Islander

TOP 5 BOOZE RECORDS OF 2022 THAT AUTOMATICALLY REFILL YOUR EMPTY GLASS

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 152023
 


Robot God

(The title of this post points the way. Axel Stormbreaker wrote it.)

I don’t get new stoner rock. It’s too trippy, psychedelic, or even “forced” for my taste. Normally, psych aspects do provide some shaky thrills, but not if the said riffs sound watered down to a state of indifference. It’s become too blunt, devoid of all nerve, as if a magical fairy showed up, only to cut their balls off in an instant. And believe me, I ain’t edgy for the sake of it, I’ve overplayed albums I don’t dig to the point of exhaustion, just in case I might convince myself that, yes, yes, I get it now, it’s so great and I’m so excited….

….yeah, OK, I may sound a bit of an asshole here. But let’s be honest, most old-timers I’ve known have shared relative thoughts from time to time. It’s the way people are consuming music these days; they won’t digest it properly, so why should any band spend the next three years in crafting a record. Even if the outcome is bound to sound rushed, sloppy, or even tiresome to some, you receive no assurances your effort won’t drift overlooked in the maze of sordid mediocrity.

Still, you should know none of the following records are perfect by any means. But they do offer some hardened guts, honest riffs, and, perhaps, the needed touch that may intrigue a personal flare of interest. They may not count as the cream of the crop, but they’re far too enjoyable to just not recommend. So, to each his own, but this is my 2022 Dark Horse list of Top-5 Booze Records. With the exception of trendy doom, as I take no interest in bands who excel rather at smoking weed, than writing truthful, heartfelt riffs. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CUTTERRED FLESH — “THE SYMPTOMS OF PARASITE”

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Mar 142023
 

Two years ago Transcending Obscurity Records released the humorously named Sharing Is Caring, the fifth album by the Czech brutal death metal band Cutterred Flesh. We got the opportunity to premiere a very interesting video for the absolutely bludgeoning and eviscerating song “Good Boy” (again proving that these dudes have a twisted sense of humor). That song alone, and the album even more so, demonstrated the band’s capacity for inflicting bombastic, mind-mauling, and terrifically brutalizing punishment, while also throwing in unexpected changes that keep listeners perched on their toes.

Now Cutterred Flesh are returning with new music via the same Transcending Obscurity label, and once again we have the chance to reveal a new song and a lyric video from a forthcoming release. This one is named “Symptoms of Parasite“. As usual, we want to give you a little preview of what’s about to happen to you. But where to start? The bamboozling animated video or the bamboozling brutality of the music? Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NADSAT — “MAKE MY DAY”

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Mar 142023
 

We’re going to “cut to the chase” on the video we’re premiering today, and then tell you who’s behind what will happen to you when you press “play”.

The experience doesn’t last long — just a bit more than two minutes — but long enough to feel like your bones have been bruised or broken and your mind mauled by a collision of bleakness and rage. It’s just two men doing this work, a drummer who assaults the kit like it needs killing and a guitarist/vocalist who both adds to the physical trauma and sears the senses with the screams of his instruments (including the larynx). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DEMONSTEALER

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Mar 142023
 


photo by Ashish Kamble

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview with Sahil Makhija, aka Demonstealer, whose star-studded new album The Propaganda Machine is set for release on March 31st by Black Lion Records.)

Sahil Makhija has been an active member of the Indian extreme metal underground for 25 years. Back in 1998 he started the Demonstealer solo-project, but his band Demonic Resurrection turned out to be more active and more successful. Since then Sahil took part in a few more bands, and most of them performed death metal laden stuff, and if it wasn’t enough he runs Headbanger’s Kitchen, an online cooking show where he cooks food and interviews members of other metal bands!

Right now Demonstealer demands more of Sahil’s attention as the project’s killer new album The Propaganda Machine is to be released on the 31st of March by the Sweden-based label Black Lion Records. The Propaganda Machine is bigger than just a solo album, as Sahil recorded it accompanied by experienced international musicians from extreme metal bands, and this material is remarkably extreme as well, and melodic.

And there’s an actual and sharp message behind The Propaganda Machine’s manifestos. This interview with Demonstealer will reveal more facts behind the project’s own story and the life of the Indian underground. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNPURE — “SMALL CROOKED BONES”

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Mar 132023
 

After a silence spanning nearly 20 years, Unpure are returning with a new album named Prophecies Ablaze, which will be released at the end of March by Invictus Productions and The Ajna Offensive.

Twenty years (or nearly so) is a long time, and even Unpure‘s last album (2004’s World Collapse) thus pre-dates the start of our site. From time to time we do divert from focusing on new music in order to dig back into histories we missed before our current interests in metal took root, but I don’t remember ever exploring Unpure‘s discography as it grew from 1993 through that last album. And so I’ve come to Prophecies Ablaze with no expectations.

That’s probably just as well, since the Unpure that recorded the album now includes two new guitarists, Watain‘s Pelle Forsberg and Degial‘s Hampus Eriksson, as well as erstwhile Degial drummer Emil Svensson (who apparently joined the band in 2019), with only vocalist/bassist Kolgrim remaining from all the earlier days. So it could be considered a re-start in more ways than one. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SERPENT OF OLD — “IDIOSYNCRASY”

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Mar 132023
 

Today we have an example of music that seems to arrive straight out of the sky without much warning, something that dazzles and destroys with such devastating heaviness and mind-bending but unnerving inventiveness that it’s startling to realize it’s a band’s debut effort. But that indeed is what we have — two songs from Ensemble Under The Dark Sun, the first full-length by the Turkish quintet Serpent of Old.

We don’t yet know very much about the band’s background, though it appears  they share members with the technical death/thrash band Archaic Vanity (who have one 2020 EP to their name). But the music tells us enough to pay very close attention as we wait for the album’s release by Transcending Obscurity Records. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HARDIESSE, NEO INFERNO 262, DEVOURING FAMINE

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Mar 122023
 

Guess who forgot to jump the clocks ahead one hour before bedtime last night? Yeah, that would be me. Thought I was getting a good head-start on the day when I crawled from the covers at 6:30 a.m., and then took my sweet time making coffee, catching up on all the dismal news, shaving more minutes off my life with smokes, stretching and rubbing eyes, and then suddenly realizing it was 8:30 a.m. instead of 7:30 and I hadn’t done shit on this column.

Well, who would care but me? I’m not sure, but all that really matters is that I care, and the only way to avoid feeling like a failure today was to rush ahead with a few things I had in mind, or that were messing with my mind. The hour-late clock is ticking, and other chores plus a lunch with family and friends lie ahead, so like yesterday’s roundup this one must be brief. But it’s all really good!

HARDIESSE (France)

Hard to resist checking out this first song, since Hardiesse is the project of Hyver (from Véhémence, Hanternoz, Régiment, Grylle, and more), and includes Wÿntër Ärvn (from Aorlhac) on bass and some of the vocals and Torve (from Ascète) doing the drum programming and the mix/master. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: HEAD OF THE BAPTIST, GROZA, WESELE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 112023
 

 

“Really?!?,” I can hear you say, “Is that all you saw or heard this Saturday? Or yesterday? Or the day before?”

Well, not exactly. I did check out a couple of other things, but I knew I wouldn’t have time to do more than what you’re looking at right now. It’s just been one of those weeks, when my effing day job hammered me into submission. On top of that, we had four visitors at the house yesterday, beginning at noon and extending pretty deep into the night. I slept away most of the morning, and my head has been fuzzier than usual. So this is what I have. Hoping for more tomorrow in the SHADES OF BLACK column….

HEAD OF THE BAPTIST (Belgium)

If you’re looking for a way to un-clog your head of whatever gunked it up overnight, I can testify from personal experience that this first song and video will do that, and right quick. It’s called “Succumb“, and that’s what you will do. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THYSIA — “COMMUNICATING HALLS OF THE NETHERWORLD”

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Mar 102023
 

The PR material for Thysia‘s debut album Islands in Cosmic Darkness punch lots of buttons. It informs us that the band-members’ collective experience includes participation in Haemophagus, Messa, Undead Creep, Assumption, and Nox Interitus. It makes stylistic comparisons to Craft, Varathron, Mayhem, Celtic Frost, Tangorodrim, and early Rotting Christ. It further suggests that the album will appeal to fans of Negative Plane, Malokarpatan, Cultes des Ghoules, and Funereal Presence. And thereby it creates very high expectations.

The band’s name is an ancient Greek term that refers to “ritual sacrifice,” and lyrical references in the new album are also rooted in Greek mythology. That also creates expectations — as does the album title — of ancient, supernatural, and bloody connections.

But the true proof, of course, is in the music that this Italian collective have created, and as of today we have two audio signs of the new album in advance of its April 7 release by Chaos Records — the first single “Psallo“ and the song we’re presenting today, “Communicating Halls of the Netherworld“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DIMENTIANON — “BLACK ANGEL”

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Mar 102023
 

A complete biography of the NY band Dimentianon would consume many chapters, and probably test the patience of most readers. The thumbnail sketch is that the band was born in 1995 under the name The Forgotten and then changed to Dimentianon seven years later after releasing a pair of demos, a debut album, and a split. In the ensuing years Dimentianon experienced numerous lineup changes, participated in many shows with numerous household names in the metalverse, and released four more albums, most recently the 2021 “comeback” album Dreaming Yuggoth, which emerged after an 11-year gap.

Fortunately, the lineup has remained stable since then, resulting in a new album set for co-release this year on April 14th by Symbol of Domination (Moldova), Paragon Records (US), and Pest Records (Romania). Entitled Chapter VI: Burning Rebirth, it’s an hour-long work that again features founding member and vocalist M, drummer and cellist Matt Hass, keyboardist and additional vocalist Don Zaros (Evoken), and guitarist/bassist Joe Fogarazzo (who also performs church organ on the record).

Once more, Dimentianon have interwoven ingredients from black, death, and doom metal, but the eclecticism of the stylistic alchemy doesn’t end there, as you’ll discover from the song “Black Angel” that we’re premiering today through a lyric video. Continue reading »

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