“Irrational II” is the sixth release by Avantgarde Black Metal project DERHEAD.

The EP is out today and can be streamed at THIS LOCATION.

After the critically acclaimed “The Grey Zone Phobia”, DERHEAD is back with its very own distinctive take on Avantgarde Black Metal.

For the first time since the project’s inception back in 2001, founding member Giorgio Barroccu is joined by a live drummer – Enrico Meloni (IKITAN, ExpiatoriA, The Healing Process).

True to the avantgarde nature of the project, the band this time has experimented with the use of analogue synthesizers, samplings and no-input noise improvisation creating here something unsettlingly atmospheric, furiously tense and psychedelic at the same time.

Thematically, “Irrational II” offers a meditation on the nature of relationships and the price that we all have to pay to live in our society. Loosely taking inspiration from F. Dostoevsky’ “Demons”, the two songs expand upon themes such as the moral decay, the weight of guilt, and the inevitable feeling of emptiness that we feel in a world that has lost its values.

The tired demons are the nihilists in the age of the information society: extinguished, suffocated, with nothing left to destroy that has not already been identified and annihilated by the system itself.

The fantastic original artwork was made by Cesare Bignotti, who has also lent his vision to the previous three releases of DERHEAD.

With “Irrational II” DERHEAD once again delivers a multifaceted work that flows effortlessly, blending the aggressiveness of Black Metal with the solemn grandiosity of the most soul-annihilating and darkest atmospheres.

Tracklist: 

01. The Weight of Emptiness (06:50)
02. Tired Demons (07:33)

Credits:

Written and performed by Giorgio Barroccu
All instruments and vocals performed and recorded by Giorgio Barroccu
Drums by Enrico Meloni
Drums recorded by Luca Nasciuti at Marsala Studios
Visual art and graphic art direction by Cesare Bignotti / https://www.uselessidea.it

FFO: DHG, Blut Aus Nord, The Great Old Ones

DERHEAD is a solo project from Genoa (Italy). The project was created in 2001 by Giorgio Barroccu, a multi – instrumentalist active for many years in various projects and also founder and co-owner of Brucia Records. From the first demo recorded in 2003 and influenced by the industrial, experimental black metal typical of those years, DERHEAD has in time developed its very unique style – mixing aggressive riffs to more atmospheric passages.

The second demo released in 2013 already showed signs of compositional maturity and balance which were then refined in the project’s first EP “Via” released in 2016, and especially with the second EP “Irrational I”, released in 2020.

In 2023 DERHEAD released its first full length album “The Grey Zone Phobia”, which was received with critical acclaim, and especially praised by the press for its unique songwriting and emotional intensity.

Featuring a live drummer (Enrico Meloni, also playing drums for IKITAN, ExpiatoriA, The Healing Process) for the first time since the project’s inception, DERHEAD will release its third EP – “Irrational II” on digital and limited CD via Brucia Records.

More information at https://derhead.bandcamp.com/music

“The Grey Zone Phobia” is the fifth release by Avantgarde Black Metal project DERHEAD and it will be released via Brucia Records in digital and 6 panels Digipack CD format on March 30, 2023.

Today, DERHEAD present the new single “This chaos is for you only“. Stream it via No Clean Singing at THIS LOCATION.

The first single “The Death of Now” is streaming at Machine Music.

After the critically acclaimed “Irrational I”, DERHEAD is back with its very own distinctive take on Avantgarde Black Metal, this time contaminated by an incredibly heterogeneous range of sounds spacing from Doom / Gothic Metal to what Satyricon released during the “Rebel Extravaganza” era.

Much like with the previous EP, “The Grey Zone Phobia” offers a meditation about the contrasting nature of our place within the cogwheels of time, leading us to contemplate the contrast between reality and our inner self, and between memories and dreams. Lyrics draw inspiration from various sources including the work by philosophers such as Henri Bergson, relativity studies and fuzzy logic, and far from proposing ready-made answers they in fact underline the complexity of our existence, inviting us to go beyond the apparent dichotomy of black and white and on to face the “grey area”, which ultimately is life itself.

The fantastic original artwork made by Cesare Bignotti (who also lent his vision to the previous two releases of DERHEAD) further expands upon the main themes of the album: images have been taken with a long exposure technique similar to what was used with Dadaist and Futurist photography, and films developed without any artificial effects in post-production, in order to tell an honest and transparent story about the place we as human beings occupy within the abstract instance known as Time.

“The Grey Zone Phobia” is a multifaceted album that does not try to be forcibly eccentric, but flows effortlessly mixing raw and aggressive riffs with the epic grandeur of more sophisticated and slower parts, keeping listeners on the edge of their seats for its whole duration.

Album tracklist:

1 – The missing stars – 6.21
2 – This chaos is for you only – 5.37
3 – The death of Now – 7.00
4 – Kingdomless – 6.17
5 – Drops of storm – 6.09
6 – Containing the whole – 5.48

DERHEAD is a solo project from Genoa (Italy). The project was created in 2001 by Giorgio Barroccu, a multi – instrumentalist active for many years in various projects and also founder and co-owner of Brucia Records.

From the first demo recorded in 2003 and influenced by the industrial, experimental black metal typical of those years, Derhead has in time developed its very unique style – mixing aggressive riffs to more atmospheric passages.

The second demo released in 2013 already showed signs of compositional maturity and balance which were then refined in the project’s first EP “Via” released in 2016.

In 2020 DERHEAD released its second EP “Irrational I” to critical acclaim, with the release being especially praised by the press for its unique songwriting and emotional intensity.

On March 30th, 2023 – DERHEAD will release its first full-length album “The Grey Zone Phobia” on digital and digipak CD via Brucia Records.

More information at https://derhead.bandcamp.com/music