ARES KINGDOM - The Unburiable Dead LP

With much of its musical pedigree having originated and developed from its members’ direct and indirect connections to the legendary Order From Chaos, Ares Kingdom has once again demonstrated its uncanny ability to successfully intertwine exceptional songwriting and musicianship with superior thematic and lyrical content. As with their prior releases, the seven tracks on “The Unburiable Dead” are relentless, scorching examples of metal fire and blood influenced not singularly from one, but instead from several sub-categories of black/death/thrash metal. Thematically, the lyrics examine and reflect the world-shattering conflagration of the Great War for Civilisation (1914-1918) in brutally stark and agonizing, but equally artful terms. With the opening track, “Ubique” (Latin for “everywhere” and the motto of Britain’s Royal Artillery), the album traces the origins of the war before moving on to reflect the naïve optimism of the war’s early combatants with “Nom de Guerre” and the breakdown of the original ‘war of movement’ into the deadly stalemate and attrition of fortifications and trenches with “Salient and Redoubt.” The fourth track, “Demoralize,” reflects the waste and futility endured by both sides, which is followed by “Writhe: Fettered to a Corpse,” the album’s lone instrumental track with its title derived from a Hindenburg-attributed quote. The final two tracks, “The Unburiable Dead” and “Stultifera Navis (Armistice and League),” recount the final stages of the war, first from the soldier’s entrenched point of view as it lurches to an end, and then with the outbreak of joy and relief on the homefront upon its conclusion, which was ironically followed by the disastrous peace process that ensued.

Black vinyl LP, gatefold jacket, 12"x12" booklet, and A2 poster.

Nuclear War Now! 2016