Islander

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TRAIL OF ENTRAILS — “ROT IN THE CELLAR”

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Jul 012024
 

(On the day of its release we’re premiering a debut EP by the Chicago death metal band Trail of Entrails, and Christopher Luedtke provides the introduction.)

If there’s one thing that’s more than established about death metal at this moment it’s the enduring spirit and dedication to the riff. The genre might have slowed down in the mid-2000s up until the mid/late 2010s but there was never an all-out cease and desist for the genre. Like many genres, there are always dedicated people keeping it alive and death metal is seeing quite the heyday again. And once again, a new player has entered the arena.

Trail of Entrails are the latest death metal dealers out of Chicago, IL. The band consists of Robb Exhumed (guitar/vocals; Mutilate, Waifu), Zacky Bifid (guitar/vocals; Bifid Corpse, Coffinfeeder), and Alex Entrails (drums; Barrier). Having already played their first live show (check out the footage below), the band is here ready to unleash their debut EP Rot In The Cellar. Continue reading »

AN NCS DEMO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RINTRAH

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jul 012024
 

Trust me, writing about metal isn’t easy. The challenge of not using the same clichéd words over and over again in an effort to describe the music is daunting. That challenge is part of what keeps those of us at this place still engaged after so many years, i.e., we’re stubborn fools who strive to become better.

But trust me again, writing about metal in most of its kaleidoscopic shapes is a piece of cake compared to writing about the music of Rintrah, which is like a vine of many colors whose scandent twining runners have hooked into metal but whose roots and other branchings take their nourishment from far different sources of which we can claim no expertise and have little experience.

In other words, prepare for something completely different. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): INERTH — “HYBRIS”

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Jul 012024
 

“Idiosyncratic” is a good word for the music of the Spanish band Inerth, whose 2022 debut album Void drew influence from such divergent forebears as Godflesh, Napalm Death, Neurosis, Celtic Frost, Amebix, and Killing Joke.

To varying degrees, a lot of those influences can still be detected in their follow-up EP Hybris, which we’re premiering today, perhaps most especially Godflesh, but while these four new songs can still be considered a stylistic hybrid, they also sound more cohesive.

As you’ll see, we couldn’t resist the temptation to consider the songs one by one, but for the impatient among you we’ll offer this summing up of what you’re getting yourselves into:

The hallmarks of Hybris are compulsive grooves of bridge-collapsing and muscle-moving power; music of madness and mayhem that puts nerves on edge, coupled with episodes of crushing hopelessness; a vocal tandem that creates a gripping contrast; and an overarching atmosphere of human calamity, for which we have no one to blame but ourselves. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: GROZA, SPECTRAL WOUND, INCESSANT, CONCRETE WINDS, OPPRESS., VANQUISHMENT, XHELAT, GREAT LAKES DUNGEON SIEGE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 302024
 


Groza

As I mentioned yesterday I’m flying to Iceland tomorrow to be present at Ascension Fest. I need to figure out what to pack, decisions like whether I should bring one change of underwear and socks for the week or 7. I’ve noticed from past Ascensions that people there don’t smell as bad as at U.S. festivals, so maybe more than one change, eh?

I’ve also got a couple of premieres to write for posting tomorrow before I leave, and some clothes to wash, and I might should spend some time with my spouse, to increase the iffy odds she’ll still be here when I get back.

So, even though it’s been two weeks since the last time I did this Sunday column and therefore I have an especially mountainous pile of new music to choose from, this will have to be short — at least in terms of my own words. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GOD DETHRONED, TRIBULATION, AGRYPNIE, WORMED, VAFURLOGI, RÖTUAL

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jun 292024
 

Last weekend I didn’t pull together new music for a Saturday SEEN AND HEARD or a Sunday SHADES OF BLACK. I was away from home at a Pacific Northwest beachfront on a short vacation with family and friends. That led to late nights and late mornings and a desire to pay attention to physically-present human beings instead of communing with headphones and computers.

The consequence is now staring me in the face: Two weeks’ worth of new songs and videos to choose from for today and tomorrow, instead of one, when even one week’s worth is usually overwhelming. I made lists of links but of course could only listen to a small fraction of them. I was first drawn to some familiar justified names and then just threw mental darts, though the aim was not completely random. Here’s the result:

GOD DETHRONED (Netherlands)

No matter how deafening the racket or how urgent the whispers around the mouldering halls of the NCS HQ, we’ll always make time for new God Dethroned, and count ourselves lucky that Henri Sattler & co. are still alive and kicking. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TORREFY — “ENSLAVED NEW WORLD”

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Jun 282024
 

Today we’re revealing the complete cover art for Necronomisongs, the forthcoming fourth album by the black-thrashers Torrefy from lovely Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. As you can see, it seems to portray the performance of a hellish orchestra, stripped of flesh but not stripped of their deathless desire to perform.

In addition to revealing the ghastly cover art we’re also presenting the new album’s second single, “Enslaved New World“, and when you hear it, the cover art will make lots of sense. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EVILYN — “BLOVIATE”

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Jun 282024
 

What an interesting word “bloviate” is. Dictionaries define it as speaking verbosely and in an annoying way, as if the speaker thinks himself very important but is instead empty of substance. It seems to have originated in the U.S. in the early 1850s as an alteration of the word “blow,” as in the sense of “to boast,” like a blow-hard. It came up then, and still comes up, in reference to politicians.

Even more interesting is the death metal band Evilyn‘s choice of that word as the name of a song on their debut album Mondestrunken (which will be released on August 16th by Transcending Obscurity Records). And there’s another interesting word.

Mondestrunken seems to be a German expression that translates as “moondrunk“. The only previous reported use of it that we’ve found in our research is in the name of a song that opens an innovative musical melodrama (commonly known as Pierrot lunaire) composed by Arnold Schoenberg based on a cycle of poems by Albert Giraud. It premiered in Berlin in 1921.

Well, we can only guess about why Evilyn chose that name for the album and “Bloviate” as the name of the song we’re about to premiere. But it turns out that the music is every bit as atypical as the naming choices. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TROG — “HORRORS BEYOND”

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Jun 272024
 

The origins of the word troglodyte date back to antiquity, where it was used by ancient Greek and Roman geographers and historians to refer to primitive cave-dwellers in different regions. Over time, of course, it has also been used to refer to any people “characterized by reclusive habits or outmoded or reactionary attitudes”.

The New Jersey death metal band TROG probably had their tongues in their cheeks when they chose that name. (When the band originally formed in 2019 the name they used was Troglorot, which obviously incorporated some other connotations too). On its face, the name suggests primitive caveman death metal, the kind that sounds like grunting hulks brutishly banging rocks together.

But even their first EP, Of Vomit Reborn, made clear that this wasn’t really what they were up to. Their debut album Horrors Beyond, which we’re premiering in full today on the eve of its June 28 release, makes that even more apparent, and no one with ears to hear would ever characterize the music as a reflection of “outmoded or reactionary attitudes” — far from it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MALCONFORT — “STAIN (FANTASY)”

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Jun 272024
 

Some of us, maybe only those of us with too much time on our hands, like to play guessing games about the music of a new band before hearing any of it. In the case of the UK band Malconfort, the game was irresistible, but also a bit perplexing.

First, they took their name from a Deathspell Omega song off the Paracletus album, a lyrically fascinating song that speaks of a God who came to Babylon in malevolence, in remembrance of whom “they shall pray backwards,” and whose congregation “was cast out of humanity… like an abominable branch!”

Then we found that Malconfort‘s otherwise undisclosed lineup includes members of Sea Mosquito and Amaltheia, a fact that strengthens the speculation that black metal is in the mix… at least to some degree.

And then there’s the track list on Malconfort’s debut album Humanism, where each single-word title is accompanied by an intriguing parenthetical: Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BITTER WINE — “THE LIGHTING STARS”

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Jun 272024
 

Almost exactly one year ago the Portuguese label The Hills Are Dead Records released In The Soleness Of The Storm, the debut album by the Iranian band Bitter Wine. At that time, Bitter Wine was the solo project of Murray Arisch, which had its inception in 2021. Since the album’s release, the band has expanded with a full lineup that now includes guitarist Vahid Karimifard, bassist Amir Bonakdar, and drummer Hossein “Ermita” Zahedi.

And so begins a new chapter in the life of Bitter Wine, which has included them playing their first live show in Iran, with ambitions to play in other countries as well. To help remind people of the album and to help draw deserved attention to the band, today we’re premiering a lyric video (made by Mahyar Masoudi) for the song “The Lighting Stars“. Continue reading »

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