Islander

AN NCS INTERVIEW: STEVE MERRY (BE’LAKOR)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Oct 062025
 


Photo Credit: Oli Sansom

(NCS contributor Tør last appeared in our shredded pages during the depths of the covid pandemic, but he rejoins us today from Australia with a very extensive and interesting interview of keyboardist Steve Merry from the Australian progressive/melodic death metal band Be’lakor following completion of their recent North American tour and just a few days away from the band’s three-date tour of Australia with Persefone and Orpheus Omega. We’re grateful to both of them for all the time and thoughtfulness they devoted to this discussion.)

NCS: Years ago when I was still in the US, I was always looking forward to you guys doing a US tour. So, that’s where I want to start because it kind of relates to me personally, but also just knowing that the tour landscape in the US is logistically so brutal. There’s a lot of travel involved, it’s a different culture, there’s gear challenges, and lots of other things going on. So my first question is, how did it go for you guys? Did it live up to your expectations?

SM: Well, firstly, I hope you’re coming to our Melbourne show, we’ve got you on the guest list.

NCS: Yes, I am!

Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEATHFUCKINGWOUND — “VOID MMXXV”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 062025
 

(written by Islander)

We’re about to premiere the debut EP of a Finnish duo who call themselves DEATHFUCKINGWOUND. To introduce it, we begin with the band’s own statement of intent:

“While the world is currently being courted by flames ignited by weak men wielding unfathomable power only paralleled by their insatiable greed and corrupt lust for land and wealth that isn’t theirs, art can be used as a bridge between the oppressed and the beaten, to be then deployed as a weapon against the aforementioned flaccid figures hiding in their ivory towers. Those towers burn, too. Everything burns.

“Our objective is to harness our own strengths into a tangible aural form that is equally unyielding and full of rage as the free spirits craving for the flesh of the sovereigns poisoning this world. VOID MMXXV is a documented moment in time that hopefully reaches many minds alike, representing merely the firsts steps taken towards our own caustic annihilation.”

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: AMIENSUS, ELLENDE, HOLOGRAMAH, CAGED BASTARD

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Oct 052025
 

(written by Islander)

When I finished writing the SEEN AND HEARD column yesterday and scheduled it for automatic appearance this morning I really didn’t think I would be awake or clear-headed enough to prepare a SHADES OF BLACK thing for today, which is why I said there wouldn’t be one. But even though I didn’t get to sleep after my spouse’s Saturday night birthday party until 1:30 am, I woke up at 7 am — amazingly not hungover, only weary.

I still thought about not trying to do put this column together, but I really hate leaving holes in our regular schedule, so here we are. Fewer selections than usual, but (I hope you’ll agree) very good ones. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: EVEN IF WE LOSE, BELIEVE IN NOTHING, FIMBUL WINTER, JADE, HALLUCINATE, SPIRIT OF REBELLION, BINAH

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 052025
 

(written by Islander)

I thought about deleting the placeholder post I made yesterday but then decided to leave it there so you can see the explanation for why this SEEN AND HEARD roundup arrives a day late. That way, I can get right to the music.

Sad to say, I don’t think I’ll be able to compile a SHADES OF BLACK feature today. Continue reading »

BLOG BREAK? MAYBE?

 Off Topic  3 Responses »
Oct 042025
 

Last night my spouse and I joined out-of-town visitors at a local casino for dinner and drinks — LOTS OF DRINKS. TOO MANY DRINKS. It was fun, but man am I paying for my fun this morning, even after sleeping way later than usual.

Before going out last night I did lay the foundations for a SEEN AND HEARD roundup. I’ve picked the music, uploaded cover art, installed the usual links, and made some notes that might turn into sentences. It’s possible I will eventually feel well enough to finish and post it, but if that happens it will be much later in the day than usual. It’s also possible I’ll finish it and wait until Sunday to post it.

