Islander

SOREPTION: “JORD”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 062022
 

 

(We present DGR‘s review of Jord, the new album by the Swedish death metal band Soreption that’s due out on June 10th via Unique Leader.)

If current trends hold true then in about eight years from now Soreption will be releasing a new album – their second removed from their upcoming, for six total full lengths – and there will be one member left in that band and that person will be me.

It’s strange, considering how I’m not currently a member of the group nor do I – competently – play any instrument, but there has to be some strange magic happening, that for the last few releases Soreption have somehow slimmed down their lineup every time and yet every four years have managed to put out an album. Not only that, but an album of eight songs and about thirty to thirty-five minutes worth of music. Every time.

Clearly, the machine-like nature of the band’s music extends beyond just the Swedes’ songwriting ability and has become part of the overall band operating procedure. That’s how we land at an album like Soreption‘s upcoming Jord, a release that maintains the band’s core as a three-piece and pulls out all the stops in regards to guitarist appearances for one of the most clock-work mechanical riff avalanche style Soreption albums out there. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HULDER, HEXIS, VETER DAEMONAZ, SWAMPBORN, MIASMES, LURID

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Jun 052022
 


Photo by Liana Rakijian

I picked the music of six bands for today’s foray into blackened realms, four of them whose previous releases I enjoyed and two of them new discoveries.

The first four selections below are advance tracks from forthcoming releases. The last two are complete streams of records that were released just two days ago. Those latter two sunk their fangs into me, and I decided to feature them here while the venom was fresh even though I haven’t had the time to fashion thorough reviews.

HULDER (U.S.)

Early last year I had the pleasure of premiering and reviewing Hulder‘s debut album, Godslastering Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry. Mine were not the only eyes opened wide by that very impressive first strike. It’s fair to say that it launched a wave of attention and popularity that Hulder has been riding ever since, both on-stage and off.

But Hulder‘s solo creator hasn’t been content to just let that wave carry her for as long as it might have. Instead, she has recorded a new EP named The Eternal Fanfare and moved from Iron Bonehead Productions to 20 Buck Spin, which will release it on July 1st. The new EP convincingly shows that Godslastering Hymns… wasn’t a flash in the pan. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MASSACRE, FLESHROT, ENTRAILS, AMON AMARTH, ANTIGAMA, ANCIENT DEATH, NEGATIVE 13, SUFFER IN SILENCE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 042022
 

 

This has been a discombobulating week for me, which began with a long trip back to Seattle on Monday from a crazy time at Maryland Deathfast and stumbling into my house at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Apart from being worn out, I had the thrill over the next few days of learning that about half the people I traveled and hung out with at MDF, all of whom were vaxxed-up, were testing positive for covid. (If you were at MDF you need to get tested even if you feel fine, because MDF is showing strong signs of being a super-spreader event.)

I also had a ton of shit to catch up with at my day job, and things to do in the planning for Northwest Terror Fest, which is fast approaching. On top of that, my spouse and I had a house guest for one of those days. And on top of that, I paid almost no attention to new releases while I was in Baltimore.

Long story short, I’m way behind on what’s been happening with new songs and videos. That makes today’s selections even more random than usual.

MASSACRE (U.S./Sweden)

I decided to begin with a heaping helping of rotten red meat for lovers of old school death metal, beginning with a track off a forthcoming EP by the venerable Massacre. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BRUTTA — “DEVON”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 032022
 

 

Imagine a maniacal murderer trapped within Dartmoor Prison in Devon, England. Fueled by unquenchable rage, he hammers at the walls that confine him, and the more he does so the more he longs to hurt, to teach the monstrosity of pain, to kill and kill again.

That vicious sociopath who is trying to escape the hell around him, and to bring hell to the outside world, is the first-person protagonist in the song we’re bringing you today from the self-titled debut album by the part-Brazilian, part-British band Brutta — and the song is just as viscerally violent and frightening as the lyrics. It’s also so physically compulsive that it’s likely to pump your head like a fully-fueled piston. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRISIS BENOIT — “EL CULTO DE LA MUERTE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 032022
 

To be clear, we are not experts in Italian culture. Having said that, we must still express our surprise in discovering a trio of Italian death/grind punks whose lyrical themes are connected to pro wrestling, who hide their faces with masks connected to the Mexican lucha libre tradition, and who use stage names for themselves connected to the same tradition: El Terrible (drum/vocals), El Canibal (guitars), and Aidu Ientus (bass).

The connections of Crisis Benoit to the world of wrestling don’t stop there. They wrote the entrance theme for the Maltese pro wrestler Gianni Valletta (All Japan Pro Wrestling), for the Italian hardcore tag-team Urban Guerrilla, and for the Mexican extreme wrestling federation Zona23, and they collaborated with “Rise Underground Pro Wrestling” for a music/deathmatch show in Leeds (UK).

Is your curiosity piqued? Would you like to discover how these musical luchadors translate their inspirations into sound? Well, you should be, because their debut album El Culto De La Muerte is a hellish, harrowing, and often haunting experience, and one that turns out to be so musically multi-faceted that it keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BURIED REALM — “BURIED REALM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 022022
 

 

Colorado-based Buried Realm has returned to the fray with a self-titled third album that’s just as much of an eye-popping attack as the Pär Olofsson artwork that blazes off its cover. That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise for those who experienced the band’s startling debut album The Ichor Carcinoma (2017) or the very impressive sophomore full-length Embodiment of the Divine (2020), but even if you know those records, this one is still a spectacularly head-spinning and electrifying jolt to the system.

Once again, the band’s alter ego Josh Dummer has enlisted an impressive array of iconic names as guests to add their own fireworks to a show that’s already loaded with fireworks. Those names by themselves (which we’ll come to eventually) would be sufficient enticement for any newcomers to give Buried Realm a chance, but they really are just bit players (albeit famous ones). It’s Dummer‘s songwriting and performances that carry the main weight here, and he carries it easily — as you’ll discover through our premiere stream of the entire action-packed record on the eve of its release. Continue reading »

BLOODHUNTER: “KNOWLEDGE WAS THE PRICE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 022022
 

(Here’s DGR‘s review of the new album by the Spanish metal band Bloodhunter, which was released on May 27th by Maldito Records.)

It would’ve been fully understandable if Bloodhunter had chosen to rest on their laurels for their third album Knowledge Was The Price. After a nearly five-year gap and some lineup shifting since their previous release, 2017’s The End Of Faith, the band would’ve been fully justified in playing it safe. They already have a rock-solid – and recognizable – formula in place that works pretty well for them, and yet on the group’s newest release  Bloodhunter don’t quite play into that.

They wrote a ton of music – Knowledge Was The Price is a weighty beast musically – over the timespan between their two albums, but it’s so surprisingly varied that they never fully settle into the bog-standard galloping guitar riff with mighty shriek on the vocal-front style of song. It wouldn’t be such a common trope if it didn’t work so well, which is why Knowledge Was The Price is an unexpectedly interesting album, because for as much as the band do play close enough to that fire and bend it to their will, they also try to differentiate themselves a lot from it. It’s an acrobatic listening experience for sure and one that will be intriguing to gauge people’s excitement for, since each release for them feels like their biggest yet. and it’s highly likely Knowledge Was The Price will once again be placing them in front of a bunch of new people. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SACRILEGIOUS CROWN — “FORBIDDEN VESTIGES OF VENERATION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 012022
 

Life is fear. Of course it’s other things too, but fear is inescapable. It always lurks, and sometimes dominates. Every living thing is prey, even if sometimes also predator, and that condition is rooted in our genes. How else could it be, when death eventually comes for all?

Music can channel fear, just as life is haunted by it, and sometimes it dives into esoteric dimensions where fear might be extinguished, because what causes it may be illuminated and embraced.

Well, these are obviously heavy thoughts, but what spawned them today is the hideous hypnosis created by a new EP named Forbidden Vestiges of Veneration from the Italian one-man raw black metal band Sacrilegious Crown, which is set for a June 3 release by Xenoglossy Productions. As the label describes, this new work is a concept release “about forbidden and forgotten religious cults, their mysticism blending occultism and religion with rituals involving hypnosis and underground processions”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MANOS SIX AND THE MUDDY DEVIL — “THE DEVIL WILL TAKE ME BY THE HAND”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 012022
 

 

As we all well know, the Devil is a central figure in the sprawling musical narratives of extreme metal, sometimes as a central figure and sometimes as the diabolical Muse who fuels the inspirations and philosophies of the artists. But of course the Devil is present across a wide span of other musical genres, from old-time gospel music to blues, country music, and much, much more. What Lucifer represents are ideas and feelings that know no bounds.

The Devil is certainly a powerful presence in the music of Manos Six and the Muddy Devil, and so even though that music is far, far beyond the soundscapes to which we usually devote our attention at this site, it is a kindred spirit to much of what occupies our attentions. The music is also captivating, which made it even easier for us to agree to the premiere we’re hosting right now. Continue reading »

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