Islander

DARK TRANQUILLITY / KATAKLYSM / NAILED TO OBSCURITY: LIVE IN DENVER, FEB. 10, 2022

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 212022
 

 

(Our Denver-based contributor Gonzo had the good fortune of seeing live performances by Dark Tranquillity, Kataklysm, and Nailed To Obscurity about 10 days ago, and he sent us the following report along with some of his photos.)

I’m sure this is the case with pretty much everyone who’s going to read this, but I’m pretty fucking sick of talking about the pandemic, what “normal” looks like, how long it’s been since we saw X band at X venue, and everything in between.

But in the case of the tour that rolled through The O Theater in Denver last Thursday night, I’d be remiss not to frame it against the backdrop of the aforementioned frustrations. Three incredible metal bands – Dark Tranquility, Kataklysm, and Nailed to Obscurity – are touring the US right now and none of them are native to this country. I don’t know when the last time that happened, so that alone is worth celebrating.

It certainly didn’t hurt that all three bands put on shows that made it seem like they – as well as tours featuring international acts in general – were never gone. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KAMPFAR, SVRM, BÂ’A, SVARTSOT, THE SUN’S JOURNEY THROUGH THE NIGHT, SAQRARUNA, INTUS MORTEM, BEELZEJUD, ARCHVILE KING

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 202022
 

 

My day job has left me alone this weekend so I decided to make hay while the sun shines. Yesterday’s round-up included the music of eight bands and this one includes the music of nine.

There is indeed quite a lot of music in this week’s black(ish) metal column, but even I haven’t heard all of it. The releases I haven’t heard in their entirety are included in Part 2 below, where I’ve revived the strategy I used in the old Miscellany columns (and if those don’t ring a bell I’ll explain when we get there).

PART ONE

KAMPFAR (Norway)

I’m beginning with “Lausdans Under Stjernene“, a new single released by Indie Recordings on February 16th by a band who are approaching their 30th anniversary but show no signs of slowing down or playing it safe. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: RALE, SUPPRESSION, CREDIC, BLACK FUCKING CANCER, LAMENT CITYSCAPE, INTIMIDATION DISPLAY, BELLGRAVE, PRIESTS OF PROMETHEUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 192022
 


Rale

Man, what a week. I couldn’t wait for it to end. One day after another when I got slammed by my fucking day job, a nasty reminder that NCS is a “hobby” for me (and everyone else here). It lives only when the rest of daily life permits it to live.

It didn’t take long before I had to abandon any close review of our in-box or other sources I turn to for new metal. I made no lists of new songs and videos to check out for a possible round-up, and I haven’t tried to catch up this morning. But I wanted to pick at least a few new songs to share at the site today, and wound up picking eight. I’ll tell you how I did that at the end of this post.

RALE (U.S.)

I decided to begin with “Grave Emperor“, a new single by this North Carolina death metal band, whose 2020 demo and 2021 EP Psychic Devastation I showered with praise when they came out. In the case of that EP I wrote: “These songs are so eccentric and intricately plotted that I’m tempted to call them ‘avant-garde’, but ‘progressive death metal’ is also certainly suitable (and you might be tempted to stick ‘blackened’ in there as well). Whatever label you might want to attach, it’s an exciting new work from a band that just get more and more worthy of very close attention.” Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEATH ON FIRE — “THE DYING LIGHT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 182022
 

 

Following up on their excellent 2021 EP Six Foot Box (for which we happily hosted a premiere), the Indiana-based metal band Death On Fire are today releasing a new two-track vinyl single as a prelude to their forthcoming album Burial Hymns.

Both songs provide a vivid reminder of Death On Fire‘s viscerally potent but intriguing musical amalgams, which often include stylistic traits from death metal, thrash, the blues, hard rock, and more. What we have for you now, presented through a lyric video, is a premiere of the title track from the new release, “The Dying Light“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SILVERN — “LORN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 182022
 

 

The second pandemic year 2021 gave birth to a plethora of new metal bands. Was the birth rate higher than in the first plague year? Or the last “normal” year of 2019? Someone with time on their hands might study Metal Archives to get a sense of the answer. Of course not all the 2021 newborns were attractive, but the Ukrainian black metal project Silvern definitely is — the first steps are extremely promising.

Silvern has been at work on a debut album, and on February 22nd it will release the first single, a song named “Lorn” that we’re premiering today. It has intriguing lyrical themes. Silvern explains: Continue reading »

THE DEVILS OF LOUDUN: “ESCAPING ETERNITY”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 172022
 

 

(We give you DGR‘s extensive review of a new album by The Devils of Loudun from the U.S. Pacific Northwest. It was released last Friday by The Artisan Era.)

This is stating the obvious but the first full-length from Seattle, Washington’s keyboard-heavy tech-death crew The Devils Of Loudun feels like it has been a long time coming. The group landed on my personal radar in the mid-2010s around the time of their year-over-year EP releases in 2015 and 2016, and yet since then its been quite the wait for their album Escaping Eternity – out now via The Artisan Era.

Escaping Eternity puts the band in an interesting position. Their brand of neo-classical tech-death shred has become a specialty of their current record label and as a result has them standing side by side with quite a few cohorts. Like releases by many of their label-mates, Escaping Eternity is also a thickly packed album; with nearly seven years between releases The Devils Of Loudun have used what seems to be all of that time creating music – resulting in a ten-song release that pushes close to an hour’s worth of songs. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WRETCHED TONGUES — “MORTALITY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 172022
 

 

Gaze upon Caelan Stokkermans‘ cover art for the debut album by Wretched Tongues and contemplate the agony of those naked figures in the clutches of their fiendish tormentors. It captures some of the visions spawned by the music, but not all. To do that, the imagery would need to include the discharge of massed machine-guns, the detonation of bunker-busting bombs, the madness of frantic, blood-lusting violence, and the wailing of lost souls.

You’ll understand this when you listen to “Mortality“, the latest single by these U.S. deathcore heavyweights from their album Ulter Praefinitum, and that’s an opportunity we bring you today through our premiere of the song in advance of the March 18 album release by Vicious Instinct Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SKEPTICISM

 Interviews  4 Responses »
Feb 172022
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us his interview with Eero Pöyry from the Finnish funeral-doom lords Skepticism.)

Skepticism has been a funeral-style standard for 30 years. Founded in Riihimäki, Kanta-Häme, in 1991, the band personifies an integral element of the funeral doom scene, its sound essential, its image flawless. And I see no problem regarding the relatively short Skepticism discography. Their latest album Companion (released by Svart Records in September 2021) is the sixth full-length in their list, but look – I have a feeling that they are always here.

The band’s presence is constant. You know what to expect from them, yes, and it… soothes. Each of their albums is like a part of a journey through a forest: You can walk this or another path listening to different albums, but “the forest” is the same and yet different. But I don’t see a reason to further waste our time with metaphors. Here’s the interview we started with Eero Pöyry (keyboards), let’s say, some time ago. It took some time to complete it, but it’s now a good, actual thing. Here we meet in shadow of (our pale) Companion. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CHALK HANDS — “LES JOURS PASSENT ET NE ME RESSEMBLENT PAS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 162022
 

 

To help introduce their new album Don’t Think About Death the UK band Chalk Hands have put a big spotlight on the album’s first single, a song named “Les Jours Passent Et Ne Me Ressemblent Pas”. Five days ago they revealed the song through a fascinating animated video made by one of the band’s members (Tommy). And today we’re premiering another video for the same song, but this time it’s a film of a live performance.

The song is in French because that’s the native tongue of lyricist, vocalist, and guitarist Antoine. He tells us that he chose to write this one in French because it allowed him to express himself “in a more honest and unaltered fashion”, which was important because the inspiration was such a personal one for him.

The inspiration is signified by the song’s title. He explains: “The title comes from a French idiom which means something like ‘the days go by and aren’t alike’ (somewhat equivalent to the saying ‘tomorrow is another day’) but I’ve twisted a word to say ‘days go by and I don’t recognise myself’”. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RUTTENSKALLE — “DEAD MAN”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 162022
 

Sometimes it’s abundantly obvious when a musician has made music primarily for himself, to indulge a personal passion for a particular kind of already well-established music and to test how well he can embrace and extend such venerable and venerated traditions. In such circumstances innovation isn’t the objective. Faithful worship comes first. But when it works, a personal endeavor like that can also reward listeners.

In a nutshell, that’s what Portuguese musician Paulo Soares did on Skin ’em Alive, the debut album of his solo project Ruttenskalle, which was released last October by Gruesome Records. The object of his affection and energies was old-school Swedish death metal in the vein of Dismember, Entombed, Carnage, Grave, and Unleashed.

The depths of his devotion are revealed in the album’s ghastly cover art, in the Swedish name of the band (which means “rotten skull”), in the abundant lyrical references to guts, gore, and macabre deaths, and of course in the sound of the music itself. And yes indeed, for ardent fans of this venerable genre, it brings rewards — one of which is the song “Dead Man” that’s featured in the music video we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries