Islander

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XI: CHAOS REIGNS

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 282024
 

(Daniel Barkasi returns to NCS with another monthly roundup of reviews and recommendations, this time focusing on eight albums released in October 2024.)

I don’t want to harp on this for too long, as NCS is an outlet that many use as an escape from the perils and frustrations of day-to-day life. We choose to reside within the realm of positivity, embracing the music that we collectively love. However, as someone who steadfastly believes in honesty, truth, facts, science, and logic – the US just by a razor-thin majority decided to embrace disinformation, fallacy, wild conspiracy theories, and authoritarian populism.

It’s sad, and it will harm people. People that we love and care about. If we want to get practical, it’s going to hit the pocketbooks of US citizens hard. Healthcare – while already a cruel joke – could get a whole lot worse. As a type 1 diabetic who is dependent on artificial insulin to exist, it’s scary. A lot of folks are scared, and rightfully so. Fundamental rights have been already taken away, and there’s plenty of risk for more.

Aren’t we tired of living in interesting times? Personally, bring on the quiet, boring, and mundane. Just not in our music. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MANDROÏD OF KRYPTON — “COSMIC SARCOPHAGUS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 272024
 

(written by Islander)

From the fantabulous cover art adorning this Swiss band’s new album to their fantabulous name, I was inexorably drawn to Mandroïd Of Krypton‘s new album, and the record’s name was also an attraction: Cosmic Sarcophagus.

Those were the first hooks here, but not the band’s previous music, of which I was ignorant. Our humble site was in existence when Mandroïd Of Krypton released their first album and an EP in 2012 (Our Brilliant Embassies and Angry Space Zombies), and when they followed those with a second album in 2015 (Hyperkaossmarket), but we missed them despite the also-excellent names of those releases.

And that’s okay, because the nine-year gap between that last release and this new one is suggestive of the possibility, if not the likelihood, of musical changes, especially because of lineup alterations that occurred during that period. So, we can take Cosmic Sarcophagus on its own terms, and leave to others a mapping of the band’s nine-year musical evolution. Continue reading »

PUTRID VOMIT CHRIST: “PERPETUAL INTERCOURSE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 272024
 

(What follows is our Vietnam-based contributor Vizzah Harri‘s distinctive review of a distinctive new demo by the Vietnamese death/doom band Putrid Vomit Christ, which will be out in December on the House of Ygra and Godz Ov War labels.)

“The power of death signifies that this real world can only have a neutral image of life, that life’s intimacy does not reveal its dazzling consumption until the moment it gives out.”
― Georges Bataille

Doom and its iterations mongrelized with the wails of the departed are not my usual fare, but I gave a demo a spin that might be of interest to death-doom adherents.

If you stare in the mirror long enough and repeat phrasal ministrations of deification, you might be able to channel some putridity; that’s if you practice your guitar and get some friends who know their shit to join your band. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DEATHWIND

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 272024
 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks conversed with vocalist Elina from the Moscow-based death-doom metal band Deathwind, whose debut album was released last year — and who plan to record a new one in 2025.)

Deathwind is a collaborative product of five musicians from different Moscow-based metal bands. Andrey (drums) and Vladimir (guitars) came from the black/death outfit Anotherside; Elina (vocals) previously sang in the doom band Gbvrh; Lepeha (bass) does speed/black metal in Unholy Night; and David (guitars) is from Vendel, with whom we did the interview two months ago or so.

All of them are united now by their passion for Bolt Thrower, Sacrilege, and Candlemass, and Deathwind is a product of this love. The EP Fall of the Phaeton (2023) and the full-length Triumph of Fear (2023) demonstrate that they’re good at writing and performing quite catchy and tense doomed death metal with a lady on vocals. And here she is. This interview with Elina will reveal some facts about the local underground and its life. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VÖLVA — “DESIRES PROFANE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Nov 262024
 

In mid-October we premiered a riveting video for a song called “The Tower” by Sweden’s “avenging witches of black metal,” Völva. It was from Völva‘s debut album Desires Profane, which is set for co-release on November 28th by Fiadh Productions (for LP) and Grind to Death Records (for CD).

The album is described as “ten hymns to the lost souls of their persecuted sisters, incinerated upon the murderous bonfires of Christianity,” as “a scalding assault of vehement rage,” and as a pursuit of “themes of Satanic feminism both in a spiritual cosmic sense as well as using your free will, body and lust as vessels to sin for a higher purpose”.

And if that’s not clear enough, Völva reinforce their message and what fuels their music with these words:

Völva are intolerant to any behavior implying someone else taking any right to claim that their color of skin, heritage or geographical belonging entitles them to be superior to someone else. Needless to say, but as satanic feminists living in a society like ours, there’s no end of the hatred we feel against the male white supremacy. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: APEP

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 262024
 

(As you will see from the interview below, our Comrade Aleks had a quite extensive and very interesting discussion with vocalist Christopher Fleckeisen and guitarist Oliver Pikowski from the Egyptian-themed German death metal band APEP, whose newest album was released on September 13th by War Anthem Records.)

Each metalhead should know names like Apep, Jörmungandr, Python or Typhon. Each deity personified primordial forces of Chaos in some forms and have kept the ability to inspire men of art through years, so to say. These names sound good for extreme metal bands, so the German Apep chose the rare one, the right one, which is intuitively clear for those who can connect Egyptian mythology and death metal.

Apep’s first album The Invocation of the Deathless One (2020) helped the band put down a fundament for the band’s reputation, and they returned in September 2024 in full arms presenting the sophomore album Before Whom Evil Trembles (Goddess of Carnage).

You know, doing an interview isn’t a rewarding experience each time you do it, but a proper, in-depth conversation is always worthy of efforts. And we had a really good one with Oliver Pikowski (guitars) and Christopher Fleckeisen (vocals). In the name of Sekhmet!

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): INVERTED CROSS — “ETERNAL FLAMES OF HELL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 252024
 

On their debut album Eternal Flames of Hell the Barcelona band Inverted Cross wickedly uphold a lot of age-old metal traditions: the traditions of the five-pointed star, of bullet belts and gauntlets, of goat-headed demons and blasphemous words, and of course the inverted cross itself.

But more to the point, they uphold the traditions of venomous black thrashing speed metal that will get rattled heads hammering and heated blood rushing, proudly and violently following the ripped path of such bands as Destruction, Sodom, Kreator, Deathrow, and Violent Force.

Today you’ll get the full blast of their hellfire, as we premiere a complete stream of Eternal Flames of Hell in advance of its November 29 release by Helldprod Records. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ALIOTH BOREALIS, ACHERAD, THUNRAZ, DØDSFERD

 Album Reviews, Forthcoming Albums, LISTMANIA 2015, LISTMANIA 2016, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2015, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Nov 242024
 

(written by Islander)

I haven’t kept a running count, but I think a substantial majority of the music I’ve written about in these Sunday columns has consisted of singles, usually advance tracks from forthcoming albums. A couple of reasons for that:

First, I can put our spotlight on a lot more bands and records that way. In the time it would take me to listen to and scribble thoughts about one album, I can do that for pieces of six or seven albums.

Second, I don’t think I’m great at writing album reviews. I find it difficult to provide some kind of succinct discussion because I always feel like I’m leaving out important aspects of the music, and so I often get bogged down in the details. Even when an album is already out I feel that way, even though it might be a silly feeling since everyone can listen and discover the details for themselves.

All of that makes today’s collection a rarity, because today I’ve chosen to write about three albums that have already been released, and one new song (and video) that’s a bonus track for the vinyl edition of another album that’s already out. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GRIMA, A THOUSAND SUFFERINGS, KLUDDE, BODY COUNT, GOSPEL TREMORS, BRÜDNY SKÜRWIEL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 232024
 


Grima (photo credit: Mikhail Yuyukin, Viktor Shkarov, Marat Zaborovskiy)

(written by Islander)

How’s your day going? Well, I hope. Here’s how mine started:

I woke up way earlier than I wanted. I made coffee and went out on my deck to start inhaling it, along with a few smokes. While doing that I read various lengthy narratives of the Game of Thrones series because my wife and I had started binge-watching it for the first time and I was both confused and curious about where it was going (though I’m still confused). I also read a moving and meaningful report on a ceremony in Gettysburg, PA last week to commemorate the 161st anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

I was putting off a daunting task but finally forced myself to get to it, the task of trying to figure out what to put into this roundup, daunting because even though I managed two weekday roundups over recent days my list of candidates was still enormous. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SAOR, AXIOMA, ACID MAGUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 222024
 

This collection is short in number, just three new songs, two of them with compelling videos — though those two are quite long. But that’s three songs I now don’t need to include in this weekend’s coming roundups, and thus I’ll have room for three others as I continue trying to winnow down my monstrous list of recent releases.

SAOR (Scotland)

I’ve chosen to begin with a video for the title song from Saor‘s new album Amidst the Ruins. Although the video starts with a majestic but haunting scene from the Highlands, it soon shifts to dramatic film of the band’s performance, appearing as dark silhouettes in the midst of rushing smoke or clouds. The music is equally dramatic. The drums attack and the bass heavily rumbles, but the music flows in sweeping and searing waves, glittering and glorious. Continue reading »

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