Islander

Dec 152022
 

In September 2018 we came across a song from the then-forthcoming self-titled debut EP by the Dutch band Defy the Curse, and it lit us up like a torch. The band was relatively new then, but was composed of members who had previously honed their sonic weaponry in such groups as Legion Of The Damned, Collision, Slam Squad, Inhume, and Acid Deathtrip. In verbally frothing about the music, we ticked off some of what made it so gripping:

“First, they know how to cook up a clobbering caveman riff, and then flesh out that brutal thing with a massive HM-2 tone and the kind of drum-and-bass work that slugs damned hard right in the solar plexus (and the neck). The first minute-and-a-half of the song is just made for headbanging (and made very well for that purpose).

“Second, the band are also adept at awakening that dormant circle pit in your head, which is what they do when they start romping, rampaging, and chainsawing after that mid-paced opening segment. (But fear not, they come back to that staggering opening rhythm soon enough).

“And third, the band’s vocalist clearly needs to be tested for rabies.”

The rest of the EP also proved to be a hellaciously good offering of primal death/crust, and it left us hungry for more. Five years of hunger is a long time, but at last we’ve got new music from these marauders, in fact a full album’s worth of new music, which will be brought to us on January 15th by Hammerheart Records under the name Horrors of Human Sacrifice. What we’re fiendishly happy to bring you today is an album track named “Eidolon of the Blind“. Continue reading »

Dec 152022
 

Stereogum easily qualifies as one of the “big platform” web sites whose year-end lists of metal we perennially include in our LISTMANIA series. Of course, the site appeals to an audience of music fans much larger than devoted metalheads, but its staff includes a talented and tasteful group of metal writers who among other things are responsible for the site’s monthly “The Black Market” column, which has been a great source of discovery for extreme music for ten years running now.

It follows that Stereogum‘s annual metal list is one I especially look forward to seeing every year, and the 2022 edition is out now. As usual it consists of only 10 entries, with accompanying reviews of the choices by Ian Chainey, Michael Nelson, and Wyatt Marshall. And again as usual, the list is preceded by an essay written by Ian Chainey.

I’d like to think that if I didn’t write for NCS every day I could use the time to come up with something as funny, erudite, and thought-provoking as that essay, but if I’m being honest I know I couldn’t. Same goes for the reviews accompanying the 10 album picks. But I don’t let that humbling and somewhat jealous realization interfere with enjoying the writing, which I did, and always do.

The essay also includes statistics, such as this one: “There have been 7,994 full-lengths released or slated to be released in 2022. That’s slightly off 2020’s 11-month pace of 8,409. Either way, and everyone please chant this like we’re on a game show, ‘Metal, there is a lot of it.’” That’s for damn sure. Continue reading »

Dec 142022
 

(The Cretan Epic Doom band Doomocracy have recently released their latest album through No Remorse Records, and that provided a good occasion for Comrade Aleks to arrange the following interview with Doomocracy vocalist Michael Stavrakakis.)

Epic doom is a specific genre. Once Candlemass gave it a twisted and loud birth, nothing remained the same. Candlemass set the high level with the performance of vocalists like Johan Langquist, Messiah Marcolin, and Robert Lowe, so any new band which tried to choose the same path naturally needed a strong vocalist.

Doomocracy was founded in Heraklion, Crete in 2011 and it seems they have one. The band’s lineup has remained the same since it was born: Manolis Sx (bass), Minas Vasilakis (drums), Angelos Tzanis (guitars), Harry Dokos (guitars), and Michael Stavrakakis (vocals). And they succeeded, as according to Doom Chronicles the band turns out to be demanded by European doom metal festivals and just released their third album – Unorthodox.

We discussed Doomocracy’s past and present with Michael and here’s the result of our conversation: Continue reading »

Dec 142022
 

 

Reading year-end lists that someone other than you made tend to provoke mixed feelings of validation, perplexity (which sometimes verges into anger), and discovery. The opportunity for discovery is the main reason we here at NCS devote so much space to our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza, even though we know those other feelings will also be in the mix of reactions. The list we’re re-publishing from Bandcamp Daily will probably be no different in any of these respects.

Bandcamp, of course, has become a vital platform for the digital release of music of all stripes (and physical merchandise as well) since its founding in 2007. Bandcamp used to release an annual compilation of performance statistics, but I haven’t found a similar report since the one they released for 2017. However, the main Bandcamp page today reports that “Fans have paid artists $1.03 billion using Bandcamp, and $187 million in the last year”.

Those are staggering totals, and some part of those enormous sums has been the result of Bandcamp’s laudable decision to continue the monthly tradition of “Bandcamp Fridays” that they began during the height of the pandemic.

In the summer of 2016, the company launched Bandcamp Daily, an online music publication about artists on the platform. Bandcamp Daily regularly publishes articles of relevance to metalheads, though metal is of course only one of hundreds of music genres represented on Bandcamp. Recently Bandcamp Daily once again published its list of the year’s Best Metal Albums, again under the byline of Brad Sanders, who writes the monthly metal column for Bandcamp. Continue reading »

Dec 132022
 

Near the beginning of this month Toronto’s Nihilist Death Cult unleashed their debut album Death To All Tyrants — and in this case the overworked term “unleashed” is damned accurate. There’s as much brazen and brawling fury in the record as you might expect from its title.

To express that anger, Nihilist Death Cult stew together ingredients of hardcore punk, death metal, and grindcore in an iron cauldron over a hungry blaze. The bass hits like a sledgehammer, the d-beat gallops and double-bass fusillades feel like hammers to the skull, the riffs have a cruel, mauling tone and they slash like serrated blades and boil in voracious feeding frenzies, and the vicious growls and rabid howls are utterly barbaric.

It’s a full-throttle, full-force rampage that wastes no time, discharging 9 tracks in less than 15 minutes total, and for an extra dose of exhilaration the music includes some wild guitar soloing that sears like acetylene torches applied to flesh.

Here at this site we stupidly missed this release, and maybe some others missed it too, which is why we’re fucking stoked to premiere a lyric video today for one of those 9 onslaughts — a track called “Obey & Consume“. Continue reading »

Dec 132022
 

To celebrate its five-year anniversary the Dutch underground label Void Wanderer Productions will be releasing a special shirt and a CD compilation that includes songs from 10 of the label’s bands. Today we premiere one of those 10 tracks, a song exclusively recorded for the comp by the French black metal band Tattva.

This new song, “Le Déluge de l’âme“, marks Tattva‘s first appearance at our site, but it’s certainly not this solo project’s first recording. In short order Tattva has released two albums since 2020, including the 2021 record Nirjara (released by Void Wanderer) and this year’s Naraka, as well as two EPs and a split with the Oregon band Ashes of Old. Continue reading »

Dec 132022
 

(Our Denver-based contributor Gonzo was in the right place at the right time for the Denver edition of the Decibel Metal & Beer Fest on December 2-3, and kindly provided us the following glowing report, complete with pairings and tqsting notes.)

Few pairings are quite as fine as loud music and weapons-grade fermented beverages.

And perhaps no publication has a better grasp of that fine tandem than Decibel, one of the few print magazines in heavy music that’s still going strong. Fortunately for those of us in the Rocky Mountains (and a good chunk of intrepid travelers), the good folks at Decibel announced this year that they’d be bringing their celebrated Metal & Beer Fest to Denver for the first time.

After soldiering through a glorious 48 hours of incredible music and outstanding ales, IPAs, stouts, lagers, porters, and everything in between, I can confidently say Decibel found the perfect location to invade for this festival. If only my eardrums and liver would agree. Continue reading »

Dec 122022
 

As I explained in yesterday’s round-up, we’re now beginning a week when (by design) we don’t have the normal volume of premieres on the calendar. This gives me more time to stare at the wall (I swear there’s a face in that wood plank), pick lint from my navel, twiddle my thumbs, and try to pull together more round-ups of new songs and videos.

The timing is fortuitous, because despite the fact that only a couple of weeks remain in the year, new songs keep pumping out of the heavy metal firehose, and my list of them continues to metastasize. In trying to figure out which ones to recommend here, I decided to leave out some of the bigger names, such as the new songs from Memoriam and Ne Obliviscaris, and to end with a compilation that I’m making no effort to “review”. Continue reading »

Dec 122022
 

 

(Hope Gould returns to NCS with this lively review of the forthcoming debut album by Boston-based black metal band Malleus.)

In 2016, Boston’s Malleus served up a wholly satisfying slab of first-wave-worship black metal with their debut EP, Storm of Witchcraft. Unmistakably channeling Bathory’s evil, primitive approach to Venömhead proto-thrash, Malleus drive their freshly sharpened necromantic blade deep into the heart of black metal’s beginnings. While many bands tap into the same necrotic root, Malleus capture a true metal vitality that is often imitated and rarely replicated.

Revisiting this approach in the subsequent tease of an EP, Night Raids, the underground was left eager for a further glimpse into their portal of the past. At long last, the sinister portal has been re-opened with the announcement of their debut full-length, The Fires of Heaven, set for release on January 27th through Armageddon Label. Continue reading »

Dec 112022
 


Antecantamenum – Melpomenë

For people who showed up here expecting to find SHADES OF BLACK on this Sunday, you will find some black and “blackened” metal in this round-up, but I decided to expand the musical boundaries. I try to compile music across many metal sub-genres on Saturdays, but couldn’t manage it yesterday because of a Zoom meeting for my fucking day job that began at 8:30 a.m. and lasted until almost 1:00 p.m. It felt like the Bataan Death March except without actual deaths (though when someone dies in a Zoom call it’s not always immediately apparent).

It’s a shame that happened, because even though we’re getting very close to the end of the year, a ton of new metal continues to roll out and I really could have used two weekend columns to highlight some of the new songs and videos instead of just this one. But this one will have to do, at least for now. However, I do believe I can follow it with another one tomorrow. Continue reading »