Islander

FORSMÁN: “BRENNDAR RÚSTIR & FUÐRANDI FJÖRUR”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 252026
 

(Here is Daniel Barkasi’s review of a new album by the Icelandic black metal band Forsmán that will be released on June 26th via Vesperian through Metal Blade Records worldwide.)

To any black metal connoisseur not living in a cave – if you are, we get it, the aesthetic makes sense – the Icelandic scene is a treasure trove. Yes, that’s an unsurprising statement coming from this fellow, and to be frank, it’s difficult to not indulge. With that said, we’ve always got a critical eye, so there’s no geographical bias – great stuff is just that, and there’s a common thread from much of the music coming from this locale being unmistakingly inimitable.

We won’t provide a dissertation into every aspect of why this scene speaks to me – an idea for the future, perhaps – so let’s get to the subject of Forsmán. If that’s not a familiar name, that’s about to change. Their debut EP Dönsum í logans ljóma was released in 2021, and is a fine entry to show what they’re about – an expressive, immense style of black metal, with sharp melodies woven in and a crafty yet aggressive, forthright attack. As with many acts from this isle, there’s involvement in other notable projects, and it’s a fine list – Múr, Mannveira, Angrenost, Misþyrming, among others, so a high level of pedigree is present.

The real question, of course, is what they do with said tools at their disposal on their new album. Titled Brenndar rústir & fuðrandi fjörur – roughly translating via Google to “Burnt Ruins & Flowing Shores” – the answer is as layered as the compositions. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WORMQUIZITOR — “AM I BEAST”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 242026
 

(written by Islander)

Four years after their debut album, Sickness Define: Society, the Belarusian black/thrash band Wormquizitor have completed their second full-length, Esthetic of Fear, which will be released by a trio of labels on July 21st. As we are told, its ten tracks “explore themes of state violence, propaganda, war in all its forms, nuclear obsession, hopelessness, and punitive psychiatry.”

To help spread the word, today we’re premiering the new album’s second single, “Am I Beast“. That title sounds like a question, and at least in the case of the music the answer is pretty clearly YES. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TOOMS — “WHITETHORN”

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Jun 242026
 

(written by Islander)

On May 29th of this year Cursed Monk Records released Karst, the powerful second album from the Irish sludge metal band Tooms. Leading up to the release we premiered a song from it named “Lowlander“. In that context, we described the music as “dismal and disconcerting,” but “galvanic as well as distressing, intriguing as well as traumatic”.

As that song demonstrates, and as Tooms repeatedly demonstrate over the course of Karst, their music hits with heavyweight force and also explodes in episodes of searing intensity and battering fury.

Today we have a startling reminder of all that, and one that hopefully will seize the attention of people who may have overlooked Karst so far. It is an attention-seizing video for what Tooms call the darkest song they’ve ever written — “Whitethorn“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HOC EST BELLUM — “FILTH MAJESTY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 232026
 

(written by Islander)

At the end of this week, on June 26th, Time To Kill Records will release Filth Majesty, the debut album of the Finnish band Hoc Est Bellum. That name means This Is War, and as a sign of what their music sounds like, it is absolutely accurate. As you know, we prefer to use our own words in describing the music we recommend, but this is one occasion where the promotional materials hit the nail on the head:

Based between Helsinki and Turku, the power trio unleashes a savage blend of grinding and bestial black/death chaos, channeling a sound that is both primitive and devastatingly direct. Their music thrives on raw aggression and ritualistic intensity, forged in an atmosphere of apocalyptic dread, satanic hostility and visions of mankind’s imminent extinction….

Conceived as an act of ruthless sonic warfare, Filth Majesty descends with the force of dive bombers cutting through the sky, unleashing wave after wave of black-death devastation. Each track hits like a strafing run, relentless and unyielding, carving through silence with bursts of violence and scorched intensity.

That’s probably all you need to know in deciding whether to subjugate yourself to the full-album stream we’re presenting today, but of course, for better or worse, we have our own thoughts about the album to share — and later on in this article we’ll share an extensive statement by the band as well. Continue reading »

FLATLINE FEST 2026: DENVER’S NEWEST EXTREME METAL DESTINATION 

 Concert Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 232026
 

(Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo enjoyed a glorious couple of nights at the inaugural edition of Flatline Fest on June 13-14, and delivered to us the following enthusiastic report, accompanied by photos made by Jacob Juno.)

For heavy music, the US festival circuit is quietly growing into something that defies conventional logic. Recent years have seen the unlikely resurrection of vaunted gatherings like Milwaukee Metal Fest, while longer-running affairs like Maryland Death Fest and Northwest Terror Fest proved that even a global pandemic wasn’t enough to douse their fires for good. And deep in the wilderness outside Glacier National Park, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation enshrined a new kind of heaviness with the 2025 incarnation of Fire in the Mountains.

Obviously, these events don’t just spawn out of thin air. They’re the collective result of dedicated people putting ungodly amounts of time, energy, and creativity into something they all believe in, often at the expense of their own sanity.

But in the end, these festivals are more than just a few days of bands playing songs. They’re community gatherings where occasions are celebrated, longtime friends meet up, new friends are made, and the best kind of chaotic merriment prevails.

