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South Carolina blackened death metal veterans Lecherous Nocturne return today with “Metempsychosis,” their first new music since 2018’s Occultaclysmic.

Formed in Greenville in 1997, the band have spent nearly three decades operating at the particularly hostile intersection of technical death metal, black metal and outright brutality. “Metempsychosis” picks up that thread without sounding particularly interested in easing anyone back into the fold.

The song takes its title from the ancient concept of a soul passing from one body into another. Or, in guitarist Ethan Lane’s preferred formulation:

“me·tem·psy·cho·sis (mi temp′si kō′sis, -tem′-; met′əm sī-) n., pl. -ses (-sēz) [LL. < Gr. metempsychōsis < metempsychoun < meta, over (see META-) + empsychoun, to put a soul into < en, IN + psychē, soul, life: see PSYCHE] the supposed passing of the soul at death into another body, either human or animal; transmigration.”

Lecherous Nocturne work that idea directly into the composition. Lane explains that a secondary musical theme is buried beneath the opening riff, then continually reappears through different time signatures, harmonies and variations before culminating in one of the band’s rarely employed guitar solos. From there, the theme effectively dies and returns once more—harmonically inverted—as the track reaches its conclusion.

Which is a fairly cerebral architecture for something that, in practice, spends most of its runtime trying to cave your skull in.

Vocalist Zack Jeter calls “Metempsychosis” “one of the darker offerings from the new album” and “a prime example of the kind of brooding ferocity you can expect from the full release.”

Featuring members with ties to fellow South Carolina death metal institution Nile, Lecherous Nocturne remain as technically vicious as their pedigree suggests. If “Metempsychosis” represents the beginning of the band’s next incarnation, it’s an appropriately violent rebirth.

Check out the video for “Metempsychosis” below. The single is out September 2 via Arson Theory and will be available across streaming platforms.

The post Track Premiere: Lecherous Nocturne – ‘Metempsychosis’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

San Francisco deathgrinders Cartilage have never exactly been known for practicing restraint, but on third full-length Operating Altar, the Bay Area gore merchants have found a way to make their particular pathology even more elaborate. Rather than assembling another collection of individual incisions, the band conceived the record as one sprawling deathgrind operation—a concept album chronicling medical nightmares, malpractice and a surgeon whose Hippocratic oath appears to have been misplaced somewhere near the bone saw.

Due September 11 through Everlasting Spew Records, Operating Altar follows Matthew Krolmark, a medical student beginning his final year at St. Petersen’s University Hospital. After his physician mother insists that he shadow acclaimed new surgeon Dr. Warwick Locke, Krolmark witnesses increasingly horrific deaths and incidents of malpractice before uncovering the hospital’s history of torture and human experimentation—and realizing that history may be repeating itself.

Appropriately, Cartilage treat the record less like a conventional sequence of songs than one extended descent into St. Petersen’s.

“With this album, we sought to compose one large piece instead of simply a collection of songs,” guitarist Mike Flory tells Decibel. “We’ve combined more influences from the likes of both brutal death metal and classic heavy metal, yet we pushed ourselves to faster tempos that we’ve never done before. Operating Altar is uniquely formulated to leave your ears bleeding with pleasure—our Maggot O-Pus, if you will!”

Recorded and mixed by Scott Evans (Neurosis, Exhumed, Autopsy) and mastered by Leon del Muerte, Operating Altar expands Cartilage’s usual Carcass/Impetigo-informed deathgrind attack without cleaning any of the viscera from it. Blast beats, surgical riffs, theatrical dialogue and vocalist Mark Wallace and guitarist/vocalist Ria Flory’s competing gutturals and shrieks turn the album’s hospital setting into something considerably less concerned with healing than dissection.

Cartilage will take Operating Altar on the road beginning September 15, joining Washington, D.C. deathgrinders Goetia for most of a Western U.S. run before wrapping with Cartilage-only dates in Seattle and Portland.

“We’re elated to finally unleash the sonic spectacle of insidious surgeries known as Operating Altar, featuring nine malicious tracks that combine to tell a tale of unfathomable terror,” the band tells Decibel. “Listen if you dare!”

You heard them. Stream Operating Altar below before Everlasting Spew Records releases the album September 11.

Tour Dates

9/15 — San Diego, CA @ Tower Bar
9/16 — Tijuana, MX @ Republica De Hops
9/17 — Los Angeles, CA @ Slipper Clutch
9/18 — Fresno, CA @ Summer Fox Brewery
9/19 — San Francisco, CA @ Mabuhay Gardens
9/20 — Eureka, CA @ Savage Henry’s
9/22 — Olympia, WA @ The Crypt
9/23 — Spokane, WA @ Big Dipper
9/24 — Seattle, WA @ Central Saloon *
9/25 — Portland, OR @ High Water Mark *

All dates with Goetia except * Cartilage only.

The post Full Album Stream: Cartilage — <i>Operating Altar</i> appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Brooklyn by way of South Carolina, Jay Sanford follows January’s Big Tent Revival with an old-school two-sided (digital) single. The A-side, “Don’t Fence Me In,” takes a honky-tonk two-step and runs it through a rock engine — same dance-floor bones, more muscle. Sanford lays out the thesis in the chorus: “I do some honky-tonkin’ but […]

Formed in 2001 in the small Victorian town of Warrnambool, Airbourne has built a long and internationally significant career. Led by brothers Joel and Ryan […]

The post AIRBOURNE – Live at Allas Pool, Helsinki, August 31, 2026 appeared first on Metal-Rules.com.

To taste a first piece of their upcoming new studio album Ozymandias, Italian doomers The Foreshadowing premiere a music video for “The Wave Is On The Right Side” single. The new outing comes out on November 20th, 2026 via Lifeforce Records.
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In support of their recently released full-length Armour Of Angels, UK’s Guilt Trip will be heading out to North America for a string of headlining shows. Gates To Hell and Mauled will be joining them as support on majority of dates.
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“Dead Crown”, the newest preview tune from Crown Magnetar‘s soon-to-be-released third long player The Hollowing Of Godflesh, has debuted online in the form of an official music video, which was directed, filmed and edited by Dakota Johnson.
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Posted on September 2nd 2026, 2:00pm

We caught up with poet Matt Carter, featured in Earth Island Books’ Ten Poets #3, to dive into

Last year’s news that Saint Etienne would be wrapping up their album releases and touring for one final time as a thank you to their adoring followers came as a bit of a downer for some, including Martin Gray, a lifelong fan from 1990, who takes a long, fond – if sometimes emotional – look […]

The post 35 Years Of Saint Etienne: An Appreciation, Reminiscence And Fond Farewell appeared first on Louder Than War.