Islander

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): S.I.D. — “CITY OF CHEMISTRY”

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Oct 132022
 

With their new EP City of Chemistry, the Italian death-doom-sludge band S.I.D. have created a devastating experience, the musical equivalent of crusher, crematorium, and crypt, designed to channel the suffocation of hope and the domination of agony.

The music is a match for the concept of the EP. It was principally inspired by the book Veleni di Stato by the Italian author and journalist Gianluca Di Feo, which condemned the production and use of chemical weapons during the second World War. The music makes a harrowing journey through the horrors of war, with a focus on the places where chemical instruments of death were developed and produced, concealed by warmongering powers.

At a time when war is again ravaging souls in many places, the EP stands as both a reminder and a denunciation, and it serves as a second chapter by the band, following their 2019 debut album Architects of Armageddon. Elaborating on these themes, the band explain: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRITICAL EXTRAVASATION — “WALTZ OF HYPOCRISY”

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Oct 122022
 

 

Almost eight months after it began, the war in Ukraine drags on. Spawned by Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked aggression and delusional dreams of imperialist grandeur, and prosecuted in part through a litany of apparent war crimes, it has caused agony and death on a large scale. Worse still, it appears to be entering a particularly vicious new phase, where even Putin seems to realize that victory is impossible and that rather than attempt to occupy a country he feels has no right to exist, the mission will now be to terrorize and destroy it.

These events have put many Russians in a difficult position, and a dangerous position for those who not only disagree with what Putin has done but speak out about it. Sure, from afar it seems like most Russians have been kept in the dark or brainwashed by the Kremlin’s propaganda machine, but there have been growing cracks in that wall of misinformation and suppression of dissent. For some people, those cracks began long ago.

Critical Extravasation, the band whose music we’re premiering here, are Russian. Three days after Putin’s invasion, they made this post on their Facebook page: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARCHE — “IN A SOLACE LIGHT”

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Oct 122022
 

 

Of course record labels always heap praise on their own releases, and only the naive would take that without a heaping dose of salt. We use lots of salt. As consumers of endless press releases, we often roll our eyes at the hyperbole after listening to what they gush about, and too often find that instead of groundbreaking AOTY material the music turns out to be generic and dull.

The track record of some labels is solid enough, and their good taste dependable enough, that we give more weight to their promotional verbiage. Transcending Obscurity Records is one of those labels. But we still confess to being a bit skeptical when reading their claim that the Finnish band Arche had succeeded in adding “masterful touches” to the sounds developed by such groups as Thergothon, Skepticism, and Shape of Despair, and their proud proclamation that Arche‘s new album Transitions is “an immaculate expression of ethereal, moving, atmospheric doom metal that has everything in the right proportions”.

Would it really be so? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DECIPHER — “ENSLAVED TO BE”

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Oct 122022
 

If you’ve caught the first two advance tracks from Decipher‘s new record Arcane Paths To Resurrection then you already know this about the band’s talents: Their riffing is gale-blown and flame-throwing, but also slashing and cruel, and the hooks within them are potent. Their rhythm section thunders but also rocks. The vocals are both deliriously hellish and grim in their chants. And the melodies channel a range of dire and desperate emotions with formidable power.

If you’ve heard those songs you’ve also learned that this Greek black metal band are dynamic songwriters, capable of erupting in violent frenzies but also scaling their music to heights of anguished splendor.

And if you haven’t heard those first two songs, you really ought to (we have them for you below), but we also invite you to listen to a new third song that we’re presenting today, “Enslaved To Be“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GUTVOID

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Oct 122022
 

 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks has an extensive and very interesting conversation with Brendan Dean and Daniel Bonofiglio from the Toronto death metal band Gutvoid, whose debut album has made quite a splash this year.)

Blood Harvest released Gutvoid’s Durance of Lightless Horizons on the 23rd of September, and thus we have a proper reason to introduce you to this death metal band from Toronto.

It was started by Daniel Bonofiglio (guitars, bass) and Brendan Dean (vocals, guitars) in 2019, and then Justin Boehm (bass) and D. W. Lee (drums) joined them in 2020. Together they recorded their first full-length not so long ago, and the tracks’ names sound like the music itself: “In Caverns It Lurks”, “Delivered to the Altar Lich”, “The One Who Dwells Beyond Time”, and so on. Pretty poetic… isn’t it?

And yet I don’t like to review albums and talk about music especially when the authors are willing to talk about it. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WHORE OF BETHLEHEM — “PSEUDOCHRIST”

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Oct 112022
 

It’s been five years since Whore of Bethlehem appeared in our pages. Back then the subject was their then-forthcoming second album Extinguish the Light. It spawned thoughts of hellish war zones, brutal bludgeonings, and slithering serpents. In a nutshell, we called their blend of brutal death and black metal “catchy stuff, as well as obliterating”.

Five years along, these central Texas demons have risen from their crypts into the light again, with a new single named “Pseudochrist” that we’re premiering today along with a visualizer that makes good use of the striking cover art. It stands alone as a vivid reminder of the band’s electrifying savagery, but it’s also a herald of a new album that’s in the works, which makes it even better news. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): XANATHAR — “GOLD, BLACK AND CRIMSON”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 102022
 

 

If you haven’t yet tumbled to the marvelous talents of the Italian one-man band Xanathar, today is a good day to do that. Prior to today Xanathar had released two EPs (Darkmoon and The Towers), both of them emerging last year, but today there’s a third one and it’s an eye-opener too.

What made the two previous EPs such great experiences was Xanathar‘s skill in interweaving classic ’80s doom and epic heavy metal with raw black metal and dungeon synth. It was quite evident from those releases that Xanathar really loves all those divergent stylistic influences. But just because you love a bunch of disparate kinds of music doesn’t mean they’ll work together well if you try to mash ’em up or even stand them side-by-side. Making it work requires a lot more than affection.

Xanathar made it work in those first two outings, so much so that I included a song named “The Test of Fate” on my list of 2021’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. And as you’ll discover through our premiere stream today, it works again on Gold, Black and Crimson. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MOTHER OF GRAVES

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Oct 102022
 

(Indianapolis-based Mother of Graves are fast approaching the release date set by Wise Blood Records for their powerful debut album Where the Shadows Adorn, and thus the time was right for Comrade Aleks to interview members of the band, resulting in the discussion we present here.)

There aren’t many melodic death-doom bands who have gained real recognition. Swallow the Sun from Finland, Daylight Dies from the States, and October Tide from Sweden are the bigger and most influential bands in this list, though it’s easy to find many more names in different countries. Maybe it’s the “doom” tag which scares potential listeners, even though the genre is quite friendly, even for newcomers: The songs’ tempos usually vary from mid to high, soaring melodies ignite your melancholy, and expressive raging vocals are harsh usually and yet appealing in some way.

However it’s always cool to learn about new bands who are able to strike you down with their very first album. Mother of Graves from Indianapolis does it without visible strenuous effort as their forthcoming debut album Where the Shadows Adorn combines the spirit of old school melodic death-doom  and epic modern production. This release is scheduled for the 14th of October, so there’s time to prepare yourself for it while reading the interview with Chris Morrison (guitars),  Brandon Howe (vocals), and Corey Clark (bass). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SKAPHOS, AKRAIA, SACRILEGION, AARA

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Oct 082022
 

Last weekend I was able to compile and write about a typhoon of new songs and videos, but this weekend will be different. The Seattle Mariners baseball club made the major league playoffs for the first time in 21 years, and won the first game of their first playoff series yesterday in Toronto. The second game is this afternoon, and I’ll be glued to the TV watching that with friends.

Afterward will be a dinner party in Seattle that will likely go late, and that won’t bode well for Sunday morning work on Shades of Black whenever I get back to my island home. Also ominous is the fact that I’ve got to do shit for my fucking day job tomorrow, which makes tomorrow’s usual column even more unlikely. So don’t be surprised if I have to skip it this week.

I’ve got to make my way to Seattle pretty soon for that ballgame, so I’ll have to make the following collection short, but hopefully sweet. I wish I could have done more, and really wish I could have done it yesterday when there was an extra incentive for fans to spend money on Bandcamp, but my job hammered me then too. So it goes. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE HOWLING VOID — “DEEPER, DARKER WATERS”

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Oct 072022
 

The last time we wrote about The Howling Void, three and a half years ago, this one-man project was on the verge of releasing its seventh album, Bleak and Everlasting. We’d been following the project for a long time even then, and remarked that it wasn’t like following someone on a sidewalk, striding along a straight line, but more like being in a dense forest and thinking, “Where the hell did he go?!? He was right in front of me a second ago!”

That was an effort to explain that the muse followed by the band’s Texas-based alter ego Ryan Wilson has periodically tended to lead him off in different directions as one album has followed another, even though the branching paths still weave through the massive forests and looming monoliths of funeral doom.

We’re revisiting The Howling Void now because an album named Into Darkness Ever More Profound will finally follow Bleak and Everlasting, and it might be the first one with a release date in 2023 that we’ve covered here so far. As you can see, we have a song premiere today to help spread the word, and it comes timed to coincide with another Bandcamp Friday, where more of your money will go to the artists and labels, thanks to Bandcamp surrendering its usual share. Continue reading »

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