AN NCS PREMIERE: DUNKELNACHT — “AMONGST THE REMNANTS OF LIBERTY”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 112019
 

 

DunkelNacht’s last album, 2014’s Revelatio (reviewed here), was an explosion of creative exuberance, an extravagant combination of diverse styles that defeated easy summarization, perhaps something like a three-way orgy among Belphegor, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and The Black Dahlia Murder, with Dissection and Blut Aus Nord in the mix, too. Since then this part-French, part-Dutch band have released a pair of EPs, and have incorporated both a new vocalist and a new drummer into the line-up, and now have a new album set for release by Non Serviam Records on February 28th.

Like the last album, the new one — Empire of Mediocracy — has a unifying conceptual underpinning, one that continues to explore the stratification of society and the sources of true power.  Musically, it represents a further progression of the band’s sound (which has been evolving all along), yet is still a source of extravagant creative exuberance , which is abundantly on display in the song we’re premiering today: “Amongst the Remnants of Liberty“. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 27

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013  10 Responses »
Feb 122014
 

This is Part 27 of our list of 2013′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the three songs I’m announcing today, click here.

We’re getting close to the end of this list, with only two more Parts to go after today. The three songs I’m adding now are an eclectic mix, both as compared to each other and with respect to the individual songs themselves — and that’s the main reason I’m grouping them together.

VULTURE INDUSTRIES

Although I never managed to write a complete review of this Bergen band’s 2013 album The Tower, I did write about every one of the three songs that premiered before the album’s release, so that counts for something I guess. The album is a strange and wondrous creation that sounds like nothing else I heard last year. The first song to premiere remains my favorite — and it’s the one I’m now adding to this list. Continue reading »

DUNKELNACHT: “REVELATIO”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 092013
 

Before beginning this review of DunkelNacht’s forthcoming second album, Revelatio, even before listening to all of it, I did some research about the band. I listened to a few songs from their previous full-length (2010’s Atheist Desekration) and read about the assortment of demos and splits that preceded it. If you’ve come across any of that music, I’d advise you to just forget about it in considering Revelatio, because this album is a very different beast. And if DunkelNacht are new to you, then you’re in the perfectly receptive place.

I can’t see the future, and so I can’t say that Revelatio is the culmination of a musical journey by the band’s principal song-crafter Heimdall. Who knows where he may go next? But he’s certainly in a different place than the ambient black metal that appears to have been the band’s earliest motif, or the scathing yet melodic trem-blast assaults that marked what I’ve heard of the last album. What Revelatio represents is nothing less than an explosion of creative exuberance, an extravagant combination of diverse styles that defeats easy summarization.

Believe me, I tried to come up with a neat, one-sentence summing up. I thought about saying, “It’s like a three-way orgy among Belphegor, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and The Black Dahlia Murder,” but that doesn’t make any sense, does it? Actually, that’s not as ridiculous as it sounds. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SEPULTURA, GYRE, UNKIND, SAKTMÓÐIGUR, DUNKELNACHT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jul 192013
 

The last few days brought many new discoveries that I thought were worth sharing. However, I haven’t had the chance until now because I’ve been dealing with the fallout caused by some asshole who smashed in a window on my car on a downtown Seattle street and stole a bag that contained my laptop and other valuables. Fuck that guy, and fuck me for being dumb enough to leave the bag in the car. Enough with the whining, onward with the metal . . .

SEPULTURA

This morning brought further news about the next album by Brazilian heavyweights Sepultura. Its title was inspired by Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 film Metropolis: The Mediator Between the Head and Hands Must Be the Heart. It was recorded by Ross Robinson, who also produced the band’s equally classic Roots album, and in an effort to cement the connection to past glories guitarist Andreas Kisser had this to say:

“The album is brutal, fast and straight to the point, I feel this is the best SEPULTURA ever, no bullshit. To work with Ross Robinson again was a privilege, one of the best producers out there. He has a strong connection with nature, the human heart, with life in general. We did an album that is alive, no fake studio tricks, we were jamming together in the room exploding in an energy so strong you could grab it.”

Of course, we wouldn’t expect him to say, “the new album is going to be a mediocre rehash and one of the lamest things ever to be released under the Sepultura name”, even if it were true. Yet the fact that he’s stuck his neck out there with this kind of a statement provides some reason to be hopeful. The album is due in October. Continue reading »