2018 seems to become a very prolific year in terms of new releases. the year already saw excellent new records by ghost, obscura, bongripper, the faceless, between the buried and me - just to name a few. the last quarter of the year doesn't look too bad either. i am waiting for stuff of behemoth, sick of it all or beyond creation. and right here is the almighty conan. this british trio quickly worked its way into my personal league of most respected bands and thus a new full length is a no-brainer purchase.
i pre-ordered at napalm records from austria, conan's label since "blood eagle", and they had two colour vinyl options on offer. the obligatory solid gold edition limited to 200 copies and a dark green edition out of 300 copies. because i think solid gold vinyl looks extreme shite, i did not give a damn about limitations and opted for the green vinyl. holding the actual outcome in hands, i can sleep with the certainty of having made the right decision. the vinyl colour looks real nice against the centre labels. for the visuals conan worked with again with artist anthony roberts. dark, ominous and menacing - the perfect match to the tunes.
musically "existential void guardian" is a fantastic soundtrack to all the dark parts which have been visualised by the lord of the rings movies. i am not too much a fan of that fantasy stuff but this sort of imagery comes to my mind immediately listening to conan. the album is a bit faster at times, it even offers a fifty five second short grind metal song called "paincantation". but the slow tunes are what conan is best at and so the last songs on each side of vinyl are the peak moments of the album to me. "amidst the infinite" and "eternal silent legend" are the essence of conan in its purest form. don't really need the second disc with a few live songs, though. still, brilliant effort of conan. i hope to catch them live in two weeks. napalm records. 2018.
