Islander

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MORFER — “DARK WISDOM”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Apr 072022
 

 

In the 12 1/2 years this site has been active we have written about a grand total of one metal band (Kashgar) from the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan. Today we double that total.

Obviously, it’s still a rarity, and sent us off to get better educated, especially because the promotional material for Morfer, the band that’s the subject of today’s premiere, makes reference to their origins “among the rocky and snowy ridges, mountainous and hopeless forests of the Scandinavian Tien Shan”. What does that mean?!? Let’s learn together.

For those of us in the ignorant West, Kyrgyzstan is bounded by Kazakhstan on the northwest and north, by China on the east and south, and by Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on the south and west. It was conquered by tsarist Russian forces in the 19th century, later became a republic of the U.S.S.R., and declared its independence from the former Soviet Union on August 31, 1991.

Most of Kyrgyzstan’s borders run along mountain crests, including the Tien Shan, which is one of the great mountain systems of Central Asia (its name is Chinese for “Celestial Mountains”). That range stretches for 1,500 miles (2,500 km) and mainly straddles the border between China and Kyrgyzstan.

There is much more to be learned about the history, cultures, and fascinating geography of Kyrgyzstan, but let’s stop there and now ask again what could have been meant by that reference to “the Scandinavian Tien Shan“? Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VERMÖRD — “NOSTALGIC PREDICTIONS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Apr 062022
 

 

Ghoulish faces with hollow eyes gaze through marble portals, mouths agape at a hooded wizard drawing lightning from a swirling pool of infinity. It’s an eye-catching scene that Matt Lawrence has created for the debut album by Baltimore-based Vermord, one that creates an amalgam of sensations — of unearthly ghastliness, mind-bending magic, and fathomless mystery.

The visual certainly spawns a feeling of excited intrigue about the music that Vermord have created within the realm of Nostalgic Predictions, but for those who heard the band’s first EP, 2015’s Dawn Of The Black Harvest (which we premiered here) or the Dissimulation demo that followed it in 2016, the seeds of intrigue about what might come next were already planted.

Many years have passed by since then, but now the band are ready to show us what they accomplished during a period of hiatus — and they have a lot to show, through 13 tracks and an hour’s worth of music, all of which we’re presenting today in advance of the April 8 release. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THOS ÆLLA — “BACKWARDS AFTERBIRTH FLOWS UNTO DREAMING TEMPLES”

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Apr 062022
 

 

I, Voidhanger Records continues to prove that its owner’s musical interests are wide-ranging but persistently idiosyncratic. The releases usually don’t sound quite like anything else, because the artists almost always march to the beat of their own unusual drummers. And thus the label has become a home for adventurers, both those who make the music and those who listen.

The latest proof of this is Sempiternal Mobocracies, the forthcoming second album by Thos Ælla, which is the solo project of guitarist Derrik “Ghoul” Goulding from Father Befouled (who released a new album of their own just a couple weeks ago). And it truly is a head-spinning adventure, as you’ll discover for yourselves through the two songs we’re streaming for you today — one of them the first advance track from the album and the other a song we’re now premiering. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CARDINALS FOLLY

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Apr 062022
 

 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks re-connected with Count Karnstein, frontman of the Finnish doom metal band Cardinals Folly, whose latest release is a split album that came out last month.)

I was sure that we did an interview with Cardinals Folly not that long ago, but I’ve checked and found – it was in 2015! So, in case you forgot, let me introduce them.

These blasphemous fidgets of doom from Helsinki have done their dirty black magic since 2007 (or 2004 if we take into account The Coven period) and truly succeed! Their first album Such Power Is Dangerous! (2011) and the following Our Cult Continues! (2014) were good examples of honest and traditional doom metal. There were a few hooks and a bunch of nice songs but I think that Cardinals Folly finally reached their own identity with Holocaust of Ecstasy & Freedom (2016).

The hard and boiling stuff of Deranged Pagan Sons (2017) was a natural development towards more savage and faster music, and Defying the Righteous Way (2020) was my album of the year if you prefer such categories. The band keep to their mark as an active and battleworthy outfit, and this time they’ve returnedd with a split-album with the American band Purification.

Count Karnstein (also known as Mikko Kääriäinen) found some time to tell us a few past and future secrets of Cardinals Folly! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INTOLERANCE — “DEATH BEFORE SLAVERY”

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Apr 052022
 

Although we have no special insight into why this Spanish death metal band chose Intolerance for their name, we might guess from the music that they have no tolerance for weakness or mercy, nor for the manifold failures of humanity. Instead, their rank and rabid revels seem fueled by revulsion and rage. They see with clear eyes the Dark Paths of Humanity, and have so named their forthcoming debut album.

To be fair, the past for them is not a total graveyard of degradation and disappointment. They follow an inspirational beacon lit in the late ’80s and early ’90s by such bands as Bolt Thrower, Grave, Asphyx, Morgoth, Entombed, Convulse, Obituary, and Unleashed. That’s a broad swath of music from a now-hallowed age, and somehow Intolerance pay homage to all of it in crafting music that’s grimy and gritty, morbid and malicious, creeping and crazed.

In other words, they damned well know what they’re doing, and they do it damned well — as you’ll discover through the song we’re premiering today, which proclaims “Death Before Slavery“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BURIAL CURSE — “BURIAL CURSE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 052022
 

The well-educated among you may say, “How is this a premiere? That Burial Curse EP came out in June 2021!” And so it did, both digitally and in a very limited run of tapes via Famine Records.

But the beast that was that EP refused to slink away into silence and instead continued to snarl and roar in such violating fashion that Dawnbreed Records picked it up for a reissue that will happen on April 8th in multiple formats. Not only that, the EP has had an upgrade in sound, thanks to a new mix and master by Alex from Obscured By Evil Productions.

So if you haven’t heard the EP before now, it’s a good time to discover it. And if you have heard it, you might now hear it in a way you haven’t before. Continue reading »

DARK FUNERAL: “WE ARE THE APOCALYPSE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 052022
 

(On March 18th Century Media released a new album by Dark Funeral, and today DGR gives it a review.)

Again, I preface this every time by saying I am not the black metal expert on this site. This is just one of those releases where it’s fun to check in on a more established band and find out that yes, in fact, they do still have “it”.

Let us tell you a tale of an album in Swedish black metal group Dark Funeral‘s discography. It is nine songs long, about forty-five minutes in length, and has cover art that’s almost entirely blue-dominated. It’s hard to overstate just how much it seems like 2016’s Where Shadows Forever Reign has become the nucleus for Dark Funeral as they exist currently. Credit to them of course; they’ve had a constantly shifting lineup throughout the years, so much so that Dark Funeral releases rarely share the same lineup between them.

WIth Lord Ahriman being the sole constant, people rotate in and people rotate out, yet Dark Funeral somehow keep chugging along with a new album every six-or-so years. You don’t get to do something like that musically unless you’ve remained remarkably steadfast in your sound, which brings us to Dark Funeral‘s newest release, 2022’s We Are The Apocalypse. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABHORRENT EXPANSE — “GATEWAYS TO RESPLENDENCE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Apr 042022
 

I confess that when I first read that all 10 tracks on the debut album of Abhorrent Expanse were improvised live, my reaction was one of “uh oh” anxiety mixed with intrigue. Improvisational music of any genre tends to be a mixed bag, but improvisational death metal? Maybe even riskier than usual.

On the other hand, the fact that this band’s members hail from such groups as Zebulon Pike, Celestiial, Obsequiae, and more, well that’s what kindled the intrigue, and even a rising feeling of optimism.

So what won out in the end? The pessimism born of being subjected to other unsuccessful experiments that proved to be un-entertaining exercises in musician self-indulgence? Or the intriguing hope that Gateways To Resplendence might live up to its name?

I suppose the answer is evident from the fact that you’re now reading this, and are about to have a chance to listen to all 10 tracks at this site before the album’s April 8 release through Amalgam Music and Lurker Bias. Why did the optimism prove to be justified? Read on…. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MROME — “BARBARIC VALUES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Apr 042022
 

 

Here at this site we haven’t paid nearly enough attention to the Polish band MROME. Even after marveling in print at their 2018 second album Noetic Collision on the Roof of Hell, we said not a word about their next full-length, Leech Ghetto, which dropped in 2019, nor did we notice their debut album, 2016’s The Basement Sophisma.

Well, they have no use for record labels and they don’t work with a PR machine. They don’t tour and they’re uninterested in promo photos or social media. In their own words, they exist “to say FUCK YOU to messengers of dread and obedience”, and do this by making concept albums in which the music, the words, and the graphics are interrelated.

Metal-Archives labels them “Thrash Metal”, which is like calling a cut and polished emerald “a greenish mineral”. Yes, they’ve been known to thrash, but their musical evolution has turned them into something that’s significantly more multi-faceted. Even in the case of that 2018 album, we dropped references to Hail Spirit Noir, Mantar, and “infernal death rock” (not “deathrock”). Their newest album Barbaric Values, which drops today, is even tougher to pigeon-hole. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KAMPFAR, WATAIN, CHAOS MOON, MORTE FRANCE, GRAVKVÄDE, JZOVCE

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Apr 032022
 


Kampfar

Making choices for this column is always difficult. This week the choosing process was more difficult than most, in part because I wasn’t able to write one of these last Sunday, causing the possible choices to really stack up.

It’s hard to explain why I chose the music of these six bands and not others. It was more a matter of instinct and impulse than careful ranking. The intensity of all the experiences had more than a little to do with that. The vocals alone, from beginning of this collection to the end, were stunning too, significantly contributing to the rush of emotional intensity.

I’ve started with three individual songs and followed those with three complete releases.

KAMPFAR (Norway)

Kampfar have written a new album and recorded it. As they say: “It was created and partially captured at home, in our little refuge, among the trees, below the mountain tops, right there by the river that is never silent”.

The album includes “six parts, six stories, six conflicts, collected under one banner”, but Kampfar haven’t disclosed the name of the album, and they’ve decided to release each song on its own, one-by-one, before releasing the album as a whole. Continue reading »

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