DARK TRANQUILLITY / KATAKLYSM / NAILED TO OBSCURITY: LIVE IN DENVER, FEB. 10, 2022

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 212022
 

 

(Our Denver-based contributor Gonzo had the good fortune of seeing live performances by Dark Tranquillity, Kataklysm, and Nailed To Obscurity about 10 days ago, and he sent us the following report along with some of his photos.)

I’m sure this is the case with pretty much everyone who’s going to read this, but I’m pretty fucking sick of talking about the pandemic, what “normal” looks like, how long it’s been since we saw X band at X venue, and everything in between.

But in the case of the tour that rolled through The O Theater in Denver last Thursday night, I’d be remiss not to frame it against the backdrop of the aforementioned frustrations. Three incredible metal bands – Dark Tranquility, Kataklysm, and Nailed to Obscurity – are touring the US right now and none of them are native to this country. I don’t know when the last time that happened, so that alone is worth celebrating.

It certainly didn’t hurt that all three bands put on shows that made it seem like they – as well as tours featuring international acts in general – were never gone. Continue reading »

NAILED TO OBSCURITY: “BLACK FROST”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jan 142019
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new album by Nailed To Obscurity, which was released on January 11th by Nuclear Blast.)

Nailed To Obscurity is a name I’ve heard a lot, but whose music I hadn’t listened to — just too much metal to check out at any given time, really. My ignorance stretched as far as not even knowing what kind of metal they played, if you can believe it. But when I checked out the single and title track to their new album, Black Frost, I discovered immediately that this band was my thing.

Nailed To Obscurity play a style of doom-driven melodic death metal that hits an intersection of In Mourning and a lot of Dan Swanö’s recent output with Witherscape. There are, of course, hints of Opeth, which I think were pretty low-key influential on this style, but the previous influences I mentioned are definitely at the forefront. Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS (PART 2): NAILED TO OBSCURITY, HATCHETS FOR HANDS, BANE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 152018
 

 

This is the second part of a death-metal-oriented round-up of new music that I began earlier today (here); the ones here are more melodic than those in Part 1.

I’m still not quite finished with this death-leaning collection, and will try to deliver the final installment tomorrow. As mentioned in Part 1, I also have some new songs to recommend from other genres that I’ve discovered recently. Some of those will find their way into Sunday’s SHADES OF BLACK column, and I might mention a few others on Saturday.

NAILED TO OBSCURITY

Black Frost is the new album by the German band Nailed To Obscurity (who traffic in doom-influenced melodic death metal), and their first on the Nuclear Blast label. To begin paving the way to its January 11th release, the band recently released a beautifully made video (credit to director/producer by Dirk Behlau) depicting the band’s performance of the title track. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: NAILED TO OBSCURITY

 WAXING LYRICAL  2 Responses »
May 262018
 

 

(For this week’s installment of Waxing Lyrical, Andy Synn presents thoughts from vocalist Raimund Ennenga of the German melodic death-doom band Nailed To Obscurity, who are now at work on a new album.)

The name Nailed to Obscurity should be a familiar one to you if you’ve been paying attention to NCS over the last year or so, as not only did I identify their most recent album, King Delusion, as:

“…one of the most intriguing and engaging releases of the year…”

in my review last March, but I also selected that same album as one of the runners-up in last year’s Critical Top Ten, and named it as a fitting companion piece to the most recent Paradise Lost album, Medusa.

Clearly I wasn’t the only one to feel that way either, as the band recently signed to Nuclear Blast, and are currently hard at work on their major-label debut (their fourth album in total), which means that now seemed like the perfect time to have a quick word with NtO vocalist Raimund Ennenga about the where, what, when, and how, behind his lyric-writing process. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF GERMAN, 2017 (PART 1): DESERTED FEAR / GLARE OF THE SUN / NAILED TO OBSCURITY

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 072017
 

 

(Andy Synn combines reviews of three 2017 albums by German metal bands.)

You know who’ve been absolutely killing it over the last few years? The Germans. Those guys (and gals) definitely know their Metal. From the Thrash to the Prog to the Black to the Death… and every permutation in between… our Germanic brothers and sisters have produced a significant number of my favourite albums over the last couple of years.

And, so far, it looks like 2017 is going to be no different, as the year has already seen a number of high-quality releases from across the metallic spectrum, some of which I’m highlighting here today, and some more of which I’m going to bring you in the next week or so.

So, let us begin, shall we? Continue reading »