Islander

OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: THE COMPLETE LIST

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  3 Responses »
Feb 032026
 

(written by Islander)

Last Friday I posted the final installment in our list of 2025’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, the one part of our year-end LISTMANIA series that I alone am responsible for. In compiling that list I wound up with 64 songs before forcing myself to stop. That compares to 69 songs on the 2024 list.

As always, putting together the list was both fun and stressful — fun to re-listen to lots of good music and get reminded of what a good year it was for metal, stressful because list-making of any kind is so difficult for me. Also as usual, my list didn’t cover the entire waterfront of metal genres, given the limitations of my own (still very expansive) tastes,

And of course, as is true every year, I really wasn’t finished when I stopped. A lot of candidates just as worthy as the 64 I chose were left by the wayside when I hit the February wall. Maybe some others will be honored by other writers (last year, for example, both DGR and Andy Synn added addenda to the list), but I don’t know if or when that might happen this year, so I’m doing this wrap-up post now. Continue reading »

WORM: “NECROPALACE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Feb 022026
 

(Here’s Wil Cifer’s first NCS review of the new year, and he has chosen to focus on the new album by the Floridian necromantic black doom band Worm, which is set for release on February 13th by Century Media.)

Be the change you want to see in the world. I want to hear more of doom’s despair injected into black metal, so I am going to write about blackened doom. In particular, the band Worm.

Two songs into the new album Necropalace and it’s clear that they have grown as songwriters. Refining what they do with a larger-than-life dynamic range to the dramatic swells of guitars, it pretty much sounds the way the album cover looks, music for vampires ruling a cosmic portal in Dungeons and Dragons. Continue reading »

CARRION VAEL: “SLAY UTTERLY”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 022026
 

(Today we present DGR’s first review of 2026, a full-throttle rush through the full-throttle rush that is Carrion Vael’s new album, which was released two weeks ago by Unique Leader Records.)

The first few reviews of every year lately have felt like an exercise in madness, an attempt to conjure spirits out of thin air while dressed in the most ritualistic way possible. Me, seated with my skirt of bone and three-times-too-big mask in front of a fire and various runes and sigils that may or may not just be permutations on the Pepsi logo – we can’t all be as creative as The Infernal Sea with their logo or draw inversions of an Asmodeus sigil ala Gaerea – and you wait for the year to speak to you. Last year’s end-list was an exercise in scrying to see what the future holds and now we are waiting for the first spirit to reach across the void and grab us by the throat to compel us into 2026.

So far, in spite of all the varied exhortations and exultations, that has no happened yet to this writer. 2026 remains frustratingly silent and has instead gifted us chances to catch up with late-2025 releases that were absorbed into year-end festivities alongside the initial wave of those brave enough to be the vanguard of a new year. It is the amorphous and fungible time that has us attempting to neatly can one horror only to open up the next can of worms to be unleashed.

It’s similar to how decades never end culturally right when a year turns over; it’s more like there is a two-to-three year hangover period before one finally shuffles out the door and the next dumbass thing the kids repeat ad-nauseum can rule the roost. Eventually life becomes a series of checkpoints where you’re counting decades by being thankful one particular bit of bullshit is done with and you don’t have to hear about it anymore. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HYVER

 Interviews  No Responses »
Feb 022026
 

(With apologies for our own delay, today we present Comrade Aleks’ very lively interview from late last year of Léon Guiselin, the proprietor of the always-interesting Antiq Records and a figure in many bands of his own. The broad focus is on his philosophy as a label curator and artist, but with a particular emphasis on the fascinating new album of his project Hyver.)

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been paying more and more attention to releases from the French label Antiq Records, run by Léon Guiselin. Antiq tends to release albums with a story behind it, and whenever I’ve interviewed these bands, the lyrics have been wonderful!

Stylistically, the label focuses on old-fashioned black metal with elements of folk and dungeon synth, which is unsurprising, as Léon himself plays in a number of projects and bands of this kind. One of his solo projects, Hyver, released a new full-length album Shaâtaunoâr in November 2025, the structure of which resembles an old computer adventure game set in a medieval setting. You even have a choice of actions! But first of all, it’s a proper black metal album with good dungeon synth layers!

We did a pretty in-depth interview with Léon in the end of 2025 covering the themes of Shaâtaunoâr, black metal in general, and Antiq itself. And I’m pleased to share it with you. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: GOUR, BERGTAGEN, VAULDERIE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 012026
 

(written by Islander)

January is a schizophrenic month for the release of new music. Labels and bands seem to recognize that people aren’t focusing as much as usual on new music, because they’re diverted by things happening during the “holiday season” and then by the turbulence of returning to work and school, and so the pace of new releases in the early part of January is slower than usual. But after a week or two, the dam bursts, and new stuff starts flooding out in a fury. At least that’s how I see it from where I sit.

I had SO MANY new songs and records I was interested in checking out for purposes of this column, too many for me to realistically investigate, especially since our terribly unreliable internet service has been down since mid-day on Saturday. My phone has worked reasonably well as a hot-spot for some things, like typing what you’re reading now, but it doesn’t provide a very good platform for streaming music.

