OUR LIST OF 2022’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 19): VÉHÉMENCE, NEBULA ORIONIS, WIEGEDOOD

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2022  No Responses »
Jan 262023
 

Once again I’m racing due to diminishing time, but still determined to continue posting an installment of this list every weekday, especially because the number of weekdays left before I call a halt is now down to a very small number. And so the only preview I’ll give you about the three I’ve chosen today is that they are all black metal songs that are all glorious in different ways. (I wrote about each of them when they surfaced last year, and I’m generously borrowing from those write-ups in the introductions below.)

VÉHÉMENCE (France)

The first song in today’s collection, “Au Blason Brûlé“, is one I premiered at NCS in the run-up to release of the new Véhémence album Ordalies. In that context I explained why the song had such a strong impact — and that impact hasn’t diminished over the year that’s passed since I first heard it: Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: IMMOLATION, MIDNIGHT, THE HALO EFFECT, FETAL BLOOD EAGLE, MORMÂNT DE SNAGOV, NEBULA ORIONIS, FACELESS ENTITY, KONTUSION, DEATHBELL, SPIRITUAL DECEPTION, OLD IRON, GHOST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 222022
 

 

I hope you’re having a good weekend. I hope to make it better by sharing a dozen new songs and videos I picked after sliding down the interhole for hours early this morning. I made an effort to provide a broad span of genres, and to arrange everything so as to take advantage of the contrasts. I’ve also put every damned one of these tracks on my list of candidates for 2022’s Most Infectious Songs.

Also, when a round-up swells to these proportions I usually don’t take time to download/upload the artwork, but I made an exception today because there’s a lot of good cover art in this group, beginning with Eliran Kantor‘s stupendous painting for the new Immolation. Speaking of which….

IMMOLATION (U.S.)

Does anyone need any more reason to get stoked over a new Immolation album? I don’t see any hands up. I guess I could have skipped this first song and video. I guess you could skip over it too. But I’m getting more and more near-sighted, so I could have missed a hand, so here goes. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: FLAMMENKVLT, SZNUR, ISELDER, GRAB, NEBULA ORIONIS

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Apr 182021
 

 

I miscalculated. I spent time over the last couple of days listening to music and developing a big list of releases to include in this column. I knew that my spouse and I and some friends were supposed to drive over to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington today, but what I didn’t realize was how early the trip was supposed to begin — too early to do all the writing I had planned. And I went to a baseball game last night, so couldn’t get a head-start.

Due to this miscalculation, I’ve had to cut back on the amount of music (though it’s still a lot), but also to shrink the volume of words. No idea when or if I’ll get to everything else that was originally on my mental drawing board, but I hope you’ll enjoy what’s here.

FLAMMENKVLT (Austria)

The following video is intense and moving. It depicts bruised, hollow-eyed, and frantic women who have been beaten by men — hospitalized, driven to the brink of suicide, and worse — as well the suggestion of girls subjected to similar abuse. Intertwined with that are feverish montages of other imagery, both frightening and hallucinatory. The band’s rage over the subject matter comes through most powerfully in the vocals, but not only there. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (EXCERPTS): HELL’S CORONATION, DIMHOLT, BOREAL HYMN, SOVEREIGN, MINENWERFER, CAÏNA, NEBULA ORIONIS

 SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
Nov 122019
 

 

Some of you might remember that in the regular Sunday edition of this feature two days ago I mentioned that I had an idea for quickly highlighting a bunch of new albums that I didn’t want to neglect. I referred to it then as a collection of “teasers”. What I meant by that, as you’re about to see for yourselves, is a strategy that’s less satisfying than writing everything I’d like to say about these albums, but better than by-passing them altogether. What I’ve done is to pick just one song from each release as a jumping-off point, in the hope that you’ll go ahead and jump all the way in without further persuasion.

HELL’S CORONATION

The first album I’d like to highlight is Ritual Chalice of Hateful Blood, the debut full-length by Hell’s Coronation, which was released on October 31st by Godz Ov War Productions. The song I’ve picked as a teaser for the album is “Fullmoon Is the Sinister Light of Providence“, which also happens to be the song that’s set up to stream first at the album’s Bandcamp page, although it comes fourth in the running order. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MAYHEM, PLATEAU SIGMA, NEBULA ORIONIS, MARTELO PERPETUO, KOSTNATĚNÍ, GORRCH

 SHADES OF BLACK  12 Responses »
Sep 012019
 

 

I usually don’t include new songs by the truly “big name” bands in these columns, because anyone who cares about black metal will have already discovered them, and often because there’s better stuff churning deeper in the underground. But I made an exception today, for reasons to be explained, and then moved on from there deeper into subterranean recesses. I’m kind of proud about the way the music flows in this collection. You can decide for yourselves whether, as a playlist, these selections work well together.

MAYHEM

The Internet loves “best of” lists, especially in genres of entertainment. If you peruse any of the many web lists of the best black metal of all time it’s inevitable that you will see De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. That release happened 25 years ago, but even if Mayhem had never recorded anything else they probably would have already assured themselves an important place in the history of black metal.

But of course they went on to release four more albums of (it must be said) uneven quality, along with a slew of compilations, live recordings, and other scattered short things, all of which together demonstrate that from humble beginnings Mayhem has mutated into a formidable business enterprise. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NEBULA ORIONIS — “STARTHRONE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 222019
 

 

Today is the day when Casus Belli Musica and Beverina release Starthrone, the new album by the Russian solo music project Nebula Orionis, and to help spread the word we’re featuring a full stream of the recording.

The album is recommended for fans of Midnight Odyssey, Mesarthim, and Ison. It is dedicated to explorers of the universe, and in its own sounds it casts the listener’s mind out into the far reaches of the cosmos, guiding us on our way in an imagined exploration that’s full of mystery and wonder, and also the exposure to compulsive physical power. Continue reading »

NEBULA ORIONIS AND FUNEBRIA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 292015
 

Nebula Orionis-Collapse

 

It’s been an interesting Saturday here in blogville, and by “interesting” I mean “fucked up”. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to write today because of other personal obligations, and what I did write got wiped out, not once but twice, due to loss of power caused by a very blustery day in the area where I live.

The wind blows, branches come down on power lines, and everything dies. Of course, I wasn’t doing a good job saving my work before my computer expired, twice. So this post is very late and it isn’t as fulsome as I intended, but it will have to do. (Thanks to “M” for the tips on these two bands.)

NEBULA ORIONIS

I’m quickly recommending some music from two contrasting black metal bands. Nebula Orionis is the first of these. They are a duo from Tolyatti, Russia — instrumentalist M42 and vocalist/lyricist Hated Being. Continue reading »