AN NCS PREMIERE: TEITAN — “INSECTOID”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 142023
 

The Dutch black metal band Teitan got its start in 2008 as a collaboration of two Dutch teenagers, Devi and Damon. Inspired by chaos, and the antecedents of Marduk, Dark Funeral, and Mayhem, they put out a demo the next year, which Devi calls “crappy”, and then Teitan seemed to die a sudden death.

Devi Hisgen joined other bands, later started Cthuluminati, and got increasingly into aspects of psychedelic music, but it turned out that the love for black metal never vanished. And thus 10 years after the demise of Teitan it was reborn, this time as Devi‘s solo project. 2019 brought the debut album Weight of the Void, and two singles and an EP named Vákuum surfaced in 2021 and 2022. And now a second album is on the way.

The new album reinforces the impression of the other more recent releases that Teitan has become much more interested in experimentation than simply following in the footsteps of BM forebears. And we should note that Void Wanderer and Onism, the two labels that will release the new album In Oculus Abyss, apply the genre label “Psychotic Black Metal”. Perhaps you’ll understand why when you listen to “Insectoid“, the song we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ZATEMNO (Затемно)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Apr 142023
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has it right — Затемно (Zatemno) is an out-of-the-ordinary black metal band. Almost everything about the band raises questions, and so Aleks asked many of them in this new interview.)

Russian black metal project Затемно / Zatemno (“After Dark”) appeared in Sergiev Posad in 2011. Back then its members were Vasily Suzdalsky (vocals, guitar, drums, accordion), VVurd (guitar), and Japetus (bass), who left the band in 2018. The accordion is not a typical instrument in this genre, although you might remember two bands that occasionally add it to their arsenal, but Zatemno is an atypical project in itself, even if we’ll leave the accordion behind.

The EP Into The Ashes / Во прах (2016) and the full-length In the Noose / В петле (2019), released by the British label Aesthetic Death, gave many black metal fans something that is now difficult to find – an original concept and non-trivial musical solutions that fit well into the black metal format and ideology without unnecessary antics and pathos. It’s something that’s better to be experienced personally.

Alcoholic delirium as a method of communicating with the other world, the voices of devils pushing for suicide, the gloomy spirit of the Russian hinterland, and black anger were also embodied in Zatemno‘s second album In Hell / В аду (2022). Vasily labels it as “obscurantism and cemetery jazz”, and we had a conversation with him, as I don’t really know what that means. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: THANTIFAXATH, FEN, OLD BLACK, AUSTERE, DOR, METEOR VORTEX

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 132023
 

I didn’t agree to do any premieres today. I thought I would be in Texas for events related to my day job (I know you’ll mentally insert an F word before “day job” and maybe before “Texas”, so I didn’t bother). But as things turned out I didn’t make the trip, though I do have to make appearances by Zoom (insert another F word). Today’s appearance isn’t until mid-day here, so I used the free time to whip up a roundup.

Tomorrow’s Zoom thing from Texas will start much earlier and last much longer, and for some reason I did agree to a premiere, so no Friday roundup. My crystal ball cracks a lot, but at this point when I look into it I see enough free space in my life to do the usual Saturday SEEN AND HEARD. Even after today there will still be a ton of things to catch up with.

THANTIFAXATH (Canada)

The boundary-pushing Sacred White Noise (reviewed here) really rang my chimes (as it did a lot of other listeners), and seeing Thantifaxath perform live cemented my own fandom. Their follow-up EP Void Masquerading as Matter (which I reviewed here) pushed the envelope even further.

I certainly didn’t expect we’d then have to wait six years for something new from this Toronto group. At least what they’ve done in the interim is a new full-length to make up for the lost time. It has a good and timely title: Hive Mind Narcosis. Continue reading »

ὉΠΛΊΤΗΣ – ΤΡΩΘΗΣΟΜΈΝΗ

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 132023
 

(Andy Synn celebrates the latest prolific produce of Ὁπλίτης)

There’s a famous saying… “god doesn’t close a door without opening a window.” Perhaps you’ve heard it?

Now, I’m not a religious man – and, even if I were, that’s patently false – but I can still appreciate the poetry behind the sentiment, the idea that a loss can also be an opportunity for gain, for change, etc.

Case in point, as bereft as I was by the end of Serpent Column in 2021, the unexpected appearance of Ὁπλίτης with their debut EP, Ἡ εἰκών, later that year definitely helped ease the pain a little, and the release of the project’s first full-length album earlier this year more than cemented them as worthy successors in their own right (in fact, as of writing, Ψ​ε​υ​δ​ο​μ​έ​ν​η is firmly ensconced on my “Best of the Year” shortlist).

And now, in another move which recalls their equally prolific predecessor(s), Ὁπλίτης are back with their second album in just over three months, which once again affirms their status as a band we should all be watching, and listening to, very closely.

Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SÖNAMBULA

 Interviews  No Responses »
Apr 132023
 

(In early March of this year Xtreem Music released a new album by the Spanish Basque Country death/doom band Sönambula, and today we follow that with Comrade Aleks‘ interview with the band.)

