Islander

SEVEN YEAR STORM: “AION I”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Feb 112015
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli recommends a forthcoming album by a new band named Seven Year Storm.)

Seven Year Storm is spearheaded by First Reign drummer Sean Lang and Archspire ax-murderer Dean Lamb.  Figured that would get your attention immediately.

Aion I is instrumental metal with a rather video-gamey quality to it, in that it’s driven by very enigmatic melodies, and the music thrives on syncopated grooves and polyrhythms, with gorgeous leads and atmosphere.  It’s captivating, the songs are concise, yet have a lot of substance.  Aion I is the band’s first output, an EP, and it’s quite good if you’re into instrumental metal of any sort.

It’s a bit spacey, a bit jazzy, and a bit neoclassical — a winning combo for me and right up my alley.  The interesting thing here is that this EP isn’t a skill showcase for either Lang or Lamb (both of whom are impressively skillful), but a genuine songwriting exercise.  None of these songs in any way pushes any kind of instrumental capacity.  It’s all about memorable melodies and celestial atmosphere with grooves that are very hooky.  Continue reading »

ENSLAVED: “IN TIMES”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  13 Responses »
Feb 112015
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Norway’s Enslaved — now with a full-album stream at the end.)

The phrase “The more things change, the more they stay the same” is almost beyond cliché at this point, yet I feel that it still retains some value… as long as you use it in the right place, and at the right time.

Case in point: It seems to apply to Enslaved more than to most bands I can think of, as few other artists seem to have perfected the almost zen-like balance between progress and preservation as the Norwegian natives.

If you see the band live these days you’re likely to hear material from across the length and breadth of their career, from Frost to Monumension to Axioma… all seamlessly integrated and interwoven together… and it’s truly amazing to be able to hear songs like “Allfǫðr Oðinn” and “Death In The Eyes of Dawn” next to one another in the same setlist, forcing you to realise that no matter how far they’ve come or how much they’ve progressed over the years, Enslaved are still very much the same band they always were at heart, and that there’s no era or element of their sound that doesn’t represent who they are. Continue reading »

PLAYTHROUGH WIZARDRY: FELIX MARTIN AND DOMINIC “FOREST” LAPOINTE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 112015
 

 

I have NCS scribe Austin Weber to thank for pointing me to the two videos in this post. Both of them are playthroughs by phenomenal musicians. Both of them appeared yesterday. Both of them should put a big grin on your face. Austin introduces the first one, and I scribbled something about the second.

FELIX MARTIN

Written by: Austin Weber

Venezuelan two-handed eclectic and exotic tapping machine Felix Martin is back at it again, melting minds across 14 strings and two separate fretboards. In between his recorded material, he often posts interesting concept videos where he tries new things. This latest video shows him exploring various Meshuggah-style polyrhythms and coming up with some absolutely wild stuff. The second half of the video in particular continually builds and spirals into a dense labyrinth of undulating thick grooves. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEWERCIDE — “HYPOTHERMIA”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Feb 102015
 

 

Talk about eye-catching cover art! What you’re looking at above is the creation of Tim Jacobus (Goosebumps) and it graces the new EP by Australia’s Sewercide, entitled Severing the Mortal Cord. This is the band’s sixth release overall, following a demo and four splits, and it delivers five full-throttle blasts of mayhem — one of which we’re about to premiere.

The song’s name is “Hypothermia”, but there’s nothing cold about it. It’s a gritty, brawling blast of high-voltage death/thrash loaded with a hornet swarm of vicious riffs, gut-punching bass, and rambunctious percussion — and highlighted by a fret-burning solo that will singe your eyebrows. In keeping with the balls-to-the-wall atmosphere of the music, the vocalist sounds like he’s on a straight liquid diet of lye and pure, concentrated ethanol. Continue reading »

SHAMEFULLY MISSED MUSIC OF 2014

 LISTMANIA 2014, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Feb 102015
 

 

(New NCS contribtor Dan Barkasi prepared this list of excellent 2014 releases that he overlooked (we also overlooked many of them) — and that are very much worth your attention if you missed them, too.)

Face it – no matter how much music one can cram into an entire year, there are going to be at least a couple of gems that somehow avoid you. You don’t know how, exactly, as some are blatantly obvious, while other omissions are merely the result of bad luck and/or timing. This is where we make up for said misses. These albums deserve some spotlight, too.

Presented in no particular order, here you go! Just know that there’s a bowlful of awesome here, so no ranking required this go-round.

Astrophobos – Remnants of Forgotten Horrors

This is a very refreshing slab of black metal from these Swedes. Harkening back to the ’90s stylistically, prevalent melodic passages and frosty riffs rule the day. Sharp vocals and a high intensity wrap this up quite neatly. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVATHORN — “DOCTRINA FIDE”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Feb 102015
 

 

As we’ve noted more than once at this site, the last 12 months have produced a stunning number of stunning black metal releases from Greece, and the flood of blood shows no signs of abating. On February 24, W.T.C. Productions will be releasing the second album by the Athenian band Devathorn. The new work, Vritra, follows the band’s Diadema debut by more than seven years, but the time has not been wasted. As proof, we offer a premiere of the album’s second track, “Doctrina Fide”.