Which brings me to another issue. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A BANDCAMP FRIDAY: GALUNDO TENVULANCE, MIND PRISONER, BEASTWARS, MAUDITS, QRIXKUOR, CATHEDRAL

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 032025
 


(written by Islander)

It is another Bandcamp Friday. You will already have many suggestions and discoveries that point you toward how you might spend your music-oriented money today. Poor you, here are some more. (And I’ll have more tomorrow, so you can start complicating your life in advance of the final Bandcamp Friday of 2025 on December 5th.) Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HELGE — “ZOONGIDE`E”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 032025
 

(written by Islander)

The Danish band Helge describe their amalgam of black and death metal as “spiritual metal”. Of course, many other metal bands also invoke spiritual concepts, but more often that not they’re talking about such things as diabolical spirits of vengeance, malign alien gods that venture forth from the void, or getting fueled up by ethanol spirits and running wild. That is not what Helge mean.

Instead, they delve into themes that include the presence of common bonds among people, the need to make a less violent world more nurturing of nature (and each other), and other ideas that point toward spiritual uplift rather than downfall. Their most recent album, Gidinawendimin (released on November 1st of last year) is (as they explained) “an ancient word from the Ojibwe people that means ‘we are all related.'”

Last year we premiered an exhilarating video for the album’s closing song “Keep the Fire Burning,” a song that lyrically exhorts listeners to “stand aside from ego,” to forsake anger and poison, to “return to the core of the spirit,” and thus to become reborn, and to rise.

And now we have another video premiere for yet another emotionally powerful song from that same album. This one is “Zoongide`e“. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, SEPTEMBER 2025

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 032025
 

(September 2025 is in the books, and so Gonzo is back with us to share his recommendations of five albums released in that month.)

It’s probably a pretty clear indicator of the world we’re living in when not one, not two, but three albums released in the same month are some of the most intense emotional experiences I’ve had all year. And friends, let me tell you—it’s been a year.

It’s with albums like the newest from Sundrowned and Heretoir that provide comfort in the darkest of times. Whether or not these are a direct result or response to world events is anyone’s guess, but music in 2025 has hit decisively differently than years previous.

All this being said, if you’re looking for coping mechanisms, emotional catharsis, or just a goddamn wild-ass ride you won’t forget, I can’t recommend my picks for September highly enough. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MERFOLK — “CASTAWAYS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 022025
 

(written by Islander)

More than seven years having passed since the Montréal-based progressive death metal band Augury released their last album Illusive Golden Age, which itself was released a lengthy nine years after the one before it (Fragmentary Evidence). But although we can happily disclose that Augury are recording their fourth album and are half-way there, their leader Patrick Loisel has continued to make music on his own in recent years through his intriguing solo project Merfolk, which divulged the Demersal demo in late 2022 and released the debut full-length Sundaland this past May.

Sundaland is obviously an entirely personal creation, one in which Loisel wrote everything, performed every instrument, engineered and mixed every sound, and directed all the visuals. Those instruments included not only conventional metal accoutrement (though a fretless bass is not entirely conventional) but also classical instruments such as violin, cello, double bass, and piano.

It’s also worth giving you the following statement regarding the album’s inspiration, before we share with you a new video for the album track “Castaways“: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DWELLING BELOW — “SACRAMENTS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 022025
 

(written by Islander)

The lineup of Dwelling Below — drummer/vocalist Jared Moran, bassist Anthony Wheeler, and guitarist Nicolas Turner — overlaps significantly with those of the bands Hierarchies and Acausal Intrusion. United in Dwelling Below, they create a variant of doom/death metal. But if you’re at all familiar with their work in those other bands, you can guess (correctly) that their version of doom/death is a twisted one, occupying an ever-changing intersection of the conventional and the unconventional, with results that are as unpredictable as they are abominable.

Dwelling Below made their advent with a self-titled debut album in 2023, and now they’re back with a second head-warper named Wearisome Guardians, which will be released on October 31st by Transcending Obscurity Records. What we’ve got for you today is the third song from the new album to be disgorged so far, a mind-ruiner named “Sacraments“. Continue reading »

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