Islander

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VLTIMAS (RUNE ERIKSEN)

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Mar 012024
 


photo ©Jolanda Siemonsa

(Our old friend Ben Manzella returns to NCS with the following interview of Rune Eriksen. The focus is on Vltimas, whose new album EPIC is set for release on March 15th by Season of Mist.)

While there are still a few weeks until Vltimas’ fittingly titled next LP, EPIC, is released, I’m grateful to present this brief conversation with Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen. After editing it for clarity and reading over his answers from our email exchange, I only wish we could have met in person for this conversation. He offered plenty of info, I think, for the few questions presented here.

If you have yet to pre-order EPIC through Season of Mist, the time is now. This rollercoaster of personality in recorded form hit me like a train from the first listen. The creative trio of David Vincent, Flo Mounier, and Rune is hard to match and even describe. They have crafted an extreme metal record that will stand out not only in the year 2024 but in general, and I would not be surprised to see it on many year-end favorite lists. EPIC is due for release on the 15th of March. Continue reading »

TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES OF ’23 — PART 3

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Feb 292024
 

(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 published Parts 1 and 2 of his list here and here, and now we’re proceeding with Part 3. The remaining three parts will follow in fairly short order.)

We were awaiting that infectious list with keening anticipation, and it being Islander’s baby, for a while there we were genuinely a bit worried whether he was okay. But as of this writing on the last day of the year of the rabbit (albeit the cat in ‘Nam, and yes it is already deep into lunar January, but Gregorian January and now Feb have been an unequivocal cornucopia of quality releases, so whether anyone is even interested anymore in the year just past is anyone’s guess) we are still blessed with the presence of NCS’ inimitable editor.

I told myself I need to get the second part out before the 1st day in the lunar calendar, today was that day but – like that saying when people imbibe early in the morning – it is certainly noon somewhere in the world (again, it’s almost March as I edit this again so just assume that I work on Africa time, a loose concept in my motherland). Time and the perception thereof, just like any other palpable or imperceptible agent, can inform cultures and so I implore you to disengage from the now and harken back. I ended up cutting up one follow-up into 5 parts… Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TRIJUMF — “TRIJUMF ILI SMRT – TRIJUMF”

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Feb 292024
 

This makes the third time this week that we’ve premiered an album set for release on March 1st (a Bandcamp Friday) by the UK label Death Prayer Records (the others being from Ilat Mahru and Celestial Sword). The subject today, very different from the preceding two, is the debut album by the Bosnian black metal band TRIJUMF. Its title is TRIJUMF ILI SMRT – TRIJUMF (“Triumph or Death – Triumph”).

We don’t know much about the band, including who is in it, but we can infer from the group’s name, the album’s title, and the song names that their motivation derives from the atrocities that wrecked their country during the so-called Bosnian War between 1992 and 1995, and perhaps from even older conflicts. To triumph is the order of the day, and “NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET” is the epilogue.

In giving voice to their inspirations TRIJUMF‘s album provides four very long songs, ranging in length from 9 1/2 minutes to nearly 12, and in a word, they’re all remarkable. Continue reading »

THE SORROW OF BEING IMMACULATE: “CHURCH MUSIC FOR SATANISTS”

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Feb 292024
 

(DGR has left his usual comfort zones far behind, lured away by the Welsh band whose new EP is the subject of his review below.)

Sometimes in the process of wandering the decrepit halls and ancient ruins of metal, detector, pick-axe, and trowel in hand in the hopes of coming across something interesting that you can help spread out to a wider audience, you’ll come across something that you know isn’t directly for you, but boy howdy, do you know a whole lot of people who will absolutely be into it.

Those adventures are fun in part because you have the job now of trying to find someone on the site who may be interested in covering it or, the more likely option, you yourself get to go on an adventure of trying out something and seeing if it lands with you. Something may resonate with you, who knows?

That’s how we have landed at the doorstep of The Sorrow Of Being Immaculate, a name which floated across the proverbial – if not perpetually on fire – writer’s desk here approximately one time but somehow managed to grab attention based off of the album title alone. Because, even after fourteen-plus years of existence, how could we not be tempted to look into something entitled Church Music For Satanists? Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SVART LOTUS — “SOM ET VONDT ÅR”

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Feb 282024
 

This makes the third time in almost four years that we’ve had the privilege of premiering music by the distinctive Norwegian band Svart Lotus. It’s been a privilege because every time has given us the occasion to be surprised, and each surprise has created further intrigue about what will come next.

Now what comes next is the band’s second album, Som et Vondt År. It will be released on March 1st by Hellstain Productions, but you’ll have the chance to hear all of it today. Continue reading »

TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES OF ’23 — PART II

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Feb 282024
 

(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 published Part I of his list here, and now we’re proceeding with Part II. The remaining four parts will follow in fairly short order.)

‘We live in uncertain times’ is both clichéd and antiquated. Fear has been a massive driving-force towards change and, just like anything else, conceivable change is not always good. We understand change as a constant, almost a law as such, yet we fear it and our fear of it more often than not is what drives us towards horrid acts against our fellow human beings.

And so in order to inoculate against fear (of the other), of change, of that which we do not understand, we can take cues from why some of us are so compelled to find that new riff, to experience something for the first time, for our minds not just to open, but to bend around that axis of perdition into a fused vessel. Transported into worlds hitherto unknown. Always keeping a keen ear to the ground and another filled with that which challenges and provokes, that is what keeps us, and therefore also our art, closer to our initial true intentions. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, FEBRUARY 2024

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Feb 282024
 

(February ends today — oh wait! there’s a leap day tomorrow! — but we’re close enough that Gonzo has returned with another end-of-month collection of recommended albums, six of them, with streams and his reviews below.)

Maybe it’s just me being overly cynical, but does anything good ever happen in February? Why does it occasionally have an extra day every few years? Why is it always shorter? Who comes up with this shit?

Perhaps I’m once again shouting into my void of choice, but that might be because I’m recovering from five days of being on my ass thanks to some kind of plague I contracted last week. It feels good to be functional enough to write coherently (well, somewhat) and I’m relishing every moment in which I no longer feel like a vat of nuclear waste.

Musically speaking, there was an overwhelming amount of quality releases that saw the light of day in January, and by the time you’re reading this, long-awaited new albums from both Job for a Cowboy and Darkest Hour will be out and reviewed by our own Andy Synn. What year is it?!

There’s also no shortage of heavy hitters in this column; some of which have graced us with a new album after several years of dormancy. Some names you’ll recognize, some you won’t. Who doesn’t love a good comeback, though? Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CELESTIAL SWORD — “NOCTURNAL DIVINITY”

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Feb 272024
 

Following Celestial Sword‘s release of its second album Dawn of the Crimson Moon in 2021, this enigmatic U.S. black metal solo project released a flurry of splits in what remained of that year, and one more in 2022, but then nothing in 2023. The pause suggested that some new evil was in the works, and sure enough, it has taken shape in the form of a new album named Nocturnal Divinity that’s now set for release by Death Prayer Records on March 1st.

For those who might only now be learning about Celestial Sword, Nocturnal Divinity provides a fine jumping-on point, as well as an enticement to go back and experience the music that preceded it. As for jumping on, you can do that right now because today we present a full stream of the new record.

Of course, if you want to pause mid-jump, suspended in air, you can peruse our thoughts about where you’ll be landing on the far side. Continue reading »

HANNES GROSSMANN: “ECHOES OF ETERNITY”

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Feb 272024
 

(Below you’ll find DGR‘s review of the newest solo release by the standout German musician Hannes Grossmann, which was released on February 9th.)

Hannes Grossmann‘s solo career has been one of the more interesting things to pop out of the many tech-death groups and scenes over the decade. You never realize just how foundational a musician is to a particular style until they’ve done five or so releases that feel like continual statements of ‘I can do this in my sleep’ quite the way like Hannes does with some of his solo stuff.

Not only that but it’s long since been proven that as a musician he’s an absolute machine, and while Gene Hoglan has long earned the nickname ‘Atomic Clock’ when it comes to drumming, Hannes is equally precise and reliable. You could hand him anything and it seems within about an hour or so he’d have a grasp on the whole setlist. There’s a certain guaranteed reliability to the guy that pretty much assures quality; any band he joins is in good hands and any recording where he sits behind the kit is probably going to be just as solid.

His solo career has afforded him affable room to explore as well, and while his first two releases felt a little like finding their footing, Apophenia and onward are adventures in their own right. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ILAT MAHRU — “INCIPIT AKKADIAN”

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Feb 262024
 

Ilat Mahru is a black metal entity shrouded in mystery.

In the Encyclopaedia Metallum and on the Bandcamp page for the entity’s debut album Incipit Akkadian, the band’s location is identified as Egypt, a rare spawning ground for black metal, though the reference also could have been “Ancient Egypt” (a less geographically specific and more spiritually attuned location).

Whether the band in its recordigs is a single person or more than one is a question un-answered. The source of the band’s name is also a conundrum. Trying to find its meaning or derivation through googling proved fruitless for this searcher.

Perhaps some of these mysteries were answered for metal-lovers who attended Estonia’s Howls of Winter XI underground black metal gathering which took place in Tallinn earlier this month, because Ilat Mahru performed there. Or maybe questions were still left unanswered.

Well, we should probably allow the band to preserve its mysteries as long as they care to, and just be content with the music — though it has mysteries of its own, as you’re about to discover for yourselves through our premiere stream of Incipit Akkadian in advance of its March 1st release by Death Prayer Records. Continue reading »

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