AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CROSS VAULT — “AS STRANGERS WE DEPART”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
May 242021
 

 

On May 28th Iron Bonehead Productions will release As Strangers We Depart, the third album by the German “Viking doom” band Cross Vault, and their first release since the 2016 EP, Miles To Take.

Each song on the new album is an immersive, time-traveling spell that seems to carry the listener back to a mythic age. They meld poignance and passion, heaviness and heartbreak, with an unmistakable feeling of reverence. It’s a devotional album meant to be savored, to be soaked up from start to finish, the kind of experience in which any sense of time passing vanishes. And thus we’re proud to present a full stream of it today. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (AND OTHER SHADES): THE STONE, COSCRADH, VALLENDUSK, THULCANDRA, SULPUR, FUOCO FATUO, CROSS VAULT, CTHONICA, EHNAHRE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Mar 072021
 

 

I want to thank those of you who have left comments or sent messages expressing sympathy and support for my current day-job misery. I was also surprised, and admittedly a bit disappointed, that a lot of people checked in on yesterday’s post even though I didn’t have the time to write about any of the music — or even listen to it! So I thought, what the hell, let’s do that again.

This column is usually devoted to black metal, and so I’ve started that way but also diverted from it. But yesterday one of our supporters (rodney) left a comment with some recommendations, and I thought I would include some of those here at the end, because he included some enticing descriptions of the bands and their music. Some of that music would seem to fit SHADES OF BLACK and some might not, which is true of my own choices

I again haven’t listened to any of this. As was true yesterday, I’m gambling, but these all seem like good bets. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CROSS VAULT

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jul 032014
 

(Our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks brings us this interview he conducted with “M.” of the German doom band Cross Vault, whose debut album appeared earlier this year.)

The split-ups of some bands are really sad events. I still miss Earthcorpse and Aphotic, and a lot of doom-heads still find the fact of Warning’s disbanding quite dissapointing. But new bands raise their voice here and there and sometimes they become a good replacement for those who have gone.

Germany’s Cross Vault, with their debut album Spectres of Revocable Loss, is like a bitter balm for the wounds of those who miss Warning. These two Germans follow the path of Patrick Walker’s band and do their best to enrich the original sound of old’n’good doom metal with their own ideas. Their first work is a very successful and masterful monument to all the things we love in this genre. This interview with M. of Cross Vault sheds some light upon the past, present, and future of this promising project. Continue reading »