Jun 072020
 

 

I’m way behind in putting together compilations of new music and videos that I want to recommend. Yesterday, after hours of listening, I assembled more than two dozen of them that I discovered just over the last week. I had the fantasy of presenting all of them in alphabetical order in this Overflowing Streams format (short on words and visual art but long on music).

This morning I realized that would be a herculean task, and I’m no Hercules. So I abandoned the alphabetical idea and have arranged the collection with different ideas in mind and divided the post into Parts — because I’m not sure how far I’ll get. There should be at least one or two more installments today.

By the way, I decided to do this instead of the usual SHADES OF BLACK post today, though I’ve made sure to include new black metal in the collection, beginning with…

AKVAN (Iran)

The Persian tar (a type of four-stringed lute) is the star of this first song, along with the mesmerizing, melancholy melody that it voices. It provides the beating heart of the song even after the music rises into a tumultuous storm of thundering drums, scathing riffs, and scorching vocals. Fascinating, fierce, otherworldly, and glorious, the song is a tremendous thrill to hear. Continue reading »

Apr 242017
 

 

This completes the two-part post I started yesterday, collecting music in a blackened vein that I sifted from my discoveries over the last week. Beginning yesterday and continuing today, the music is organized in alphabetical order by band name.

CORPUS CHRISTII

Delusion is the eighth full-length by the Portuguese black metal band Corpus Christii. It will be released on April 28 by Folter Records. In another one of these SHADES OF BLACK editions, I wrote about the album’s powerful first single, “The Curse Within Time”, and now a second one has appeared, which is yet another sign of this album’s excellence. Continue reading »

Mar 122017
 

 

I guess I’ll be surprised if anyone remembers, especially those of you who lost an hour of sleep last night, but a week ago I began what I said would be a two-part SHADES OF BLACK post. Before I could finish Part 2 for Monday I came across a bunch of new songs, and that collection became Part 2. I still want to recommend the songs that I had picked for the original Part 2. They’re all in here, a week later than I had planned, but of course I’ve added a few newer tracks, too. A whopping ten songs in all.

With one exception, all of these tracks are from albums or EPs that haven’t been released yet, and I’ve organized them in alphabetical order by band name. I have a separate collection of recent full releases, and if time permits I’ll try to pull those together before the usual tornado of the work week begins spinning tomorrow.

CAULDRON

To begin, I have “Severe Martyrdom“, a severe song from Regnum-Phobos by the Spanish band Cauldron. This is their second album and it will be released by Darkness Within on March 14th. Continue reading »