Islander

SEEN AND HEARD: ZATOKREV, CRIMSON SWAN, HAMFERÐ, DEATHBLOW, KHROMA

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 212015
 

 

I’m about to enter the home stretch of the out-of-town project for my paying job that has been severely constricting my blog time. Four or five more days, and I’ll be done. Those remaining days are going to leave me with even less time to blog than I’ve had since the project started three weeks ago, so this morning I decided to carve out some time for one last round-up of new music before running the final gauntlet.

ZATOKREV

I discovered the Swiss band Zatokrev through their 2012 album The Bat, the Wheel and a Long Road to Nowhere, which turned out to be one of my favorite albums of that year. Their fourth album, Silk Spiders Underwater… is now finished and scheduled for released on April 13 by Candlelight Records. It is reported to be the first of a two-part conception and features artwork by Maks Loriot. Continue reading »

DØDHEIMSGARD: “A UMBRA OMEGA”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 202015
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the long-awaited new album by Norway’s Dødheimsgard.)

It seems I’ve picked up a taste for the strange recently. Whether it’s Porta Nigra’s latest foray into exotic metallic melodrama, or the burgeoning anticipation of Sigh’s newest musical menagerie, it seems there’s any number of acts ready and willing to delve into the uncharted waters of the weird.

Resurgent Black Metal mariners Dødheimsgard are certainly more than familiar with the pull of stranger tides, as over the years these currents have carried them from their origin point as part of the genre’s eminent “second wave” out to the very edge of its ever-expanding event horizon, dwelling right on the fringe of what might be considered as Black Metal.

A Umbra Omege, their first release in eight years, is undoubtedly a challenging, provocative piece of work, and – true to form – is definitely not an easy listen. It constantly confounds expectations, tacking off on unexpected tangents and swerving unpredictably away from where you think it might be heading in a manner that will surely prove as divisive as it is curiously compelling. Continue reading »

FELIX MARTIN: “THE HUMAN TRANSCRIPTION”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 202015
 

 

(Austin Weber reviews a new release by guitar wizard Felix Martin.)

Recently when I wrote a review for a Felix Martin concert here at NCS, I didn’t get to talk about one of the most important things that happened that night. After Felix Martin and his band finished their set I went to inquire about merch and talk with them. When I asked Kilian Duarte, their bass player, just what was in this new CD called The Human Transcription that I hadn’t heard yet, he told me it was inspired by the last Blotted Science EP. I knew then that I had to buy it. Little did I know just how amazing it would be.

To introduce the concept, here is an important explanation of it that I am quoting from Felix Martin’s website: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DIONYSUS, DEMIURGON, THE DEVILS OF LOUDUN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 202015
 

 

I’ve got six more days left before the project for my fucking day-and-night job that’s been screwing with my blog time comes to an end and I can get back home. It has been severely interfering with my ability to round up new music and news, but I did manage to find enough time this morning to write about some things I’ve been meaning to feature at the site for a while, plus one  recent discovery.

DIONYSUS

Earlier this month we premiered a new song by an Indian band named Dormant Inferno that’s scheduled to appear on a split release entitled Beyond Forgotten Shores with a Pakistani band named Dionysus. I intended to follow that with a premiere of a Dionysus song, but in part because of my fucking day-and-night job and in part because I’m an idiot, I didn’t follow through on that plan — and now, the Dionysus tracks on the split (along with all the Dormant Inferno tracks) are up on Bandcamp for listening in advance of the split’s official release. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PAUL ATTARD (MOTHER MARS)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Mar 192015
 

 

(In this post Comrade Aleks interviews Paul Attard, guitarist/bassist of the Australian band Mother Mars.)

I learned about the great stoner band Mother Mars from my mate Kamille of The Grand Astoria band. He told me that both bands had prepared a fantastic split-album and that I needed to check these guys out. Well, it was an easy task because it turns out that Mother Mars are from our planet, indeed they are Australian, so with the help of modern internet technologies we’ve done this interview with Paul Attard, one of Mother Mars pilots. Get ready for boogie stoner from the heart of the Australian deserts.

******

Aleks to Mother Mars! How do you hear me?

Loud and Clear! This is Paul from Mother Mars! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRUESOME — “SAVAGE LAND”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Mar 192015
 

 

We’ve been beating the drums for Gruesome’s debut album on Relapse Records, Savage Land, since first hearing a couple of early songs that emerged last June. Earlier this month Relapse premiered the album’s fourth track, “Hideous”, and today we’ve got the pleasure of bringing you the debut of the title song.

