Islander

HARM’S WAY: “COMMON SUFFERING”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 192023
 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of Common Suffering, the new album by Chicago’s Harm’s Way which will be released by Metal Blade on September 28th.)

Here is a band I was reluctant to give a chance due to the whole straight-edge thing. Given my personal beliefs and lifestyle choices, the straight-edge sub-genre feels conflicting in the same way that causes me to avoid Christian bands.

I was lured into being more open-minded thanks to King Woman’s Kristina Esfandiari guesting on the single “Undertow”. The simmering darkness and willingness to explore eerie melodies set the Chicago band apart from the tough-guy hardcore I expected from them. Thus began my descent into their fifth full-length Common Suffering.

Their second album for Metal Blade carries a great deal of crossover appeal, though from a different angle than their previous release Posthuman, and I felt inspired enough by this album to dig back into their catalog and visit that as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: URANIUM — “PURE NUCLEAR DEATH”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 182023
 

It’s been an interesting day at our site today. We began with my compatriot Andy‘s review of a well-hyped death metal album that he lauded for (among other things) its “outlandishly proggy approach” and “indulgently weird wavelegths”. Now we’re following that with something that has all the elaborate nuance of a atomic detonation.

Don’t get the wrong idea — Uranium‘s weaponization of power electronics, industrial noise, and black metal (among other ingredients) does create weird, head-twisting experiences, but in service of channeling mental ruination and inflicting terror on a seemingly world-ending scale rather than exercising a listener’s higher faculties.

In their sonic assaults, Uranium grasp the “godliness” and horror of nuclear annihilation most famously summed up by Robert Oppenheimer‘s somber yet shattering (and all too accurate) reflection: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds“.

Not for naught, Uranium have named their new album Pure Nuclear Death, and it’s the album’s title track we have for you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MAGNITUDO — “SCOTOMA

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 182023
 

The first song on a new EP by the Italian band Magnitudo, and the first single from it released for streaming, is named “Monument“. As we wrote here when we first heard it, it proves to be a fitting title given the immensity of the sounds.

The band erect a towering wall of guitars above humongous pounding drums, and then they make the wall writhe as horrific roars and howls intrude. Bent on destruction, Magnitudo also inflict slugging jolts as the drums hammer the spine, and they also spin out sweeping waves of ominous melody and slowly slithering filaments of sonic poison that put the frighteners in the bloodstream while the band attempt to break every bone in your body.

And so with that one track Magnitudo don’t just demonstrate the worthiness of the song name, they make one wonder whether the EP’s other three songs create music of similar imposing magnitude. You’re about to get the answer to that question. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: CODE, CRUCIAMENTUM, HASTURIAN VIGIL, INFERNO, VLK

 SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Sep 172023
 


Code (December 2022)

Today’s collection will be somewhat shorter than usual. I have a mid-morning appointment for some cosmetic work. The forked tail keeps growing back and needs to be cropped again, and the cloven hooves need trimming. The price one must pay for wearing pants and shoes.

Of course that’s not true, but I do have a mid-morning appointment and the work is analogous. I hope the following selections will ruin your day, in the best ways. I’ve presented the choices in alphabetical order by band name.

CODE (UK)

Last Friday Code (a favorite among the denizens of our putrid site) released a two-track single named Hunting For Caesar, “two brand new tracks of bile and intrigue”, another way to help fill the space between their last album and their next one. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SHEOL BLANC, YERSIN, OF ORIGINS, DAWN OF A DARK AGE, MODERN TECHNOLOGY, CHOROSIA, MUERTO

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 162023
 

I had such sprawling ambitions for this Saturday roundup before I went to sleep last night, because the past week seemed even more extravagant than usual in terms of new music releases. But then, even though I opened my eyes at 5 a.m. and then again at 6 a.m., I couldn’t make myself leave the comfortable tomb of my bed until much later. Big sigh.

So, as I sit here now, I know that if I wrote about everything that got me excited in my music-surfing the last few days I wouldn’t finish until a really late hour for a big segment of the people who typically visit us. On top of that I have to do some things for my fucking day job today (and tomorrow as well), or the start of the next work week will be sheer Hell.

