Islander

SHORT BUT SWEET: REBEL WIZARD (“HARK! HARK! HARK!”) AND OSSUARY (“SUPREME DEGRADATION”)

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jul 192019
 

 

Before we move into the weekend I want to recommend two EPs. The first was released last night — I happened to notice the Bandcamp alert in my e-mail not long after it landed there, and bought it immediately. The second was released in May, but I overlooked it until a friend pointed me to it earlier this week — and it was love at first listen.

REBEL WIZARD: “HARK! HARK! HARK!”

To any regular visitors at NCS my admiration (okay, “adoration” is probably more accurate) of Rebel Wizard‘s music is well-known. Having been so consistently enthusiastic about B. Nekrasov‘s previous releases under this moniker, I was predisposed to like this one (I’ve already confessed that I bought it before listening to it). Conceivably, I could have been disappointed, in which case you would not be reading these words. Obviously, however, I’m very happy with my impulsive purchase. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: MARBURG — “POLEMICIST”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 192019
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of a debut EP by the California technical death/grind band Marburg, which was released in a CD edition by Vargheist Records on July 5th.)

This time around I would like to talk about the band Marburg from Los Angeles, California. They are a Tech Death/Grind group that formed back in 2015 and digitally released their debut EP Polemicist in 2016. At some point they signed with the South Carolina label Vargheist Records, which has recently released the EP on CD.

Getting the chance to listen to their music, I did not have any idea how it would sound, and ohh boy, this turned out to be a pleasant surprise, to say the least. For me, the sound is natural, and all the instruments play a key role in delivering in-your-face grind with tech ingredients that make it even more enjoyable. The first song, “Fuck You”, is the perfect introduction, giving the listener a taste of the wild ride they are about to experience. Once I hit play, the energy in the music was unquestionable, and the talent showcased here is superb. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SEMPITERNAL DUSK, ZEIT, CULTED, MORTAL INCARNATION, CENTENARY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 182019
 

 

I nearly finished this collection in time to post it yesterday before I had to turn to the job that pays me. The delay turned out to be fortuitous, because in the meantime I found something else I was excited to include. As usual, my aim in this selection is to showcase the variety of extreme metal, and to do some extravagant globe-trotting as well.

SEMPITERNAL DUSK

First up is a track named “Spears of Pestilence” from a new album by Portland’s Sempiternal Dusk, set for release by Dark Descent on September 27th. The album title is Cenotaph of Defectuous Creation, and it features cover art by D. Desecrator. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DETHEROUS — “RIDDEN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 182019
 

 

With an album named Hacked To Death and blood-spattered, head-cleaving cover art, you would expect the music to be… slaughtering. And this debut full-length by the death/thrashing Detherous is indeed packed with full-throttle rampages and fueled by a riotous, take-no-prisoners spirit. But this fearsome foursome from Calgary, Alberta, Canada do a whole lot more with their music than slash and burn. They’re adept at creating sensations of mania and mayhem, but the music is also adventurous, and full of surprising twists and turns.

We’ve got a  prime example of these qualities in the song we’re premiering today from Hacked To Death in advance of the album’s release on August 16th by Redefining Darkness Records. The name of the song is “Ridden“, and the band’s rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist Damon MacDonald describes its subject matter in these words: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VICTUS — “DEMON”

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Jul 182019
 

 

Last year Victus made their recording debut with a well-received EP entitled Sacrifice, and have followed that with hard-charging live performances in support of such bands as Crowbar, Monolord, Conjurer, Raging Speedhorn, and Ingested — and will soon include their appearance at Bloodstock Open Air in the UK next month.

Meanwhile, this quartet from Southern England have also been working on a debut album that will showcase their addictive blend of doom, sludge, and Southern Blues. As a sign of what’s coming, today we’re presenting a stream of a new Victus single the day before its official release — a head-moving bone-bruiser named “Demon“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: RUNE “BLASPHEMER” ERIKSEN (VLTIMAS, EARTH ELECTRIC, AURA NOIR)

 Interviews  5 Responses »
Jul 182019
 

 

(Our Norway-based contributor Karina Noctum scored a coup with this interview of Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen at the recent Tons of Rock festival in Oslo, where Blasphemer performed with his band Vltimas, which also includes David Vincent and Flo Mounier (their debut album Something Wicked Marches In was released by Season of Mist this past March). Blasphemer has left his mark on the history of metal through the music of such bands as Mayhem and Aura Noir, and more recently with Vltimas and Earth Electric. This interview touches on all these experiences, and what the future holds for him. All photos accompanying this interview were made by Andrea Chirulescu.)

