AN NCS INTERVIEW: PANTHEIST

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Apr 192024
 

(In March of this year Pantheist released a new album-length EP, and Comrade Aleks found it tremendously good, and he reached out to conduct the following excellent interview with Pantheist‘s Kostas Panagiotu.)

For the past 24 years Pantheist has provided us with the one of most thoughtful and intelligent examples of doom metal in almost every form. They started with funeral doom in the days of O Solitude (2003), they turned to sophisticated death-doom on Amartia (2005), and further on the band moved towards things even more melodic and progressive.

Pantheist’s previous full-length album Closer to God saw the light of day in 2021, and this year the band returns with the 50-minute-long EP Kings Must Die. What’s good there? Believe me, that’s an album that’s worth listening to. And I believe this interview with the Pantheist’s founding member Kostas Panagiotu (vocals, keyboards) will only prove this statement. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CANIS MAJORIS — “THE END OF CIVILIZATION”

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Apr 192024
 

Canis Majoris is a musical project created in Gdansk, Poland by the multi-instrumentalist musician and lyricist Alienus, joined on the project’s debut album by invited vocalist Brut from the death metal band Raspatory.

The name of that album, which will be released by Satanath Records on April 28th, is Eternity Borns From A Moment. It is described as “a journey around the endless space of the Universe,” and a journey through time as well, in which “the listener becomes a time traveller from the beginnings of life till its total disappearance…” Continue reading »

LOST IN A LIMINALITY OF IM-PURE WRATH AND REFLECTION (READ: REFRACTION) — AN INTERVIEW WITH DØDSSANGER (PART 2)

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Apr 192024
 

(This is the second interview that our Hanoi-based contributor Vizzah Harri conducted with Downfall from the Vietnamese black metal band Dødssanger. Find the first interview here.)

Taken from Audio recorded in conversation on February 27th, 2024.

I first met Kyle Newman aka Downfall from Dødssanger when he was still a university student; he’s grown more in all aspects in the last 6 years than I’ve experienced growth over the last 2 decades. The conversation that follows was way more of a general discourse on the Hanoi scene, headphones, live shows and the writing process than an interview, whereas Part 1 was more formal, happened later and attempted to focus more on his stage persona Downfall and the project as such. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEADSPEAK — “NO RESPECT – NEITHER FOR LIVING NOR FOR THE DEAD”

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Apr 182024
 

The occult death metal band Deadspeak was formed in 2008 in Ireland, where its two Polish co-founders (Krakus and Tomasz Prokop) were then living. They recorded a pair of demos in 2008 and 2010, but then the band seemed to disappear for a long time.

Yet after returning to Poland the creative embers caught fire again and just last year Deadspeak released an excellent debut album named Human Alchemy (available here), a 44-minute work that they have described as “a blizzard of obscure riffs and strange melodies, fueled by hypersensitivity to society”.

Striking while the iron is hot, Deadspeak are already following up that album with a two-song EP that we’re happily premiering today. For these recordings, the Deadspeak duo of adventurous guitarist Krakus and venomous vocalist Tomasz were joined by guest bassist Ataman Tolovy and, as session drummer, the veteran hitter James Stewart (Decapitated, Berserker Legion, Bloodshot Dawn, ex-Vader, etc.). Continue reading »

AMIENSUS – RECLAMATION, PART 1

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Apr 182024
 

(Andy Synn brings you part 1 of a 2 part review, with the second to follow… later this year)

To start things off I should probably let you know that I’m lucky enough to have heard both parts of the upcoming Amiensus double-album, Reclamation, and thus my perspective on it is – inevitably – going to be somewhat shaped by my experience of the whole thing, rather than just Part 1, which I’m reviewing here.

Hell, when I first got my hands on it I was under the impression I’d be writing about both Part 1 and Part 2 simultaneously, only to learn later that the band had decided to split the release in two.

That’s not a bad thing though – in fact there’s been several occasions where I’d have preferred other bands do the same (it’s something that I wish Mastodon had done, for example, with Hushed & Grim, albeit for somewhat different reasons that I don’t have time to go into here).

If nothing else, it actually makes my job a little easier, as I can fully concentrate on just one half of this epic (in multiple senses of the word) undertaking, while also sneaking in a few tantalising teasers about what to expect from Part 2 later this year.

So, without further ado, let’s begin, shall we?

Continue reading »

LOST IN A LIMINALITY OF IM-PURE WRATH AND REFLECTION (READ: REFRACTION) — AN INTERVIEW WITH DØDSSANGER (PART 1)

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Apr 172024
 


Downfall, Dødssanger

(In an effort to help shine a light on metal from Vietnam, our Hanoi-based correspondent Vizzah Harri has brought us the following very erudite and very entertaining interview of Downfall, the person behind the Hanoi-based black metal band Dødssanger.)

Dødssanger is Downfall, writer, multi-instru-mentalist and creator of the depressive black metal project that released their debut last year.

I met with Downfall at the end of February this year but the day job, time-fvckery and taking on too many projects at one time meant that the finishing touches were pushed back. Islander posted my ‘6-word novel’ review of their song Penance in this reader’s most infectious lists of 2023 which can be found here. If you didn’t get the time to read those posts, here is what I said about Penance:

“Hebephrenic grimoire,
hellatious hymnals of ill-grace.”

Those words still stand.

The interview that follows lighted upon musings about live performances, the Vietnamese music scene, as well as their recording process. Dødssanger just released their album in physical format and it can be found/ordered here: and there are only 21 copies left of an original 40. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PARADOX RIFT — “THE SKY BENEATH”

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Apr 162024
 

On May 10th the Cleveland-based extreme metal band Paradox Rift will release a debut album named Ensnared. It features harrowing cover art by Remy Cooper (Headsplit Design), which captures key elements of the album’s themes. In the band’s words it depicts: “A figure or entity stuck/being torn between two dimensions; A demolecularizing body that has no complete form in one realm or the other. Existing in agony, never to be whole. Constantly being ripped apart and reanimated, Ensnared between two worlds.”

The band’s music pulls from different worlds too — different sub-genres of metal reflected in the influence of such bands as Between the Buried and Me, Gojira, Lamb of God, and Converge (among others). To share again the band’s own explanation:

Paradox Rift is a blend of multiple generations of metal coming together. With members in their early thirties, late thirties and even a fifty year old. We all listen to different generations, styles and subgenres of metal and we all bring something different to the Paradox Rift table.

What we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video made by Scott Rudd Films and featuring artwork by Mark Erskine for a song from Ensnared named “The Sky Beneath“, and once more we’ll start with the band’s description of what the song is about: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEREMENT — “FORGING THE DARKNESS”

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Apr 162024
 

The blasphemous Athenian quartet Serement came to life in mid-2022, with three of its members moving onward from the death metal band Blessed by Perversion and the fourth having spent time in Chaos Heresy and Sickening Horror.

After independently releasing their 2022 EP Deviation From God, Serement made an unholy pact with Dolorem Records (France) and Iron, Blood and Death Corporation (Mexico) for the release of their debut album Abhorrent Invocations on May 17th of this year. The labels faithfully describe the music this way:

Their sound and style are heavily influenced by the most obscure and aggressive aspect of the Death Metal genre, with a Black Metal atmosphere that always casts a shadow over every track of the new record, combining fast blast beats with some groove rhythms and haunting melodies.

As a more concrete sign of what the album brings, today we’re premiering an album track called “Forging the Darkness“. Continue reading »

SELBST – DESPONDENCY CHORD PROGRESSIONS

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Apr 162024
 

(Andy Synn delves into the depths of the new album from Selbst, out this Friday)

I remember saying, way back in 2020 when Selbst released their second album, Relatos de angustia, that I wished the band could have received even half as much attention and acclaim as their Portuguese peers in Gaerea had gotten for their breakthrough release, Limbo, the month before.

To be clear, I didn’t say that to cast shade on Gaerea by any means – I’m looking forward to their new album immensely – it was more of a comment on how the media hype cycle for one artist/album can easily, and unintentionally, end up burying many equally deserving records.

Hopefully, however, that won’t happen this time (although there’s a new Blaze of Perdition album also coming out this week) as Despondency Chord Progressions thoroughly deserves not to have its thunder stolen by anyone or anything else.

Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HAUNTOLOGIST

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Apr 162024
 


photo credit: Kuba Leszko

(No Solace released Hauntologist‘s long-gestating debut album in early January of this year, and it has made a memorable impression on a lot of listeners, including Comrade Aleks, who follows up the album with this interview of The Fall.)

How many times was Hauntologist mentioned here? And yet it’s not enough. The debut album of this Polish experimental black metal duo entitled Hollow saw the light of day in January, and you can’t ignore it. Not only because it’s a project of two of Mgła’s members – The Fall (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Darkside (drums). This nihilistic and dissonant yet experimental black metal projects precisely our urban misery; it lacks a traditional blackened aesthetic but it’s functional, striking, and highly atmospheric.

Hauntologist is the best example of modern days black metal with an artistic approach and an in-depth, personal message. It was good to learn a bit more about Hollow from The Fall himself first-hand. Continue reading »

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