Islander

CKRAFT: “UNCOMMON GROUNDS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 122025
 

(Settle in, make some time, prepare for detours into a labyrinth of rabbit holes, and eventually reach a wildly inventive discussion of wildly inventive music. In other words, we have another remarkable review by Vizzah Harri, this time focusing on a remarkable album by the French band CKRAFT that was released way back in January of this waning year.)

One type of madness is to take pattern-seeking to the level where one actively looks for connections. It’s been pretty stormy in my neck of the woods this year. Not being able to account for how others experienced a year filled with despair for many, no-one can claim to be able to right or mend all wrongs on our earth in the current zeitgeist. There is however a criminally underplayed and underrated album that demands attention. It will be revealed after a bit of a detour. People that groan about nothing good coming out anymore are living under a rock and probably still send each other this meme for kicks.

Every now and then you hear a melody that reminds you of something else. Only recently becoming acquainted with Emerson, Lake & Palmer led me to listen to their Tarkus album and when Stones of years came around I was pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I heard that vocal melody before. I was like, this is Hail Spirit Noir, but it very obviously was not. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: AMIENSUS — “THE LODGE”

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Nov 112025
 

(written by Islander)

One of our site’s favorite bands, Minnesota-based Amiensus, have busied themselves this year by releasing singles — “Fields of Emerald Fire” (reviewed here), “We Still Bloom” (reviewed here), and “The Peak of Denali” (reviewed here). They have also been teasing a fourth single to emerge before year-end, and today we’re very happy to bring it your way.

This one is a cover song, and you might guess whose music Amiensus is covering based solely on the cover art. But in case you’re still scratching your head, it’s Agalloch, and the song is “The Lodge” from the band’s beloved 2002 album The Mantle. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE OMEN MACHINE — “DELAY, DENY, DEFEND”

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Nov 112025
 

(written by Islander)

“If you dislike the American healthcare system, have had issues with doctors, or have ever had problems with health insurance, boy do I have a song for you….”

That’s how Colin Busse from Rochester, NY begins to introduce the latest song from his collaborative metal project The Omen Machine. The name of this new one, which we’re premiering today with a video in advance of its November 14 release, is “Delay, Deny, Defend,” a title derived from a book of the same name by Jay Feinman, which excoriates the self-serving, profit-directed behavior of U.S. insurance companies.

Deplorable recent events here in the U.S. have put the affordability of healthcare on the front burner of lots of people’s minds, and so the timing of The Omen Machine’s new single could hardly be more on-point. Continue reading »

NOVEMBRE: “WORDS OF INDIGO”

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Nov 112025
 

(Last week Peaceville released the ninth studio album by the revamped Italian band Novembre, and as our DGR is a long-term follower of the band’s music, there’s no one here better suited to review it — which he does below.)

It could never be perfect, one guesses, that the timelines of releases would line up perfectly so that the opening ‘fun with statistics’ paragraph could already be pre-written for us. Alas though, we do find ourselves cycling back around anyway with Italy’s Novembre, who’ve returned to us after another near ten-year period of inactivity as a renewed creature and full band.

It has been close to nine and a half years since the group’s previous album Ursa was let loose upon the world, to unleash its melancholy and general sadness upon unsuspecting citizens who might’ve thought they would be enjoying a beautiful spring and bright summer back in April of 2016. We’ll just gloss over the fact that yours truly actually scribbled something up about the album at that time as well, itself a victim of a long retreat from the public eye on the band’s part.

Yet even as a new creature, Novembre find themselves existing in cycles, and their newest album Words Of Indigo springs to life just as we enter the cold peace of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere yet somehow still finds itself conjuring up the spirits of blue-hued cover arts and siblings of old, as if it were the unintentional completion of a trilogy begun all the way back in 2002 with Dreams D’Azur, revitalized in 2007’s The Blue, and now 18 years later summoned once again for the aforementioned Words Of Indigo. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BURNING DEATH — “DEATH IS SALVATION”

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Nov 102025
 

(written by Islander)

You’re about to imagine what it would be like to catch fire and cavort with devils, to throw caution to the winds and spin like a tornado of flame while bouncing off demon bodies in Hell’s own mosh pit.

That’s one way of trying to capture the experience of “Death In Salvation,” an absolutely electrifying and evil-minded song off the self-titled debut album of Burning Death, an infernal thrash outfit from Nashville, Tennessee, which is now set for release on December 5th by Caligari Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HAGETISSE — “TO WITHER BENEATH THY RADIANCE”

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Nov 102025
 

(written by Islander)

For approximately 35 years the Dutch artist Maurice de Jong (aka Mories) has been churning out music as if his life depended on it (and we can infer that it probably does). This morning a count of his endeavors at Metal-Archives shows 45 current or past bands through which he has released music over that span of years.

The ones best known from that list are probably Gnaw Their Tongues, Cloak of Altering, and De Magia Veterum, but we should not lose sight of Hagetisse, one of the arguably more “traditional” of his musical vehicles, the tradition being strains of black metal rooted in the ’90s — witness the fact that Void Wanderer Productions recommends the newest Hagetisse album for fans of Ulver, Emperor, and Obtained Enslavement.

That new album, an 8-song affair, is titled To Wither Beneath Thy Radiance, and to help spread the word about it we’re premiering its title song today. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: PSICOSFERA, VARMIA, KREYLL, FLOWERS OF RUST, VACUA, HAKLA

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Nov 092025
 

(written by Islander)

Like yesterday, I got a late start on today’s column, due to festivities with spouse and some new friends last night. Like yesterday’s column, this one includes more full-length releases than normal (alternating with some single songs), and I only have time enough to offer some impressionistic thoughts about them rather than carefully thought-out reviews.

My overarching impression is that most of what you’re about to hear sounds… possessed. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GOJIRA, ZADISM, ZAKAZ, ZEIT, ZMEY GORYNICH, JOROGUMO, CHRIS GEBAUER

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 082025
 

(written by Islander)

Welp, I got another very late start on this Saturday. Of course, for most well-adjusted people Saturday is made for getting late starts. Not being well-adjusted, I get anxious when it happens, nervously staring at the clock and realizing I have to hurry or I won’t get roundups like this one finished in time for anyone in quadrants east of here to pay attention before sundown.

Enough of that. I should use my diminishing time to introduce the large handful of things I picked for today’s recommendations, including the semi-usual curveball at the end. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MIND PRISONER — “GRADIENT”

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Nov 072025
 

(written by Islander)

We’re about to premiere a song from Mind Prisoner, a PDX-launched band (now divided between Oregon and South Carolina) that continues to seize our attention around here, and should seize yours. But first, a bit of history for those of you who might be encountering their music for the first time.

Following a handful of demos and an EP, the band released their debut album The Color of Ruin about 11 months ago. Our Andy Synn wrote that it “made one hell of an impression” on him after finally hearing it, using “an array of Black Metal, Post-Black Metal, and Blackened Doom influences” to create experiences that were “dark and desolate,” “bleak yet beautiful,” “bitter” and “biting,” “terrifying” and “tormented.” He closed by suggesting “that Mind Prisoner haven’t even reached the peak of their powers yet, and we should all make sure to watch this Portland-based pair very closely in the future!”

What the future then brought was a new single released on October 1st this year named “Years Gone,” the first excerpt from Mind Prisoner’s forthcoming second album Less Faith. It signaled a shift in the band’s stylistic ingredients, previewed by their label as “post-black metal with elements of doom, post-punk, and gothic rock.” It hooked this writer right damned fast. Allow me to repeat what I banged out very soon after hearing it (as if you had a choice in the matter!): Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KAOSOPHIA — “FUNERAL OF THE GODS”

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Nov 072025
 

(written by Islander)

The Ukrainian black metal band Kaosophia released their last album, Serpenti Vortex, a long eight-plus years ago. In attempting to describe the music here, we used such words and phrases as “tyrannical and magisterial, doom-shrouded and savage, hallucinatory and harrowing,” a union of “blood-rushing energy and brain-twisting psychosis” but music that was also capable of creating “an atmosphere of mythic, warlike grandeur”.

At last, Kaosophia are now returning, with a new album named Beyond the Black Horizon that’s set for release on December 12th by the UK label Serpent Sun Records. The first single from the album, “Funeral of the Gods“, is the subject of the video we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

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