 

How did the idea of forming Vltimas originate?

I’ve been playing so much extreme metal for so many years that it was always a mission of mine to form a band that I could call my little baby. Something that I created from the start, because with Mayhem, I didn’t start it; I joined Mayhem. The same with Aura Noir, I just joined them.

So it was something that was on my to-do list, you know. Starting something from scratch and building something up from the ground. So when I quit Mayhem I was thinking about it, but at the time I just thought I had to take a break from extreme metal, from Black Metal, so I did not pursue it. I did other styles within metal instead. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: REIGN IN BLOOD — “DOMUS MORTUORUM”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 172019
 

A decade after the release of their debut album Diabolical Katharsis, the German black metal band Reign In Blood have revived and triumphantly returned with a new release. While personnel departures led the band’s founding vocalist/guitarist Demon Raise to discontinue operations following that initial full-length, he resurrected Reign In Blood in 2016 and the results are captured in a new album named Missa Pro Defunctis, on which he is joined by lead guitarist/bassist Malus Deus.

Iron Bonehead Productions will release this new full-length on August 16th. One advance track (“Dawn Of A Dying Soul“) was released for listening last month, and now we present the stream of a second one — “Domus Mortuorum“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BONES — “STENCH OF THE DECEASED”

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Jul 172019
 

 

Hellfire and damnation, it’s good to have Bones back! Here at our putrid site we devoted attention to both of their previous albums — the self-titled debut in 2011 and Sons of Sleaze in 2013 (“It’s a monster of an album”, we wrote, “but the kind of monster you’ll want to curl up with on those long, lonely nights when having something’s teeth in your neck is what you need”). That second album was also the source of a song (“13”) we named to our list of 2013’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, which we described as follows: “It’s got that ugly, corrosive guitar tone — so thick, murky, and radioactive that you’ll feel like showering after hearing the song, even though you know all your skin will come off and wash down the drain. Great vocal disgorgement, too, and the riffs… just murderous”.

But wow, 2013 was a long time ago, so long ago that Bones might have fallen prey to “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome were it not for the fact that those first two albums didn’t wear out their welcome. But after those six long years these crusty death metal barbarians from Chicago have returned at last with a new album — and it’s fantastic (that’s not a shock, but it is a relief to know that they haven’t lost a step, and have instead taken some steps forward). The album’s name is Diseased, and it will be released on September 20 by Transcending Obscurity Records.

All of that is a long-winded way of explaining that we are damned happy to be presenting the premiere of a song from the new album, and it’s a great example of what makes the music of Bones stand out. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NIGHTFELL, UNMENSCH, ORM

 SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Jul 162019
 

 

This is a rare mid-week edition of a column that usually appears on Sunday. This didn’t happen by design. I was trying to select some new songs for a SEEN AND HEARD post, and by chance it happened that three of them — these three — were shades of black metal. So I decided to collect them today, and try again tomorrow for a cross-genre round-up under the SEEN AND HEARD banner.

NIGHTFELL

A Sanity Deranged is the third album by Portland’s Nightfell, a duo (Tim Call and Todd Burdette) whose music I’ve enjoyed from the beginning. It will be released on Friday the Thirteenth of September by 20 Buck Spin (who are having another great year of releases), and the first song in today’s selection is from that new album. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VHS — “DEATH AND CARNAGE COMING IN WAVES”

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Jul 162019
 

 

Thunder Bay, in the northwest of Ontario and across Lake Superior from the northern coast of Wisconsin, is home to the metal band VHS. So far as we know, Lake Superior is devoid of deviant sea monsters, killer whales, and ravenous giant sharks, but perhaps the band’s proximity to vast waters had something to do with their attraction to such submarine killers. Whatever the cause, VHS have fully embraced their attraction to ’80s films devoted to seaborne horror and their love of punk and death metal (among other musical interests, as you will soon discover) on their new album, We’re Gonna Need Some Bigger Riffs (get it?).

The new album is set for release on July 26th by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions (U.S.) and Rotten Roll Rex (Europe). The album features guest appearances on two of the songs. Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder lends his snarl to the previously premiered “Rooting For the Villain“, and the song we’re presenting today through a lyric video — “Death and Carnage Coming in Waves” — includes guest vocals by none other than Exhumed’s Matt Harvey. Continue reading »

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