Islander

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VAROSHAN — “…AND THEN THE RAINS CAME”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 102022
 

 

Tomorrow the Finnish label Elitbolaget will release …And Then the Rains Came, the debut album by the multinational band Varoshan, whose members are divided among Helsinki (Finland), Berlin (Germany) and Leeds (UK). But you won’t have to wait until then to absorb what it has to offer because we are now presenting its complete streaming premiere.

What it has to offer is a stylistic amalgam that combines the ethos of hardcore with diverse sonic vibes that bring to mind (as Elitbolaget suggests) the likes of Neurosis, slow-burning Converge, sludge-era Tombs, and Soilent Green covering Black Sabbath, i.e., music that’s “slow, dark, and gritty”. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: BRUTALITOPIA’S TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2021

 LISTMANIA 2021  3 Responses »
Jan 102022
 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Our annual LISTMANIA series includes re-posts of lists from “big platform” music sites and selected print zines, but we usually don’t re-post lists from other metal blogs because that truly would make this long series virtually endless. But as we’ve done in many previous years, we’ve again made an exception for Brutalitopia, because through a variety of MDF hijinks over the years, the NCS crew have become fast friends with the guys behind Brutalitöpia — Tom, Mick, and Durf. The following is a Top 10 synthesis they compiled from their individual lists originally published at their site — which you can find HERE.

******

Once again we survived and are living through the maddening times that are pandemic life, so in lieu of the true and infinite wisdom of family members and friends there were some good ol’ tunes to get us by in the 2021st year of our dark lord.

We at Brutalitöpia got off our collective asses and brought new columns, whether it be weekly bearded workouts or 6 songs from each of us monthly (6+6+6 for the unencumbered, isn’t Mick funny?) Since we do our very best to do exactly what we want, when we want to do it, this annual exercise seemed the perfect example of 11th hour magic that we take pride in over at the Töp, so read on NCS friends and be astounded by the amount of copy/paste and micro edits from our actual lists, hell read them too if you want, otherwise this aggregate below should do. Durf even blurbed about albums not from his list.

Several beers deep, or deep in thought you ask? You, yes you the reader, can decide. Let’s kick 2022 in the balls before it has the chance to be another downer, read on below, onward and upward.

-Tom

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: STANGARIGEL, KLUIZENAER, MUR, SCHAUER, A PREGNANT LIGHT, SIVYJ YAR

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jan 092022
 

It may seem like a paradox, but the less time I have to devote to preparing these columns the easier it is for me to do them. When I have a greater than usual amount of time, I listen to more music, I find more releases that I want to recommend, and then I struggle to whittle down the choices into a group that I can manage to write about in the time I have left.

That’s the situation I find myself in today. Because my spouse has been out of the house a lot over the last couple of days galavanting around with one of her visiting sisters, I plowed through a lot of new music. The listening sessions were a blast, but then I had to engage in a painful winnowing process. The results may be painful in a different way for you: Even after the winnowing, today’s column provides a lot to take in, and might put added pressure on your bank accounts if you find as much to like as I did.

Speaking of how much music I’ve included today, I narrowed the albums down to three new ones (which is still more than usual for these SOB installments), and then sprinkled in some advance tracks from forthcoming records, plus one new EP. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: VASTATUM, A PALE DECEMBER, NEUROTECH, DEATHCULT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 082022
 

 

I had grandiose ambitions for this Saturday round-up, but remembered at the last minute that I had to join a Zoom meeting this morning for the job that pays the bills around here. After that ended I didn’t have time to pull together any more music than what you’ll find here from a quartet of bands. But these four have enough high-energy intensity to keep your heart-rate elevated from start to finish (and probably for a while afterward too).

VASTATUM (Canada)

The whining sounds of this first song swells over turbulent drumming and throbbing bass notes, and then swirls like wind-driven flames. Fiery vocals join the fray as the riffing generates a sound that’s both tormented and glorious. The incendiary intensity of the music subsides, and it becomes more mysterious and hypnotic, and then it roils again, with a feeling that’s beleaguered and desperate, as the vocals become even more shattering in their tortured extremity. The lead guitar whirls once more in a mad dance as the sound fades away…. Continue reading »

THE MOST ANTICIPATED ALBUMS OF 2022 (DON’T BE MAD)

 Forthcoming Albums  54 Responses »
Jan 082022
 


photo by Art Wolfe

January is a time when many music publications, including metal-centric ones, publish lists of the new year’s “most anticipated albums”. We’ve done that here from time to time, but not in a long time. And don’t be mad, but we’re not doing it now either. I’ll explain in a minute.

Lots of albums are already now on people’s radar screens, thanks to announcements from late last year and the nearly 10 days of January that have already passed. Among the bigger names, 2022 will see new records from Amorphis and Dying Fetus, Voivod and Immolation, Lamb of God and Obituary, Rammstein and Terror, Cult of Luna and Ghost, YOB and Eight Bells, Crowbar and Arch Enemy, Allegaeon and Dark Funeral, and I’ve seen rumors of new albums coming from the likes of Amon Amarth, Behemoth, and Meshuggah. There are also new EPs on the way from Napalm Death, Abysmal Dawn, and Centinex, to name just a few.

