Islander

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAVEDANCER — “THE DEVIL’S GARDEN”

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Mar 042022
 

There are SO many things to like about the Gravedancer video we’re about to premiere that it’s hard to imagine anyone not enjoying it — other than perhaps the trvest of the trve black metal kultists out there. And they’ve already got so many other things to be upset about that this is probably just one more drop in a rapidly filling bucket.

The music alone is a big attraction. Entitled “The Devil’s Garden“, the song is the closing track on this Arkansas band’s latest EP, Every Kind of Dog, which was released last October. It traverses some interesting and unexpected musical territory, especially given the general folk/Americana style of the tracks that precede it in on the EP. Continue reading »

WORM SHEPHERD: “RITUAL HYMNS”

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Mar 032022
 

 

(Unique Leader Records released the second album by Massachusetts-based Worm Shepherd in January. DGR finally caught up with it and now delivers this extensive review.)

I don’t know how and I don’t know where, but for a while I was pretty fucking convinced that we had sat down and reviewed the first album from the Massachusetts-based symphonic deathcore crew Worm Shepherd last year.

In The Wake Of Sol had actually been released in December of 2020 but the fact that they had then signed to Unique Leader – who have become a bastion for artists like this – and re-released the album with one new song attached to it in late March always felt like a good enough excuse.

We covered a few of the music videos but turns out we never got around to writing about the album as a whole, which means that this discussion of the group’s followup album Ritual Hymns – which saw release in the middle of January – is likely going to sound like we’re dancing between discussing both albums. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AD NOCTEM FUNERIIS — “ABYSS III”

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Mar 032022
 

The title of the forthcoming third album by the Italian black metal band Ad Noctem Funeriis leaves no doubt that the band have maintained their blasphemous stance: Abyss, Fire, Brimstones will soon join the group’s preceding full-lengths, Satan’s March Black Metal (2015) and …Of Evil and Torment (2009). As those dates demonstrate, the band do not rush their releases, but instead take their time to ensure that the Hell they unleash on Earth is accomplished through carefully crafted campaigns.

That care shows strongly in the song we’re premiering today from the newest album in advance of its April 12 release by Symbol Of Domination Productions and Pluton’s Rising Productions. And you need not be a follower of the Left Hand Path to be swept away by its dark grandeur and incendiary power. Continue reading »

ALLEGAEON: “DAMNUM”

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Mar 032022
 

(In late February Metal Blade Records released a new album by Colorado-based Allegaeon, and our old friend TheMadIsraeli has re-surfaced with the following review.)

I’ve been taking a sizable break from NCS to recover from the holidays, to the point where I decided not to submit year-end lists or any of the usual annual stuff you see from us here, and… I’m glad I took the break.  To be real for a second, sometimes it can just get exhausting to keep up with the constant barrage of new shit. Sometimes you want to just listen to old stuff, sometimes you don’t want to listen at all. At the peak of my NCS output I legit listened to 300 albums a month guaranteed.  ALL while juggling college and family that needed taking care of to some degree or another.

However, that doesn’t mean I still don’t get a rush out of hearing the new stuff, whether that’s from underdogs or reliable all-stars.  Allegaeon’s Damnum was always my album from the start as a way to come back to the site reviewing. It was the first thing I had knowledge of that I was truly excited about coming into 2022.  Also, it just felt fortuitous that it came out the same day as Elden Ring if I’m being honest. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, FEBRUARY 2022

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 022022
 

(Our friend Gonzo has shown up with reviews and streams of four February 2022 releases that hit the spot for him.)

February. What a dull, useless month.

That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway, to justify the fact that the end of this month ambushed me, causing this column to be late. As long as we’re assigning blame, my day job is also a culprit.

Enough of that, though. This month saw the release of some albums I can’t stop listening to. And many of them were a complete surprise. Continue reading »

THE NEOLOGIST: “ORACLE”

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Mar 022022
 

(We present DGR‘s review of the new album by Pittsburgh-based The Neologist, which was released a couple weeks ago.)

It’s probably a sign that I miss Sybreed more than anything else but the combination of neck-turning whiplash and thoughts of ‘y’know what, more melodeath albums should have an out-of-left-field techno breakdown in them’ at the same time was enough to leave my head spinning.

Yet that was only one of a smattering of thoughts that crossed my mind while listening to Oracle, the newest release from Pennsylvania-based melodeath project The Neologist – a group we haven’t really checked in with since the early 2010s. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISCHORDIA — “BODIES OF ASH”

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Mar 022022
 

 

Transcending Obscurity Records does an exceptionally good job spreading the word about its releases to metal fans and the music press. In the case of the new Dischordia album Triptych, for example, four songs have already premiered ai different locations, and the release date is still almost two months away.

Today we’re adding to the word-spreading by presenting a fifth track premiere. There’s still some chance that a few of you haven’t paid attention to the new album, and even for those of you who have, in our humble opinion “Bodies of Ash” is one of the album’s many highlights. So here we are…. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRIMORIUM VERUM — “THROUGH THE LABYRINTH OF TIMES”

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Mar 012022
 

The Russian black metal band Grimorium Verum trace their origins to the mid-’90s, and since then have released four albums, with a fifth one, Reall, set for release on March 31st by Symbol of Domination. Not surprisingly, the band’s long period of existence has been marked by changes in their personnel, as well as alterations in their musical approach.

Where they are today is strongly represented in their new 11-track full-length, whose name holds to the band’s tradition of picking single-word titles that begin with the letter R. It holds to other traditions of the group’s music as well, maintaining aggressive power but now with an enhanced use of trans-dimensional keyboard parts that open the mind to visionary realms that don’t seem human or even earth-bound.

You’ll understand what we mean when you hear the song we’re premiering today, “Through the Labyrinth of Times“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ILLUMINATION — “WORSHIP DEATH MORE THAN LIFE”

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Mar 012022
 

In a time marked by such a relentless torrent of new metal, adding to a sea of music that now spans many decades, what keeps ardent fans attentive and excited? In some instances it’s the thrill of new releases by bands who helped shape the course of the flood long ago and still survive. But in other instances it’s the excitement that comes from discovering unusual music by new groups, music that builds on tradition but takes the sounds in startling directions.

We have a great example of that latter phenomenon in the EP we’re about to premiere by the Brazilian band Illumination. It’s a tremendously accomplished debut EP that builds upon the band’s 2021 demo Occult Science, and its manifold successes are undoubtedly due to the previous experience of its three members, who have spent time in such bands as Nervochaos, Grave Desecrator, ColdBlood, Poem’s Death, and Aghory, among others.

The EP’s closest genre label might be atmospheric black metal, but as you’ll discover the music is a stylistic hybrid. A combination of the luminous and the lethal, it fits the band’s name, and it fits the name of the EP as well: Worship Death More Than Life. Continue reading »

NIGHTRAGE: “ABYSS RISING”

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Mar 012022
 

(Here’s DGR‘s review of the latest album by the melodic death metal band Nightrage, which was released a bit earlier this month by Despotz Records.)

It’s been a weird review batch given that February has granted a small collection of classically inclined melodeath acts.

Nightrage have had a surprisingly long-running career. They can count themselves as among a small handful who have had a surprising number of lineup changes throughout many years, yet through force of sheer stubbornness have somehow managed to continue not only to exist but also to put out quality melodeath releases.

Yes, nowadays they’re on the lighter side of the metal scale but Marios Iliopoulos has been a hallmark of consistency throughout his musical career and also criminally good at writing earworm guitar leads. Nightrage have been an ever-present underdog, even after having some famed vocalists and guitarists pass through their lineup. They’re a sleeker band now but one that hasn’t really seen too much movement in recent years in terms of people coming and going – save for the drummer position – meaning that the Nightrage you see now has become a pretty solid musical landmark, and one that since 2015’s The Puritan and 2017’s The Venomous have been terrifyingly good at the surgical strike of a melodeath song.

Abyss Rising makes no moves to change that. Continue reading »

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