Islander

ST. LOUIS: FISTER, THE LION’S DAUGHTER, BLACK FAST

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Apr 232015
 

 

I wasn’t planning to post anything else today, but then I read something that I enjoyed and thought was worth recommending to you. It’s a long article by Ryan Wasoba in Riverfront Times of St. Louis about the city’s metal scene, with a focus on three metal bands in particular: Fister, The Lion’s Daughter, and Black Fast. I’m a fan of all three bands, and that has something to do with why I enjoyed it, but there’s more.

The article is built on interesting stories about each band’s music and their experiences getting to where they are now — Fister’s new album IV (which consists of a single 44-minute song) is due for release in a matter of days, and The Lion’s Daughter and Black Fast have signed to prominent labels (Season of Mist, and eOne) for the release of their next albums. Those stories include anecdotes from Black Fast’s recording sessions with Erik Rutan that are kind of amazing as well as amusing. But all the stories are interesting. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3): ABYSSAL, PROFANATOR, ANAL VOMIT, THORNESBREED

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 232015
 

 

This is the final installment in a trio of new music round-ups for this Thursday. I’m still striving for variety in the selections collected in each post, but all the songs in this one appeal more uniformly to my taste for disturbing and/or particularly vicious music.

ABYSSAL

Today Profound Lore announced details regarding the third album by the mysterious UK entity known as Abyssal, along with a stream of the first advance track. I was drawn to the news immediately, not only because of the quality of Abyssal’s previous releases, but also because of that stunning cover art you’re looking at.

The album’s title is Antikatastaseis (and I bet you can’t say that three times real fast); it will be released on June 23. The new song is “I Am the Alpha and the Omega”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): AGURZIL, WYRDING, AMPLIFIER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 232015
 

 

This is Part 2 of a three-part series of round-ups I planned for today, collecting new and somewhat older music that I discovered in my musical ramblings last night and this morning. As in the case of Part 1 (here) and Part 3 (yet to come), I’ve consciously tried to include variety, and just as consciously tried to focus on lesser known names in the world of metal (and it’s not all metal either).

AGURZIL

The first offering in this collection is a debut single released in January by a band from Marakesh, Morocco, named Agurzil. The song is named “Denial of Allegiance“, and it made a direct connection to the more vicious and abominable parts of my pleasure centers. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): FERAL, UNMERCENARIES, GITHYANKI

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Apr 232015
 

 

At different points yesterday and early this morning I listened to a lot of randomly chosen new and newly discovered songs, some that I spotted via links by Facebook friends, some that were lurking in the NCS e-mail box, some that were implanted in my head by transmissions from space when I forgot to put on my tin foil hat when I got home from work. I liked enough of what I heard that I’m splitting the collection into three separate posts that will be scattered throughout today.

FERAL

Where Dead Dreams Dwell is the second full-length by this Swedish band. It’s due for release by Cyclone Empire on May 29. I was initially drawn to it by the fantastic cover art, created by one of our site’s favorite artists, Costin Chioreanu (click the image above to enlarge it). And then today the band released a lyric video for a song named “Swallowed By Darkness” that really grabbed me by the throat. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: THE DEAD GOATS — “DON’T GO IN THE TOMB”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Apr 222015
 

 

“Well, well, well,” I said to myself, “this little release has all the earmarks of a winner”. First, the band is named The Dead Goats. Second, there’s a song on it called “Festering Boils” (which is a cover of a Repulsion song). Third, the font for the band logo on the EP’s cover looks like Entombed’s (plus there’s a big skull on there). And fourth, there’s a dude in the band’s promo pic who’s wearing goggles.

And that was all without even reading about the music, much less listening to it. The only drawback was the name of the EP — Don’t Go In the Tomb — because I want to go in the tomb! Fortunately, The Dead Goats didn’t really mean that. They seem to have first-hand knowledge of the tomb, and they’re very happy to take you on a guided tour. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MENDEL — “HORIZON”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Apr 222015
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli introduces our premiere of another new song from the forthcoming album by Mendel, the solo project of Aborted guitarist Mendel Bij de Leij.)

Time to serve up another tasty morsel courtesy of Mendel. His new album Oblivion is coming soon and it’ll blow you away. We premiered the first single “Discover” earlier (here), and now we bring you the second track, “Horizon”.

This song is more of a display of Mendel’s riff-writing capability. This song lacks any notable lead playing, and instead is a technical riff showcase. There IS a solo in this song, but it’s a sax solo and it fits quite nicely with what he’s got going on. Let us know what you think. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: REINO ERMITAÑO

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Apr 222015
 

 

(Comrade Aleks returns with an interview of members of the Peruvian doom band Reino Ermitaño, whose latest album Aleks reviewed for us here.)

Reino Ermitaño are well-known as followers of the doom path. This Peruvian band was born about fourteen years ago and since then they’ve proved that they have good taste and know how to play solid and nontrivial doom metal. Their mix of traditional doom and traditional elements of their native culture make a good balance, and the vocals of Tania Duarte are one of band’s features along with hypnotic, driving riffs and highly skilled guitar solos.

Reino Ermitaño finished their 5th full-length record Conjuros de Poder in Autumn 2014 and brought the power of their spells to Europe in a brief tour right after that. It’s a band that always have something new to show, and its members always have something interesting to say. I got in touch with Marcos Coifman (bass) to do this interview, and Tania Duarte (vocals) and Julio Almeida (drums) joined our conversation, too. Continue reading »

DIVE INTO THESE FULL STREAMS: BELL WITCH AND DRUDKH

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Apr 212015
 

 

Just a couple of quick notes before I sign off for today:

BELL WITCH

I’ve already said my piece (here) about Four Phantoms, the new album by Seattle’s Bell Witch. In a nutshell:

Four Phantoms will dismantle your defenses, reduce your bulwarks against the bad days to a pool of molten slag, leave your vulnerabilities exposed, and touch those raw places you try to hide. How it can do this and yet leave you feeling transcendent is a wondrous mystery. Continue reading »

AN INTERVIEW WITH FABRICIO BERTOLOZI (DYINGBREED)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Apr 212015
 

 

(Our Kansas-based friend Derek Neibarger is not only the man behind the Godless Angel death metal project and the inventor of the Cat Hand Rest©, he also proved himself to be an energetic and successful interviewer during his recent day-long takeover of Metal Sucks [all the interviews are linked here]. In fact, he was so energetic in lining up interviews that a few responses arrived too late to be posted at MS — and so we get to be the lucky host of this interview of Fabricio Bertolozi of Dying Breed.)

 

When it comes to death metal there are certain geographic modifiers that immediately demand my full attention. Florida, Swedish, and Brazilian are geo tags that speak volumes to the death metal aficionado. Even before hearing a single note, these modifiers can provide a fairly accurate idea of how the band in question will sound, from the guitar tone and percussion to the lyrics and vocal style.

And so I was very excited when I came across a mention of the debut album from Brazilian death metallers DyingBreed in my Facebook newsfeed. The South American region has provided a great deal of killer music to my collection, and DyingBreed most definitely lived up to my expectations. Their music is raw and intense, overflowing with vicious riffs and ferocious roars.

I had the great fortune of being granted an interview with bassist Fabricio Bertolozi, who was more than happy to talk about the band’s formation, the new album, and what the future holds in store for DyingBreed. Continue reading »

THE RESISTANCE: “TORTURE TACTICS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 212015
 

 

(DGR reviews the new EP by The Resistance.)

Torture Tactics is a weird release. The release itself isn’t weird, but as a whole Torture Tactics is an odd duck amongst EP releases. More on that in a second, as some folks may need some quick catching up.

Torture Tactics is the new EP by Gothenburg, Sweden-based melodeath supergroup The Resistance. If you’ve never crossed paths with The Resistance before, their members have quite the histories in other bands and somehow found their ways into one congealed group, constructed out of some fairly big names to make some pretty straightforward and punishing thrash and death.

For instance, in my case, The Resistance were a way to keep track of the Dimension Zero gentlemen, as both guitarists Jesper Strömblad — yes, he of ex-In Flames fame — and Glenn Ljungström have spent time within their ranks. Also on the roster, in terms of slightly more recognizable names, is Marco Aro, current vocalist for The Haunted — although at the time of The Resistance’s inception he hadn’t stepped back into that role yet. Continue reading »

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