Islander

SEEN AND HEARD ON A BANDCAMP FRIDAY: BLACKBRAID, AN AXIS OF PERDITION, THE INFERNAL SEA, CLAUSTRUM, RANNOCH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 052023
 

Lots of people keep wish-lists in anticipation of making purchases on Bandcamp Fridays, when more of the money will go to the labels and bands. I have friends whose lists include releases from three or more years ago, or from even older albums that have only recently become available on Bandcamp. So it’s not as if people are just now looking for things to buy, much less cloely examining releases that have launched on Bandcamp just barely in time for today.

Still, on days like this I feel a compulsion to make new recommendations, even if they might drive a lot of you (or at least your bank accounts) crazy. I should add that I noticed most of what’s below before today. I just couldn’t bring myself to do more than quickly skim the 300+ Bandcamp alerts and other e-mails that landed in our in-box since midnight last night. I picked a couple of things out of that ridiculous flood, but I have no idea what else might be frothing in there.

Obviously, I could have done much more today if I’d had enough time. So I’ll have to continue tomorrow, when maybe you’ll be tempted to add to your lists for the next Bandcamp Friday.

BLACKBRAID (U.S.)

It’s fair to say that the rise of this indigenous black metal project into the consciousness of metalheads (or at least those with a taste for blackened arts) has been meteoric. The subject-matter themes of the music probably account for some of the attention, but the strength of the music would carry it far even if the themes were less important. It was thus a nice surprise to discover the debut of a lyric video for a new Blackbraid song a couple days ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OLKOTH — “TO EAT OF THE LOTUS”

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May 052023
 

The South Carolina black/death metal band Olkoth first began taking shape in 2016, formed by Zach Jeter (also in Imperivm and Lecherous Nocturne) and by Vance Jeffcoat, who passed away the following year. A debut demo emerged in 2019, and the band (with a new line-up in harness) released the “Eidolon of Flames” single in 2021 (which we had the pleasure of premiering here). Now they’re poised at last for the release of their debut album At The Eye Of Chaos by Everlasting Spew Records on the 26th of May.

Embracing themes of the occult, horror, mythology, and corruption throughout history, the new album creates sonic experiences that are ferocious and deadly, brutalizing and nightmarish. It makes good sense that the Italian maestro Paolo Girardi was enlisted to create a particularly blood-congealing piece of cover art — tentacular, abundantly skulled, and altogether hideous. You’ll understand why the artwork is so fitting when you hear the album track we’re about to premiere — “To Eat of the Lotus“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE ISUA — “DEPARTURE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 052023
 

We live in a world where engaging with strangers we don’t have to engage with is a risky endeavor. Wariness is an important self-protective instinct, even though it might prevent engagements that would turn out to be felicitous. Hell, here in the U.S. for example it seems that rubbing some stranger the wrong way could lead to gunfire.

Fortunately, the rules of engagement when it comes to new music are very different. Encountering strangers is actually something desirable, at least around this site, because it can lead to very welcome surprises, even if it may also lead to disappointment.

Case in point: Today we welcome ISUA to our pages for the first time. Getting to know their music has been a captivating experience — even though it has also led to destruction. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, APRIL 2023

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
May 052023
 


VoidCeremony

(Another month has passed into the moldy history books, and almost like clockwork Gonzo has arrived to spotlight three albums that made a better April for him, and might make a better May for you.)

April came and went, and here I am, sitting around at 5:39 p.m. on a Thursday, trying to figure out what the hell we’ve already covered during that month so I can avoid redundancy on these pages.

And holy shit – we’re just three weeks away from Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle, where I’ll be joining a significant percentage of the NCS staff for a weekend of work and revelry. If you haven’t scored tickets for that one yet, be sure that you do. The lineup this year looks positively ferocious. I’ll be the guy in the “FUCK THE D.E.A.” shirt periodically drunk on hazy IPAs. Come say hi.

Until then, here’s some new music to keep your eardrums occupied. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CULT OF EIBON

 Interviews  No Responses »
May 042023
 

(In the following interview our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks caught up with songwriter/instrumentalist Nyogtha from the Greek black metal band Cult of Eibon for what turned into a candid discussion about the band’s inspirations. themes, and principles.)

Hellenic black metal is a thing in itself. The genre which was originally associated with the names of Rotting Christ, Varathron, and Necromantia grew and bloomed with the new bands that have kept Tartarus’ dark flames burning. And so Cult of Eibon has done that.

Being forged in Athens in 2015, this band has never stopped exploring the realms of black metal, moving step by step in their own way. The EPs Fullmoon Invocation (2016) and Lycan Twilight Sorcery (2017) led them to the split with another Greek band, Caedes Cruenta, in 2018. The unholy opus magnum Black Flame Dominion (2021) was a milestone of this way, and the last Cult of Eibon release since then was the Necronomical Mirror Divination split with Ceremonial Torture released in December 2022.

One of the Cult’s founders is Nyogtha (guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals) and he’s involved in four more blackened bands, so you can imagine how busy he is. However Nyogtha found time to answer our questions, and I encourage you to take a look at what Cult of Eibon hides. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BOARGAZM — “ARMAGAMMON”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
May 042023
 

With their new album Armagammon, the South African band Boargazm have reached the end of their Aporkalypse trilogy. A twisted sci-fi narrative accompanied by comic books, it tells the story of a rebel band of time-travelling freedom fighters known as “The Pig Whisperers”, who warn the world of the impending Aporkalypse, through the Baconing, all the way to Armagammon.

And if that sounds like some weird fun, wait ’til you hear this new album. As the band’s founder Heine van der Walt has explained: “We wanted to shift our focus on doing something highly experimental and weird, yet true to our sound. So, lots of freneticism, while still retaining groove, and to see if we can balance that in a coherent method. It was a fun exercise and experience, figuring out how to do all that.” Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HOLY GRINDER — “GET WELL”

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May 042023
 

(Christopher Luedtke introduces our premiere of a new song and video from the Canadian band Holy Grinder.)

Toronto, Ontario’s Holy Grinder has been blasting out some of the harshest noisegrind since 2016. Rough, tough, mean, and gruff, the unit has been fluid in its approach while achieving a consistently brutal output. And their upcoming album 10 Desecrations will be nothing short of another bull strapped with Semtex in a China shop. Today, the band is unleashing their latest video for the new single “Get Well.” It’s time to take a trip to the cleaners. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVEFIELDS — “PILGRIMS OF AMIRAH”

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May 032023
 

There are a lot of extreme metal songs out there where the vocals are really just an accent or an afterthought, with the vocals struggling to match up with musical instrumentation that carries the lion’s share of the load. What you’re about to hear, however, is a song where the burden is almost — almost — reversed.

Especially at first, the vocals on Gravefields‘ new song “Pilgrims of Amirah” are so stunningly monstrous, macabre, and frighteningly deranged that you almost don’t notice the music around them, though perhaps that’s because the instrumentation is also deranged — and dangerously destructive.

This isn’t the first time we’ve hosted a premiere for a release by Gravefields, but because almost exactly four years have passed since the last time, it’s worth a reminder that the core of the band is a duo consisting of Irish multi-instrumentalist Alan Hurley and French lyricist/vocalist Thomas Blanc (aka “DM“), who has a very long resume of vocal credits that you can find here. On the band’s forthcoming second album Tetragrammaton, they’re joined by bassist Paul Girvin. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GAROTED — “UNFATHOMABLE MANIFESTATION”

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May 032023
 

We have one hell of a video for you today, for a vicious song that generates enough voltage to drive massive turbines to the meltdown point. Garoted easily could have made four different playthrough videos for it, each one featuring the eye-popping performance of a different band-member, but instead we get to be even more thoroughly bamboozled by watching as the screen rapidly cuts from one to the next.

The song that’s the subject of the video, “Unfathomable Manifestation“, is off this Kansas-based band’s forthcoming fourth album, Bewitchment of the Dark Ages, which is set for a May 26 release by Lavadome Productions. It ought to leave fans of savage, technically jaw-dropping death metal slobbering, both hungry and head-spun. Continue reading »

HEROD: “ICONOCLAST”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
May 032023
 

(On May 5th Pelagic Records will release a new album by the Swiss “progressive sludge” band Herod, and below we present DGR‘s review of this new record.)

Herod‘s Iconoclast is not an album you would normally prescribe for May weather, with the sun finally threatening to peak its head around a seemingly never-ending (though much appreciated) cloud season in this corner of the globe. The Swiss group’s third release is a dense block of oppressive heaviness that dresses itself in all things artificial and organic in order to become a monster attempting to fuse multiple different styles into one angular creature.

Given the amount of weapons at musician Pierre Carroz‘s disposal when it comes to Iconoclast, that monster has let its tendrils run wild to create something that is unfriendly on immediate approach, yet its sense of groove is undeniable, to the point of being near-hypnotic. Continue reading »

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