London (UK) – Old school stalwarts CRAVEN IDOL have released their already critically-acclaimed new album, Forked Tongues.
Forked Tongues is out now on Dark Descent Records on CD, vinyl, cassette and digital formats. Purchase and stream the album at darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/forked-tongues
CRAVEN IDOL celebrate their 15th anniversary with third opus Forked Tongues. Swearing by the gods of old, the North London veterans further hone their unique blend of old school extreme metal.
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Tom Dring at Southport’s Vagrant Recordings, Forked Tongues showcases a rawer side of CRAVEN IDOL, aiming to bottle the band’s live ferocity.
Shunning the trends and genre-specifications poisoning the scene, CRAVEN IDOL pay homage to a wide variety of bands, including Bathory, Mercyful Fate, Master’s Hammer, Manilla Road, Gospel Of The Horns, Sodom, Satan, Poison (Ger), Candlemass, Mystifier, Cirith Ungol, and Absu, to name just a few.
“‘Forked Tongues’ is cause for celebration for fans of pummeling and passionate blackened death thrash. Since the legendary Norwegian act AURA NOIR called it a day last year, CRAVEN IDOL may very well be next in line to claim blackened thrash metal’s throne.”[9/10] – Blabbermouth.net
“A great ending to a densely packed and tightly focused album, Forked Tongues is a furious, refreshing extreme blast. With a gradual, hard-won expansion and deepening of the pieces through the course of a strenuous and intense album, Craven Idol have put in a serious shift in leading us up the mountain.”– Echoes and Dust
“Winged, snake-footed, an earth-rending cannibalistic horror on a ruthless tear through flesh and soil, the treacherous “taming” of Typhon into volcanic unrest is all-too typical oversight of a ‘God’ defined by his all-too human debauchery, complacency and cleverly veiled tendency towards carelessness. Fattened by a thinly veneered age of fecund bliss and reeking of meddling physical conquest the cataclysm that is inevitably served upon tired Gods and haplessly thriving men will annihilate the cushiest, most self-assured hogs first. As he coils in writhing arise, our outlook dims and, it is about time.”– Grizzlybutts.com
Track listing:
1) Venomous Rites
2) The Wrath of Typhon
3) Iron Age of Devastation
4) Even the Demons…
5) Forked Tongues
6) Deify the Stormgod
7) The Gods Have Left Us for Dead
The album takes on the anomalous tale of the serpentine beast Typhon, the fiercest of all Titans in Greek Mythology. The ‘Father of Monsters’ is said to have challenged Zeus to do battle for cosmic supremacy, ultimately succumbing to the Olympian’s might, and facing imprisonment beneath Mount Aetna. According to legend, the sporadic eruptions of the volcano are due to the enduring wrath of Typhon.
Instead of merely reciting an ancient myth, Forked Tongues acts as sequel to the original tale, with Typhon returning to settle old scores. The power of the Olympians has waned over millennia, with their ambitions tamed by excess and indulgence. Meanwhile, the misguided worship of a fictitious Golden Age has facilitated Typhon’s escape. A corpulent Zeus now faces the hundred-headed monstrosity once again.
Forked Tongues is a cautionary tale, warning of all craven idols.
The monumental artwork, courtesy of master painter Eliran Kantor (Sodom, Incantation, Testament, Atheist) displays a scene of our world on the brink of total devastation.
“Peculiarly enough, the original front cover concept was inspired by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, more specifically the woodblock print (Ukiyo-e) ‘The Dragon of Smoke Escaping From Mount Fuji’. Completed 1849, the work is thought to have been one of Hokusai’s last.
In Kantor’s piece, Shizuoka is replaced by Sicily, Fuji by Aetna, and the dragon by Typhon. The back cover also loosely pays homage to ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa.'”
CRAVEN IDOL were formed as a two-piece in 2005 by J. Scourger and S. Vrath. A highly acclaimed demo caught the attention of Hammer of Hate Records, who released the Ethereal Altars MLP in 2010. Subsequently, a live line-up was then assembled, desecrating such prestigious ceremonies as the Armageddon Festival (UK), Black Mass Ritual (FIN), North Of The Wall (SCT), Old Grave Fest (RO), In The Grip Of Winter (NL), Finnfest (UK), as well embarking on a month-long European tour with the legendary Mystifier (BR) in 2018, including a performance at the Never Surrender Fest (DE).
CRAVEN IDOL signed with DARK DESCENT RECORDS in 2013, and the oath endures to this day. Forked Tongues is their third album on the label, following highly acclaimed debut Towards Eschaton (2013) and follow-up The Shackles of Mammon (2017); produced by Greg Chandler of ESOTERIC-fame. Three years to date from recording their second album, CRAVEN IDOL hit Southport’s Vagrant Recordings to track their third opus Forked Tongues in Fall 2019.
CRAVEN IDOL is:
Sadistik Vrath – Vocals, Guitars
Suspiral – Bass, Vocals
Heretic Blades – Drums
Obscenitor – Guitars, Vocals
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