Islander

AN NCS INTERVIEW: AMPUTATE

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Feb 072023
 

 

(In today’s new interview Comrade Aleks engages in a very lively discussion with vocalist/guitarist Tom Kuzmic from the Portuguese death metal band Amputate, whose latest album was released last year by Massacre Records.)

The band’s name should tell you everything and you don’t need the crystal ball to learn what Amputate is about.

The core lineup of this Florida-styled death metal crew from Portugal located to Switzerland some time ago, but they keep on playing the same bloodthirsty razor-sharp stuff even in relatively comfortable Zurich. Their second album Dawn of Annihilation interested Massacre Records and these eight tracks of gore and the macabre have been available on CD and vinyl since October 2022.

Tom Kuzmic, the band’s front-man, consults us about sonic surgery and its contraindications. And how much of good old gore is left in Amputate? Let’s find it out. Continue reading »

MITHRIDATUM: “HARROWING”

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Feb 072023
 

(This is DGR‘s extensive review of the debut album by the multi-national band Mithridatum, recently released by Willowtip Records.)

Mithridatum are a new death metal trio that are part of a much larger musical wave taking place within the metal scene. Over recent years the concept of a dissonant death metal band has been a slow-growing sub-section of an already fractured and widely spread subgenre of metal to begin with. Reflective of the large motions in the quest for the nebulous ‘heavy’, many artists have found new vitality in making some of the ugliest and most unapproachable music out there, where a listener can recognize the barest components but otherwise spend just as much time fighting to find the appeal in any of it, or having the music actively reject the idea of approachability.

There’s so much incredibly cool stuff happening within the spinning vortex of sound that emanates from Mithridatum but you’re just as often subjected to nightmarish sonic hellscapes as best as the band could write them. Fascinating? Yes. Friendly? Not a chance in hell. Harrowing may be one of the more apt titles out there for the five songs and thirty-five minutes of music on the group’s first full-length release. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE GIANT’S FALL — “DARK INSIDE”

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Feb 062023
 

In the annals of Greek mythology Talos was a giant bronze automaton, created by the god Hephaestus at the direction of Zeus, who gave Talos to the king of Crete to protect the island from invaders. To do so, Talos marched around the island three times every day and hurled boulders at approaching enemy ships.

At his core, Talos had one long vein running from his neck to his ankle, where the vein was closed shut by a bronze bolt. Within it flowed a mysterious life source of the gods that the Greeks called ichor. Talos met his end in the tale of the Argonauts, when the sorceress Medea induced Talos to dislodge the bolt, causing the ichor to flow out, exsanguinating him.

We summarize the tale of Talos because it is the conceptual core of the self-titled debut album by The Giant’s Fall, a Greek project that’s the experimental solo work of Mikebass (ex – Lucky Funeral & Bone To Rust) and whose name itself seems connected to the myth. The album’s song titles themselves point to the connection: “Ichor”, “Dark Inside”, “The End of Talos”, “The Giant King”, and “Hades Calling”, although it becomes clear that the album’s themes aren’t limited to the myth.

The Giant’s Fall was first released digitally by the band in December 2018, and then digitally by FYC Records on December 25, 2022. But FYC Records will also be releasing a limited CD edition of the album on February 28th, and to help spread the word we’re now premiering an official video for the album track “Dark Inside“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NIGHT HAG

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Feb 062023
 

(Below we present Comrade Aleks‘ new interview with the crushing Virginia-based death/doom band Night Hag.)

Night Hag‘s debut full-length album Phantasmal Scourge was released one year ago by Rotted Life Records. However the band was founded somewhere in Virginia in about 2010 and its discography is far from poor, as it contains three demos, an EP, a split release, and even live album.

Jon Ransom (drums, vocals), Joe Arida (guitars), and Sam Fox (bass, vocals) are fans of macabre and savage death-doom metal, so covers of Mortician and Necrophagia sound natural in Phantasmal Scourge. There was no big news nor a new album’s announcement since its release, but Night Hag was in my “need-to-interview” list for nearly the entire year, and here we go at last.

Joe Arida (guitars) is going to tell us about Night Hag‘s dirty deals. Continue reading »

SANGUISUGABOGG: “HOMICIDAL ECSTASY”

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Feb 062023
 

 

(Here’s Wil Cifer‘s review of the new album by Ohio-based Sanguisugabogg, released on February 3rd by Century Media Records.)

Normally this brand of death metal is not my thing. Early Cannibal Corpse was once my go-to for this kind of thing, which these days often gets labeled as gore-grind. These guys are clearly tired of being tied to such labels, and aside from the low guttural vocals, they have set themselves apart from being another spawn of Cannibal Corpse’s mutilated womb with their fetish for grooves. There is a pungent whiff of hardcore to some of their riffs, which have the breakdown feel.

Normally when it comes to a band that knocks my headphones back due to the sheer density of their sound, my first concern becomes, can they write songs? The first two here earned a thumbs up in this department. Thus the challenge for a band who lives off brutality for the sake of brutality was to keep interest. Which they did with their evershifting flow of groove-drenched riffs. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: FVNERALS, WALLOWING, MORTE FRANCE, FAGUS, SKOGNATT, AHASVER

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Feb 052023
 

I hope this Sunday is treating you well. Or maybe you’re landing here on Monday… or Tuesday… or (heaven forfend) on Hump Day (what a lot of time those people have been wasting).

My Sunday is off to a slow start, thanks for asking. I had a riot of a Saturday night. Splattered on the couch with the cats, binge-watching a fantastic series I don’t need to name (it was Slow Horses) until way late. So I was late to rise and feeling very groggy. But there’s nothing like plunging into a lake of black and black-adjacent metal (sometimes only barely black-adjacent) to kick-start your heart. Here’s what I surfaced with today: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CHAT PILE, HANGING GARDEN, KOMMAND, BACCHUS, SPIRIT POSSESSION

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 042023
 


Chat Pile – photo by Juliette Boulay

For this Saturday’s roundup I decided to limit myself to single new songs and videos released in just the last few days. The first is in support of a 2022 album, and the rest are advance tracks from records due for release in March or April. I feel pretty confident in saying that I’ll have more to recommend through a Shades of Black column tomorrow, though I haven’t yet decided what to put in it.

CHAT PILE (U.S.)

Chat Pile probably don’t need more help getting noticed. Last year’s God’s Country popped up on most of the year-end lists assembled by notable mags and sites that get lots of eyeballs on them. But the band’s new video for the song “Tropical Beaches, Inc.” doesn’t have half a million views yet, so that needs some help. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ATHANATHEOS, DESERT STORM, BROUILLARD, AMPUTATION SPREE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 032023
 

It’s another Bandcamp Friday today. From my perspective, that’s a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s good for bands and labels because Bandcamp doesn’t take their usual cut from sales. On the other hand, my e-mail in-box (which is also the main address for NCS) gets deluged with Bandcamp-related messages and notifications, and that’s on top of the usual traffic of 200-300 e-mails to NCS per day. Trying to thoroughly crawl through all that takes more time than I have.

Still, because it’s a Bandcamp Friday I thought I ought to make at least a feeble head-start on the usual Saturday round-up. So here’s what I picked. Mind you, the songs definitely are not feeble.

ATHANATHEOS (France)

This French band is returning with a concept album named Cross. Deny. Glorify. It’s described as one “that follows the paths of three generations of Roman soldiers as they watch their empire decay from within in the wake of Emperor Constantine’s adoption of Christanity as its official religion”. All the songs are described as distinct and different in character, befitting this generation-spanning narrative. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HELLCRASH — “GRAVERIPPER”

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Feb 032023
 

It’s time for a rude ‘n’ crude celebration of filth, fury, and fun! Plus sickness, sleaze, and slaughter!

We stole some of those words, but we endorse them because they well-suit the music on Demonic Assassination, the hell-raising second album by the infernal Italian deviants in Hellcrash which is racing toward a lavish March 24 release by Dying Victims Productions.

Those who’ve indulged in the band’s first album Krvcifix Invertör know that they followed in the cloven-hooved footsteps of such groups as Bulldozer, Slayer, and Venom, whipping up a gnashing and pulse-pounding convulsion of blackened thrash and speed metal. Those ingredients still make the fuel for the new album, but with even more variety and an even tighter execution in the sound. As proof, we’re premiering a song from the album named “Graveripper“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KISHI — “DEAD LOST RUMBLED”

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Feb 032023
 

The Angolan heavy metal band Kishi first came together in October 2017 and eventually released a pair of singles and a 2018 debut album named Depois da Meia Noite, as well as performing live in Angola, Namibia, and Botswana. And then, of course, the pandemic struck in 2020 and forced the band into a hiatus.

Yet, as happened with many other bands around the world, the songwriting didn’t stop, and in fact took inspiration from the disruptive and disturbing impact of covid’s spread. The result was a new Kishi EP fittingly entitled KHAOS, which is set for release on February 17th by the South African label Mongrel Records and the Portuguese label Nightfear Productions. As the band have explained:

“The Khaos EP reflects the band’s experience and feelings in the face of the social chaos in which the world plunged during and after the pandemic. It talks about wars and personal struggles against demons, without leaving aside Angolan mythology in the theme “’69 Feiticeiros e 14 Fruxas’”.

Speaking of personal demons, what we have for you today is an excellent video for a head-hooking bruiser of a song from the EP called “Dead Lost Rumbled“, which was inspired by vocalist ManKav‘s experience with sleep paralysis. Continue reading »

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