Islander

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AZAAB — “B.L.O.O.D.B.O.R.N”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 142022
 

 

Following the release of two singles in 2017 and 2019, the Pakistani band Azaab are now on the verge of releasing their debut album, which bears the fitting title Summoning the Cataclysm — which is indeed what the band often do in their shifting amalgam of brutal, technical, melodic, and progressive death metal.

Their compositional and instrumental flair quickly becomes apparent, and so does the bestial hostility of the vocals. It’s a tribute to the talents of principal guitarist Shahab Khan and his Pakistani bandmates Waqar (bass), Afraz (guitar), and Saad (vocals), and to the lights-out performance of Indonesian drummer Adhytia Perkasa (from SiksaKubur).

And to add further reason to give the album a chance, it includes guest guitar solos by Bobby Koelble (ex-Death) and Phil Tougas (First Fragment), and guest vocals by Nick Mkhl (Brutal Sphere) and Aissam El Hassani (Vile Utopia).

Hopefully, what you’ve read so far has peaked your interest, but what will should really grab it is the song we’re premiering today, accompanied by a playthrough video that features the band’s dueling guitarists. It’s the explosive album closer, “B.L.O.O.D.B.O.R.N“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AFSIND — “TORTUR”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 142022
 

 

Relentless emotional intensity is a hallmark of the new song and video by the Danish trio Afsind that we’re presenting today, but so is change. The dark power of “Tortur” is ceaseless, but it takes different shapes. It has elements that someone might say are “atmospheric”, but it also packs a visceral punch. Black metal is a clear influence, but it pulls from other stylistic well-springs too.

It’s such a gripping and dynamic song that, all by itself, it marks Afsind as a band to watch closely, and their self-titled debut album as one to put on your wish list. It will be released by Vendetta Records on April 29th. Continue reading »

DEAD REGISTER: “ALIVE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 142022
 

 

(In this post Wil Cifer reviews the sophomore album by Dead Register, which is set for release on May 13th by Seeing Red Records.)

This Atlanta trio has graced a few of my end of the year best of lists. They are known for flirting with various shades of heavy, sludge and doom being the two sub-genres that come closest to describing the darkness thickly emoted from the sonic swathes they summon, using only bass, synths, and drums as the primary instrumentation. Their new album finds the band continuing deeper into the despairing abyss their previous work has gazed into. This time around the grooves are just more refined.

The title track that opens the album carries a sleek industrial stomp. The drumming gives the vocals plenty of room to lament. At times the tension has a shadowy post-punk feel, but with more oppression to its heavy-handed melancholy. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ANTE-INFERNO, VIMUR, SILENT THUNDER, CEREMONIELE WALGING, SAKLAS, MEPHISTO, BLOOD RIVER

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 132022
 

 

I’m racing to finish the writing of this column so that it won’t appear too late in the day (or night, depending on where you are), so I’ll skip the introduction — other than to say there’s a lot of music here and a lot of variety too.

ANTE-INFERNO (UK)

“The horror and helplessness of the modern world clashes with the ancient past, and we bear witness to Antediluvian Dreamscapes as nightmarish as they are vivid and tortuous. The end of all life and the birth of the world are indistinguishable, and all who listen will be morbidly subjected to the harmonious torment of our writhing souls. The hour is come.”

And that’s how Ante-Inferno introduce their new album Antediluvian Dreamscapes, which follows their formidable 2020 album Fane (reviewed by Mr. Synn here). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: EXCERPTS FROM FIVE NEW ALBUMS JUST SET FOR RELEASE BY I, VOIDHANGER RECORDS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 122022
 

I spent hours yesterday (no exaggeration) assembling a list of new songs and videos that surfaced just since Monday. I kept at it, even knowing full well that as the list grew I was just making it harder on myself in deciding what to include in this Saturday round-up.

And then I remembered the legend of Alexander the Great and how he solved the seemingly insurmountable problem of untying a knot in the palace of the former kings of Phrygia at Gordium, a feat that was prophesied to make the knot-solver the eventual ruler of all Asia: He cut the knot in half with a single stroke of his sword.

I cut my own Gordian knot by deciding to focus on advance songs (all of which were revealed just yesterday) from just one label’s forthcoming releases. It’s a special label, as anyone knows who has indulged in its many past releases. In December its future became clouded with uncertainty when the label owner (Luciano) fell prey to covid and was hospitalized in intensive care, with his life hanging by a thread. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HAISSEM — “BLEAK HEAVEN ALOFT”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Mar 112022
 

 

Embattled Donetsk in the Russian-controlled Donbas region of eastern Ukraine is home to Andrey V. Tollock, the man behind the genre-bending metal band Haissem (which is the inverse spelling of Messiah). It is easy to imagine that life there has been… difficult… over the last eight years, and especially now. But while continuing to devote himself to family and to paying work (he was employed as a miner at the time of what seems to be the most recent interview he gave in 2018), he has managed to be a prolific creator of heavy music.

Beginning with Maze of Perverted Fantasies in 2016, he has released five albums, and a sixth one — A Sleep of Primeval Ignorance — is now set for release by Satanath Records and Exhumed Records on April 14th. We’ve hosted premieres of music from some of Haissem‘s previous albums and today we do it again, as we present a lyric video for “Bleak Heaven Aloft” from the newest full-length. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EPITAPHE — “MELANCHOLIA”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 112022
 

 

The cover art by Petri Ala-Manus for the forthcoming second album by the French band Epitaphe is stunning. The degree of intricacy in the painting is remarkable and justifies careful study, but the numerous fine details all contribute to the captivating extravagance of its overarching impact.

It portrays a natural setting and yet also seems surreal. The scene could be one we might find today, and yet is also primordial. It’s both intimate and vast. The storm-scarred skies might only be burned by a sunset but also might be the beginning of apocalypse. It’s beautiful, and it’s frightening.

Not coincidentally, these same qualities (and others) come through in the music. Especially when the album (entitled II) is heard straight through, the experience of the music, like the cover art, is stunning. Today we present one significant part of this larger panorama, one song from five tracks on the new album in advance of its April 11 release by Aesthetic Death and Gurgling Gore. The song’s name is “Melancholia“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRYPTIVORE — “CELESTIAL EXTINCTION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 102022
 

 

Those of you who have spent years listening to death metal as it began to take monstrous shape in the first decade of the genre’s spawning and evolution will easily recognize the stylistic tropes that make up the musical arsenal brandished by Cryptivore‘s debut album Celestial Extinction. Drawing influence from early days of Amorphis and Carcass, Rottrevore and Grave, Cryptivore’s sound is a hybrid of death-metal brutality and explosive grindcore fury, all of it swathed in melodies that evoke haunted houses and horrifying crypts.

But this Australian band’s first full-length (which is the solo work of Chris Anning) is one of those releases where the familiarity of the ingredients in no way lessens the thrill of listening to it. You can see all the knives in the drawer, but once they start flashing and slashing in such remarkably dynamic fashion you get caught up in the spectacle. That’s a tribute to Cryptivore‘s own obvious knowledge of and love for the genre ingredients, but it’s also the result of top-shelf instrumental and vocal technique and a real talent for writing songs that feel like non-stop roller-coaster rides.

And so it’s a genuine pleasure to share with you a full stream of Celestial Extinction in advance of its fast-approaching March 15 release by Bitter Loss Records. Continue reading »

MIND ERASURE: “CONNIVE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 102022
 

 

(The Greek black/death metal band Mind Erasure released their debut album last month, and it struck a chord with our writer DGR, as will become apparent if you read the following review.)

Mind Erasure landed in the net over the Valentine’s Day weekend back in February. The result of having a surplus of free time, I was able to explore a wide swath of upcoming releases and take a gample on quite a few of them. Spain’s AfterLife and Nightrage‘s latest release were some of the results of that musical binge and Mind Erasure‘s new album Connive was another.

Mind Erasure caught interest on the strength of their album art, which doesn’t really hint at much other than the logo suggesting a prog-death influence, but apart from that yours truly went in blind, and the experience was more enjoyable for it.

They are a hard band to describe; they jump through a huge collection of genre-hoops over the course of Connive‘s fifty-six minutes and just trying to nail it down to the core of their black and death metal influences doesn’t capture the full picture of what is happening here. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS — “HELL OF ETERNAL DEATH”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 092022
 

 

The Australian death metal band Beyond Mortal Dreams feeds from roots that extend back into the mid-90s, but with a discography whose dark flowering has been marked by fits and long silences. Following a pair of demos in the mid-2000s, they released a debut album (From Hell) in 2008, and then only a couple of short releases marked their path for the next 13+ years. But at last they have risen again with a second full-length named Abomination of the Flames that’s set for release by Lavadome Productions on April 12th.

Although the band hasn’t experienced the extent of line-up upheavals that are commonplace among other bands over such an extended interval, it’s inevitable that the passage of time has influenced the musicians — in their thinking about music, in their interweaving of influences, in their desires for what their music should become.

The result, as the Lavadome press materials describe it, is music that reveals an “eagerness to explore, destroy, and conquer in order to create”, “a grand tour of at times cinematic proportions” that is “bestial and brutal” but also “elaborate and intelligent”, and atmospheric as well as savage.

We predict you’ll remember those descriptions when you hear the song we’re premiering today — “Hell of Eternal Death“. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries