Islander

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DIABOLICAL RAW — “WISE OLD WOMAN”

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Sep 092022
 

The Turkish band Diabolical Raw has had a long history, and not an easy one. Starting life under the name Diabolical, they honed their talents during stage performances in the late ’90s and early 2000s but didn’t make their first release until the Daimonion EP in 2005, and soon after the group disbanded due to difficulties in finding a stable line-up.

After a dozen years of silence drummer Ozan Tunç and vocalist Ozan Erkmen decided to resurrect the band, but changed the name to what it is today. By 2019 they released their debut concept album Estrangement, revealing a more symphonic take on black metal, with Ozan Tunç handling all the instrumentation and orchestration, as well as the mixing and mastering.

A year later Diabolical Raw began work on a second album, but of course pandemic hell intervened and slowed down the process. Yet in the fall of 2021, the band completed the recording of that sophomore album, Elegy Of Fire Dusk, again with Ozan Tunc responsible for the music, the mixing, and the mastering, and Ozan Erkmen crafting the lyrics and delivering the vocals.

Like the first album, the new one is based on a unifying theme derived from a short story by Ozan Erkmen that uses ancient Central Asian Turkish mythology. One song from the album (“Face the Judgment”) debuted last spring, and today we present an official video for the second one — “Wise Old Woman“. Continue reading »

BEHEMOTH: “OPVS CONTRA NATVRAM”

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Sep 092022
 

(DGR has some thoughts to share about the new 12th album from Poland’s Behemoth, which will be released on September 16th by Nuclear Blast.)

It has been a long-standing tradition of Joe Baressi that whenever he works on a metal album, he is credited as ‘Evil Joe Baressi’. That’s pretty funny, considering that often Joe’s name is brought up more in line with groups like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age, Volbeat, and a bunch of other humongous rock acts over the years. Thus, you get ‘Evil Joe Baressi’ whenever he and his team work on a metal album.

It is certainly an unusual name to see attached to one of the bigger purveyors of Satan-as-spectacle out there — Behemoth. There’s been a little hay made in the press over the name drop, although it’s not like the band strayed well outside their comfort zone, since they’ve involved longtime collaborator Daniel Bergstrand as well. However, this may also be one of the more interesting new things happening with Behemoth‘s latest release Opvs Contra Natvram, because otherwise this is “as expected” a Behemoth album as you could possibly expect. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INTERNAL ORGANS EXTERNAL — “PROPAGATING THE EXECUTION”

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Sep 082022
 

“Internal Organs External” — what a grisly and ghastly vision that name conjures! And speaking of visions, take in that cover art up there for this Arizona project’s new album, whose title reinforces the expectations: The Brutality of Tomorrow. And wait ’til you get a look at Vince Otero, the band’s sole member.

But some of you already have an idea of what’s coming without all those clues. That is, if you caught up with the first album of Internal Organs External, Into the Depths. It certainly caught the attention of Vicious Instinct Records, which quickly signed the project to a multi-record deal, one that began with the 2021 EP Apocalyptic Domination.

And now we’ve got The Brutality of Tomorrow fast approaching its September 30th release date. Traumatizing brutality is to be expected, but there’s more here than that. Let’s let Vince explain: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PLANEPACKED — “HARROWHARK”

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Sep 082022
 

Last spring we premiered a pulse-pounding track from a multi-faceted new album named Transactinides by the Massachusetts-based “metaltronica” project Planepacked. We summed it up then as “a head-spinning trip of changing moods and soundscapes”, bringing music which “includes ingredients that should appeal to fans of extreme metal, but adventurously mixes those with both boisterous and mesmerizing electronica and dramatically varying vocal styles”.

Planepacked (named after a glitch in the game Dwarf Fortress) identified a smorgasbord of influences for that album, including the likes of Autechre, Igorrr, Devin Townsend, and Susumu Hirasawa (among others), as well as the urban fantasy fiction series Endian Project created by the woman behind Planepacked, Jessica Kagan.

Planepacked‘s creative fires have continued to burn since then, and one result is a new single that we’re premiering today — a song named “Harrowhark” in which Planepacked has doubled-down on the project’s more extreme influences — providing a death/thrash flavored take on the more usual Planepacked sound. Continue reading »

GONZO’S BIGASS END-OF-SUMMER ROUNDUP, PART II

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Sep 082022
 


Northless

(Our Denver-based friend Gonzo has brought us the second installment in a round-up of new albums that emerged this summer which caught his attention and kindled his enthusiasm. See check out Part 1, go here.)

When I’m doing these columns, there comes a point at which I just have to stop agonizing over what I’m going to include and decide on something. I guess this speaks to the quality of what’s come out since June.

That being said, here we go. And I’d be lying if I said this list looks exactly like I thought it would a week ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CINIS — “AEGIS”

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Sep 072022
 

The Polish death metal band CINIS has had a long career, with a 20th anniversary coming up next year, but they’ve not filled those decades with plentiful releases. A demo began their recorded output in 2005, but three years passed between then and their first album, The Last Days of Ouroboros, and six more years elapsed before the second one arrived, 2014’s Subterranean Antiquity. Even that significant interval was exceeded by the time that has trudged by before a third full-length was completed and scheduled for release, but at last it’s almost here.

Lies That Comfort Me is the name of the new one, and September 23rd is the date on which it will be discharged by the excellent Polish label Selfmadegod Records. Nine tracks long, it proclaims an unyielding homage to such formidable trans-Atlantic forerunners as Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Cannibal Corpse, while also linking arms with the stylistic influences of CINIS countrymen Vader and Decapitated.

You could say it’s a way of proclaiming that certain old schools of death metal are undying, and still live in the hearts of veterans such as these four. But fear not, Lies That Comfort Me isn’t some uninspired nostalgia trip, but a full-bore juggernaut fueled by fire and fury, with the kind of riff mastery that proves to be highly addictive, a rhythm section that knows how to groove hard, and enough changing facets to keep listeners on the edge of their seats throughout the whole thrill-ride.

Witness the song we’re presenting today — an electrifying rush named “Aegis“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EMBRACE OF THORNS — “THE BREATH OF THE BEAST”

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Sep 072022
 

With a career stretching back to the late ’90s and a sixth album on the way, Embrace of Thorns should need no introduction. One of the most formidable bands from Hellas, they have moved from strength to further strength, ever-advancing in their explorations of musical muscularity and mood, rendering creations of blackened death metal that both pulverize listeners and create compelling and harrowing atmospheres.

Some would argue that even 20 years into their career, they produced their best album in 2018’s Scorn Aesthetics, though others will steadfastly maintain that 2009’s Atonement Ritual or 2011’s Praying for Absolution are cult classics that have not yet been surpassed.

This kind of debate is likely to intensify with the advent of the band’s new album Entropy Dynamics, which is set for release on October 10th by Nuclear Winter Records. At a significant 50 minutes in length, it definitely won’t short-change fans, and that length alone is one sign of just how brightly the band’s creative fires continue to burn, and just how fervently they continue to explore wide-ranging dynamics in their ideas and in the kind of trip they wish listeners to take in their company.

Today we have an example of this in our premiere of the album’s second advance track, “The Breath of the Beast“. Continue reading »

CASTRATOR: “DEFILED IN OBLIVION”

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Sep 072022
 

(Our man DGR prepared the following review of a long-awaited debut album by NY-based Castrator, which is out now on the Dark Descent label.)

This is one that’s been hovering in the periphery for some time now, so it’s good to have the chance to finally dive into it.

Castrator are a project we’ve been watching for a while around these here parts. Although their activities have had long quiet periods – including those within this site’s general lifespan – there was never a sense that the group had split. The 2015 No Victim release has always lurked somewhere just off the purview but within sight, in part because the members of this particular death metal project were in so many bands that we have crossed paths with. For instance, their bassist R.M has time spent in both Derkéta and Gruesome.

In the timeframe between No Victim and the group’s newest album Defiled In Oblivion – released at the tail end of July – Castrator‘s lineup has changed somewhat, localizing its musicians a bit closer, but there is no question about it when it comes to the music. Castrator‘s death metal bona fides are fully realized, and the ten rumbling songs here – nine originals and one tackling of Venom‘s “Countess Bathory” – are demonstrations of that fact time and time again. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: EATEN BY SHARKS — “KILL AND CONSUME”

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Sep 062022
 


Photo by Lisa Thompson

I was a fully grown young adult when I saw the movie Jaws for the first time, but I had recurring nightmares afterward as if I’d been a child. The greatest source of those night terrors was the scene of Quint’s consumption by the Great White, screaming while being eaten alive. I’ve gone back to the movie over and over again since then, but I’m still horrified by that scene. The thought of any creature being eaten alive still viscerally revolts and frightens, even though it happens millions of times a day throughout the animal world, even if largely unseen.

Jaws obviously made an impact on the Ontario band Eaten By Sharks, but rather than run from its horrors they run toward them. Lifting a line from the movie when the shark first reveals itself to the cantankerous crew of the Orca in all its frightening immensity, they named their first release We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat.

That was back in 2013, and after almost nine years of silence since then, one might be forgiven for wondering if they’d succumbed to a watery demise themselves. But they’ve risen again, prowling the surface with razor fins slicing the waves, teeth bared, and a new album of heavy-grooved technical death metal named Eradication that presents a nautical-themed, first-person horror experience.

The album was just released last month, and to help spread the word we’re presenting a playthrough video of the song “Kill and Consume” that features the performances of guitar duo Chris Chaperon and Dan Okowinsky. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEATHSIEGE — “THRONE OF HERESY”

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Sep 062022
 

The origins of Deathsiege may be traced to a filthy rehearsal room in Tel Aviv Hell where drummer and main songwriter A.M. (Har, Kever, and more) began work on the project in 2019. Shortly thereafter he was joined by vocalist and guitarist J.S. (Svpremacist), and the two of them recorded their debut demo Cannibalistic Patricide that same year. If you know anything about the bands those two have on their resumes, it won’t surprise you to know that it was a ferocious and scathing outburst, rendering three tracks in less than seven minutes.

Having lit their flamethrower they kept firing it with another demo in 2020, and that’s where we first discovered their campaign of enraged ruination. Unworthy Adversary raced through seven tracks in less than 12 minutes, and in a review here we acclaimed it as “hellishly good”: “If it had been longer it might have put listeners at risk of adrenaline overload and ensuing stroke”.

Now here we are, on the other side of pandemic hell (or so we hope), and Deathsiege are ready to uncage their debut album Throne of Heresy via their new label Everlasting Spew Records. For this first full-length the original duo are joined by new main guitarist and songwriter T.D., turning the band into a marauding international trio. Continue reading »

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