Islander

AN NCS INTERVIEW: KANONENFIEBER AND LEIÞA

 Interviews  1 Response »
Jan 062022
 

 

(Comrade Aleks delivered to us this interview of the German artist Noise, who is the man behind both Kanonenfieber and Leiþa, and a project named Impious. Due to no fault of Aleks or Noise, we allowed more than a month to go by before publishing it — but reading it now (and listening to the music) makes for a very good way to help begin the New Year.)

Black /death metal one-man band Kanonenfieber, which is focused on themes of World War I, and the depressive black metal project Leiþa have common origins – both are based in Bamberg, Bavaria and both are run by Noise. He launched Kanonenfieber’s first full-length Menschenmühle in February 2021 and Leiþa’s Sisyphus followed it in June 2021. It’s not just cool furious outbursts of anger and desperation but two very different works with very different stories behind them. And I’m glad what we managed to do this interview with Noise, which is here for you to read. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2021’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 1): GLIMT, SPECTRAL WOUND, TEITAN

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2021  2 Responses »
Jan 052022
 

 

We seem to pick up new readers every year, even as some older readers finally give up and bid us an adios, with or without middle fingers raised. So I guess it’s still worth telling people what they’re getting themselves into with this series.

This is traditionally the last part of our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza, though I do know of one more year-end album list that we still want to post whenever it arrives. This particular series isn’t about best albums or best shorter releases, and it isn’t even about best songs. As the title says, it’s about “most infectious” songs. Some of those might be among the year’s best songs, but in every year there are stand-out songs that aren’t immediately infectious, and actually might never be. Conversely, there are some highly infectious songs every year that most people wouldn’t critically acclaim as great works of art.

The process of compiling this list is a bit bizarre, or at least very poorly planned. Let me explain: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OAR — “THE BLOOD YOU CRAVE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 052022
 

 

The cover image on OAR‘s debut album The Blood You Crave is an evocative yet mysterious one, seizing attention through the juxtaposition of a vibrant blaze-colored swath of light (which might be interpreted as a window into another world) and a downcast figure perched on the edge of a daunting precipice. No less than the cover art, the music quickly seizes attention too, and doesn’t let go. It too blazes, and reveals harrowing emotional chasms.

Through six tracks and nearly 45 minutes of music these Australians embrace the hostility and aggressiveness of black metal but they give equal attention to the creation of mood and atmosphere, bringing into play ingredients of post-metal, doom, hardcore, post-punk, and shoegaze (among others). The songs all prove to be dynamic experiences, as is the album as a whole, and that versatility makes it even easier to get caught up in what’s happening, and to hang on ’til the end. Continue reading »

DGR’S 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY REMEMBRANCE

 Listmania  4 Responses »
Jan 052022
 

 

(Not long ago DGR passed the 10th anniversary of his writing for NCS, and in this essay he commemorates the milestone as only he would decide to do.)

With 2021 now fully acknowledged as having never existed and the realization that we are settling in for the second repeat of the year 2020 slowly dawning on the world, it’s time for all of the old machinery that keeps this site running from day-to-day to knock the rust off and get back into proper form.

The first writings of a new year – stop me if you’ve heard this before – are always a little difficult. Some of us may never stop in order to keep the gears turning but there are times where it is nice to take a break, remind yourself that you love doing this, and in general get away from the grind. Listmania season has always been a good one for me to do that because it also means I have a near-endless series of posts to go through and hit the ‘play’ button on, whirlwind-touring through the world of heavy metal and also taking advantage of the opportunity not to have to review much in order to go through some weird musical blind spots and rabbit holes. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: COFFIN RITES — “BURIED IN BLOOD”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 042022
 

 

September 2021 brought the release of a new album named Human Erase by the Minneapolis-based extreme metal band Coffin Rites, preceded by a full premiere at Decibel, which rightly acclaimed the album as “one of the year’s most crazed black/death records”, but one that would also appeal to hardcore kids alike. “It has mood, menace, and a barrage of riffs like a doomsday air strike.”

If you haven’t heard the album, it presents a significant degree of diversity among the songs, each one telling its own story in different ways, and is well worth your time from beginning to end. But the way the album begins sets the hook hard and pulls you all the way in. It does that through the bone-smashing, flesh-scorching opening track “Buried In Blood” — and thus it makes a lot of sense that the band picked that song for the video we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: A YEAR-END LIST FROM AUSTIN LUNN (PANOPTICON)

 LISTMANIA 2021  8 Responses »
Jan 042022
 

(As our 2021 Listmania series winds its way to the end we are again delighted to present one of our most anticipated features in the series every year — a year-end list from our friend Austin Lunn of Panopticon, whose latest album …And Again Into the Light has rightly found its way onto many a 2021 YE list itself.)

Hello again,

I want to take this opportunity to preemptively apologize for the intense length of my list here… I swear I actually cut stuff out… but there was just so much amazing music this year, I decided to sacrifice brevity for thoroughness and make a list that is, from my view, obscenely long.

This list is in no particular order… it’s just a long list of records I thoroughly enjoyed this year… I am sure after this is posted I will be kicking myself because someone in the comments will express their disappointment in me by saying “ what, no _________?” And I’ll inevitably say to myself ,” dammit I can’t believe I forgot that!”

2021 was a gnarly year and presented a lot of huge changes for me and my family, as well as many changes for people we know. Many tragic events, joyous triumphs, crushing losses, and heartbreaks. In the end, all I can do is express gratitude to the folks who were there for me, and to the folks I was able to be there for…. I am appreciative of the sense of community I have had the privilege to enjoy this year. I hope to return this favor as best as I can.

So thanks for kindness, friendship, and support. And thanks for MUSIC.

Here’s my list: Continue reading »

UNDERGROUND METAL FOR THE TRVE CURMUDGEON (SURGICALBRUTE’S BEST OF 2021 EDITION)

 LISTMANIA 2021  27 Responses »
Jan 032022
 

 

(For the 11th (!) year in a row, we asked our old friend SurgicalBrute to weigh in with his year-end list of favorite albums and/or EPs. As expected, his list adds many names that haven’t appeared before in our 2021 Listmania series, and this year there’s perhaps even more variety on offer than usual, though the prose is just as curmudgeonly as ever.)

Given the amount of time it took me to get my act together and actually write something up, I have a feeling I’m going to be the poor schlub who gets to close out this year’s Listamania [not quite]. That means the only people probably reading this are the completionists, the perpetually bored, and that one guy who claims to actually enjoy my list each year (I see you back there Deckard). You know what though…that’s fine. Everyone knows they always save the best shit for last, and that’s exactly what this is, the best goddamn metal list you’re going to find this year. Why is that? Because, you casual, my taste is objectively superior to everyone else. Now, if there are no other stupid questions, let’s go over the ground rules.

First, this is my top 25 releases for the year… plus a whole lot of honorable mentions. No compilations and I don’t do split albums… man, do I not like split albums. Second, descriptions are going to be short and to the point. If you want to read poorly worded music dissertations, Metal-Archives is that way. As it is, I’m already late enough turning this in, and I sincerely doubt you all have any interest in watching me struggle to come up with 25 different synonyms for “vicious” and “crushing”. Finally, yes… I did indeed fail to include that overproduced tech/prog/melodic bore-core album that you had in the number one position of your own list. No, it was not great. Yes, you should be ashamed of yourself for even suggesting it to me.

Everyone got all that?

Good… then let’s get on with the music \m/ Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEAVY META — “BLASTOCYST”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 032022
 

 

Just because New Year’s Eve is now in our rearview mirror doesn’t mean we have to stop with the fireworks displays, and man, have we got a musical fireworks display queued up for you today, one that will pop eyes, drop jaws, and leave listeners in a state of (perhaps deranged) joy.

The source of the head-spinning adventure that awaits you is a track from the debut album by Heavy Meta (no, that’s not a typo) from Lowell, Massachusetts. Mana Regmata is the name of this mind-scrambling full-length, and it’s set for release on February 11th. It defies genre categorization because it pulls from so many different wells, both metal and not-metal. The band themselves, with tongues in cheeks, brand it as “blackened progressive cowboy nintendocore”, which is really just a way of signifying that labels don’t make much sense here.

Further evidence of that (apart from the music itself) can be found in PR materials for the album that are making the rounds, which ask you to imagine what would happen if Sikth joined forces with Every Time I Die, Botch, Voivod, Mr. Bungle, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Rush, while also dropping references to Candiria, Faith No More, Converge, Atheist, King Crimson, Coroner, Boss Keloid, and Abigor. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DUSK — “ANCIENT SHATTERED MOON”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 032022
 

 

The Pakistani band Dusk has deep roots in the dark earth of heavy metal. It was born in Karachi in 1994 under the name Carcinogenic as the brainchild of Babar Sheikh and released a first demo the following year. By 1999 Babar had formed a partnership with guitarist Faraz Anwar, and along with drummer Irfan Ahmed they released their debut album My Infinite Nature Alone in 1999.

After that Dusk released two more albums and a handful of shorter releases. There were line-up changes, and the band’s stylistic directions changed as well. As Metal-Archives sums it up, Dusk began as a death metal band, moved into doom, further evolved into makers of progressive music, and then turned to death/thrash. But as you are about to discover, Dusk have returned to their death/doom roots.

This year Dusk will release their fourth full-length in a career that now spans a quarter-century. Babar Sheik is still at the helm, but has been joined on the new album by drummer Halim (Tremor ov Kaos of Impiety), long-time comrade Mike Bloodcurse (Illemauzar) on bass, and guest appearances by both metal and non-metal artists. The album is entitled The Imaginary Dead, and today we’re premiering a stunning song from the album in advance of its release early this year by Cyclopean Eye Productions. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HORN, PROMETEUS, STRAEGOR

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Jan 022022
 

 

Dead Week is dead and so is the old year. With a turn of the calendar page we’ve started another 365-day march into the unknown even though everything feels just as familiar as yesterday. Tomorrow will be more work or more school and definitely more covid, which is why I’ve always felt the first Monday of a new year is kind of depressing: What’s on the horizon that’s worth looking forward to?

Well, hopefully you can find something, perhaps some new music. I have some of that to share with you today, in this first Shades of Black for 2022 — which is more abbreviated than usual and probably more strange than usual too.

HORN (Germany)

Horn‘s new single “Alpenrekorder” is as majestic and as desolate as the alpine vistas in the accompanying video. The music is both uplifting and deeply melancholy, and carries a feeling of reverence in both of those aspects. It benefits from a guest cello performance and from Horn‘s own performance on another old instrument, which seems to be an hourglass-style mountain dulcimer (based on my own internet browsing). Continue reading »

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