Two bands who have never sounded like they were built for company are sharing a record: Invocation from Valparaiso and the Greek veterans Embrace of Thorns put out Invoking the Noumenon / Crushing the Feeble Messianic Embrace on 30 October through Iron Bonehead Productions, on CD and 12 inch vinyl, six tracks and about twenty two minutes in total.
For Embrace of Thorns it is the first recorded material since 2022's Entropy Dynamics and a return to the label that carried much of their earlier work. Their side is two songs of the blackened, bestial death metal they have kept to since the late nineties, closed by a subdued outro that is meant to carry the listener across into the other half.
Invocation follow their 2024 debut The Archaic Sanctuary (Ritual Body Postures) with three new compositions. The Chilean band spent years on short releases before that album, so the compact format is the one they came up in, and the new songs keep the balance they are known for between force and atmosphere. Embrace of Thorns bring Life-Strife-Transgression, Destroyer of all Maladies and that outro; Invocation answer with Altar of Unseen Prayers, Impetuous and The Shattered Torch. A full stream is promised before the release.