THE BEST OF GERMAN, 2017 (PART 3): FÄULNIS / HEXER / MAAT

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 212017
 

 

(Andy Synn returns with another trio of reviews for new albums by German bands, this time focusing on releases by Fäulnis, Hexer, and Maat.)

 

I’m in a bit of a rush, so today’s preamble is going to be short, sweet, and snappy.

Go buy these albums.

 

FÄULNIS – ANTIKULT

No matter how you like your Black Metal – sullen and groovy, panzerblasty, totally hi-tech or utterly low-fi – there’s always going to be something new out there for you to discover. Whether it’s a fresh face or an established underground underdog, the sheer wealth of talent and torment on offer in the scene today is unsurpassed. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: DISBELIEF, LOYAL UNTIL DEATH, SHOW OF BEDLAM, DYSTOPIA

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 212017
 

 

A long time ago, and for many years, I used to regularly write a feature called EYE-CATCHERS in which I tested the hypothesis that cool album art tends to correlate with cool music. There’s no sense in that proposition, if you think about it, yet the experiments I conducted proved the proposition more often than they disproved it.

Like many other older features here, that one fell by the wayside, for reasons I can’t explain. And I’m not really reviving it on a regular basis today. But it came back to me when I listened to the following songs for the first time last night and this morning.

DISBELIEF

This first song isn’t really entirely in keeping with the original concept behind EYE-CATCHERS, which was to explore music by bands I knew nothing about based solely on the artwork. In the case of Disbelief‘s new song, I had a recommendation from fellow NCS scribbler Grant Skelton, and so I would have checked it out regardless — but as soon as I saw the artwork by Eliran Kantor, that sealed the deal.

The original piece is above, and even in the final cover with the band’s name and album title visible, it’s still largely un-obscured, which proves that someone had their wits about them: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DYING FETUS, SVARTSYN, BONEHUNTER, FEEDING

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 202017
 

 

Yeah, I know I did two of these round-ups yesterday, but I’m drowning in new music — but it’s the good kind of drowning, where you see the bright white light at the end of the tunnel and will never figure out in your moment of euphoria before the void takes you that it was just some dude with a flashlight trying to find your corpse in the pond you fell into while wasted.

Where was I? Oh yeah, I’m drowning in good new metal. However, I’m running out of time before I have to tend to my fucking day job, so I’m just going to pick quickly, one each from Columns A, B, C, and D from the genre menu, and cut back on the usual verbosity. Expect another round-up tomorrow.

DYING FETUS

Here’s a video that appeared today for “Fixated On Devastation”, a track from the new Dying Fetus album, Wrong One To Fuck With. It was filmed by Mitch Massie live at the Voltage Lounge in Philadelphia, PA, on March 17th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SNARES OF SIXES — “THE MOTHER’S THROAT”

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Apr 202017
 

 

Five years ago, during a period of down-time in the affairs of the now-disbanded Agalloch, Jason Walton began working on a new musical endeavor, one in which he indulged a taste (and a yearning) for experimentation that has been manifested in differing ways through other Walton projects such as Self Spiller, Especially Like Sloth, and Nothing. The result is a head-spinning EP named Yeast Mother: An Electroacoustic Mass, which is about to be released under the name chosen by Walton for this particular endeavor — Snares of Sixes.

In order to achieve his kaleidoscopic visions for the recordings, stripped down to the four tracks that appear on Yeast Mother…, Walton enlisted contributions from a significant number of  artists, whose names we’ll list below. But first, here are a few reactions to the track from Yeast Mother… that we’re bringing you today in advance of the EP’s May 5 release by Crucial Blast. Its name is “The Mother’s Throat“ Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AMNUTSEBA — UNTITLED DEMO

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  18 Responses »
Apr 202017
 

 

“Amnutseba has risen from the gutters of the Parisian black metal scene to propose a glimpse into the vortex of insanity.” So say the mysterious figures behind this new band, and they have said little else except through the music on their first demo, which will be released today on tape by Caligari Records. But as you’re about to hear, the music speaks with a powerful and mesmerizing voice.

The demo is untitled, as are the four songs it includes (identified only by Roman numerals). The stream we’re providing runs like the tape, as one continuous track rather than divided into four separate streams, though you’ll be able to tell when one song ends and the next begins. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CHELSEA WOLFE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  1 Response »
Apr 202017
 

 

(Greek writer John Sleepwalker of Avopolis.gr returns to NCS with this interview of Chelsea Wolfe conducted in advance of her appearance in Athens on April 29 at the Smoke the Fuzz Fest with Amenra, Oathbreaker, and Skull & Dawn. )

 

Your style has reached out to audiences unfamiliar with experimental sounds, thanks to its remarkable accessibility. Do you believe diversity can be an obstacle when aiming at new horizons, and how much do you see your sound further developing? When should we expect a new full-length release?

CW: I think sometimes being difficult to define can hold an artist back from certain opportunities, but I’ve been really lucky to still have support from a lot of really great people despite being sort of in-between genres. When I’m writing a new album I just follow my instincts and pay attention to what my bandmates and I are writing naturally, and then we hone in on that and refine it. We actually just finished recording a new album and if all goes well, it’ll be out later this year. Continue reading »

PROFANITY: “THE ART OF SICKNESS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 202017
 

 

(DGR delivers this big review of the new album by Germany’s Profanity.)

If one were to play the numbers game with German three-piece death metal band Profanity and their album releases, one could say that it has been quite some time since the group’s last full-length album — and basically have it qualify as one of the understatements of the year.

The band, having sprung back into life after a decade-plus of on/off activity since their last release, put out an EP in late 2014 known as Hatred Hell Within, an EP that consisted of three songs but could’ve easily passed as an album, given the denseness of the material contained within.

Profanity like writing big brutal death metal songs. Not big in terms of bombast, but in terms of how much they can pack within the six-plus minutes many of their songs tend to take. This mentality has continued onward with the group’s newest release, The Art Of Sickness, coming in a little under three years since that Hatred Hell Within EP.

Containing a deceptive six songs within its tracklist, The Art Of Sickness leaves its listeners looking like one of those idiot TV show hosts right after ordering a gigantic meal, as the realization finally hits them that there is actually a lot on that plate, despite the overwhelming confidence with which they approached it and the initially deceptive appearance. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SOLACE (TOMMY SOUTHARD)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Apr 192017
 

 

(In this interview Comtrade Aleks checks in with guitarist Tommy Southard of New Jersey’s Solace.)

This dirty, angry and literally possessed stoner crew is known because of its charged and uncompromising delivery and damn vivid shows. They’ve shaken the New Jersey scene since 1996 and since then have achieved some recognition with three full-length albums, a few smaller releases, and a lot of live gigs.

Solace’s latest work “A.D.” was released in 2010, and that’s okay since the band’s members also play in more sinister and sludgy outfits like The Disease Concept, Social Decay, and Chrome Waves. They’re busy men, and they know well how to play loud and heavy.

I hadn’t heard anything new from Solace for awhile and was worried a bit. As result I got in touch with Tommy Southard (guitars) and he patiently answered my questions, helping with this retrospective interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: JYOTISAVEDANGA — “DISINTEGRATION TO ABSOLUTE VOID”

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Apr 192017
 

 

Last fall the Indian label Cyclopean Eye Productions released the debut demo of a part-Indian, part-Russian trio who chose Jyotiṣavedāṅga for their name, a name that refers to the Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa, which we’re told is one of the earliest known Indian texts on astronomy and astrology. The demo has the evocative title Cannibal Coronal Mass Ejections. Cyclopean Eye is now releasing that demo in a CD edition that includes not only the original six tracks but also one previously unreleased bonus track, which we have the pleasure of premiering today.

This newly revealed piece of audio murder is “Disintegration To Absolute Void“. Drawing upon musical ingredients that include black metal, harsh power electronics, death metal, and the dying radiations of collapsing galaxies, the song is a shattering, staggering assault on the senses. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HIGHLAND — “TOWARDS THE ABSOLUTE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Apr 192017
 

 

Earlier this month I listened to the first advance track from Loyal To the Nightsky, the debut album by a Los Angeles-based black metal band named Highland, in part because this new album features cover art by one of my favorites, Luciana Nedelea. It turned out that the first single, “Abu Sindi“, was strikingly good. And now we have the good fortune to share with you a second song from this very promising album, “Towards the Absolute“, in advance of the album’s release on May 15th.

Highland is a trio of Armenian-Americans — Narek, Gevork, and Michael — who first began performing together in a speed/thrash metal band named Raze. But as time passed they turned their talents in a different direction, building upon the antecedents of Scandinavian black metal from the ’90s, with a self-titled EP in 2013 as their first work in this direction. They’ve performed with the likes of Absu, Vader, Bölzer, and Marduk, but I suspect this new album is going to elevate their profile even more substantially. Continue reading »

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