Islander

SEEN AND HEARD: AL-NAMROOD, BLACK TUSK, DEAD FLESH, DVNE, GATECREEPER, HALNY, JORDSJUK, KULT IKON, RIITASOINTU, SIX FEET UNDER, SONS OF ALPHA CENTAURI, WARM GADGET

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 142024
 

What I’ve assembled for visitors today is an even dozen songs and videos from bands spread across six countries and a variety of genres (and at least one that’s not really metal), including death metal, black metal, sludge, doom, post-metal, progressive metal, deathcore, folk-metal, and some things that are harder to pin down. If you don’t find something to like, it must be because you searched for “no spring cleaning”.

One thing you’ll figure out fairly soon is that a lot of today’s songs rock out, providing some very catchy head-movers. There’s also singing (or close to it) in some of them (gasp!). But of course I’ve sprinkled in some ravagers too, and because I’ve arranged these songs and videos in alphabetical order by band name, one of those comes first.

AL-NAMROOD (Saudi Arabia)

The first song is “Lisan Al Nar” (Tongue of Fire) from AlNamrood‘s new album Al Aqrab, to be released by Shaytan Productions on June 9th. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: IRON VOID

 Interviews  No Responses »
Mar 132024
 


Photos by Robyn Benson / Black Earth Photography

(Last year the British doom band Iron Void celebrated their 25th anniversary and released a stellar fourth album, and in belated honoring of those events Comrade Aleks conducted the following very engaging interview with all three of the band’s members — Jonathan ‘Sealey’ Seale, Steve Wilson, and Scott Naylor.)

Iron Void from West Yorkshire is one of the most focused and active doom metal bands among those that present a “traditional” scene. Being formed in 1998 and disbanded in 2000, Iron Void didn’t hurry to record a full-length album even after their reunion in 2008, but here they are with four albums in the discography now, and the most up-to-date release IV saw the light of day in January 2023.

Yes, it happened one year ago, and we’re a bit late with this interview, but it’s never too late to support the band that deserves wider exposure. After all, heroic, quite old-school, and damn heavy IV was one of the best doom albums of 2023. Also, besides other things, you’ll learn from this interview what “Street Doom” stands for! Continue reading »

NCS PRESENTS: CULTHE FEST 2024

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 132024
 


Last year Culthe Fest made its triumphant return to stages in Münster, Germany, after
a covid-induced hiatus. It featured a very impressive lineup of bands over two days last April, and we helped spread the word about it then. For the good of fans and bands, Culthe Fest is back this year, and we’re again helping to spread the word as one of the fest’s international partners.

This year, on March 30 and 31 in Münster, Culthe Fest will present performances by 16 bands from 9 countries on three stages, headlined and co-headlined by Downfall of Gaia, Sylvaine, Wiegedood, Solbrud, Ophis, and Predatory Void.

The lineup is exceedingly strong from top to bottom and spans a range of metal and metal-adjacent sub-genres, and below we’ll provide notes about all the participating bands scheduled to play on each of the two days, and how to get tickets (there aren’t many left!).

We’ll also provide notes about the Dark Arts & Crafts Exhibition, which will again be part of this festival presentation. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ORNAMENTOS DEL MIEDO — “ESCAPANDO A TRAVÉS DE LA TIERRA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 122024
 

We are very pleased today to premiere a complete stream of the newest album by the Spanish death/doom metal project Ornamentos del Miedo. Entitled Escapando a Través de la Tierra, it will be released by Tragedy Productions and Meuse Music Records on March 15th.

This stunning new opus is again the solo work of Angel Chicote from Burgos, who was responsible not only for all the vocals and instrumentation but also the mixing, mastering, and artwork.

Lyrically, the songs address “interest disguised as friendship, mental illness, forgotten memories”. “Here there are no more demons, monsters or fantastic beings than those that life gives us”. But while the lyrics may express recognizable vagaries of human life, the intensely atmospheric and emotionally moving music transports the listener to realms far, far away from the mundane. Continue reading »

TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES OF ’23 — PART 5

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2023  No Responses »
Mar 122024
 

(Our editor wasn’t able to compile a list of Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs from 2023, but our supporter Vizzah Harri, a resident of Hanoi, Vietnam, has stepped in to fill the void. We’ve already published Parts 1-4 of his list (find those here), and now we’re proceeding with Part 5.)

This series can be seen as a coagulation of forms on psychological de-fractured symbiosis. As in, this isn’t some SCP level troll, I tried to bring the avant-garde into writing about music that appeals to me but on songs from genres and locations that are varied enough that it would appeal to most readers of this site (yes it’s still heavily biased with 14 from the USA, six from Germany, 3 each from Norway and England, two each from Vietnam, Sweden and France, while Denmark, Canada, China, Australia, Hungary, Italy, Belarus, Poland, Wales, India, Russia and Finland each were represented by one band – math ain’t my strong point, there’s a miscount in there somewhere). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PUTRID TORSO

 Interviews  No Responses »
Mar 112024
 

(Belatedly, we are still catching up with interviews conducted by Comrade Aleks at a time when our editor was too incapacitated by work to publish them in a timely manner, and today we catch up to his discussion with Ion Santos from the Basque Country brutal death metal band Putrid Torso.)

About a year ago we did the interview with Hopelessness, a melodic death metal band from Basque Country. And somewhere around November 2023 I got the message from their guitar player Ion Santos. He said that he’s also involved in the brutal death act Putrid Torso and that Trails of Hypnotized Human Veins had just been released by Pathologically Explicit Recordings.

And, honestly, brutal death isn’t my cup of tea (even Lovecraftian brutal death), but we’re just mere puppets in the hands of Ruinous Powers. So here’s the interview with Ion for those who are into extreme and misanthropic metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VORGA — “THE CATACLYSM”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 112024
 

It’s a public relations cliché, and too often a misrepresentation, to say that a band’s new album is their best work yet. It’s as common to see regression as it is to witness true progress. But in the case of Vorga‘s new album Beyond the Palest Star, the cliché really does hold true — it represents a thrilling advance beyond what this German black metal band have done before (and what they’ve done before has been very good).

As proof of that claim we have for you the premiere of a song from the album appropriately named “The Cataclysm“. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: AUSTERE, DARKESTRAH, DØDSFERD, GIVRE, HORN, NIGHT SHALL DRAPE US, MERRIMACK

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Mar 102024
 

What the hell happened? This collection of new black metal is appearing an hour later than it should have. I finished it at 10:00 and then I looked at an electronic clock and suddenly it was 11:00, without anything happening during that hour.

My first thought was that the music I picked had skewed space-time. The music, as you will see (or rather, hear), is certainly epic enough to cause such an upheaval. But then I discovered the reason was much more stupidly mundane. I gather that on a Sunday next November this column will appear an hour earlier than when I finish it. I look forward to being surprised again. Incipient dementia has its rewards.

AUSTERE (Australia)

Yes, “epic” is an overused and often poorly used word, but even worn-out words still mean something and sometimes are still better than the less-abused alternatives. And yes, “Cold Cerecloth” is epic. It’s also epically infectious. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ACOD, ISCHEMIC, LOCKTENDER, LOKA, NECROT, NEVER THE DEAD, PAIN, POPIOŁY, SHADOHM

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Mar 092024
 

Like yesterday, I had enough time to compile a very big roundup of new music for this Saturday. It includes two full EPs and seven individual songs, most of them from forthcoming releases, presented in alphabetical order by band name.

Like yesterday, there’s so much to hear here that I’ve attempted to cut back on the usual volume of impressionistic words so I can finish this before I turn into a pumpkin. Also like yesterday, I think there’s a lot of variety in the music I picked.

Unlike yesterday, I decided to focus on more obscure names from different corners of the metalverse.(P.S. For newcomers here, there will be yet another roundup tomorrow, focusing on black metal and its kindred.) Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ULCERATE, ANAAL NATHRAKH, BEFORE THE DAWN, BENIGHTED, DARK TRANQUILLITY, DISENTOMB, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, ISENORDAL, NIGHTRAGE, SINISTRO, WASTEWALKER

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 082024
 

No long-winded introduction today, nor any long-winded impressions of the songs and videos either, because… there are so many of them!

Most of these choices (though not all of them) are from bigger names in the extreme metalverse. Most of them were also suggested by my NCS compatriots, because I didn’t do a great job of keeping up with new releases this week. I do plan to have another roundup on Saturday, as usual, and will dig deeper into obscurities, of my own choosing.

ULCERATE (New Zealand)

This first item is a rarity, just a news item without any music to go along with it. But it’s exciting news, and so I couldn’t resist. Continue reading »

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