The result is that I defaulted to music I had already acquired for myself before our net service collapsed. Which is not a bad way to proceed, because there’s a reason why I had acquired all this music for myself — it’s all very good! Each selection is also very different from the other two. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: HANGING GARDEN, WINTERFYLLETH, CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX, NERVOSA, CHAINED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN, IGORRR

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 312026
 

(written by Islander)

In deciding what to feature in these Saturday columns I sometimes spend a lot of time making my way through a lot of songs. Sometimes many of them are deflating, and the hunt goes on. Sometimes a lot of them are great, and the choices become difficult. But this week I happened upon seven songs in a row and knew right away that six of those would be here today. (I left one of them aside, so the usual collage of cover images would be symmetrical.)

As it also happened, the following songs include an unusual amount of singing — not singing we have to just put up with because other aspects of the songs make them commanding, but because the singing is itself a big part of the draw. And as it happened, all but one of the songs debuted with good videos.

None of these bands is even close to the Metallica strata of stardom, but I think it’s fair to say that most of them are well-known among metal lovers, or at least the kind of metal lovers who show up at our doorstep. Most of these bands have had careers of significant length and discographies that are well-respected. For these columns, I usually try to work in music by bands from deeper under the ground, using bigger names as lures for visitors who might not know of the more obscure names. But I didn’t have room to do as much of that today as I typically do. My goal is to make amends tomorrow. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PHASMA — “VI”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Transcending Obscurity Records is helping get this new year off to a hard-charging start, with new records by Mors Verum, Decipher, Apolaustic, and Phasma now set for release in the coming few months and songs from each of them now out in the world for streaming. Three of those bands are new to the label, and one of those is Phasma, a Greek group who have drawn upon a wide range of metal influences to create their forthcoming third full-length, Purgatory.

As a sign of the breadth of influences Phasma have drawn upon, T.O. recommends the album for fans of Mgła, Dying Fetus, Crypts of Despair, Kriegsmaschine, and Psycroptic. And if that lists leaves you wondering how (and how well) these Greeks have interworked such disparate styles, we have a concrete example for you today in our premiere of Purgatory’s startling closing track, “VI” (all the songs are simply and solely identified with Roman numerals). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DWELLNOUGHT — “ILL WHISPERS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Just two days into this dreadful new year I found myself mentally knocked flat by the first song revealed from a debut album by the Italian band Dwellnought. Not completely struck dumb by it, because I was able to feverishly peck out a scramble of words soon after hearing it, but stunned anyway. And so what a stroke of good fortune it was to be invited to premiere another song from the album.

This newest song, which you’ll now be able to hear for yourselves, is “Ill Whispers“. The album is Monolith of Ephemerality (a title that will mean something to you when you listen). And the release date through Caligari Records is February 20th. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 21): PELICAN, DEMONIC DEATH JUDGE, BEWARE OF THE GODS, DAWN OF A DARK AGE

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  No Responses »
Jan 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Well, here we are, at the last installment of this 2025 Most Infectious Song list. On the one hand, I’m breathing a big sigh of relief because I’ve been preparing these segments every weekday since January 1st, and it’s been a lot of fucking work to do that. On the other hand, even though I’ve managed to list 64 songs (including the ones today), I’ve still had to close down without yelling about all the songs worth yelling about from last year.

Given that this is the end, I expected I’d feel a lot of anxiety when picking this last match of songs. But in actuality I didn’t knot up my guts and brains over it. I just kind of let go and allowed impulse to take the wheel, content with the idea that these last four are really good and really infectious songs, even if I’ve had to leave many equally infectious ones off on the side of the road. I also think there’s a bit of a “rock the fuck out” connection between the first three, and how can you go wrong with that?, plus a “what the hell, I’m doing this!” predicate for the last one.

On Monday I’ll do a wrap-up post that lists all the songs in this 2025 collection and includes links to each segment. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WSTRĘT — “ENLIGHTENED MISANTHROPY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jan 292026
 

(written by Islander)

Near the end of last summer I came across a two-song debut EP named Subhuman Eschatology by the Polish band Wstręt. As I wrote at the time, it floored me. It was like someone spun the intensity dial until it wouldn’t go any further.

Those two songs warped together ingredients of black and death metal to create body-bruising blows and to inflict mind-shredding, needle-sharp riffing that dug in deep. The songs generated moods that were wrecking and wracked, terrorizing and tormented, exhilarating and oppressive, coupled with ragged, reverberating roars were heartless and harrowing.

Given the nature of that introduction to Wstręt, I found myself simultaneously frightened and thrilled to discover that Godz Ov War Productions would be releasing a second EP from them, this new one a 20-minute affair named Enlightened Misanthropy.

Now you’ll have a chance to form your own impressions about it through our full stream of these five new tracks in advance of the EP’s release tomorrow — though of course we have some impressions of our own to share first. Continue reading »

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