Portuguese outfit Okkultist are reinventing evil yet again.
Three years on from the release of the blackened death-metal crew’s sophomore LP, O.M.E.N., the Lisbon-based act have partnered with Moonspell vocalist Fernando Ribeiro — not to mention Revolver — to plunge us into the darkness of their newest single. Prepare yourselves to face their “Teeth of the Hydra,” which is premiering right here right now.
The new track is described by the band as the next step of their “cycle,” and that it was “conjured from the depths of the darkest abyss.” Structurally, drummer Eduardo Sinatra surges between devastating blasts and rock-solid grooves, while guitarists Leander Sandmeier and André Bernardo strafe the soundscape with brain-drilling tones and inky chord chugs. Vocalist Beatriz Mariano howls of the group’s collective “transmutation of forceful descent,” while guest vocalist Ribeiro moodily intones a spoken-word section about exploring a crumbling “spiritual labyrinth.”
“We have poured our bodies, hearts and souls into creating a new, more mature and creatively defying chapter for Okkultist,” Mariano tells Revolver of the determined path ahead for their band.
“Up until now, our work has been about establishing parameters. Aesthetic, sonic identity, emotional tone, visual continuity, thematic focus. Each release contributed a fragment of a larger system. Sometimes more intuitive, sometimes more confrontational, but always searching for the intersection between concept and expression.
“This is the moment where the process stops being exploratory and becomes intentional in a way that is no longer provisional. So, ‘Teeth of the Hydra’ doesn’t abandon what came before, but it completes it.”
You can see Okkultist lay things bare via the strobe-heavy, performance-style music video, which was conceived by Mariano.
“Teeth of the Hydra” is on streamers via Alma Mater Records. Okkultist have yet to formally detail their full-length follow-up to O.M.E.N.