This weekend hasn’t been conducive to my NCS plans. I didn’t have time yesterday morning to post a round-up of new songs and videos, only time enough to share some artwork and news. During Saturday afternoon I plowed through a lot of new tracks and videos that mostly surfaced over the last week, and found a whopping 23 of them that I enjoyed to varying degrees.
Obviously, that’s way too many to post about, even for an OVERFLOWING STREAMS type of round-up. Some sifting was required. But sifting takes time, and for reasons I won’t bore you with it turns out that free time has been in very short supply this weekend. What to do?
Well, what I decided to do was just to say Fuck It and foist all 23 of those songs and videos upon you, with almost no commentary about the music and not even the usual links and artwork, just a small amount of info about the releases that include them. Even with that approach I’m dubious that I’ll get everything ready to go before I have to depart my computer for the rest of the day. So I alphabetized everything by band name and cut the group into two parts.
Part 2 might come tomorrow instead of later today. Sadly, I won’t have time for a SHADES OF BLACK column, though there is some black metal sprinkled through this giant collection, along with music across a big range of other sub-genres.
ABBATH (Norway)
I can’t help but chuckle over some of the facial expressions of Abbath in this first song and video (he became a caricature of himself a long time ago), but the track itself is a good one. For the new album, he’s joined by Ukri Suvilehto (drums), Ole André Farstad (lead guitar and acoustic guitar), and Mia Wallace (bass on four tracks). The album is Dread Reaver (Season of Mist, March 25th).
ABRAHAM (Switzerland)
These Swiss heavy-hitters have a new guitarist and new lead vocalist (their drummer). The song is from the album Debris de mondes perdus (Pelagic Records, February 25th).
AUTGER (Russia)
I’m now throwing you a curveball. This is the closing track from an album named Initiation, released on January 12th. If you don’t know anything about this unusual Russian project, you can learn a bit more from what I wrote here in the context of Autger‘s 2018 EP Eucharistia, Praedestinatio Gemina.
AUTHOR & PUNISHER (U.S.)
From the album Kruller (Relapse Records, February 11th).
AWAKENING SUN (Lithuania/Netherlands)
This is a band we’ve written about frequently in the past, and now they’ve given us a new chance to do so. They’ve released a stand-alone single (with a video) that’s a ferocious and explosive bone-smasher. Get your groove on:
THE BLACK MORIAH (U.S.)
These black/thrashing Texans are coming back with a new EP named The Twisted Axe, as a follow-up to their 2019 album Road Agents of the Blast Furnace. The song and video below are from that new EP.
CELESTE (France)
This video is a serious attention-grabber. So is the song. It’s from the album Assassine(s) (Nuclear Blast, January 28th).
CULT OF LUNA (Sweden)
As anticipated (eagerly), Cult of Luna will release a new album this year. The Long Road North will be out February 11th via Metal Blade. Below is a new single.
EIGHT BELLS (U.S.)
This song goes in lots of different directions and makes a powerful impression. It’s from the album Legacy of Ruin (Prophecy Productions, February 25th).
FALLS OF RAUROS (U.S.)
I’ve been eagerly awaiting this new album, and am even more eager after hearing this first advance track. The cover art was created by Austin Lunn (Panopticon). It will be jointly released by Gilead Media and Eisenwald on March 25th.
ILLUMINATION (Brazil)
This black metal band includes current and former members of Nervochaos, Grave Desecrator, ColdBlood, Poem’s Death, and Aghory, among others. The song below, presented through a video, is from the EP Worship Death More Than Life (Personal Records, March 4th).
INFIRMUM (Finland).
I wrote about the opening song “Mask” from this new Infirmum EP when it was released last year as a single. Now the entire EP (The Great Unknown) has been released, and the other two tracks are good ones too.