Islander

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ZERO SWANN — “GRAVE WAX HORTICULTURE”

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Oct 172025
 

(written by Islander)

Those of you who follow our weekend roundups of new music are aware that I’ve made many discoveries (and then shared them) through perusing the recommendations of Rennie Resin‘s starkweather Substack. His most recent collection of recommendations included thoughts about a new album from a band named Zabus that’s principally the work of Jeremy Moore from Washington, D.C. He followed that offering with these words about a band whose song we’re premiering today:

Zero Swann is another splinter from Jeremy Moore and Benefactor comes two years after the Amon Zonaris release. This project has similarities to Zabus in its approach to sound, using copious amounts of reverb and delay and vocals forward in the mix. While Zabus is decidedly post punk given the psyche treatment, Zero Swann is its more sinister, noisier, atavistic twin. Almost free form and nightmarish in approach where songs are spasms and rattles rather than crafted and honed into shape.

That was my introduction to Zero Swann, framed as only Rennie can do, and one thing led to another… the other thing being today’s video premiere of “Grave Wax Horticulture” from Zero Swann‘s Benefactor album — which is being released today on the Saccharine Underground label. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SAKNA — “ALLTID”

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Oct 172025
 

(written by Islander)

The story behind Sakna’s forthcoming album De Syv Dødssynder, and the reasons why it is both the first and last album by this Canadian project, are fascinating (maybe even jaw-dropping, given the quality of the music) but also deeply sad. We should begin with that story.

As we’ve been told, Sakna is the solo work of Canadian multi-instrumentalist Solemn, a work that began in 2006, when Solemn was only 14 years old, as a musical adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. By the age of 18, he had recorded all of the album’s vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, organs, and drums himself, drawing on such varied influences as Windir, Mournful Congregation, Emperor, Wolves In The Throne Room, Cor Scorpii, and more.

In 2011, Solemn took his own life, before anything was done to release the album other than Solemn leaking an early preview single (“Del I – Helvete”) to YouTube in 2009. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MALKASIAN — “OCCULT 5”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 172025
 

(written by Islander)

As we sometimes do, we’re going off most of our well-beaten paths with the song and video we’re about to premiere. No shrieking or guttural growling this time, but only singing. No blast-beats or brutality, but only the blues. But lest you think we’ve completely lost our way, these blues are very heavy — just as promised by the title of the album that includes the song — and very devilish too.

The name of the song is “Occult 5“, and it’s the latest single to be disclosed by the Denver band Malkasian from their new album Heavy Blues, which will be out on October 22nd. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DET — “DESTRUCTIVE ELITE TERROR”

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Oct 162025
 

(written by Islander)

In case anyone is still puzzled by the meaning of the Finnish band DET‘s name, they’ve spelled it out in the title of their forthcoming debut album: Destructive Elite Terror.

The album is set for release by Dying Victims Productions on that most metal of dates, October 31st. It follows up DET‘s 2022 demo Death Night, their 2023 demo Vengeance, and their 2023 split with Krusifoitu. What we bring you today is the opportunity to hear — and get revved up by — the entire album. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: EVOKEN

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Oct 162025
 


all photos by Eva Tusquets

(We present our Comrade Aleks’ recent interview with John Paradiso, vocalist/guitarist of the long-running U.S. funeral doom band Evoken, whose first new album in seven years [reviewed here] will be released tomorrow by Profound Lore Records.)

While funereal death-doom has never been (and never will be) a popular genre, there are bands that know how to squeeze the most out of its dry rulebook and present their vision creatively and with a spark. American pioneers of this genre, Evoken, are generally considered to have formed in 1994, although the band had existed under other names since 1992. Of that original lineup, only two remain in Evoken today: Vince Verkay (drums) and John Paradiso (vocals, guitar). However, the rest of the band are no newcomers either: Don Zaros (keyboards), David Wagner (bass), and Chris Molinari (guitar) have been elevating this slow and agonizing funeral doom to the level of true art for over fifteen years.

I respected Evoken, albeit not fanatically, but their latest full-length Mendacium resonated with me, reflecting a lot of things happening in the world right now. And objectively, this moderately original, distinctive, and mature album is interesting not only from an artistic perspective, but also as a metaphor for a deeply ill world. A world in which we still live. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PILE OF KNIVES — “LACERATION”

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Oct 152025
 

(written by Islander)

This band from the Pocono Mountains region of Eastern Pennsylvania aren’t trying to fool anyone. They call themselves Pile of Knives. They named their first EP No Light. The name of their new one is Driven By the Blade, and its cover art is a photo of meat cleavers and a gutting knife on a blood-soaked backdrop.

Their music is also unabashedly bludgeoning and brutal, and when they’re not trying to beat the living hell out of listeners, they’re furiously cutting them up and spraying the remains with acid.

Well, that’s one way of trying to capture Pile of Knives‘ amalgam of slam, death metal, beatdown hardcore, and deathcore, which invokes the legacies of such bands as Skinless, Dying Fetus, Internal Bleeding, Origin, and Through The Eyes Of The Dead, but also the likes of Crawlspace, Final Resting Place, Shattered Realm, and No Zodiac.

We’ll try out some other ways of capturing the experience in print as we discuss a song from Driven By The Blade that we’re premiering with a video today. Its name is… “LACERATION“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEOGEN — “DESOLATION BESTOWED”

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Oct 152025
 

(written by Islander)

Just a couple of days ago we premiered a song by the one-person U.S. black metal band Storming off an album to be released on November 14th by Iron Bonehead Productions. We described that extensive track as a “spellbinding excursion” — immersive, ancient-sounding, glittering, haunting, and dangerous. And now we have a song from another U.S. black metal album to be released by the same label on the same day.

This time the band is Deogen, and the album is their second full-length, aptly titled The Graves and Ghosts of Yore. Although Deogen‘s fashioning of black metal significantly differs from that of Storming, there is in one sense a musical kinship, because it too is a kind of throwback in sound and style, and in its ancient and mythic moods — as you’ll discover by listening to “Desolation Bestowed“. Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: BE’LAKOR, PERSEFONE, ORPHEUS OMEGA (MELBOURNE, OCT. 11, 2025)

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 152025
 

(Australia-based NCS contributor Tør was lucky enough to see the Melbourne stop on a recent short tour by Be’lakor, Persefone, and Orpheus Omega, and he sent in the following report, accompanied by his photos of the show, in black and white below.)

I enter The Croxton Bandroom in Melbourne on a cool early spring evening, fashionably late. The recuring infection in my left ear has just flared up, and my tolerance for nonsense is at an all-time low.

As soon as I clear the ticket counter, I am greeted by Melbourne’s Orpheus Omega who are blazing through their set. What’s on display is Australian melodic death metal at its finest: solid riffs infused with clever use of keyboards and sweeping melodies. Frontman Chris Themelco navigates the guttural and clean passages with expertise and manages to engage the crowd in the process. The band’s latest release, Emberglow, will undoubtedly please traditional melodeath worshippers as well as those who dabble in the more symphonic end of the spectrum. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BRAINWAVE — “LOST MY WAY”

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Oct 142025
 

(written by Islander)

Brainwave hail from Wellington, New Zealand, and they devote themselves to the kind of crossover music that blends thrash and hardcore, drawing influence from the likes of Drain, Mindforce, and Forced Order. Now a quintet, they’ll be releasing a record named Ill Intent on October 22nd, which follows up a sequence of short releases that began in 2020. In the band’s words:

“It’s an extremely personal record, albeit one set against the backdrop of a world tearing itself apart. It’s about hopelessness, the pain of loss, and the brutality of everyday life. But it’s also about conquering the summit, overcoming both yourself and your detractors.”

To help introduce Ill Intent to fans of heavy music (and this music is very heavy indeed), what we’ve got for you today is the premiere of a song from the new album named “Lost My Way“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EX CINERE — “NEGATIVE COMMEMORATION”

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Oct 142025
 

(written by Islander)

Ex Cinere is the solo work of Joe Waller, who has also created music under the name Sarasvati and with Adora Vivos and Amiensus (among other projects and groups). The last time we wrote about Ex Cinere (and the first time) was near the release of a 2024 debut single called “Ācennan“, which was followed later that year by a second single named “Eorþblód“.

What we’re presenting today is a video for another single, “Negative Commemoration“, so named because its intent is to restore a bit of truth to the whitewashing of an ugly figure on a day set aside for his sanctification by people who enthusiastically still traffic in his ugliness. Continue reading »

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