Islander

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 »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ANALEPSY — “EDGE OF CHAOS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 292022
 

At a time when avid metal listeners are beginning to turn the page on what seized their attention in 2022, and to look ahead to what’s coming in the New Year, we have one more vivid reminder of just how great 2022 was for extreme metal, thanks to a tremendously good video for a tremendously good song by the Portuguese death metal band Analepsy.

The song that’s the subject of the video, “Edge of Chaos“, is the penultimate track on Analepsy‘s powerhouse second album Quiescence, which was jointly released this past spring by Agonia Records, Miasma Records, and Vomit Your Shirt Records. It was a great choice for the video because it’s convincing proof that trying to sum up Analepsy‘s songcraft as brutal or slamming death metal leaves a lot un-said, and what those labels fail to capture is part of what makes Quiescence stand out from the pack. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CONJURETH — “CREMATED DOMINION”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 292022
 

Once again, as you can see, Mark Erskine has made a stunning piece of cover art for the San Diego-based death metal band Conjureth. It’s only flaw is that it’s not violently shivering and splintering as you gaze upon it. Only in that way could it begin to manifest the sheer breathtaking madness of the music within.

As you can also see, the name of Conjureth‘s new album is The Parasitic Chambers, and it’s set for release on January 23rd by Memento Mori. Anyone who heard the band’s first album, 2021’s Majestic Dissolve, should be slobbering in eager anticipation of it, and trust us when we say to those rabid fans: You will not be disappointed.

If anything, this talented group, whose resumes include the likes of Encoffination, VoidCeremony, and Ghoulgotha, have created a record that’s even more head-spinning than what they’ve done before. Conjureth still pay homage to emergent forms of ferocious, thrash-propelled death metal from the late ’80s, but the new album is so fiendishly intricate and so technically jaw-dropping that it just makes a listener shake their head in wonder.

Consider, for example, the song we’re premiering today — “Cremated Dominion“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LAUDARE — “HER ENCHANTED HAIR WAS THE FIRST GOLD”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 292022
 

What do you do when you enthusiastically agree to premiere a video, then forget to mark the appointed day on the calendar, and then fail to make the premiere when the day arrives? Well, if you’re me you make abject apologies to the band and host the video the day after it has become public, and you still call it a “premiere” even if technically it isn’t.

In the case of Laudare’s video for their live performance of a new song named “Her Enchanted Hair Was the First Gold“, my fuck-up is especially embarrassing because of how excited I was after watching and listening to the video for the first time. The song is such a fascinating variation on our usual musical fare around here, but rest assured, there is a valid reason why Laudare call their music “violent poetry”.

Well, let’s talk about the poetry first, in both of the forms it takes. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2022: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JOHAN HULDTGREN

 LISTMANIA 2022  2 Responses »
Dec 292022
 

 

For the 12th year in a row, our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine (reviewed and premiered here) is still their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you his year-end Top 10 list, which originally appeared on Johan’s own blog.

And without further ado, we turn the floor over to Johan: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEVEN DOORS — “I’LL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 282022
 

Fans of horror films released during the ’70s and ’80s span the globe, a cult to be sure, but a large and devoted one. If we were to make a Venn diagram, we would also find a significant area of overlap with the cult of metal, and within that intersection we would find Seven Doors, a one-man horror-themed death metal band from the South West of the UK.

Through this project, named for the hotel in the Lucio Fulci film, The Beyond, Ryan Wills has combined his passion for horror films of those past decades with musical inspirations drawn from such bands as Death, Gorguts, Asphyx, Malevolent Creation, and Cannibal Corpse, and the results of those intersecting interests are to be found in Seven Doors‘ debut album Feast of the Repulsive Dead. Like Seven Doors‘ debut EP The Gates of Hell, it will be released by Redefining Darkness Records, with the arrival slated for January 27th to quickly darken the impending New Year. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TRASTORNED — “INTO THE VOID”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 282022
 

Three days and counting until New Year’s Eve, and to help get you in the mood to raise hell (even if you’ll be sitting at home and only raising hell in your head), we’re bringing you the title track from Into the Void, the debut album of the Chilean hellions Trastorned that’s now set for a January 27 release by Dying Victims Productions.

Thrash is the name of the game they play, and it’s a vicious but intricate game that pulls from a deep well of influences, including the likes of old Vio-lence, Forbidden, and Exodus, as well as prime Demolition Hammer and Morbid Saint. It’s a game in which riffs are trumps, and played on the clock, where speed counts — and kills. But as you’ll discover from the title song we’re premiering, Trastorned also put a premium on keeping their listeners off-balance as well as exhilarated. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2022: GONZO’S TOP 20 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR, PART TWO

 LISTMANIA 2022  6 Responses »
Dec 282022
 

(Today Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo presents the second half of his 2022 year-end list, counting down to the Album of the Year spot. If you missed the first Part, it’s here.)

Ah yes, here’s where we get to the good stuff.

Musically speaking, 2022 surprised me in several ways. It seems like every year just before I put this list together, there’s always the proverbial October surprise – that is, one or more albums that surface in late fall that are so damn good they upend my plans for the top 20 I was just about to write. This year, I planned for it, anticipating some absolute bangers that dropped in October and November, and those anticipations quickly bubbled into a reality that well exceeded what I was hoping for.

All told, it’s a good problem to have. Here’s where we get to my top 10 picks of the year. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2022: A “HIGH FIDELITY” YEAR-END LIST FROM AXEL STORMBREAKER

 LISTMANIA 2022  No Responses »
Dec 282022
 

(NCS contributor Axel Stormbreaker takes part in our year-end LISTMANIA series with his picks for the year’s “top 10 dark horse releases,” embellished with quotes from a certain 2000 movie and the book it was based on.)

A good compilation tape, like making a “dark horse” year-end list, is hard to do. You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention. I started with “Ljúshtaeshrhendlhë Jecan Glézma”, but then realised that you might not get any further than track one, side one, if I delivered what you wanted straight away. It’s a long song too. So I placed it in the middle of side one.

And then you’ve got to up it a notch. And you can’t have raw music and bright music together, unless the raw music sounds like bright music, or the other way around. And you can’t have two tracks that are too aligned, unless you’ve done the whole thing in parts. And the order from start to finish should be correct, regardless if you split it in segments. And… oh, there are loads of rules.

So, here we go. No bands that are well appraised are included. People will listen to their records anyway. Continue reading »

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