Islander

GET TO THE POINT: PAOLO GIRARDI

 Eye-Catchers, Interviews  12 Responses »
Aug 172015
 

Paolo Girardi & Manilla Road
Paolo and Manilla Road

(KevinP brings us another installment in his ongoing series of short interviews, talking this time with one of our favorite metal artists, Italy’s Paolo Girardi.)

K:  So how did you get your start being one of the “go to” guys for metal album covers?

P:  I already had done some local metal demo and CD covers here in my small town and villages around the ’90s and early 2000s.  But then my friends Blasphemophagher wanted something for their first album, then second, then third and the most recent one.  This gave me more popularity in metal.  After that I did Diocletian, Tyrants Blood, In League with Satan, etc.

Three years ago (almost four maybe), I reached the point when I could live by painting alone, working all over the world. No more need to work in country, as frescos restorer, carpenter, or other occasional work. I was so glad ’cause I’ve never quit painting, even when I had to work 11 hours per day.  After that, my daily wrestling training, then painting ’til after midnight.  I’ve always believed at every cost.  Obsession, passion, love, stubbornness, madness.  Now, I still work hard to do my best for my respectful clients, bands, and labels. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GRAVE, NOMAD, NON OPUS DEI, SICKRITES, SIVYJ YAR, THROUGH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Aug 172015
 

Grave 2015-2

 

I have many albums I badly want to review, and I had a fair amount of time this weekend to devote to that. So what did I do? I listened to new songs and EPs instead. I just couldn’t stop myself. The more I bounced around the interhole, the more good new stuff I found. I collected some of it yesterday (here), and there’s a lot more in this post — and with any luck, I might manage to write about some of those EPs I found before the day is out. Presented in alphabetical order by band name:

GRAVE

Okay, okay, I realize this first song isn’t exactly hot off the presses, since it debuted on August 5. But gimme a break, it’s by Grave, and anyone who knows anything about my musical tastes knows there’s no way in hell I’m going to miss writing about new Grave music.

The name of the song is “Redeemed Through Hate” and it will appear on the band’s next album, Out of Respect For the Dead, to be released by Century Media in October. It follows the Morbid Ascent EP in 2013, about which Andy Synn wrote a review in haiku: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KINNEFRET — “SALVATION”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Aug 172015
 

Kinnefret

 

(TheMadIsraeli introduces our premiere of a new song by Kinnefret from Oakland, California.)

Kinnefret were recommended to me by Ted O’Neill of Oblivion a few days ago, and after checking them out, I rushed to see if I could secure SOMETHING with these guys. I’ve only heard two songs, but I’m thus far 100% hooked. The low down: They’re from California, and three-quarters of the band are Iranian immigrants who fled so they could play metal. Artak Ozan, the band’s founder and central pillar has told me that he is actually a political refugee here in the US for having already gotten on the Iranian government’s bad side.

The music is death metal that touches on all eras of the style. There’s some old school stuff, some modern hyper-technical stuff, a good dose of melody, and some grotesque Suffo/Dying Fetus shit thrown in, all with an underpinning of distinct Middle Eastern influence and melodic tendencies. The music is wicked, and the guitar front — the thing I care most about — is playful, complex, and interesting. The dual vocal assault of Ozan and vocalist Chelsea Rocha is also pretty overwhelming, with Rocha having a beastly and powerful voice. Continue reading »

TERRA DEEP: “ET LUX IN TENEBRIS LUCET PART I — WAX PHOTONIC”

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 172015
 

Terra Deep-part of this world part of another

 

(Our guest “Bonnie Fjord” reviews the forthcoming third album by Oregon’s Terra Deep and introduces our stream of one of the new songs.)

In 2012, one-man metal auteur Terra Deep self-released his debut album Starlight Lodge. The audience of Then was treated to a staggering and ambitious black metal document, a horn of grim plenty that successfully brought together second-wave Norwegian riffage, a Swedish aptitude for the progressive, and the operatic pomp of folk metal. The audience of Now, whatever the span of its attention during this Great Musical Exchange, should be poised to devour Terra Deep’s newest work.

Recently having signed a two-album deal with Dusktone, platform for dim luminaries Welter In Thy Blood, the man who identifies as either Hursag or Matthew Edwards — depending on context — has completed work on his third opus, Part of This World, Part of Another. Casual net perusal reveals some kind of connection to another Oregonian group, Glossolalia Records, but scant correspondence with Edwards has revealed a solitary musician with a kind of controlled creative mania. The album was, however, engineered and co-produced by The Will of a Million‘s Stephen Parker, part of the Glossolalia compound. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: LUCTUS, PUTREFIED REMAINS, BLACK SUN RITUAL, FLESH SS

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Aug 162015
 

Luctus-Rysys

 

I spent a couple of hours yesterday listening to new songs and a few recent short releases. As usual, I found a lot to like, and the music I’ve collected here comes from various widely dispersed corners of the black metal soundscape.

LUCTUS

I discovered this Lithuania-based band only a few weeks ago and wrote enthusiastically about some of the songs from their last release (2013’s Stotis) in a previous edition of Shades of Black (here). As I mentioned in that previous post, Luctus have now finished recording a new concept album entitled Ryšys (which means “connection”), and finally a song from the album has just become available for streaming. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 61: IKUINEN KAAMOS

 THE SYNN REPORT  6 Responses »
Aug 152015
 

Ikuinen Kaamos

 

(In this 61st edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy reviews the discography of Finland’s Ikuinen Kaamos.)

Recommended for fans of: Opeth, In Mourning, Daylight Dies

Though their current status is somewhat… up in the air… the Prog Death collective known as Ikuinen Kaamos (seemingly reduced now to just mainman Jarno Ruuskanen) remain, to my mind at least, one of the most singularly impressive and underappreciated acts ever to attempt to step out of the shadow of their own, admittedly weighty, influences.

Though the fingerprints of major luminaries such as Opeth and Emperor are immediately obvious to all of those with eyes to see and ears to hear, Ikuinen Kaamos clearly take great care to invest each track with a sense of their own unique character and voice, never shying away from admitting their influences, yet never being defined solely by them either.

With two full-length albums to their name, along with one rare and hard (though not impossible) to find digital EP, the band’s back-catalogue may not be the most extensive, but it’s still incredibly deep, and brimming with complex nuances and subtle elements that reward those patient enough to unpick the many layers inherent to the music. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ÆVANGELIST, AHAB, BLACKOSH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Aug 142015
 

AEvangelist-Abstract Catharsis

 

I’m again backlogged with new music that I haven’t had a chance to send your way this week. I’m hoping I’ll have time this weekend to compile a few more collections, but to make a start here are three new songs that I hope you’ll make time to hear.

ÆVANGELIST

Yesterday the void-faring Ævangelist entity released a head-spinning 14-minute track on Bandcamp. Entitled “Abstract Catharsis”, it was originally recorded in 2013 for a four-way split that never came to fruition, and as far as I can tell, it hasn’t previously been made available for listening.

Those who are familiar with Ævangelist already know that no two of their releases (or, for that matter, individual songs) sound completely alike. “Abstract Catharsis” preserves the overarching otherworldly ambience and predatory ferocity of much of the band’s sound, but this one incorporates a lot of other different and very interesting elements. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THROAAT — “BLACK SPEED”

 Premieres  9 Responses »
Aug 142015
 

throaat - black speed cover

 

Invictus Productions is in the process of releasing Black Speed, the new (third) EP by Brooklyn-based Throaat, and we’re giving you the chance to hear all of it right here. And unless you’re giving CPR or performing brain surgery, you really should stop what you’re doing and listen to it right now.

Throaat’s music draws together some of metal’s most hallowed (and evil) traditions, from the sounds of Motörhead and first-wave black metal luminaries such as Venom and early Bathory to primal speed metal, thrash, and hints of occult rock.

Other modern bands pull from those same venerated wellsprings of metal, but Black Speed is exceptional in the quality of its songwriting, in the clarity and electrifying power of the performances and the production, and in the authenticity of the venomous spirit that breathes through the music. Continue reading »

THEORY IN PRACTICE: “EVOLVING TRANSHUMANISM”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Aug 142015
 

Theory if Practice-Evolving Transhumanism

 

(Austin Weber reviews the comeback EP by Sweden’s Theory In Practice.)

Theory In Practice are in many people’s estimations one of the finest progressive-minded technical death metal acts ever to exist. Between the late ’90s and 2002 they put out three highly influential, ahead-of-their-time records. Then the band sort of went poof sometime shortly after releasing 2002’s Colonizing The Sun and have been listed as “on hold” ever since.

Only a mere two days ago a  friend and I were dorking out about our desire for Theory In Practice to return and grace us with something new. Well, the wait is finally fucking over, as yesterday the band dropped a new two-song, nine-minute EP called Evolving Transhumanism. I was lucky enough to see a band I follow post about it, otherwise I wouldn’t even have known myself! Continue reading »

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