SHADES OF BLACK: INQUINAMENTUM, OBSCVRE SER, BOARHAMMER, LES BÂTARDES DU ROI

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 182026
 

(written by Islander)

I’m beginning today’s collection with the same explanation I used in yesterday’s roundup, except I slept even longer and later last night than I did on Friday night. I may have done too good a job in convincing my restless mind to turn itself off overnight, because a big chunk of this morning had passed by before I could begin turning it on again.

The result is that this post is again appearing near mid-day in my time zone. The further result is that I’ve had to cut it back from what I had initially planned, or it would be appearing in the afternoon, and unfortunately I need that time to deal with other personal obligations before the new week launches tomorrow.

And so, this collection of songs is shorter than I wish it were, but I hope you’ll still get something pleasurable out of it. I certainly did. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: IRREVERSIBLE MECHANISM, DÄMMERUNG, KORPSESOTURI, SONIC MOON, HVRT, FAKE DUST

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 172026
 

(written by Islander)

I slept for a very long time last night. This is becoming more common on Friday nights. One key factor is that I’m convincing my restless mind that I don’t have to roll out these Saturday roundups as soon as I used to. I can sleep late instead, having realized that the world won’t end if this column arrives near mid-day in my time zone. Our weekend visitors will catch up when they can, or so I tell myself.

I did succeed in making almost all of today’s choices yesterday. The one exception, which comes last in the order, arrived via a recommendation I saw this morning that I couldn’t ignore. I’ll explain when we get there. The five bands that lead up to it are significantly different from each other in the music they make. Which is to say, I’m again satisfied that this collection will keep your head on a swivel as you move from one to the next, and maybe it will spin all the way off! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: EXTOL, AETHERIAN, ARONIOUS, NIDARE

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Oct 162026
 

(written by Islander)

On almost all weekdays for many years I have committed to make either two track premieres or an EP premiere or an album premiere. Sometimes there is a day off because of some late-stage mishap (never my own, of course), as there was on Tuesday of this week, and sometimes we either receive only one invitation for a track premiere or only one that we’re happy to accept (believe it or not, I do turn down invitations when I can’t enthusiastically recommend a song).

Today was one of those rare days when I only calendared a single song premiere. And so, as on Tuesday, I had a bit of time to use for catching up with new songs and picking a few to recommend in another rare weekday roundup. Barring some kind of unexpected interference I will have more to recommend, as usual, on Saturday and Sunday. Continue reading »

MANNVEIRA: “VESÖLD”

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Oct 162026
 

(Below you will find Daniel Barkasi’s review of a new album by the Icelandic band Mannveira which is being released today on Dark Descent Records.)

Black metal contains a tendency, if not a foundational principle, to push the envelope in several facets. Recent times have shown the style to be malleable to all sorts of sonic avenues, a fair number of which have been extremely esteemed in the quality department. It’s of no surprise that – again – we land upon an Icelandic act who is doing that in its own volatile and entirely specific manner.

Mannveira is the subject at hand, and we certainly weren’t expecting a new record in the late embers of this year. However, here we are with Vesöld, the follow-up to the chilling Vítahringur – a work that impressed mightily via its psychedelic tones and obscure atmosphere. It wasn’t clear as to when new music might arrive from this collective, so the announcement of this release was a pleasant surprise indeed.

Quite a cast in the band’s makeup, with Vesöld featuring Altari‘s Óskar Þór Guðjónsson, Forsmán‘s Oddur Blöndal (check our their album from earlier this year), Kviðrista’s Illugi Kristinsson, Naðra‘s Hilmar Gylfi Guðjónsson, and Örlygur Sigurðarson, whose credits include 0 and the aforementioned Naðra. In short, a hell of a group with a wealth of differing musical endeavors in their history, returning to present what is Mannveira’s second LP — a piece that doesn’t stray far from the first, but conversely travels a multitude of freshly compelling paths.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SERPENT SKIES — “WHERE IS YOUR GOD”

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Oct 162026
 

(written by Islander)

Serpent Skies are a Swedish melodic death metal band from Gävle, Sweden who are returning after a 13-year hiatus with a new chapter in their story.

The band’s current incarnation was formed in 2012. Drawing their inspirations from the classic Gothenburg sound, they released a debut EP named Graveyard Poets that same year, and followed it with a debut album in 2013 titled A Claim To Reality. And then they fell silent for a very long time.

But as noted above, that extensive period of silence has ended. Serpent Skies have recorded a second album, Hollow Crown, which is now set for release on November 20th. It is described as “a thematically driven album exploring identity, inner conflict, loss of control, sacrifice and the struggle to define who we are”.

The band announced their return with a first single from the new album called “The Colors of My Truth“, and today we present a video for its second single, “Where Is Your God“. Continue reading »

CURSEBINDER – PSYCHOHAZARD

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Oct 162026
 

(Andy Synn recommends you all drive carefully, because there’s a Psychohazard ahead)

It was about three-and-a-half years ago, by my count, that I first wrote about excellently-named Polish “Post-Black” quartet Cursebinder just prior to the release of their debut album, Drifting (read all about it here).

Of course, a lot has changed in the world since then – some of it good, much of it bad, and a fair amount still largely inexplicable – and there’s no guarantee that the Cursebinder of 2026 (despite having managed the rare feat of maintaining a consistent line-up since they were formed) will still be the same band they were in 2023.

If anything, however, it seems like the group have only become more themselves – more confident, more collected, more creative – in the intervening years, with the result being that their new album (set for release one week from today on Avantgarde Music) is easily their most wide-ranging, yet also more cohesive, work yet.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NO WORTH OF MAN — “I DEFY”

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Oct 152026
 

(written by Islander)

We are rapidly approaching the most metal night of the year, a time when veils will be parted and a cavalcade of deathless fiends will spread mayhem through the human world — or at least we and centuries of our ancestors have so imagined, with thrills and chills galore.

It is thus a very good time for us to share with you a new video from the UK band No Worth of Man which conjures imagery of the band as vampire hunters in a neon-soaked Miami from the ’80s. The song that gets this treatment is “I Defy“, the opening song from the band’s debut album The Killing Streets, which was released last February by Brutal Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVIL’S HOUR — “HELLBOUND & HAMMERED”

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Oct 152026
 

(written by Islander)

The German metalpunk band Devil’s Hour aren’t trying to fool anyone. They named their 2023 debut EP Black ‘n’ Punk Marauders. The two singles they released that same year were “Beerlethics” and “Blood and Booze on Hallows Eve“. And in case people still weren’t getting the message, they titled their 2024 debut album Apocalyptic Drunken Bastards. But, ya know, some folks are slow to catch on, so Devil’s Hour have a new album coming our way that they named Hellbound & Hammered.

As you can see, we’ve been on board from the beginning for this band’s filthy mashup of influences from punk, rock, and First Wave black metal, liberally garnished with elements of heavy and speed metal from the ’80s and ’90s. And we’re still here for it, happily premiering the electrifying title song from the new album today in advance of its release by Crawling Chaos on November 20th. Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH: “THE ALLFATHER AWAKENS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 152026
 

(Earlier this month Metal Blade Records released the latest album from Amon Amarth, and DGR decided to share his thoughts about it — below.)

Oddly, it did not feel as if close to four years had passed for Amon Amarth between the release of 2022’s The Great Heathen Army and their latest release The Allfather Awakens. Perhaps, because somewhere along the way we finally decided in our collective subconscious to elevate Amon Amarth to both meme status and as one of the bigger metal bands out there, it has felt like they’ve been ever-present. They seemed to tour very hard behind The Great Heathen Army as well, and a decent drip-feed of singles kept the band in the limelight.

It’s easy to see why, because at this point in their career – and thirteen albums in – Amon Amarth really don’t have to work hard to establish themselves. You could pick vocalist Johan Hegg by sound out of a lineup while you had leaf blowers aimed directly at your face at this point. They’re inescapable on any metal shuffle playlist that the internet’s beloved algorithms throw at you, having found such a steady median to exist on across a few different genres. You don’t even need to describe the band by the quality of their music anymore as they’ve become one of the few that’ve codified a specific sound, spread neatly among galloping riff work and power metal adjacent guitar leads.

They’re “the Viking band”, and for a lot of people that descriptor is entry-level enough that they don’t really need to devote much thought to whether that actually means anything. Amon Amarth certainly haven’t needed to, essentially locked in place since the days of Twilight of The Thunder God. A steady mechanism of solid music with the occasional fun experiment, with only The Great Heathen Army representing a dip in quality as the band went a little too hard into medieval times cosplay territory. The course correction is even an easy one for the group, and it is one they perform on their newest album The Allfather Awakens. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AODON — “SOUS LES SANGLES”

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Oct 142026
 

(written by Islander)

When we premiered Aodon’s last album Portraits in 2023 we ventured the guess that listeners would have a hard time finding an album more overwhelmingly powerful in its sound and mood:

Over and over again, it takes the breath away with the monumental scale and visceral intensity of its music. The themes of the songs are dark, and unmistakably the music is too, even in its suddenly softer phases, which provide haunting (and occasionally even hopeful) reprieves from the album’s turbulent and towering intensity. It is, to forewarn you, a harrowing series of portrayals, but so immense and immersive that it chains the senses in place, caught and consumed by the calamities and the contrasts.

Portraits has stayed with us, but now we have something new to look forward to from this French atmospheric black metal band — a new album named Khamsin that’s set for release on November 27th by Aodon’s new label Transcending Obscurity Records.

As the label accurately portrays: “The music is almost never one-dimensional; every song undergoes transformation in varying degrees to contribute something valuable and meaningful to the album. Much like life, it showcases the turmoil, anguish, and even flashes of triumph, emotions that are all too palpable in their delicately arranged and tempered music.”

In addition to helping spread this news, today we’re premiering a song from Khamsin named “Sous les sangles“. Continue reading »

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