I made a compromise with myself, giving fairly close attention to just five new songs and videos, focusing on lesser-known bands instead of the many big names who surfaced with new stuff last week, and then including more music (also from lesser-known names) without much commentary. I’ll have tomorrow to build on this with shades of new black metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HORTUS ANIMAE — “YOU’RE DEAD (PART 1)”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 152023
 

Twenty years ago Black Lotus Records released Waltzing Mephisto, the second album by the Italian progressive black metal band Hortus Animae. And on October 31st of this year, just in time for Halloween, Symbol of Domination and BlackHeavens Music will celebrate the anniversary with the release of Waltzing Mephisto 20th Anniversary, a special two-disc record that will please fans of this distinctive band and provide a fascinating introduction for newcomers.

The first CD includes a remastered edition of the Waltzing Mephisto album, along with two new bonus tracks. The second disc is Godless Years Live, which is a previously unreleased recording of a live performance by the band. Collectively, the two CDs include 23 tracks, packaged with new artwork.

Hortus Animae have a storied history of both recordings and performances that has made them a cult favorite among fans of unorthodox music. And the music definitely is unorthodox, intertwining “gothic atmospheres, progressive rock majesty, orchestral grandeur and the primal fury of black/death metal” (to quote the labels’ comments).

The band are also known for recording unusual cover songs, and the new 20th anniversary release includes several of them. One of those is a two-part cover of “You’re Dead” by Norma Tanega, a folk song first released in 1966 that many decades later has used as opening theme song for the What We Do in the Shadows TV series.

That two-part cover is included as the bonus tracks for the remastered edition of Waltzing Mephisto, and what we have for you today is “You’re Dead (Part 1)“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ECOCIDE — “METAMORPHOSIS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 152023
 

The animation in the video you’re about to see creates images of disgustingly gruesome horror, but you would likely get visions of horror simply from listening to the song, because foul supernatural sensations ooze, stalk, and spasm in the music. The song is also a certifiable neck-ruiner.

The name of that song is “Metamorphosis“, and it’s the title track from the upcoming second album by the Dutch death metal band Ecocide, set for release by Memento Mori on October 23rd — more than a decade after the first one, with nothing but a few singles scattered across that long gap.

This one song, standing alone, proves how lucky we are that Ecocide are making their album-length return. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OWDWYR — “EIN”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Sep 142023
 

In introducing our song premieres I have a tendency to try to linguistically map what happens in the song, like a completely unnecessary tour guide trying to prepare impatient tourists for a jaunt that they’re completely capable of taking on their own. In the case of the OWDWYR song we’re premiering today, however, such an effort isn’t merely unnecessary, it would be doomed to failure.

“Ein” is a thoroughly head-spinning spectacle, so intricate, so elaborate, so stylistically kaleidoscopic, and so packed with unpredictable contrasts that carefully dissecting what happens from moment to moment, if that were even possible, would detract from the abundant thrills of the experience.

But if a careful mapping is out of the question, it still might be worth providing some other reasons why you should set aside the five minutes it will take to get your head thoroughly spun around. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HAGATIZ — “DROWN IN DARKNESS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 142023
 

For those of us who enjoy our weekly or daily descents into the black metal underground, discovering the existence of a new band whose line-up includes members of Dauþuz, Häxenzijrkell, Abythic, and Lunar Chalice is an intriguing development. For those of us familiar with the music of those other entities, nothing more is needed to kindle the desire to listen to what this new formation — Hagatiz — has created.

The allure is even stronger because the label (Amor Fati Productions) that will unveil the Hagatiz debut album Cursed to the Night on October 11th has such a strong track record in choosing what to release.

Of course, even die-hard fans of those other groups named above will want to hear what Hagatiz has done, because it’s not predictable. And for the die-hards, and everyone else, we have an early sign today through our premiere of the album track “Drown In Darkness“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: ALKALOID — “NUMEN”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 142023
 

Across all the many sub-genres of extreme and not-so-extreme metal, there’s an upper echelon of technical virtuosity — musicians who, through some combination of genetics, devotion to practice, and experience, are exceptionally good performers.

Across the same range of sub-genres there is also an upper echelon of composers who have a knack for writing songs that not only make an immediate impact but also get stuck in people’s heads and stay there — albeit for differing reasons.

To achieve success it’s not necessary for a band to combine both types of exceptionalism. For example, as the ongoing tech-death arms race demonstrates, some bands do quite well moving at ferocious speeds and demonstrating exceptional dexterity, even when there’s not much more than that on offer. On the other hand, other bands are capable of consistently leaving people humming, head-nodding, and remembering, with music that makes few technical demands.

But when a band not only achieves rarefied heights of technical skill at all positions but also conceives of songwriting ideas that are so far outside the ordinary as to be startling, and memorable for that reason, the results can be truly exceptional.

Which of course brings us to Alkaloid and their new album Numen. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries