Islander

OUR LIST OF 2022’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 2): IMMOLATION, KONVENT, MANTAR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2022  No Responses »
Jan 032023
 

In my mind it was a foregone conclusion that this list would include something off the 2022 albums by these three bands. Picking just one track from each of them was a bigger challenge — and yes, my self-made and self-imposed rule for this list is that it will include only one song by any one band, hard as it might be to pick just one.

Why I decided to put the following three songs together in one segment of the list, I’m not 100% sure, but it may have had something to do with the fact that all three songs were first presented with three excellent videos.

IMMOLATION (U.S.)

I think I could have written a track list for Acts of God, taped it to the wall, closed my eyes, and thrown a dart at it, and wherever the dart struck on the track list would have made a fine choice for one of 2022’s most infectious songs. Not wanting to further disfigure any walls, or more likely to hit something a few feet away from the target, I tried to approach the task a little more rationally, but impulse won out anyway. Continue reading »

SIX CULT RECORDS TO HELP YOU ENDURE “THE WITCHER: BLOOD ORIGIN” (on mute)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 032023
 

 

(Axel Stormbreaker returns… and we’ll let him explain what he’s up to this time.)

I didn’t expect myself writing another movie-themed article that soon. Mostly due to my usual concern of saturating a fun idea; especially since a similar installment has been in the cards for a quite a while. The thing is, while I’m firmly convinced we can never have too much of a good thing in our hands, it’s best to remain prudent towards any concept that’s relatively uncommon in metal reviews.

But then again, there are definite exceptions to any rule. Especially, in the occasions when any admirers of fictional cinematography experience outright negligence to an offensive degree. An educated guess is most writers out there will either praise, or bash, or even unfold mixed opinions any readers are (vaguely) aware of. So, here are six, six, six cult records instead (or any other of your own choosing) to play repeatedly, while watching The Witcher: Blood Origin on mute. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2022’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 1): WHITE WARD, TRIBAL GAZE

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2022  4 Responses »
Jan 022023
 

 

We seem to pick up new readers every year, even as some older readers finally give up and bid us an adios, with or without middle fingers raised. So I guess it’s still worth telling people what they’re getting themselves into with this series, though it’s not worth writing a brand new preface, hence my copying of the one from last year.

This is traditionally the last part of our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza, which is why I’m beginning it today, since the other main part of the series ended today with this post. This particular series isn’t about best albums or best shorter releases, and it isn’t even about best songs. As the title says, it’s about “most infectious” songs. Some of those might be among the year’s best songs, but in every year there are stand-out songs that aren’t immediately infectious, and actually might never be. Conversely, there are some highly infectious songs every year that most people wouldn’t critically acclaim as great works of art.

The process of compiling this list is a bit bizarre, or at least very poorly planned. Let me explain: Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2022: A YEAR-END LIST FROM SEB PAINCHAUD (TUMBLEWEED DEALER)

 LISTMANIA 2022  1 Response »
Jan 022023
 

(Seb Painchaud, the main man behind the Montréal band Tumbleweed Dealer, has very expansive and eclectic musical tastes, which is one reason why for seven years in a row we’ve asked him to share a year-end list with us. This one, as usual, goes in all sorts of different directions. And if it hadn’t been for a malfunctioning NCS spam filter we would have shared it with you a lot sooner than now.)

Feels like these lists are getting closer and closer apart…

Around the beginning of October, I realized I had hundreds of 2022 releases I had not gotten around to listening to yet, and compiled a playlist. It was over 200 hours long. It was quite disheartening. I’ve listened to that playlist exclusively since, adding a bunch of releases every week to it, barely making a dent in it. As I write this at the beginning of December, it’s down to 110 hours. To be honest, my list has not changed much since I started that process. So here is a list that is “lived in” with no last-minute infatuations, no scouring of other people’s lists, just the albums I spent the last twelve months with.

Expect a “Shit I slept on” list a few months into 2023, but for now, this sums up my year… Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK 1/1/23: LEIPA, KRINGA, BESNA, SONNEILLON, INFERNAL DIATRIBE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Jan 012023
 

Well goddamn it’s a new year. I hope this finds you alive and well, and not in a morgue, a jail, or a hospital ward as a result of whatever you did last night.

My only new year’s resolution is to keep breathing, though that’s not really a resolution because I have no control over it, the breathing or the ceasing to breathe. Que sera, sera. However, I do have a resolution to suggest that you adopt, which is to let no day go by without coming here to have your head rattled and ruined. (Maybe committing to engage in more acts of kindness and caring toward others wouldn’t be a bad idea either, and let some of the music do the hating for us.)

It’s a fitting coincidence that the first day of 2023 falls on a Sunday, allowing me to welcome the new year at NCS by beginning to char it to a crisp, building on whatever fires were started with gunpowder last night. Fitting, because one could argue there is no realistic hope that 2023 will be better than 2022. People will continue being shitty to each other, the Earth will continue taking revenge for the pomposity, the greed, and the negligence of humankind, and the temptation to just hunker down in a bunker for self-preservation will be strong.

On the other hand, some things will still make life worth living, even if the point of existence remains obscure, and one of those is the enjoyment of art in all its forms, even the kind of art that wants to turn the world black. Examples follow. Continue reading »

FLESHGORE: “CARNIVAL OF FLESH”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jan 012023
 

(The Ukrainian band FLESHGORE hurled us toward the end of a miserable 2022 in a rampage, and DGR says hello to 2023 with a review of this brutal monster in our first post of the new year.)

If nothing else, FLESHGORE are brave for multiple reasons given the state of the world. One of them being that they are brave enough to unleash an album on December 20th, right in the midst of the year-end list season and into the lead-up to void week where nothing happens on account of the holidays, unless you live in a war zone.

I’ve often joked around here that the subjects of today’s writeup must have their name always written in ALL CAPITAL letters. The sort of rock-crushing brutal stupidity that powers their world of death metal is the type in which caveman grunting is the norm, and honestly, having a name that consists of nine letters may be a little bit intense for the type of person this music embodies. That’s why you’ve often seen us joking that their name is always going to be FLESHGORE around here.

Of course, you don’t get to be that way without having struck upon a vein of brutal death metal so pure that you could be considered a lighthouse of the genre, as if anyone hunting for what the world of brutal death metal was up to these days need look no further than the mighty FLESHGORE. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR: DEIQUISITOR, DEAD SUN, Ὁπλίτης (HOPLITES), TURIN HORSE, AMIENSUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Dec 312022
 


Deiquisitor

Today we’ve already presented Andy‘s last SYNN REPORT of 2022, but I also wanted to throw at you one last round-up of new songs, especially because new metal has continued to drop throughout this last odd week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve – a time when some people kept working and others took time off, when some people reflected on the events of 2022 and others just wished the fucking thing would end, in the hope that turning the page would bring improvements.

The title of this post is literally true. Everything I chose to recommend was something I listened to for the first time this morning. I also thought it would be fitting to focus exclusively on music that emerged just this past week.

Before I forget, I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone, both our writers and our visitors, for sticking with us in 2022. Please stay safe tonight, whatever you choose to do. We need you back with us in 2023. Hollering into a void is a less appealing prospect than hollering at people who are paying attention and might find some rays of light (and abyssal pits) in the music we’ll be yelling about. I won’t wish you a Happy New Year yet. I’ll do that tomorrow, in our first post of 2023. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RIGOR SARDONICOUS — “CAELUM ARDERE VIDISTIS”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Dec 302022
 

One of the ways we’ve tried to help introduce our visitors to new music that might strike a chord with them is through premieres of new songs and complete releases. During 2022 we did that almost every week-day for 52 weeks, and now we’ve arrived at our final premiere of 2022. And what we’re presenting now could hardly be a more fitting way to draw a heavy shroud over a moribund year.

What you’re about to hear is the opening song from Praeparet Bellum, the forthcoming seventh album by NY-based Rigor Sardonicous in a career that has spanned more than 30 years. It also happens to be this steadfast duo’s first full-length in a decade, and so calling it “long awaited” is an understatement.

As in the case of that long-ago last album, 2012’s Ego Diligio Vos, the Memento Mori label will usher the new one into the world, with the crypt doors set to open on January 23rd. Continue reading »

OH GREAT, IT’S THIS ASSHOLE AGAIN: THE THRILLING CLIMAX

 LISTMANIA 2022  1 Response »
Dec 302022
 

 

(We’ve been enjoying Neill Jameson‘s year-end lists as they’ve arrived, and making lots of new discoveries (we hope you have too), and today we bring you his fifth and final list for 2022 at NCS.)

I don’t really look at these lists as the “best of” a certain year, per se, rather just recordings I’ve enjoyed throughout whatever calendar year it currently is. However, the last part is historically what I considered “best”, so forget whatever the fuck I just said a few words ago. These were my favorites out of everything we’ve covered thus far. Continue reading »

VONLUGHLIO’S TOP 25 OF 2022

 LISTMANIA 2022  9 Responses »
Dec 302022
 

(For many, many years our friend Vonlughlio , originally from the Dominican Republic and now in North Carolina, has compiled a list of his favorite brutal death metal releases for sharing at NCS, and he’s done it again this year, with a rogue’s gallery of artwork replete with guts, blood, skulls, monsters, and other eerie and abhorrent scenes.)

It’s been so long since I have written for NCS and I do sure miss it, but with my new job and family I have almost no time to do so. Nevertheless, I will try to change this for 2023. I am just thankful that Islander, lets me post my top 25 BDM albums list each year.

To those not familiar, the reason to do a year end list just for Brutal Death Metal is to give this genre and the bands more exposure. Also, NCS writers and collaborators do a fantastic job in covering other metal genres. So, this year for BDM has been a great one, providing lots of cool releases that just blew me away from start to finish. Since this is only a list of 25 albums, some albums that you might like might not there. Probably because I did not have the chance to listen or it was not released by the time I made my choices.

Another thing, if an album you loved is not here, that does not mean it sucked, It might be because I just like the ones I chose more. Anyway, not taking too much of your time, below is my list. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries