Brooklyn’s Yellow Eyes are still operating on the fringes of the American black metal scene, although their growing discography increasingly suggests they belong closer to the top. They were one of 2013’s 40 Best New Bands, and their Hammer Of Night LP found its way onto our list of last year’s 50 Best Metal Albums. The band followed that this past January with a 2-song cassette/12″ called The Desert Mourns, and they’ll close out the year with another such EP. Yellow Eyes have always produced relatively lean songs — even the best atmospheric black metal can tend to meander, but Yellow Eyes strip away much of the music’s drone-ish tendencies in favor of hysterical hooks — and Stillicide is perhaps the most immediate work of the band’s young career. Both of the EP’s two songs are richly complex, yet distilled to an essence: There’s no drift or stasis here, just short builds and long bursts. The B-side, “Heat From Other Days,” was premiered over at Hell Awaits earlier this month, but today, we’ve got the title track. Both are great. Starting the day after Thanksgiving, Yellow Eyes are headed out on a short North American tour with another excellent (and under-recognized) Brooklyn black metal band, Anicon. If they’re coming to your town, you should make it a point to attend, because both bands are absolutely ferocious live acts. You can hear “Stillicide” and check those tour dates below.

Yellow Eyes/Anicon tour dates:

11/28 Baltimore, MD @ The Sidebar,
11/29 Charlottesville, VA @ Magnolia House
11/30 Charlotte, NC @ The Milestone
12/01 Asheville, NC@ The Odditorium
12/02 Greenville, SC@ Fort Rookscare
12/03 Atlanta, GA@ The Basement
12/04 Nashville, TN@ The End
12/05 Louisville, KY@ Mag Bar
12/06 Fort Wayne, IN@ Harrison House
12/07 Milwaukee, WI@ Quarters Rock & Roll Palace
12/08 Milwaukee, WI @ Frank’s Power Plant
12/09 Chicago, IL @ Old Mt. Happy
12/10 Columbus, OH @ Carabar
12/11 Pittsburgh, PA @ Howler’s Coyote Cafe
12/12 Buffalo, NY @ Stamps Bar
12/13 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool

The Stillicide EP will be available for purchase on cassette and 12″ vinyl. The cassette is limited to 100 copies, and will be on sale at the tour dates listed above, as well as via Prison Tatt Records. The vinyl will be limited to 166 copies, and will be available for purchase starting in 2015 via Prison Tatt as well as Sibir Records.