up on Thee Facebooks. Exile on Mainstream is online here. Special thanks to the label and to Earsplit PR for letting me feature the album.