Islander

FREE SHIT FROM HYPNOTIC DIRGE RECORDS AND BLACK METAL ALLIANCE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 172015
 

 

I pride myself on having a breadth of knowledge that is very wide and very shallow. Sure, I could burrow deeply into particular subjects, and then be able to talk about 2 or 3 things in depth. You know people like that, don’t you? They bore the shit out of you, am I right? Broad and shallow, that’s the way to go (except when it comes to metal, about which I of course have near-encyclopedic knowledge).

For example, I know that statisticians have ways of reaching conclusions about large populations of items or people based on a small sampling of data. They have mathematical formulas for gauging the reliability of the conclusions based on their sample size. And that’s all I know about that. If I knew more, I’d probably bore the shit out of you.

I applied a sampling technique to the two compilations that are the subject of this post, because I didn’t have time to listen to all the songs. I’ve concluded that both comps are hot shit. I have no idea whether the conclusions I reached are valid. Fortunately, you can listen to all the songs before deciding whether to spend your hard-drive space on them — and that’s all you’ll have to spend, because they don’t cost money (unless you want to throw some cash at them out of the goodness of your coal-black hearts). Continue reading »

REINO ERMITAÑO: “CONJUROS DE PODER”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 172015
 

 

(Comrade Aleks, whose name is usually seen in our pages because of the interviews he delivers, has now brought us a review of a most interesting album by the Peruvian band Reino Ermitaño.)

Peruvian shamans of traditional doom Reino Ermitaño have a consistent approach to their work throughout, and they’re always loyal to their roots and folk traditions. I think that is one of reasons why, step by step, the band have created stable and quality stuff since 2001, improving their skills and succeeding with new, authentic records. Reino Ermitaño’s last album Conjuros de Poder was released in autumn 2014 on the band’s own label Ogro Records right before the start of their European tour.

The title of the album translates as “Spells of Power”, and they’re not empty words. For those who hear the band’s name for the first time, I need to tell that the key elements of Reino Ermitaño’s music are heavy, doomy riffs, highly enthusiastic and profound guitar solos, the strong and seditious vocals of Tania Duarte, who sings in Spanish, and lyrics on mystical topics enhanced by elements of tribal melodies and rituals. But first of all, Reino Ermitaño play doom. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MEPHORASH — “Sfaíra Ti̱s Fo̱tiás”

 Premieres  8 Responses »
Feb 162015
 

 

Mephorash are an occult black metal band from Uppsala, Sweden, with two albums to their credit, both released by Grom Records — Death Awakens (2011) and Chalice of Thagirion (2012). In 2013 they added to those works through a split release with Philadelphia’s Ashencult entitled Opus Serpens, and we had the pleasure of premiering the Mephorash track for the split, “Atramentous Ungod Aspect”, which included guest vocals by Acherontas V. Priest of the occult multinational band Acherontas.

Mephorash are now about to come roaring back with a new EP celebrating their five years of existence. It’s entitled Sfaíra Ti̱s Fo̱tiás, and today we have the pleasure of helping to premiere a lyric video for its title track.

For people like me, who have long admired the engraved illustrations of French artist Gustave Doré, the video is a feast for the eyes (and credit to Markus Hedelin for making it). The music is also a feast for the ears, and together, Mephorash and Doré make an inspired pairing. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: “H.” (LIFELOVER, KALL)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Feb 162015
 

Lifelover

In the span of only four albums and about six years of recording, the Swedish band Lifelover made a remarkable impact on the evolution of metal and on the hearts and minds of their fans. After the death of co-founder Jonas “B” Bergqvist in 2011, the remaining members laid Lifelover to rest.

Several years later, however, the survivors of Lifelover formed a new band named Kall, a band we’ve been following and covering since the first news of its existence began to circulate in the underground. Kall’s self-titled debut album (reviewed here) appeared last fall, and another song also appeared even more recently on one of the excellent Elemental Nightmares splits (reviewed here).

Recently Prophecy Productions has announced that in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Lifelover’s formation, the band will reunite (without “B” of course) to perform a special concert at Prophecy Fest this coming September. And that provided the occasion for me to conduct the following e-mail interview with Lifelover / Kall guitarist “H.” — who talks about the reunion concert, the formation of Kall, and what lies ahead.

******

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT — “KROKODIL”

 Premieres  10 Responses »
Feb 162015
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by NYC’s Imperial Triumphant from their forthcoming second album, Abyssal Gods.)

Imperial Triumphant are not only one of the most important U.S. black metal acts currently active, truly carving their own stylistic path, but they are also important to the future of black metal. Not only do I not give two shits how presumptuous that sounds, but I am also very confident (as an overall largely un-confident person) in my assertion of both their unique skill and their liquefying intensity as musical operatives.

While their latest approaching album, Abyssal Gods, is overall a thoroughly vicious act of blasphemy packed with more memorable moments than many bands accumulate in a lifetime of albums, the song we are premiering today, “Krokodil”, is an even stranger and more off-beat track than the rest of the intricately composed yet grotesquely unfolding siren wails from hell that make up the rest of this ruthless record. Imperial Triumphant have always had a queasy, slower, droning counter-balance to their fury, infusing it with a needling sickness and a blackened nuance of psychedelia that puts you in a trance comparable to none. It’s exactly this facet of their sound in which “Krokodil” traffics. Continue reading »

BANDS YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO: IN DREAD RESPONSE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Feb 162015
 

(TheMadIsraeli revives a feature designed to put the spotlight on recommended groups, and today the focus is on New Zealand’s In Dread Response.)

In Dread Response have been mentioned a couple times here on the site, but I figured a full feature on them was relevant and due, considering the band’s next album Heavenshore is coming soon.  These “Bands you should be listening to” segments will be exactly as the title says, but I kind of aim to use them as indirect awareness and hype for a band’s upcoming output as well, especially when it’s a band I really believe in and love to death.  In Dread Response are definitely such a band, and this little feature is for those who may not even know who these guys are, as well as for those who do but maybe haven’t followed them lately.

In Dread Response play blazingly fast-as-fuck technical and emotive melodic death metal.  Make no mistake, this is a band who not only perfectly conform to what NCS is all about, they are also completely unrelenting, in a genuinely militant way that melodic death metal doesn’t often display.

A lot of the best melodic death metal nowadays really borrows from the Daylight Dies and In Mourning school of ambience, melancholy, and dragging tempos, but In Dread Response capture the ferocity the style was born with.  If you want band references or comparisons, think of a combination of Dark Tranquility and Darkest Hour.  In Dread Response have the savagery and melodic tendencies of early Dark Tranquility, and the speed and recklessness of Darkest Hour on Hidden Hands Of a Sadist Nation.  They lack the commercialized elements both bands later tried to incorporate, and have instead retained only the best and most intense aspects of those sorts of influences. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: AETHYR — “CORPUS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 162015
 

 

Five years after their debut album Messio and three years after their last release of any kind, the Moscow doom band Aethyr have returned with a new full-length entitled Corpus. In advance of its February 19 release by Cimmerian Shade Recordings, we’re pleased to being you a full stream of the album in all of its staggering immensity. But I need to immediately apologize for calling Aethyr a “doom band”, because the music on Corpus is not so easily summed up.

Across the seven tracks and 50 minutes of music that make up Corpus, Aethyr integrate elements of black metal, sludge, and ambient noise into their core framework of titanic doom. The musical landscape changes as the album unfolds, but never leaves the blasted territory of hopelessness and ruination. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NEOLITH — “ENLIL”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 162015
 

 

One month ago we had the pleasure of premiering a decimating new song by the Polish band Neolith, a song named “Of Angel and His Orison” from the band’s new album (their fourth), Izi.Im.Kurnu-Ki. One good turn deserves another, and so today we are equally happy to bring you one more taste of this new record — an official lyric video for a song named “Enlil“.

The new song is yet another example of Neolith’s ability to deliver completely pulverizing blackened death metal. It begins slowly, with enormous groaning riffs and an immediately palpable atmosphere of frightful oppressiveness. And then the song erupts — a volcanic explosion of flailing riffs, hammering grooves, and primal roars and shrieks. The drumming punches holes through flesh at the speed of an automatic weapon, and just when you think the song can’t get much more destructive, a guitar solo ignites like a flamethrower. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BELOW THE SUN — “ENVOY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  10 Responses »
Feb 162015
 

 

On a September morning more than 37 years ago, the Voyager 1 spacecraft rose from the Earth on a mission that may have no end. In August 2012 it entered interstellar space, traveling father than anyone, or anything, in human history. Hurtling ahead at a speed of 38,000 mph (61,000 km/h), it passes further beyond our reach with each passing second, pushing forward deeper and deeper into the void.

From their own vantage point in the city of Krasnoyarsk in Siberian Russia, an enigmatic band who call themselves Below the Sun have taken the solitary journey of Voyager 1 as their inspiration, crafting a concept album entitled Envoy that stands as their musical introduction to this world. Today we bring you a full stream of this unusual and unusually accomplished debut work, preceded by this review.

Hearing the album, it’s difficult to believe that it’s the first musical output of this quintet. It has the earmarks of people who already know their craft quite well, and perhaps they do — they wear masks and they go by names they weren’t born with (Vacuum, Quasar, Entropy, Lightspeed, Void), so their histories are hidden. And thus the music speaks for itself. Continue reading »

ESSENTIAL ENTRIES: JANUARY 2015

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 152015
 

 

(In this post Dan Barkasi inaugurates a monthly series recommending music from the month just ended.)

Welcome, welcome, to the first edition of my monthly column, oh so cleverly titled Essential Entries. Classy and functional, right?

In a nutshell, the premise is to feature what particularly tickled my fancy every month. The plan is to get this out a little after each month is completed. Hopefully you’ll find something you’ll like, or simply have fantastic taste and know the stuff already! Either way, enjoy, and I encourage you to make a comment on what you particularly dug, or if there’s something you think yours truly missed.

Without further ado, here’s January, which was a pretty damn good way to kick off 2015.

A Swarm of the Sun – The Rifts

Coming in at the very end of the month, and thankfully, this was caught in time to be included. Atmospheric and complex post-metal meets some doom, and it’s daunting in the best way. The vocals are especially fitting, the piano sections are mesmerizing, and the whole vibe needs to be felt. Continue reading »

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