Vritra is named for the great serpent of legend, the archetype of the draconic adversary, the bringer of chaos and liberation. Using this symbol of arcane knowledge and otherworldly fury, Devathorn have poured their musical devotion into a chalice of sulphur flame, where it burns with obsidian light. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: UNLEASHED, APOPHYS, THEOKTONY, GHOLD, HACAVITZ, SPECTRAL VOICE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Feb 102015
 

 

Yesterday delivered a bonanza of new metal discoveries, so many that I’m resorting to minimizing my own verbiage in order to roll out everything I found in one post without turning it into War and Peace. I realize this will strike many of you as a tragedy of near-mythic proportions, but I do not wish to dim the reputation of Tolstoy, him being dead and all, and unable to restore competitive balance with a sequel.

UNLEASHED

Yesterday Nuclear Blast announced that this spring it will release the 12th studio album of Sweden’s Unleashed. The title is Dawn of the Nine and it features cover art by the talented Pär Olofsson. There’s a story behind the artwork, as recounted by founding member, bassist, and vocalist Johnny Hedlund:

“The artwork represents the continuation of our previous album, which ended with ‘The Great Battle of Odalheim.’ The battle took place at Uppsala Fields in Sweden, and you can clearly see the king’s grave in the cover art work which also represents the future. You can also see the bombed out church in the far distance, the place of blood in the front, and the rune stone with the runic symbol of courage of the new dawn.” Continue reading »

MASTERY: “VALIS”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 102015
 

 

(Austin Weber reviews the debut album by a unique black metal band from the Bay Area named Mastery.)

Looking into 2015, I figured it was going to be a slow January for me, and here I sit with an absurd number of bands to write about, one of whom is a California one-man black metal act called Mastery and its first full-length, VALIS — an obvious nod to Philip K. Dick, one of my favorite authors of all time. Islander wrote about the absolutely massive and maddening 17+ minute album opener entitled “V.A.L.I.S.V.E.S.S.E.L”, but that’s just the beginning. Sole member Ephemeral Domignostika must be operating on a totally different demented level because Mastery is unlike any other black metal band I’ve ever heard. Once you hear the album, it becomes baffling to conceive that all of this was performed by one person playing every instrument and performing all the vocals, too.

Mastery’s greatest strength lies in its chaotic and stitched-together-sounding nature. It all coalesces together in spite of its choppy flow and the endless stream of new sections spitting forth from the vale. I don’t think I’ve ever heard black metal taken to such a furious zenith of intensity. It almost shouldn’t work — the swirling mix and match between old school black metal riffing, angular grooves, tortured dissonance, bizarre, almost mathy riffs, surprise interludes, alien warped lead guitar clusters, and the absolutely off-the-wall way it all comes together in one massive swirling murk. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SCOTTY SIMPSON (BENEATH OBLIVION)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Feb 092015
 

 

(Our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks brings us this interview of Scotty Simpson, vocalist/guitarist of Ohio’s Beneath Oblivion.)

It’s time to dig out this piece of doomy sludge! Beneath Oblivion (Ohio, USA) have been in business since 2003. This band isn’t hyperactive, as they have only two full-length records so far – Existence Without Purpose (2006) and From Man to Dust (2011). But Scotty T. Simpson (guitars, vocals) sent me an e-mail with the good news of some new songs that Beneath Oblivion is working on. Do you need some violent, maniacal, and depressive tunes? Scotty has a few ones for you.

******

Hi Scotty, how are you? What’s the weather in Cincinnati?

Hi Aleks! I’m doing alright as of late; been playing a lot of doom metal lately, and that has a way of pushing all of the negativity out of my system… The weather here is snowy today, and it could be warm tomorrow. Cincinnati is always up and down, never consistent.

 

Hah, do you always play doom when you feel negative vibrations? And what do you do when you have no chance to play but you really NEED to push this negative stuff out?

Haha. I wish I could play doom metal whenever I feel negative vibrations… but I don’t always have an amp and guitar right next to me. Fortunately, I probably could just scream my head off whenever I feel that way, but people would think I’m totally nuts, which I may well be. What I do is let that build up and go to the stage, studio, or rehearsal space with said energy and put it out that way. If I don’t get to put out that energy, crank up an amp, and scream my head off, I can turn into a real manic depressive asshole. My girlfriend will usually let me know if it get’s to that point and tell me to get the fuck out of the apartment and into the rehearsal space. Continue reading »

THEMADISRAELI’S FUTURE AGENDA

 Uncategorized  14 Responses »
Feb 092015
 

Tomasz Alen Kopera – “Ascension”

(TheMadIsraeli has some ideas and invites some feedback….)

So I haven’t written much lately, and I’m sure you all have noticed that.  The last year was really rough for me personally, and it sapped away a lot of my energy and passion over time.  I’ve come back swinging in a huge way all the way from the brink of a bad place last year, and now the current delay in my writing is due to me trying to get my life together and moving in a way I never have before.

With this new commitment to reshaping myself, I also want to recommit myself and redefine my tenure here at NCS and write the absolute best stuff I can for the site, provide the best content I can possibly muster, and I hope get back to my old borderline inhuman output.  For now, instead of trying to churn out piece after piece, I am focusing on making what I write count and be super-substantial.  I want to recommit myself to my original goal of writing about music that is nothing short of borderline perfect for me, and I have been recapturing my passion for metal quite quickly as of late. Continue reading »

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