(written by Islander)
I felt a cold coming on yesterday when I woke up, and that was quickly followed by the discovery that anyone trying to get to NCS experienced frantic meltdowns from their browsers, which warned people that our site was insecure and might expose all their personal finances and identities to theft, might turn their children into ghouls, might cause cats to have sex with dogs, etc., etc. In other words, it seemed our site’s SSL security certificate had expired.
Or at least that’s what I concluded based on some googling, because I hadn’t received any advance notice or warning. I had forgotten what an SSL is, had no idea when we implemented it, and was completely clueless about what I was supposed to do to fix the problem. I e-mailed our IT consultant, who I think must have implemented SSL for NCS years ago (I still haven’t heard back from him).
I also opened a support ticket with our security provider, because our web host told me they maintain the site’s security certificate. I haven’t heard back from them either — though late yesterday afternoon the scary browser warnings stopped, so I guess they remewed our certificate, but I really am still in the dark about the whole incident. Which means I’m also in the dark about how to prevent this bullshit from happening again.
Oh, and my cold was also in full bloom by late afternoon yesterday.
You might have a couple of takeaways from this story. One is that when it comes to IT, I’m barely one step above caveman. That would be a correct deduction. The other is that keeping this site going costs money, what with all the references to IT consultants, web hosts, and digital security providers (whose main task is to protect our web server from malware and other malicious attacks). That would also be a correct deduction. Money goes out, and no money ever comes back in because we make no effort to earn any coin. But hey, you might also deduce from yesterday’s IT kerfuffle that we’d be just as inept at that if we tried!
I like to think, however, that our occasional incidents of ineptitude don’t extend to our decisions about what music to recommend, including what I’ve picked for this Saturday’s usual roundup of new songs and videos. (Nice segue, eh?) Also, Happy Valentine’s Day.
MELECHESH (Int’l)
Has it really been 11 years since Melechesh released their last record (Enki)? Why yes, it has! At some point I may have known something about why Melechesh stopped releasing new music after a fairly consistent every-two-years churn, but if I did I’ve forgotten. However, I haven’t forgotten how much I enjoyed most of their albums or the one time I saw them on stage. And so I wasted no time checking out the new song and video that hit the air waves last week.
This track, “Raptors of Anzu,” continues the band’s fascination with ancient Sumerian and Mesopotamian mythology. I saw this description of the song’s narrative:
“Raptors of Anzu” descends into a forgotten age, a time when the Ancient Ones ruled beneath darkened suns and the sea was still land. From Eridu, city of kingship and divine law, the will of Anu is unleashed through storm and destruction. The raptors emerge as agents of fate, enslaving the lost and tearing through failing orders as destiny unfolds beyond mortal control. Rage burns without mercy as empires fall, logic collapses, and ancient mechanisms of the soul are set into motion.
The song’s frenetically roiling dual-guitar riffage does indeed channel fury but also boiling madness and brazen imperiousness, and the vocals (doubled for extra impact as they chant the words) are even more incendiary and vicious. The riffing is also loaded with hooks that catch in the head (the grand musical fanfares are especially exhilarating).
On top of all that, the music also succeeds in manifesting an ancient and exotic mysteriousness, even in its most blood-rushing and ecstatic phases, and the drumming is fantastic, especially when it begins to sound like the clatter of hand-drums near the end.
“Raptors of Anzu” is from a new Melechesh EP named Sentinels of Shamash, set for release on April 10th via the band’s new label Reigning Phoenix Music.
https://melechesh.rpm.link/sosPR
https://www.facebook.com/melecheshofficial
KADAVEREICH (Int’l)
Kadavereich originated in Moscow, but according to M-A the band was “put on hold during the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when Daemorph, a native Ukrainian and the main songwriter, moved from Russia to Türkiye.” M-A also reports that the band are now located in Berlin.
My first exposure to their music was through the 2021 debut EP Radiance of Doom, which we premiered at the request of Godz Ov War Productions. In introducing it I wrote this:
In a nutshell, the sonic power of the EP is immense, and its impact is utterly devastating (but equally electrifying). It chokes the senses, blots out the ability to think of anything else, and becomes an all-consuming, bone-smashing, mind-mauling experience in remorseless destruction, abject terror, and paralyzing agony. If you’re looking for a transfixing visceral experience and don’t mind being subjected to ruthless audio ruination, you’ve come to the right place.
Now Kadavereich are following up that EP with a debut album named Perversa Mysteria, also on Godz Ov War. The first two advance tracks (both of which lyrically seem to draw upon the history of the Roman emperor Diocletian) also provoke a reaction of shock and awe, just like that EP did.
The first of them shares the name of the previous EP — “Radiance of Doom“. It’s a sonic war machine, the musical equivalent of an immensely heavy and ruthlessly grinding tank attack, with machine-guns firing, bunker-busting bombs detonating, flame-throwers spewing, and a malignant commander roaring and screaming.
The riffing is blistering, rendering sensations of not only maniacal violence but also wailing misery. The spiraling and spasming guitar solos are mind-warping. The low end is immense in its heaving and hammering momentum. The belligerence of the vocals is unhinged.
The second song, “Panzercletian“, opens with a clanging and gnawing bass solo and then proceeds to monstrously lurch and writhe. The first guitar solo moans and contorts, chilling in its unearthly sensations. And then all hell breaks lose again, just as tempo-dynamic, as multi-layered, and as exhilarating as the destructive mayhem in the first song.
Perversa Mysteria is set for release on February 20th. The album’s eye-catching cover art was created by Daemorph.
https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/perversa-misteria
https://www.facebook.com/groups/kadavereich/
https://www.facebook.com/daemorph
ARCHITECTS OF AEON (Germany)
Here’s another band with a new record on the way whose previous releases proved to be quite impressive. The new one is a six-song EP named Dead Dreamer that will be released on March 19th. Lyrically, it “tells the story of a person whose dreams and hopes have been lost.”
The first single, released just two days ago, is “…Where Lights Can Thrive“. The song wastes no time searing the senses and creating moods of torment and desperation. The vocals growl, howl, mutter, and sing as the guitars miserably and dissonantly wail and feverishly skitter.
The song is simultaneously fascinating and unnerving, an immersive and unsettling rendering of psychosis and psychedelia. And while the drumming doesn’t distract from the feeling of being drowned and of sanity dissolving, it’s very good — though you may have to pay closer attention to it on a second listen to appreciate its contributions to this twisted but strangely addictive affair.
The cover art is by Maxwell Aston Art.
https://architectsofaeon.bandcamp.com/track/where-lights-can-thrive-3
https://www.facebook.com/architectsofaeon
https://www.instagram.com/architects_of_aeon/
A FOREST OF STARS (UK)
Roughly seven and a half years have passed by since A Forest of Stars released their last album, Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes. For as long as I’ve followed them, their music has always been interesting and unpredictable, and thus always worth checking out to see what strange surprises they’ve concocted. With so much time having gone by since the last album, the intrigue factor might be even greater than usual for their new full-length, the vividly named Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface.
I don’t expect any one song on the new album to be entirely representative of the others, because that’s not the way this band work, but the first single is extremely cool — and not just musically, but also lyrically, as you’ll see from the video below, which is based on colorful original paintings by the band’s lead vocalist Curse (the lyrics really are remarkable).
The song is “Ascension of the Clowns“, which is often how I think about the current presidential administration here in the U.S. Curse explains the song’s themes this way:
This song is written from the perspective of a person whose mental state has hit rock bottom. A person who is at the mercy of addiction and who has wasted away amidst the sheer wealth of chemicals available to assist their self destruction. This person is watching the world crumble into soundbites and computer generated reality. All around them, fools stand on pedestals, building upon foundations of lies with bricks of self importance. The person is watching as kindness becomes selfishness and beauty becomes ugliness. They see little hope of change.
You really won’t see where this song is going. At first, without percussion, the music is slow and sad. The mysteriously weaving violin performance of Katheryne aka Queen of the Ghosts is magnetic, and the joinder of other instruments, including a nimble bass and more abrasive guitars, draws the listener deeper into this musical labyrinth.
As the vocals come in, the drums start racing and the riffing roils. The vocals really are astonishing to hear in all their many crazed manifestations, and not just because the words are so transfixing (though they are). But the music continues to change without warning, spinning up into displays of madness, making room for the violin to gently and mysteriously drift, and letting the rhythm section play as acrobats.
The music also becomes dreamlike and lute-like; it swirls like an oracle’s pool; it makes room for the bass to rhythmically clang and throb, and augments that with a seductive flute melody and a brightly dancing fiddle that draws out the song’s folk-life ingredients. Really an amazing song in so many ways….
Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface will be released on May 8th by Prophecy Productions.
https://spkr.store/collections/a-forest-of-stars
https://a-forest-of-stars.bandcamp.com/album/stack-overflow-in-corpse-pile-interface
https://aforestofstars.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/aforestofstars
https://www.instagram.com/aforestofstarsband
THE HOLEUM (Spain)
We’ve already had lots of musical twists and turns in today’s collection for people who’ve moved from one song to the next, and now here’s another, the second single from The Holeum’s forthcoming third album Ensis.
The band’s name is related to the dark matter that forms the black holes in the universe, and this song’s name is “Cosmic Void Spheres“, so it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that the music atmospherically reaches for daunting cosmic vastness — but it’s not a cold and mysterious drift. At first the dense music and the explosive vocals are harrowing, frightening in their intensity and severely stricken in their mood.
The music does become more cosmic in its scale and glimmering beauty, while the rhythm section indulge head-moving prog influences in their performances and the vocals transform into soaring song, whose melodies really become captivating.
Eventually, we do flow into a spellbinding drift, with the guitars sparkling and reverberating like star shine around a gently humming bass and slow beats. But the music’s intensity and expanse magnify once more, with a reprise of both the harrowing harsh vocals and the heart-swelling clean ones, and a closing drum performance that’s electrifying.
Ensis is set to be released on March 20th by Lifeforce Records.
https://orcd.co/theholeum_ensis
https://theholeumlfr.bandcamp.com/album/ensis
https://www.facebook.com/theholeum/
VOIDSPIRE (Norway)
Here’s yet another metal band with “void” in their name, this one a new Norwegian outfit whose lineup features members of Ruun, Horrifier, Celestial Scourge, Dizmal, and more. Their choice of name might actually make it difficult for them to stand out, or at least to avoid being confused with all the other void-named bands out there, and honestly I paid attention to their debut EP Vacant Towers mainly because the esteemed Mexican label Chaos Records has picked it up for a CD and cassette-tape release (the EP was digitally self-released by the band last November).
Prepare for another big turn in today’s musical path, one that’s signified by the label’s recommendation of it for fans of Black Curse, Fossilization, Dead Congregation, Spectral Voice, “and all who worship at the altar of abyssal death metal”.
These four songs turn out to be multi-faceted in the experiences they provide. At times the music is chilling and strange, haunting and bereft. At other times it towers and looms, creating visions of ominous and otherworldly menace (and the haughty roaring vocals are indeed abyssal — until they scream).
At still other times the riffing rabidly swarms in tremolo’s convulsions, the bass thunders, and the drums insanely clatter, or the music inflicts bursts of jolting belligerence or episodes of dismal, groaning dissonance.
And to be clear, these changes typically become manifest not from song to song but within the songs (or at least three of them), creating changing visions of oppressiveness and terror, of occult forces encroaching upon our reality and rendering violence and agony with no remorse at all.
The fourth song, the instrumental interlude “Chimes of Ruin“, adds a different dimension as it mysteriously rings, and the band provide a deft segue from there into the title song, which ends the EP with music that’s equal parts crushing and celestial, reptilian and ravaging, and wholly unearthly.
For just a four-song EP, this one reveals a lot of ideas, interweaves them extremely well, and marks Voidspire as a band to watch.
Chaos Records will release the physical editions of Vacant Towers on March 6th.
https://chaos-records.bandcamp.com/album/vacant-towers
https://www.instagram.com/voidspire_official/
https://www.facebook.com/people/Voidspire/61576339713865/