Song of the day: “Seven Crowns” by Strigoi
One of the things I like most about exploring new bands is knowing as little as possible about what I might be facing every time I play something for the first time. There are times when it can turn out well and many other times I’m likely to come across something that will hopefully be of acceptable quality or, to a lesser extent, something that I’ll probably want to forget completely. The musical universe is tremendously infinite and the chances of finding bands that offer something new and with a minimum of quality are not as low as we often want to think, you just have to start searching and not get carried away by first impressions.
Something like this happened to me not so recently with Strigoi, a relatively new band that has only released two albums so far but what great albums! Formed in 2018 between Suffolk and Yorkshire, two counties in the east and north of England respectively, this crust/death metal project is made up of four renowned members in the metal scene worldwide: Guitarist and vocalist Greg Mackintosh (Paradise Lost, ex-Vallenfyre), guitarist Ben Ash (ex-Carcass, ex-Desolation), bassist Chris Casket (Devilment, Eastern Front) and drummer Guido Zima (Paradise Lost, The Secret). They debuted in 2019 with the excellent album Abandon All Faith (Nuclear Blast) which was followed by an also excellent Viscera (Season Of Mist) in 2022. Since then they have released an EP composed of five new songs titled Bathed In A Black Sun released in November 2023.
The song of the day, Seven Crowns, is part of their debut album Abandon All Faith, a highly recommended album that manages to condense enormous rage in an oppressive and nihilistic atmosphere in forty-four minutes of authentic musical devastation that fly by. The vocal technique of its vocalist and guitarist Greg Mackintosh makes the songs something from another world, giving them a very own sound that in my point of view is something difficult to find today with the number of bands that are out there. Seven Crowns manages to bring together all the necessary elements of death metal and crust so that everything is completely aligned, nothing is left over and everything is in its place. Strigoi sets the standard with its debut album and repeats the success with its second full-length while waiting for its third album to see the light since if it manages to maintain the level of its predecessor albums it can be a true musical spectacle.
