Islander

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HLADOMRAK

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Dec 132021
 

 

(Today we present another interview by Comrade Aleks, and this one is a discussion with the founder of the Swedish black metal band Hladomrak, whose latest album was released this fall by Non Serviam Records.)

From a first look Hladomrak is Swedish band which is tagged in Bandcamp like “pagan black metal” and even “Scandinavian black metal”. That’s simple. But the band’s name consists of two Slavonic words Hald (“cold”) and Mrak (“darkness”) and its mastermind Evgenerator started his underground career in he Latvian black metal band Nightwing twenty years ago.

And that’s another story, as nowadays Hladomrak has its third album Archaic Sacrifice out on the well-known Non Serviam Records, and the very fact of that guarantees them proper exposure. They keep the dark flame burning using the occult language “Reithariil” in their lyrics. In addition, they sound “true” and they sound “evil”… so why not to try to find out more behind this story? That’s what we were trying to do during this interview with Evgenerator himself. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THEURGIA — “IRRADIANT”

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Dec 102021
 

The Venezuelan black metal band Theurgia, now based in Bogotá, Colombia, has already built an impressive and continually ambitious and improving discography that consists of a 2015 EP (Anti perpetuo), a 2017 debut album (Transformation), and a 2020 split with Hacavitz and Veldraveth (Tercer nadir venenoso). Theurgia is now adding to those impressive records with a second full-length entitled VIRTUE, which will be released in mid-January by the Mexican label Vomit Records.

Trying to succinctly sum up Theurgia’s evolving music isn’t an easy task, but at a high level we can say that it has succeeded in creating haunting and disturbing occult atmospheric sensations and coupled those with viscerally powerful and significantly heavy rhythms and frighteningly impassioned vocals. The music is relentlessly dramatic, formidably savage, and immersive in its effects.

Those qualities (and others) come through again in the song we’re premiering today from VIRTUE, via a lyric video. Its name is “Irradiant“. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: STEREOGUM’S LIST OF “THE 10 BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2021”

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Dec 102021
 

 

Stereogum easily qualifies as one of the “big platform” web sites whose year-end lists of metal we perennially include in our LISTMANIA series. Of course, the site appeals to an audience of music fans much larger than devoted metalheads, but its staff includes a talented and tasteful group of metal writers who among other things are responsible for the site’s monthly “The Black Market” column, which has been a great source of discovery for extreme music for nine years running now.

It follows that Stereogum‘s annual metal list is one I especially look forward to seeing every year, and the 2021 edition appeared yesterday. It again consists of only 10 entries, collectively assembled by Ian Chainey, Aaron Lariviere, and Wyatt Marshall. It’s preceded from this statement by Ian: “In keeping with the grand tradition, Aaron Lariviere would like to remind you that ‘this list will disappoint you.’ He’s right. Instead of bests, we pick favorites. That always makes for a fittingly weird list. Hell yeah.” Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CENOBITE

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Dec 092021
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us this very lively interview with Kostek Dolganov from the Russian death metal band Cenobite, whose Hellraiser-themed debut album Dark Dimension was released in the fall of 2020.)

It’s strange but Metal-Archives indicates that only three metal bands bear the name Cenobite, and it seems that only the Russian followers of Hellraiser’s Leviathan cult are active.

The Russian band was formed by Chamber of Torture members – Kostek Dolganov (bass, vocals), Sergey Necrom (guitars), and Nikita Stepanov (drums). Well, actually there were three other drummers in this lineup, and the lineup who recorded the Dark Dimension album a year ago consists of Kostek and Sergey alongside Andrey Andrianov (drums) and Paul Skallig (guitars), who have already left the band.

But the lineup’s changes are the last thing that should interest our good readers, so it’s better to point out a far more important thing – that Cenobite perform pretty strict and thick death metal, and they do it well. As for other stuff… Kostek Dolganov is the one who can tell this story better. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NIHILITY — “WILL TO POWER”

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Dec 092021
 

 

“Go numb and let your mind go black, let your soul be engulfed and captured by the void, then let this be the vessel for all your pent-up aggression and rage, for this is Nihility and this is the void.” And with those words Vicious Instinct Records introduces Nihility‘s new album Beyond Human Concepts, which is set for release on January 8, 2022.

This Portuguese quartet, who draw their influences from both death and black metal, trace their roots back to 2012 and made their blasphemous full-length debut with 2019’s Thus Spoke The Antichrist. The new album again combines ingredients in a powerful way, inspiring thoughts of Cannibal Corpse’s insane brutality, Death’s technical dexterity, and the bitter-cold melodies of such bands as Necrophobic.

What we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for “Will To Power“, the second single to be released from Beyond Human Concepts — and it’s one that will kick your adrenaline into overdrive. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KVAEN — “THE GREAT BELOW”

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Dec 092021
 

 

Almost two years ago Black Lion Records released the killer debut album (The Funeral Pyre) by the Swedish band Kvaen. In the run-up to that release we premiered its title track, published an interview of the band, and launched a review by our Andy Synn which lauded the record as “a tight, forty-five (and a half) minutes of rip-roaring, Thrash and Speed injected, Black Metal that takes no prisoners and shows no mercy”. He wrote these words too:

“There’s just so much love, so much passion, so much fire (and ice) driving this album that you can’t help but fall in love with it. It’s fearless, shameless, and absolutely relentless, in its pursuit of pitch-black perfection, throwing in more riffs, more hooks, and more epic, extravagant solos (trust me, when you reach that point in the title-track you’ll know what I’m talking about) with the sort of reckless abandon that suggests its creator is either a madman or a genius (and I know which one I’m betting on). Inarguably one of the best albums, front to back, to have been released so far this year”.

And so we’re understandably pretty damned excited to help spread the word that Kvaen‘s madman/genius creator Jakob Björnfot (along with an eye-opening lineup of guests) is returning with a sophomore full-length that the same Black Lion Records has set for release on March 25th of next year. The new one is named The Great Below, and once again we’re delighted to host the premiere of its title song. Continue reading »

HYPOCRISY: “WORSHIP”

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Dec 092021
 

 

(Here is Wil Cifer‘s review of the new Hypocrisy album, which was released on November 26th by Nuclear Blast.)

This album deserves some love.

As a kid in the ’80s the Devil seemed dangerous to me.When bands like Deicide and Morbid Angel came out the darkness felt more tangible. While what they say about metal being the gateway to Satanism is apparently true, since 36 years later I am even more devoted to the Left Hand Path, and not the Entombed album, I can see where the concept of Ole Scratch has lost the danger it once held. Thus a band like Hypocrisy seems even more vital than they did in the ’90s by releasing an album about conspiracies.

Pentagrams are a fashion statement, government plots involving other-dimensional beings scares a larger audience as if an institution is going to conspire about aliens. What else might they not be truthful about? Thus the lyrical content of Worship gives a heavier feel to the music as a whole. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HAMMERDRONE — “A TRINITY OF RAGE”

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Dec 082021
 

 

This has been a day of many premieres at our site but we have one more that should not be missed — a complete stream of a new concept EP by Hammerdrone from Calgary, Canada. Its title is A Trinity of Rage, and it’s fast approaching a December 10 release.

This newest record adds to a Hammerdrone discography that includes a pair of albums and a pair of EPs. It has been four years in the making and is being presented along with an original short story, “Eversor” (available as a bonus download via Bandcamp). The story revolves around the fictional second book of Revelation, in which is foretold the threat of Heaven’s destruction at the hands of Eversor, The Destroyer. Lyrically, the EP’s three tracks pick up where the short story ends and carries the narrative forward to its conclusion. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SCHIZOPHRENIA — “SEA OF SORROW”

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Dec 082021
 

The Belgian death/thrashers Schizophrenia made their first appearance in our pages when our stalwart supporter eiterorm concluded a “Shades of Speed” column with a stream of their 2020 debut EP Voices, a record he exalted as an exercise in “fast-paced bludgeoning” that would encourage you “to headbang your brain out of your skull”.

Now we’re thrilled to help spread the word about Schizophrenia’s debut album Recollections of the Insane, which is due out on February 18, 2022. It sees the band again firing on all turbocharged cylinders, but getting even bigger, bolder, and more stylistically expansive than before, invoking vivid memories of such bands as Morbid Angel, Demolition Hammer, Slayer, early Sepultura, Dissection, Death, At The Gates, Obituary, Bolt Thrower, and Pestilence.

Today we’ve got a prime example of the album’s blood-rushing explosiveness and adept dynamism through our premiere of “Sea of Sorrow“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS

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Dec 082021
 

 

(We present Comrade Aleks’ interview of Brett Clarin, the main man behind the symphonic black/death metal band Journey Into Darkness, whose latest album (which we premiered and reviewed HERE) was released in September 2021 by Spirit Coffin Publishing.)

Brett Clarin was one of a few guys who started the death/ thrash / doom act Apparition in 1988. They changed the name in 1991, becoming Sorrow, and got a contract with Roadrunner Records for a full-length album. Some may suppose the guys were lucky, and indeed the album Hatred and Disgust saw the light of day in 1992. But as it happens sometimes with some labels, Roadrunner switched their attention to something more appealing for them and Sorrow didn’t get their deserved exposure.

Sorrow was soon disbanded but Brett started that strange project Journey into Darkness. His first solo work under that name, Life Is a Near Death Experience (1996), was an experiment, something like darkwave, a kind of sympho black metal without vocals and actually without guitars or typical metal instruments at all. Brett left the project for 14 years but now there are two more albums in his discography – Multitudes of Emptiness (2020) and Infinite Universe Infinite Death (2021). It’s okay now!

With Jei Doublerice on vocals Brett provides us symphonic death / black metal and it’s something we’re going to talk about with him. Continue reading »

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