Gruesome’s membership roster is damned impressive. It includes Exhumed’s Matt Harvey; ex-Malevolent Creation drummer Gus Rios; Possessed guitarist Daniel Gonzalez; and Derketa bassist Robin Mazen. The idea behind their joining together is equally laudable: Their collective mission was to record music in tribute to Chuck Schuldiner and the almighty Death. Fittingly, they turned to illustrator Ed Repka (Death, Megadeth, Massacre, Athiest, et el) for the gruesome cover art. Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: STEPHAN GEBÉDI (THANATOS, HAIL OF BULLETS)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Mar 182015
 

 

(In this latest installment of his “Get To the Point” series, KevinP poses 5 questions to Stephan Gebédi, guitarist of Thanatos and Hail of Bullets.)

K: Be honest with me here. Does Thanatos flying under the radar all these years annoy you in any way?

S: Well I would be lying if I said that it has never annoyed me, ’cause we had loads of bad luck and deals with shitty record labels that did us more bad than good. But on the other hand I know we made a lot of bad decisions ourselves as well, especially in the early days. Not everyone in the band was serious enough about taking the band to another level, so we’re too blame as well.

And maybe I should not have disbanded in 1992 when I grew tired of all the record label bullshit and irresponsible behavior of certain band members, and maybe I should have just kicked them out and recruited new band members. But at that moment I was sick and tired of all the lineup changes in the past. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A FREE DOWNLOAD): ANIMALITY — EP

 Free Shit, Premieres  7 Responses »
Mar 182015
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli provides the following brief introduction to our premiere of the new EP by Tennessee’s Animality — with a link to a free download of the music.)

We posted a premiere of a song by these Tennessean tech death/deathcore bruisers a bit back, and I’m proud to present not only a stream, but a free download of their newest EP. It’s a self-titled one, and I think you’ll really enjoy it. It’s three songs of purely merciless bludgeoning, and Animality are particularly gifted at administering this kind of punishment. I hope you enjoy. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OBSEQUIAE — “AY QUE POR MUY GRAN FREMOSURA / AUTUMNAL PYRE”

 Premieres  10 Responses »
Mar 182015
 

 

The music on Obsequiae’s debut album Suspended in the Brume of Eos was a magical spanning of widely separated musical eras, as if the band had discovered the secret of being in two places at once, widely separated in time, and finding a communion of the spirits of each age. It was a remarkably imaginative work, something deeply felt and beautifully realized. Everyone who fell under its spell has been waiting for what would come next, and our patience is about to be rewarded.

On May 12, 2015, 20 Buck Spin will release the band’s second album, Aria Of Vernal Tombs. Fittingly, as the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere approaches at the end of this week, we are proud to bring you the premiere of not one but two new songs from this brilliant new album. They are the album’s first two tracks: “Ay Que Por Muy Fremosura” and “Autumnal Pyre”. Continue reading »

BYZANTINE: “TO RELEASE IS TO RESOLVE”

 Album Reviews  13 Responses »
Mar 182015
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by West Virginia’s Byzantine.)

Anyone who could get to sit down and have a real, lengthy chat with Chris “OJ” Ojeda would quickly learn that the dude is one of the coolest cats you could have the pleasure of talking to. He’s still got a youthful passion for metal, as if he hadn’t aged from his teenage years at all. I remember back in the early/mid-2000s a marketing term being thrown around, the meaning of which I was never sure of: “working man’s metal”. If you take the words literally, Byzantine are certainly that. For OJ, music really has been the thing he gets to indulge once the rest of life is taken care of. Yet Byzantine’s music is one of the most compelling cases for the argument that some of the best metal is written when it’s not created with careerist intentions.

Normally, I would have been afraid that To Release Is To Resolve wouldn’t stack up to the band’s previous work. They lost two members who contributed a lot of touches that made the band: Michael “Skip” Cromer’s bass playing and back up vocals were gone, as was Tony Rohrbough, one of my favorite guitarists of all time and a hard-to-replace identity in the lead guitar slot. However, I didn’t have that hesitation, because since my introduction to Chris when I reached out to him concerning my retrospective of their discography, I learned that Ojeda is, in many respects, Byzantine incarnate. This is his baby, and he wouldn’t allow it to stagnate or put out material that wouldn’t be up to par. Continue reading »

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