The epic doom metal band Samarithan and the melodic death metal band Hopelessness were among the bands I interviewed in March and both of these bands are from Basque Country. And it starts to trouble me, as by some bizarre coincidence I made another interview with a band from Basque Country a week ago. This time it’s the bloodthirsty death metal monster Sönambula.

The band was founded in 2015 and its creators didn’t waste time: Two albums, Secuela (2016) and Bicéfalo (2018), appeared one by one; two more split-CDs followed them in 2019 and 2021, and the EP Infected Roots (2022) was another hard punch in the gut last year. And now the third full-length Estasis interrumpida is revealed to the world. Let’s try to take a look at what lurks within. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTRVIEW: MAZE OF SOTHOTH

 Interviews  No Responses »
Apr 122023
 

(We have been thoroughly enjoying the new album by Maze of Sothoth (see our review here), which has only been out a few weeks now under the banner of Everlasting Spew Records, and so we’re also happy to present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of band founder Fabio Marasco.)

This technical death metal band from Bergamo, Italy offers quite an intensive experience of dogmatic and morbid cosmic horror. Based in 2009 Maze of Sothoth declared a clear connection with the legacy of H. P. Lovecraft through the few songs of its debut Soul Demise (2017) and then the band disappeared from radars until 2023. Extirpated Light is their new full-length work — as grim, torturous and hostile as those creatures which inhabit the darkness of extraterrestrial plains.

Maze of Sothoth is the one of those rare bands with a relatively stable line-up; at least there weren’t any changes since 2012: Riccardo Rubini (guitars), Cristiano Marchesi (vocals, bass), Matteo (drums), and the band’s founder Fabio Marasco (guitars, synths). And naturally Fabio is the one who can tell Maze of Sothoth’s story better than anyone. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MESMUR — “CHTHONIC”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 122023
 

The debate over whether human beings have souls has endured for millennia and will endure for millennia more (assuming humanity survives that long). It has been a mainstay of philosophical and theological discourse, and scientists have intruded as well, with explanations rooted in the chemistry and electricity of the brain.

The debate won’t end, and not just because the hypothesis and its rejection are both un-provable at some level, but also because of the unyielding hope that some essence of us will survive the death of the body. In the midst of all the agonies that life brings our way, many people have always wondered, “Really, is this all there is?“, and with varying degrees of conviction insist, “It can’t be!”

Mesmur‘s new album Chthonic doesn’t directly address this age-old question. Thematically, it’s “a collection of paranormal horror tales” that speak “of fabled entities making contact through the veil of sleep, summoning prey to subterranean depths, or haunting a post-apocalyptic landscape” (to borrow from the PR materials).

And yet the music is so deeply stirring in its effects that it might make some people think it’s connecting with something within that has no physical existence or explanation, but so daunting that it could be understood as delivering the terrible message that nothing survives the end of breath, or that if something does survive it will find that only horror awaits. Continue reading »

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GRAVES – SHRINES TO DAGON

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 122023
 

(Andy Synn invites you all to come worship the new album from Out of the Mouth of Graves)

There’s always been something almost inhuman… practically supernatural… about how prolific the members of this band are.

Whether it’s with Acausal Intrusion, Feral Lord, Maggot Crown, Psionic Madness, or Out of the Mouth of Graves themselves (and that’s just a handful of the projects they are, or have been, involved in) it’s hard to comprehend how the trio find sufficient time to keep pushing the boundaries year after year after year.

But Shrines to Dagon finally offers us an explanation – it’s now clear that Vølus, Turner and Moran have made some sort of unholy pact with the ruinous powers beyond this realm. How else could they do what they do?

Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CAVE MOTH — “PARALYTIC LOVE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 112023
 

These days the phrase “catch and kill” has connotations of schemes to buy up embarrassing news about bloated political figures and then bury it. But it’s also a phrase that leaped into our heads when listening to Cave Moth‘s new EP Paralytic Love. This time it’s us that are being caught and killed. The catching employs lures of different kinds that are damned difficult to resist. The killing occurs in equally ingenious (one might also say aberrant) ways.

The whole experience, though separated into 8 tracks, comes to an abrupt end less than 8 minutes after it begins. It seems longer, like there’s some time-dilation effect happening, maybe because it’s so packed to the gills with mad, head-spinning permutations — which become the lures. The songs rush and rampage with centrifugal force, but simultaneously bamboozle the listener’s higher faculties with the whipping whirligig of genres and sounds that feed into the chaos. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THANATOMASS — “SORCERY OF HADES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 112023
 

Thanatomass are returning with a new record, and anyone who’s heard their previous material will know what that means: The gates of Hell are about to be blasted open again, and we’re about to be thrown inside.

Imagining what Hell must be like has been a constant theme of heavy metal bands since early days, but the new music of Thanatomass is so deliriously violent and berserk, and so steeped in an atmosphere of the hideously supernatural, that you might begin to get the chilling suspicion that these Russian black metal deviants have really been there.

And thus it’s no surprise that Thanatomass named their debut album Hades, and who could ask for a more gob-smacking visual to accompany it than what Dávid Glomba has rendered for the album cover and the interior artwork. Maybe he’s been there too? Continue reading »

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