Islander

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AENAON, KOLLAPS\E, ULTAR, MERGER REMNANT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 122022
 

I devoted Friday’s round-up to new songs and videos from some of the bigger names in metal. As promised, today we’re digging deeper underground (tunneling is our preferred activity around here). But man, there were so many possible choices it may have made me cross-eyed.

To get un-crossed I fell back on four old favorites. I usually skimp a bit on the black metal in these Saturday collections because I’ve got tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK column reserved for that, but the fate of this Sunday’s column is a bit uncertain because a certain local NFL team is playing in Germany with a start time of 6:30 a.m. where I live. So I’ve made adjustments.

AENAON (Greece)

I would have checked out Aenaon‘s noirish new video even if the video’s thumbnail hadn’t shown a gorgeous pair of legs and some fetching high heels, but that sure didn’t hurt. There’s also the fact that I’ve shamefully neglected writing anything about the band’s recently released album Mnemosyne, and it’s time to make modest amends for that. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AIRSTRIKE — “POWER IN YOUR HAND”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 112022
 

The Polish band Airstrike has experienced what one might call a long period of gestation. Formed in 2014, they’ve undergone line-up changes, written and toured (now with almost 30 concerts under their belts), and spent the last two pandemic years heavily focused on finishing their debut album. At last, that album is complete, presenting 11 tracks of high-powered but dynamic thrash and heavy metal.

The name of the album is Power in Your Hand, and today we bring you an official video for the record’s turbocharged title track. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RITUAL DEATH — “VERMIN”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 112022
 

The Norwegian band Ritual Death hit our radar screen (and shattered it) in the spring of this year when the Russian label Living Temple Records released tape and digital editions of two EPs by them that had originally been released by Terratur Possessions in 2016 and 2018. A little investigation at that time revealed why those EPs were so hair-raising — the band’s line-up shares members with Behexen, Dark Sonority, Mare, and Fides Inversa, among many others.

After hearing those two EPs we expressed a hungry wish for more from this band, and hopefully soon, and the wish has been granted: Ritual Death‘s self-titled debut album is now set for release on December 5th by Shadow Records. One song from the album (“Lunae”) has already been divulged, and today we’re sharing a second one — named “Vermin“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (THE “BIG NAME” EDITION): OBITUARY, AHAB, DEVIN TOWNSEND, HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE, AT THE GATES

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 112022
 

At this site we spend much more of our time trying to unearth underground gems and to push rising stars whose music deserves a push than we do acclaiming bands who are already household names, with big labels and robust PR machineries behind them. That’s not “virtue signaling”, it’s just a fact.

Does this mean we’re elitists who turn up our noses at the music of “big names”? Not at all. Though we pride ourselves on not fawning over those names even when they trip and release music that’s more likely to provoke yawns than excitement, we’re not immune to their allure — after all, most of them got big for a reason, and some are capable of reminding us why, at least until the well of inspiration runs dry.

It so happens that this week produced new songs and videos from a lot of big names, some of whom are returning after long absences. I’ve collected five of them in this round-up. It kind of clears the way for me to spend tomorrow focusing exclusively on names more obscure. Be forewarned: there’s lots of singing here today.

OBITUARY (U.S.)

Six years after the release of their last (self-titled) album Obituary will be releasing a new one in January named Dying of Everything. Founders John and Donald Tardy and Trevor Peres are still in harness, and bassist Terry Butler and lead guitarist Kenny Andrews are back for another round too. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA BEGINS: THE DECIBEL TOP 40 FOR 2022

 LISTMANIA 2022  25 Responses »
Nov 112022
 

 

It has become an annual tradition at our putrid site to launch our year-end LISTMANIA orgy with the appearance of DECIBEL mag’s Top 40 list, because they always seem to burst from the starting gate sooner than anyone else — and they’ve done it again this year, although about a week earlier than they did in 2021. There’s also the fact that, in my humble opinion, DECIBEL is still the best print publication out there for fans of extreme metal, and their list always generates healthy discussions, so it’s a fitting way to launch the latest LISTMANIA season apart from the list’s early-bird status.

The DECIBEL list will officially appear in the magazine’s January 2023 edition, which hasn’t yet hit my own mailbox, but DECIBEL again decided (for the eighth year in a row) to scoop their own list rather than letting leeches like me leak it (actually, this year they called people like me “enterprising dorks”). They published the list on-line yesterday, and so I can now again re-publish their list without too much guilt, beyond the sheepishness that comes from being one of the factors that forced them to start outing themselves in the first place. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UDÅNDE — “I’M NOT A PESSIMIST, I’M A REALIST”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 102022
 

It’s become commonplace for metal bands to describe their new songs as “personal”, in the sense that they are inspired by real-world events experienced by band members, usually of the distressing or sad variety. Sometimes it seems that such claims are intended to make the music seem more “authentic” (“seem” being the operative word), and sometimes neither the events nor the music have the innate gravity that the bands hope for.

The forthcoming second album by Udånde, Slow Death – A Celebration of Self-Hatred, is also portrayed as a very personal record, but there’s a raw and uncomfortable honesty in the creator’s description of the events that spawned it which transcends the commonplace, and those events are likely to resonate with a lot of listeners. Moreover, the music itself isn’t commonplace either. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KRVNA — “IN THE ABSENCE OF GODS”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Nov 102022
 

The Australian black metal band KRVNA made its recording debut in September 2021 with a demo named Long Forgotten Relic. It was released by Seance Records and consisted of two substantial tracks. In its lyrical themes, and through the visions of imagination spawned by the music, it explored the vampire mythos from the ancient world to Biblical times, and the black forests and mountainous castle crypts of Balkan and Carpathian incarnations of the legend.

Closely following on the heels of that very promising advent, Seance Records then released KRVNA’s debut album Sempinfernus. It too delved into vampyric mythology but in an even more expansive and far-reaching way. Moreover, KRVNA’s solo creator Krvna Vatra at that time disclosed more precisely the nature of his interest in the subject matter, and how it represented themes that extended beyond old tales of the undead. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HEIDEN — “ANDZJEL”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 092022
 

In heavy metal, genre scrambles fail as often as they work. We might go so far as to say that failures exceed successes. Most listeners have pronounced preferences in the kind of music they listen to, and even among those who find a certain degree of mixing attractive, there are limits to their tolerance. Even among “music critics”, there’s a tendency to proclaim that genre-crossing bands are either confused about what they want to be or try too hard to be everything to everyone.

Andzjel, the forthcoming ninth album by the multi-talented Czech band Heiden, is undeniably a genre-scramble of a record. Moreover, the band themselves have a pronounced history of change. If you look at Metal-Archives, you’ll see this genre-jumble: “Black Metal (early); Post-Black Metal/Rock (mid); Post-Rock (later)” — and that doesn’t reflect what has happened on Andzjel, which itself represents another pivot. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (WEEKDAY EDITION): MITHRIDATUM, IMPERIUM DEKADENZ, KOMMANDANT, WORMWITCH, FORELUNAR

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Nov 082022
 

 

I decided I would have enough time to prepare a round-up of new songs and videos today. As I checked out candidates, it hit me that a lot of them were in the vein of black and “blackened” metal (with a healthy heaping of death metal in the mix). And so, with apologies to bands in other genre terrains that have also released worthy new music in recent days, I decided to focus this one on the kind of music I usually explore through this column on Sundays.

MITHRIDATUM (U.S.)

I was compelled to lead off with “Sojourn” because of the stunning cover art by The Blazing Seer for this band’s debut album Harrowing. But to be clear, the music isn’t an afterthought. Like the album title, the song is harrowing — a blistering, battering, bleak, and bizarre formulation of dissonant blackened death metal. Through the freakish whining and wailing of the guitars, it applies knives to the listener’s nerves, even when it slows, and the drumwork is as discombobulating as it is electrifying. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SKÁLA — “MOSS AND MOUNTAINS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 082022
 

As of today listeners now have two tracks to hear from The Secrecy, a striking debut album from the black metal solo project Skála, which is set for a December 9 release on cassette tape (and digitally) by the Eternal Death label.

Why is it striking? Well, as these two songs demonstrate, the music deftly straddles many dividing lines, and frequently does so simultaneously — between abrading harshness and ringing clarity, between mourning and madness, between extreme distress and hopeless dejection, between a yearning for something vital that is vanishing and visions of fading grandeur.

In doing all this the songs are often unsettling to hear, but it’s easy to lose yourself in them, and they’re damned hard to get out of your head. What inspired them? We have this partial answer in the promotional materials: Continue reading »

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