Brooklyn Vegan have just unveiled a full album stream of BASTARD SAPLING‘s debut LP, Dragged From Our Restless Trance. As BBG notes, these RVA black metal rising stars “mix(es) in their fair share of crust with their epic black metal jams,” and now you can soak it all in before buying the beautifully turned-out record from Forcefield Records.
After forming in 2007 and their ensuing years of touring, festival appearances, and obscure limited releases (like their now infamous 2008 rehearsal demo and 2010′s ‘V: A Sepulchur to Swallow the Sea‘ 7″, which Brooklyn Vegan previously hailed as “blastingly powerful”), Richmond, VA’s BASTARD SAPLING turned loose their debut full-length. Entitled ‘Dragged From Our Restless Trance,’ the album saw an October 23, 2012 release via longtime supporters Forcefield Records, the album offers four songs and forthy minutes’ worth of cold, atmospheric, adventurous black metal. The record is strictly limited to 500 copies on marbled obsidian black & cocaine white vinyl and packaged as a gatefold LP with insert and patch included.
BASTARD SAPLING straddle the divide between the best moments of Immortal, Bathory, and vintage Ulver, taking cues from old-school Darkthrone and recalling the majestic atmosphere of Drudkh and Hate Forest, and augmenting the entire apparition with an appealingly raw but listenable production and a DIY-or-die ethos.
Decibel recently hosted an exclusive stream of “Cold Winds Howled Across the Desolation,” and nabbed a track-by-track writeup of the album by guitarist Drew Goldy and vocalist Mike Paparo. In addition, Stereogum are still streaming another song, “Beyond the Void of Life,” HERE, and described it as “a feast of meaty melodic riffs powered by furious blast rhythms, clouded in psychedelic swirls of low-budget atmospherics.” Metal Underground said, “”These Southeast boys have put out not only one of the sharpest black metal debuts of the year, but one of the best overall albums released in the genre this year,”and Hammer Smashed Sound passed judgement thusly: ” Melodic and intense, with atmosphere a-plenty…At times it’s pretty savage, at other times it is epic and majestic, but always feels cold, desolate, and just grim enough to keep you coming back…This record seems to feature a little bit of all the best parts of black metal in well-written and memorable songs.”
