Islander

AN NCS PREMIERE: NEKUS — “KATABASIS”

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Mar 032023
 

The Ancient Greek word katabasis referred to a journey into the underworld — the Hades of myth — but in time it has come to refer to travels into the realm of the dead in tales beyond the stories of Odysseus and Orpheus.

“Katabasis” is also the name of the song we’re premiering today from the debut album of the Italian/German band Nekus, and as song titles go, this one was a perfect choice — because the music is horrifying and hopeless, supernatural and suffocating.

It does seem to rudely usher us into an ugly, abominable place where only the dead may dwell, and suffering is endless. But as you’ll discover, the song is also a sonic cataclysm of immense destructive power. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: OCTOBER NOIR

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Mar 032023
 

 

(We present today Comrade Aleks‘ extensive interview with Tom Noir, founder of the U.S. gothic doom band October Noir.)

It’s a sort of tricky question, but there are always “new” bands which are inspired by “old” ones. For good or for bad you can’t escape this, it’s a natural order. Can you imagine 165,195 unique bands in Metal-Archives? It’s just impossible. So I’m ok when I hear a band imitating the sound of a band I like. And don’t forget that there are really individual bands that are nearly impossible to follow or imitate.

I was shocked when I heard October Noir for the first time, as their incredible resemblance to the almighty (but dead) Type 0 Negative is something beyond my comprehension. Yet the band’s founder Tom Noir was able to do that, and first of all it’s in his vocals, though I must admit that I appreciate October Noir not only for the familiar vibes of colossal doom-riffs and gothic atmosphere but also for a refreshing feeling which is difficult to describe.

The band’s third album Fate, Wine, & Wisteria was released in 2021 but a new one is on its way, and anyway I had questions I wanted to ask Tom. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FORCEFED HORSEHEAD — “THE BLACK SUN”

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Mar 022023
 

What is it about music which inflicts humongous levels of near-physical sonic punishment, coupled with moods of abject hopelessness or unchained rage, that generates an urgent kind of magnetism for metal listeners? Doom-drenched earth-shakers aren’t comforting, and at pitch-black levels of intensity they aren’t the kind of thing that leaves you humming a tune. So what is it?

We’re pondering these questions after repeatedly listening to the harrowing song we’re premiering today off a new album entitled Monoceros by the unforgettably named Norwegian band Forcefed Horsehead. Even for metalhead whose ears and minds have been roughed up by years of sonic abuse and thus become de-sensitized to crushers, “The Black Sun” is a special kind of ruination capable of leaving people slack-jawed. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PLAGUE BEARER — “SUMMONING APOCALYPTIC DEVASTATION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Mar 012023
 

The stylistic banner of Seattle’s Plague Bearer brands the band as Unholy Black Satanic War Metal. The striking cover art of their debut album is itself a devotional to demons, and the song titles also scream blasphemy at the top of their lungs. The band’s cloaked, hooded, and masked countenances on stage double-down on the ethos of Hell come to Earth. And of course the album’s title, Summoning Apocalyptic Devastation, is perhaps the most brazen foreshadowing of the ruin within.

Given all that, some people might already be expecting nothing more than the kind of malformed and potentially monotonous sonic abuse that’s the stock in trade of many units who sadistically attack listeners’ ears under the genre sign of Blackened Death Metal. But there you would be leaping to the wrong conclusion.

To be sure, Summoning Apocalyptic Devastation is an explosive and devastating experience, frequently poisonous, almost relentlessly bone-smashing, and as intrinsically evil as all the surface hallmarks would lead you to expect. But the songs also pack riveting riffs, mood-changing melodies more nuanced than you would guess, and the performance skill of veteran executioners.

And thus in those ways (and others) the album may surprise listeners (less of a surprise if you’ve heard any of the track premieres that have preceded the full stream we bring you today). Indeed, we think it’s likely that this is a record which will still be vividly remembered come list-making time at the end of this year. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DESOLATE REALM — “THROUGH THE DEPTHS”

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Feb 282023
 

The name of our site has never been a literal commandment, but it’s also fair to say that we tend to observe its mandate more often than we bend or break it. We need a good reason to do the bending and breaking — but we’ve got a very good reason today, thanks to the return of the Finnish duo Desolate Realm and their forthcoming second album Legions.

Formed by members of Decaying, Chalice, and Altar of Betelgeuze, this Helsinki band worship at the altar of traditional epic doom metal, but with a penchant for highly infectious riffs and the kind of potent grooves that kick-start hearts.

Not for naught does the advance press for the album proclaim that it combines “the epic grandeur of doom-metal acts like Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus with classic heavy-metal of Savatage and Metal Church and the mighty groove of Black Sabbath“. And we’ve got the proof in our premiere of Legion‘s second single, “Through the Depths“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VANISHMENT — “NO MORE TORTURE”

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Feb 282023
 

(On March 3rd Dead Sage Records will release No More Torture, the debut album from Seattle-based Vanishment, and today we’re delighted to premiere the album in its entirety, preceded by the following review written by Todd Manning.)

Retro-thrash can be a dicey affair. Too many bands opt to play an oversimplified version of the genre and forget the nuance and complexity exhibited by many groups as they developed. However, this isn’t the case on No More Torture, the debut full-length from Seattle’s Vanishment.

While No More Torture is the group’s debut, these guys are no rookies. Containing current members of Trial, Himsa, Heiress, and Lair of the Minotaur, their collective experience shines through in both instrumental chops and songwriting acumen. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NINE ALTARS

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Feb 282023
 

 

(Today we have a big and well-earned exception to the rule in our site’s title, as we present Comrade Aleks‘ new interview of Kat Gillham from the epic UK doom band Nine Altars. Their debut album The Eternal Penance will be released on CD tomorrow by Good Mourning Records, with vinyl coming later via Journey’s End Records.)

This traditional epic doom metal band was founded in Durkham not so long ago by Kat Gillham who performed this kind of music back in the mid-’90s with Blessed Realm. It seems that some of the other bands and projects where she’s involved, like Uncoffined (death-doom), Lucifer’s Chalice (heavy metal), and Winds of Genocide (crust / death metal), have been on temoprary hiatus — though Thronehammer (doom metal) remains very active — so this band has a new line-up:

Kat Gillham performs drums and vocals, Charlie Wesley and Nicolete Burbach play guitars, and Jamie Thomas is responsible for the bass’ low vibration.

Good Mourning Records seems to ready to release Nine Altars’ debut The Eternal Penance, and regarding the three tracks I’ve heard, that should be a truly notable exemplar of UK doom metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: IDLE RUIN — “SHACKLED FOR ADORNMENT”

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Feb 272023
 

Just last month Bitter Loss Records released the debut album of the Australian band Idle Ruin (from Brisbane). Entitled The Fell Tyrant, it unleashed nine tracks of mainly full-throttle thrashing death, hurling the listener into one exhilarating escapade after another, propelled by bone-splintering drumwork, iron-shod bass lines, wild-eyed guitar work, and larynx-lacerating vocal extremity.

Idle Ruin packed each song with head-spinning twists and turns as well as spine-slugging and skull-smacking grooves, channeling mayhem, madness, and a general air of marauding savagery. The album’s explosive energy was (and is) potent enough to power massive turbines, but the band also picked their moments to downshift their racing speed, darken the mood, make room for surprising instrumental maneuvers, and plow up the pavement with bursts of jolting (and highly headbangable) brutishness.

And although there’s an abundance of guitar soloing through the album, the “personalities” of those solos change repeatedly, sometimes exotic, sometimes ecstatic, sometimes despairing, and sometimes downright berserk.

The album’s opening track, “Shackled for Adornment“, sets the stage for this mind-bender of a record in electrifying fashion, and that’s the song which is the subject of the video we’re premiering today. It was filmed at the The Fell Tyrant album launch show at The Bearded Lady venue in Brisbane on January 21st of this year. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AYYUR — “A CHANT FOR THE DEAFS”

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Feb 272023
 

Extreme metal finds fertile soil in nearly every corner of the globe, though the soil is undeniably less hospitable in some places than others. It is, for example, more difficult for such musicians to become noticed (and possibly more difficult even to indulge their creative interests) in a country like Tunisia, a land where many ancient cultures intersect in the northern-most geography of Africa. But there, Ayyur was born 16 years ago, and has managed to survive and, against all odds, even to thrive.

After Ayyur‘s inception, Metal Archives shows us that the project quickly released an EP, a pair of splits, and a demo in its early years, but then fell silent for nearly a decade. Beginning in 2018 Ayyur has returned, releasing three EPs with only two-year gaps between them (including last year’s Hidden Room Sessions I), and now the band has at last completed a debut album named Prevail, a title which seems to stand for what the band itself has managed to do.

We’re told by the labels which will release it that through this new album of blackened doom metal “the artist observes the desolating reality which surrounds them, finding a personal path and the answers to their own questions”. It is thus also described as “an intimate album, strongly introspective and ruthless at the same time, with lyrics sharp and pungent like blades”. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: XALPEN, KALMANKANTAJA, EXDESTRIER, PESTIS, DEKADENS

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Feb 262023
 


Xalpen

I read an article about sleep this morning, It reinforced the idea that I’m doing the right thing sleeping 8-10 hours a night on the weekends, a fairly recent development for me. It also helped explain why I have such vivid dreams in the last phase of sleeping right before waking up, even if they’re like ghosts that tend to vanish within minutes of waking. The article may be pay-walled, but you might find it interesting too (it’s here), or maybe you already know the details.

On the downside, sleeping late makes for a slow start on my weekend NCS posts, especially when I don’t get a head start on the selections the night before. Fortunately there’s someone out there who may have a different sleep cycle, in addition to being in a different time zone, and what he finished very late last night in his time zone was waiting for me in my in-box this morning.

Is it stealing for me to just copy/paste a few things from his collection right into this post to make up for my late start? If so, I confess to theft. At least I won’t pass it off as my own. But I do have a few of my own choices to lead the way in blackening the sabbath. Continue reading »

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