Evidently, nobody knows this better than Denver producer Dave Otero and co-promoter Chelsea Lowe, whose first-ever Flatline Fest at Denver’s Oriental Theater last weekend turned out to be a masterclass in how to throw one hell of a fucking party.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DESTROY MY BRAINS — “DECONTRIBUTE”

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Jun 222026
 

(written by Islander)

After the release of their self-titled debut album in 2017, the Saskatchewan-based doom/sludge band Destroy My Brains embarked on a four-record sequence whose titles (the first letter of each one) spelled out the word “W.I.L.T.”. The last of those albums, Tormented, was released in 2022. And now Destroy My Brains are following that sequence with a devastating new album that is itself named Wilt, which will be released at some point during the coming summer.

The band say the new album “features 7 collosal slabs of filth and spans over 1 hour of unrelenting destroy time.” Their guitarist/vocalist Jarret has shared a few more thoughts about it:

Wilt is a representation of everything we have ever wrote before, and it means everything that Destroy My Brains has ever stood for from the beginning. Nothing has changed and our message remains clear and the same. We have always wrote about the hate for authorities and society, the corrosion of standards, represtations of nihilism, and the destruction of self and others. We have always been a fuck the world band and we still are.

These songs, 12 years later from the band’s beginnings still carry that same weight and message.The songs are a self-destructive collage of pain and suffering, and on this album we touch on some very deep personal themes as well. Get ready to get sucked down a twisting tunnel of destruction, as our sonic filth degrades and devolves you.

Speaking of devolving, what we have for you today is the premiere of Wilt’s first single, and its name is “Decontribute“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABYSSAL RIFT — “SPHERE OF PERPETUITY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 222026
 

(written by Islander)

The last time we hosted a premiere for Ohio-based Abyssal Rift, in the lead-up to their 2023 debut album Extirpation Dirge, we described the music as abyssal and extraterrestrial, abysmal and maddened, imperiously malignant and violent — “a rendering of death/doom that’s viscerally arresting but also atmospherically surreal, and strangely seductive as well as monstrous”.

That debut album was so frighteningly arresting that the thought of what they might do next triggered recollection of that famous line from the sci-fi horror film The Fly: “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” Well, now we know what they’ve done next, and the warning is valid.

What they’ve done next is create a second album named Relics of Great Ash that will be released on August 14th by the band’s new label Transcending Obscurity Records. And what we’re doing next is bringing you the premiere of its third single, “Sphere of Perpetuity“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PROFANE BURIAL – “TRIUMPH OF DREADFUL AFTERMATH”

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Jun 222026
 

(written by Islander)

The Norwegian symphonic black metal band Profane Burial was formed in 2013 by Kjetil Ytterhus (Haimad, Khôra, Babels Tårn) and André Aaslie (ex-Funeral, Images At Twilight, Omnia Moritur, Vitam Aeternam, ex-Abyssic). They assembled a full band for both live performances and the recording of their debut album The Rosewater Park Legend, which was released in 2018.

We’re told that after 2020 the band entered “a new creative phase” as a trio, with Aaslie assuming guitar duties, Ytterhus stepping forward as vocalist as well as keyboardist, and Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow (Borknagar, Trollfest) as drummer. That led to the creation of their second album, My Plateau, which was released in 2024. Now, again working as a trio, Profane Burial will be releasing a third full-length on July 24th through These Hands Melt.

The title of the new album is Desolate Echoes of Turmoil, and today we help introduce it through the premiere of a lyric video for the album track “Triumph of Dreadful Aftermath“, which arrives third in the running order. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (SOLSTICE EDITION): AGONANIST, STARER, ATMOSSOMTA, INCINITOR

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 212026
 

(written by Islander)

We wish you a Happy June Solstice, the longest day of the year for everyone living north of the Tropic of Cancer and the shortest day for people living south of the Tropic of Capricorn. (I hope I got that right!) We also wish a Happy Father’s Day to fathers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, and Ireland — and maybe some other countries, but I haven’t checked. I also haven’t checked on how often the June Solstice and Father’s Day coincide here in the U.S. and in those other countries, but they’re coinciding today (the last time was in 2021).

I spent a big chunk of yesterday outside in an early celebration of Father’s Day, a day early because the dads planned to spend today with their families, and probably didn’t want those families to see how tilted they were getting during this 8-hour outing (I prefer “tilted” to “wasted” because it’s the Earth’s “tilt” that produces the solstices). The setting was beautiful, the weather was glorious, the beer was cold and plentiful, and the sun still hadn’t set here in the Pacific Northwest when I collapsed into bed around 9 p.m.

All that brightness and conviviality weren’t conducive to the contemplation of dark music. It’s still very bright where I am this morning (though fog is in my head), and looking ahead to the longest day compounds the difficulty of immersion in dark music. The sun pulls one way, the black metal pulls the other way. I’ve attempted to find an equilibrium by recommending a few things, but not as many as I might have on a different Sunday. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: AZIMUT, ONUS VITAE, HAINTGROVE, FLEHMEN POSITION, APHONIC THRENODY, CABINET, STAIN, MAGEFA

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 202026
 

(written by Islander)

Just like this same time last week, I’m feeling overwhelmed by the volume of new music I want to recommend, and just like last week I’m resorting to some shortcuts so as to pack more into this column. It’s usually called SEEN AND HEARD, but you’ll probably understand why I change the title on Saturdays like this one.

I suppose it’s up for debate whether I’m really doing a favor to bands when the collection is this large. Maybe if I just focused on the usual four or six selections, more people would listen to all of it. Maybe most listeners won’t make it to the end or will skip over some of the music. But if I leave out something, it’s guaranteed that no one will find their way to it through their visits here. (Of course, I’m not vain enough to believe that coming here is the only way anyone discovers music.)

There’s probably no right answer, only doing what feels right in the moment. So, off we go…. Continue reading »

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