Some, but certainly not all, of those releases will be of interest here at NCS, but we tend to focus on more underground names, and I think our readers do too. However, once you get past the names like those above, trying to prepare a “Most Anticipated” list becomes a project that’s a lot more daunting and time-consuming. Which is why I’m not doing it today (though I guess it’s possible some of our other writers might attempt it). What I’m doing instead is inviting YOU to leave a comment identifying 2022 releases that YOU are looking forward to. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2021’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 3): 1914, ARCHSPIRE, BEASTLOR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2021  4 Responses »
Jan 072022
 

 

Way back in Part 1 of this series (two whole days ago) I explained that before I began winnowing down the list of candidates it had 630 entries on it — a combination of my own ideas, suggestions from readers, and nominees from NCS writers DGR and Andy Synn. I also noted that among that enormous number of songs only 11 bands had four or more entries. Two of those bands — 1914 and Archspire — are responsible for two of the picks I’m announcing today. And it happens that both of those bands did very well for themselves in the 2021 YE list sweepstakes as well, not just here but in other lists I’ve seen around the web.

The third selection in today’s installment flew much lower on the radar (or beneath it), despite the record being the work of a very well-known musician. Hopefully, mentioning it today will help spread the word a bit more, because it’s great. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WOLFBASTARD — “HAMMER THE BASTARDS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 072022
 

Anyone with eyes to see and a mind that hasn’t been brainwashed or turned into docile slag knows full well that the world is mainly ruled by bastards — bastards in the boardrooms, bastards in the halls of government, bastards in the church. They do what they want, they get their way, and they’re rarely held to account for all the ways in which they make the lives of the powerless so much more miserable than they need to be.

What ought to be done? Isn’t the answer obvious? HAMMER THE BASTARDS.

That’s the name Manchester (UK)-based Wolfbastard gave to their new third album, which is set for release by Clobber Records on January 14th, and they back that message to the hilt with their music, which is a feral and ferocious barrage of D-Beat, crust punk, black metal, and blackened hardcore that takes no prisoners and asks for no mercy.

The press materials for the record include an evocative summing-up of the sensations the album channels, and it’s worth quoting here before we give you our own impressions along with a complete streaming premiere: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ELDERWIND

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jan 072022
 

 

(Comrade Aleks delves into atmospheric black metal with this interview of Vyacheslav Oboskalov, founder of the Russian band Elderwind, whose latest album is 2021’s Fires.)

You can’t avoid atmospheric black metal nowadays. It’s sort of a cultural phenomenon, a friendly offspring of the most scandalous and extreme metal genre (as it was in ‘90s) which nevertheless doesn’t lose its connection to what came before it. Most of these bands prefer to channel different aspects of Nature through their music, some declare “a celebration for the death of man” and it seems to be a logical development of the genre. The growing popularity of atmospheric black metal, its connection with ambient and post music, just proves a suggestion that the scene lives and grows on its own.

The Russian atmospheric black metal act Elderwind was started by Vyacheslav Oboskalov twelve years ago. His home city Yekaterinburg is located on the Iset River between the Volga-Ural region and Siberia. A good place to play black metal. Elderwind’s albums’ titles Volshebstvo Jivoy Prirody (“The Magic of Nature”) and Chem Holodnee Noch (“The Colder the Night”) demonstrate the band’s ideology, and Elderwind built a good reputation with those releases — good enough to release a new album, 2021’s Fires, DIY and continue to get new listeners despite a lack of big labels behind them. It may be early to tell about the new album’s success, but if it is a success, then it’s well-deserved. Vyacheslav is here tonight to tell Elderwind’s story. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: HUMAN HARVEST, AEVITERNE, ARKAIK, MESLAMTAEA, PESTILENGTH, CORRUPTER, HYDRA, LOATHE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 062022
 

 

There was a modest but noticeable slowdown in the release of new songs and videos over the holidays, but things have kicked back up into high gear again, as evidenced by the enormous number of tabs I’ve opened up for new music and video streams just since last weekend. I’ve made my way through many (but not all) of those and made the following selections across many metal sub-genres in the hope of brightening (and darkening) your day.

HUMAN HARVEST (Sweden)

A dozen years after the release of their second demo this death metal band (now the formidable duo of Jonny Pettersson and Jon Rudin) has crawled from its crypt again and fashioned a debut album named Flesh Sermons that’s been set for release on January 31st by Iron, Blood and Death Corporation. Last Monday saw the discharge of the album’s first advance track, a macabre monstrosity called “Blasphemy“. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2021’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 2): BURIAL IN THE SKY, DECREPISY, BOURN ULTRA

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2021  No Responses »
Jan 062022
 

 

The first installment of this list orbited the cratered moon of black metal, and in this one I decided to chart a course through the death metal asteroid belt, sustaining destructive collisions along the way. These three songs differ significantly in their stylistic inclinations, which is just one small sign of how diverse death metal is, but of course what they share is a significant degree of… infectiousness. All three bands also happen to be from the U.S.

BURIAL IN THE SKY

This Philadelphia band’s 2021 album The Consumed Self made at least three of the year-end lists prepared by NCS writers. One of those (Andy Synn) also gave the album a thorough and nuanced review (here), another (DGR) also included a review when he put the album at the No. 15 spot of his YE list; and a third (Gonzo) anointed it as his album of the year, writing (here): “In a year with so many incredible technical death metal records, Burial in the Sky have created something that shakes itself loose from the rest of the pack. Their brilliant musicianship and airtight songwriting is a sonic killing machine that just puts them squarely into elite territory.” Continue reading »

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