Islander

VALE OF PNATH: “BETWEEN THE WORLDS OF LIFE AND DEATH”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 182024
 

(On May 24th Willowtip Records released a new album by the U.S. metal band Veil of Pnath. As is usually the case, DGR didn’t rush to prepare an early review but allowed the music to linger a while. Now his review is finished and available below.)

Vale Of Pnath are of a class of tech-death groups that never seemed to fully get their due. The Denver-based crew made themselves known at the right time, had the right scratchy logo, and had the right high-speed playing style to prominently place themselves in the world of the initial tech-death explosion as it quickly codified into its own subgenre rather than just a way to describe a much more complicated style of death metal that is more well-known for caveman slamming into the ground repeatedly.

Guitarist Vance Valenzuela is the only long-time member of the group still standing at this point, having been surrounded by a legion of incredibly talented musicians over the years. Maybe it was the ever-shifting nature of the group that was to blame? Maybe the revolving-door list of who would be in the lineup at any album? Maybe it was the sense that Vale Of Pnath was a machine, not just in the precision of their playing but in ‘parts’ changing themselves out, or maybe it was just the tad too long gaps between releases?

Regardless, it never seemed like Vale Of Pnath were fully able to achieve the relentless touring and constant social media renown as well as many of their fellow classmates did, despite having the body of material to back that up. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACK HOLE DEITY — “SWARM ATTACK”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 172024
 

For those of you who may be colliding with Black Hole Deity for the first time today, the band was formed in Alabama by Cam Pinkerton and Chris White, who were co-founders of the cult death metal band Chaos Inception. Cam then recruited Alec Cordero from the death metal bands Cruelty Exalted and Calcemia for lead-guitar duties and finally got none other than Mike Heller of Malignancy, Fear Factory, and Raven to handle the drumwork.

We had our first collision with them back in 2020, when they released their second single, “Railgun Combat” (writing about it here), and then had the pleasure of premiering their debut EP Lair of Xenolich the next year. As we wrote then, that EP (which was released by Everlasting Spew Records) was “an explosive assault that’s a pure adrenaline rush, as well as one that inflicts megaton levels of stunning destructiveness”:

“Listening to the EP, it’s very easy to imagine that you’ve been teleported straight into an alien war zone where advanced technologies are being deployed with both machine-like precision and breathtaking ferocity.”

Lair of Xenolich was such a breathtaking spectacle (and even more enjoyable for sci-fi nerds like us) that it was terrifically good news to learn that Everlasting Spew would at last be bringing us a Black Hole Deity full-length. Its name is Profane Geometry, and today you’ll have a chance to be assaulted by three of its tracks, one of which (“Swarm Attack“) we’re now premiering. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INTOLERANCE — “RITE OF PASSAGE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 172024
 

The ongoing revival of “old school death metal”, which in fact is the refurbishing of many schools, continues apace with the impending release of the second album by the Spanish band Intolerance.

Intolerance are a Zaragoza-based group who have already proven their ability to breath new life into the hideous old genre, building their own throne of putrefying skulls with a 2016 demo, a 2020 EP, their first album Dark Paths of Humanity (2022), and now a new full-length monstrosity aptly named Waking Nightmares of an Endless Void which will be co-released on July 22nd by Memento Mori and Godz Ov War Productions.

For more concrete reference points, the PR materials for the album refer to a solid foundation influenced by early Bolt Thrower, Grave, Asphyx, Morgoth, Entombed, Convulse, Obituary, and Unleashed, but now embellished with “ever-darker hues and an almost-evil melodicism” that “puts them closer to the likes of classic Unanimated, Dismember, Hypocrisy, Desultory, and earliest Necrophobic“.

But as concrete reference points go, nothing beats the music itself, and we have some of that for you today as we premiere the new album’s fourth track, “Rite of Passage“. Continue reading »

FESTIVAL PREVIEW: TOLMINATOR 2024

 Metal News  No Responses »
Jun 172024
 

(Our Slovenian compatriot Didrik Mešiček has prepared the following preview of the second edition of the Tolminator festival in his home country, which is coming up fast and looks well worth attending.)

After a successful first edition, Tolminator is back for its second year! For those of you unaware, since Metaldays has had its various debacles, Tolminator has now taken over the stunning festival location by the Soča river. The festival is limited to 5000 visitors and will take place between the 24th and the 28th of July so this is a good time to get your tickets for one of the most idyllic festivals in Europe.

Last year’s edition had a lovely and chill atmosphere and definitely felt very well organised – from what I could tell everything went rather smoothly. While the visitors weren’t that numerous last year (due to the festival being new and only announced in the autumn of 2022), it’s expected this year the festival could be close to selling out, which means there’ll be an even better atmosphere under the stage and more fellow metalheads to have fun with.

Of course, the most important thing is the lineup up and Tolminator will have four main headliners: Behemoth, Exodus, Electric Wizard, and Testament. The festival leans quite heavily into extreme metal, generally favouring thrash, black, and death metal although there’s the occasional stoner/doom band, as you can see, as well as some -core bands if you’re into that sort of thing. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: OCCULTA VERITAS, TODESSTOSS, MOUTH OF CEDAR, HORNED ALMIGHTY, SÓLSTAFIR, HEXEN HOUSE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 162024
 

To follow up on yesterday’s personal report: The food cooked deep underground turned out extremely well. Our fire continued to roar. The beer and wine didn’t run out. The forecast thunderstorms and hail didn’t arrive, though ominous clouds constantly raced across blue skies, and in the late afternoon they paused long enough to provide a brief drenching.

That did put a literal damper on our outdoor picnic, followed by scenes of people warming their backsides next to the fire bowl, with hilarious sights of steam coming off the butt-side of wet jeans. Not long after, people started going their separate ways just before sunset.

So, what might have been another late night for me turned into a relatively early collapse into bed. Yet I listened to no music yesterday other than vibrant songs from Mexico and Guatemala pumping from a boom box, with lots of marimba, accordion, and tuba in the mix. Today is also Father’s Day.

With all that, today’s collection of metal like yesterday’s isn’t as extensive as I’d like, but still worth your time (I hope you’ll agree). I’ve launched it with a trio of mind-benders, Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, BURIAL OATH, WHITE STONES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jun 152024
 

For this currently foggy-headed writer yesterday was a hell of a day and last night was a hell of a night. There was food grilled near hot coals, copious drinking, fire, and conversation far into the night among people who could barely understand each other. Deep underground with the oxygen cut off, a bigger bed of hot coals started cooking some things; today we will reconvene to discover the results.

Depending on those results we may eat grass and go our separate ways early, or it may be another late night. But yeah, it’ll probably be a late night regardless; there’s still plenty of beer, wine, and dry wood on hand.

And that’s an explanation for why this usual Saturday roundup is appearing so late and is so short, and a preview that Sunday’s black metal roundup may befall the same fate.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WOLFDOM — “THE REAPER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 142024
 

The last time we premiered music from the multi-national band Wolfdom we emphasized “the band’s talent for interweaving black metal terror and anthemic heavy metal”: “Wolfdom manage to punch the guts, to swagger like a feral beast, to attack with unbridled viciousness, and to send their music into high-flown realms of devilish glory”.

At that time, the occasion was the impending release of Wolfdom‘s 2022 debut album Moonlight Misanthropy, and now we’re happy to spread the news that Wolfdom are returning with a follow-up full-length, this one believably named I Belong To Satan, which is set for digital release on July 31st by the Ukrainian label GrimmDistribution.

And once again, today we’re the bearer of a song premiere, a fiendish and hook-filled romp named “The Reaper“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KRYPTICY — “THE WATER STREET BUTCHER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 142024
 

I have not seen The Poughkeepsie Tapes, the 2007 American pseudo-documentary horror film about Edward Carver, aka the Water Street Butcher. After doing some reading about it (e.g., here), I’m confident I never will, because I don’t have a strong stomach and would like to continue sleeping well at night.

I would guess, however, that the Spanish death metal band Krypticy have seen the movie, and probably more than once, given that the song from their new album which we’re premiering today is named “The Water Street Butcher“.

What have they done with this ghastly inspiration? And what kind of black hole is that tiny figure on the album’s striking cover being inexorably pulled into? Continue reading »

BLOODY KEEP: “RATS OF BLACK DEATH”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 142024
 


(Our contributor Vizzah Harri has discovered California-based Bloody Keep and their debut album released by Grime Stone Records in January of this year. He wishes to share with you his considerable enthusiasm for it today. Read on….)

You must be a selenite (inhabitant of the Moon) at this point in time to not realize that black metal is probably the kind of metal that, if not incumbent to the highest frequency, probably has the best base for coagulation and experimentation with any other genre.

Grime Stone Records have a penchant for the odd and strange and there are those who would prefer their murky darkness unspoiled with the invasion of even the faintest light (or chiptune for that matter, click on the ‘strange’ link above to take a trip down a rabbit hole you might never have had the chance to know existed). With Bloody Keep we find abstractions of the acrid and abrasive type yet subscribed purely to that which is animistic, and efficacious in its effulgence.

These acolytes of the black arts exist to zapruder the flow of that what is deemed the norm. Wormscored, engaging, fertile with ideas, and glimmering with lustral exuberance. From the bleak and near comical cover to that which can be deemed garish musically. Aberrant to the abhorrent, recalcitrant to such non-divergence. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ABIGORUM — “EFFORTLESSLY INTO THE DARKNESS (MÜHELOS IN DIE DUNKELHEIT)”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 132024
 

Abigorum was founded by Aleksey “Satanath” Korolyov in Saint Petersburg, Russia more than a decade ago. Since then, much has happened to the band, both in its membership and location as well as its musical evolution, which could be called atmospheric black metal but has involved other genre explorations.

Abigorum now consists (as it has for some years) of Korolyov, who moved from Russia to Georgia in March 2022, and his German collaborator Tino “Fluch” Thiele. And their new third album, Foretaste of Justice, is a sign of further evolution. The band explains

Foretaste of Justice is an important chapter in the history of the project, whose genre has changed again, becoming even more melodic and epic. Comparing it to the previous works, the band’s departure from deliberate roughness and gloomy rawness in the music to well thought-out song structures and creating a spiritually uplifting atmosphere is clearly noticeable.

The sound itself did not become light, but retained anger and pain, especially in the lyrics. The album absorbed all the experiences and thoughts of the musicians over the years, which makes it truly philosophical. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries