I’ve seen a few YuberToube clips in the last couple weeks that come with a warning for flashing lights and sharp cuts and such that might trigger epileptics to have a seizure. Seems fair enough. Sannhet‘s new clip for “Slow Ruin” from their 2013 Known Flood debut album on Sacrament Music doesn’t have one, but it easily could for its do-not-adjust-your-set intro or when the blastbeats kick in and our heroine, seemingly confined to a white-but-not-padded box, begins to make a clay version of herself to then cast into the ocean. Take that, constructed identities! Director AJ Annunziata, who also serves as bassist in the sample-prone Brooklyn instrumental post-metal trio, does well in aligning the visual to the audio of the track, which appears here somewhat edited from its seven-minute form on the album, much of the last two minutes of which was given to a wash of droning noise.

One of the highlight aspects of Known Flood (discussed here) is the efficiency with which Sannhet ebb and flow between black-metal-derived blasting and ambient explorations, and even abridged in terms of the latter, “Slow Ruin” brings that duality to light. Brutality and post-rock-style airiness persist in the guitars of Christopher Todd and drummer John Refano fluidly holds the song together in its torrential onslaught, the final product eliciting a feel of entranced worship as much as sonic punishment, calling later Godflesh to mind early but building up to something with an entirely different kind of seething at its center.

Word on the street is Sannhet will release a new digital single next month, and for those of you in that part of the world, they’ll be playing the St. Vitus bar in Brooklyn this Friday, Oct. 18, with Pelican, Phantom Glue, Kings Destroy, Pyrrhon and Wreck and Reference as part of the second night of Invisible Oranges’ showcase for CMJ. Quite an evening. Here’s the video:

Sannhet, “Slow Ruin” official video

Sannhet on Thee Facebooks

Sacrament Music

It’s been a while since the LP came out, but after adding them to The Obelisk Radio, I’ve been looking for an excuse to review Known Flood, the debut from Brooklyn-based post-metallers Sannhet, I guess I’ve just found one. Sannhet will release Known Flood on CD through Consouling Sounds (the vinyl was on Sacrament Music) on July 8 in Europe and July 9 in North America.

Details, audio and pre-order links follow, courtesy of the PR wire:

SANNHET: Debut LP From Brooklyn Trio To See CD Release

Following is successful vinyl/digital release in February — the maiden release from Brooklyn-based Sacrament Music — Known Flood, the debut album from trio SANNHET, is now confirmed for release on CD via Consouling Sounds.

With nearly forty-five minutes of electrified post-metal, fueled with domineering riff-building movements and intense percussive hostility, Known Flood unifies SANNHET’s lightly blackened atmospheric style, captured by Colin Marston (Krallice, Behold… The Arctopus, Dysrhythmia) and mastered by Carl Saff. The album and the band’s live performances across the NYC region supporting it have captivated fans and media alike, the band’s unique approach standing out in heavy contrast in an otherwise massively oversaturated genre. SANNHET bends genres effortlessly, and blends it together in a coherent monster of an album. 45 minutes of adventurous aural bliss pass in the blink of an eye.

Licensed directly from Sacrament Music, the CD version of Known Flood will be made available through Belgium-based Consouling Sounds, the label’s aim to put extraordinary music in the post, doom and ambient niche and sub niches into the spotlight. Set for European release on July 8th, and North American release a day later, preorders for the disc are available HERE. The album is also still available on LP and digitally via Sacrament Music RIGHT HERE.

Locals can catch them on June 28th supporting Locrian at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, home to Sacrament Music. Stay tuned for more SANNHET live/tour dates to be announced in the coming weeks.

SANNHET live:
6/28/2013 Saint Vitus Bar – Brooklyn, NY w/ Locrian

Sannhet, Known Flood (2013)

With shades of industrial, black and post-metal, Brooklyn’s Sannhet cast a deep shadow with Known Flood, their debut LP. And then they hide in that shadow, and they lurk around for a while, all creepy-like. The trio released Known Flood on vinyl last week through Sacrament Music, the new imprint cast by the crew at the St. Vitus bar, and with its forward-thinking approach to churning tonal oppression, transitional drones and ambient heft, I can’t help but think it’s a good fit. Very easy to imagine this noise filling that room.

The record (produced by Colin Marston of Behold… the Arctopus!, et al) is consuming when played at high volume, with a kind of surrounding effect coming from tracks like the centerpiece “Moral” or the subsequent “Slow Ruin,” which effectively touches on Neurosis crunch without simply aping it. Sannhet sound bigger than three people and add chaos by means of an assortment of loops and samples handled by drummer Christopher Todd and guitarist John Refano — the lineup is completed by AJ Annunziata on bass — but at the root of Known Flood is a fierce grip on aesthetic and directionality and an obvious push toward the sonically extreme. Whether it’s an earlier bruiser like “Safe Passage” or the final ambient swell of closer “Flatlands,” screaming or instrumental, Sannhet make each turn consistent, dark and intricate.

Textures unveil themselves more with each listen as vague samples become clarified standouts, and repetitions become all the more engrossing and hypnotic. “Still Breathing,” the penultimate and longest track (7:46), also proves the most patient in its unfolding, but when it reaches its apex, there is a shattering effect that’s not to be missed, Refano and Annunziata mounting a linear build that Todd makes turbulent with the addition of blastbeats and corresponding open crashes. Eventually, they break through it with a sweeping payoff that, but for the malevolent noise underscoring “Flatlands,” would be a fitting end to the album.

Glad to have Known Flood added to The Obelisk Radio, and if you’d like to experience it en masse, please refer to the stream below, courtesy of the Sannhet Bandcamp:

Sannhet on Thee Facebooks

Sacrament Music