Islander

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FUNERAL CHANT — “DAWN OF ANNIHILATION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 272021
 

 

In February 2017 Funeral Chant from Oakland, California independently released their self-titled debut, a six-track, 27-minute affair that was subsequently picked up for physical editions by Duplicate Records and Caverna Abismal Records. It was a remarkable release in more ways than one, but the dominant impression it left in our heads was summed up in these passages from our review:

“The band walk a fine line between berserker chaos and the kind of intricate instrumental inventiveness and rhythmic dynamism that produces fascination. It’s a high-wire display of acrobatics, but Funeral Chant are so nimble that they don’t lose their balance no matter how fast they’re flying along that thin cord.

“And so, the songs are crushing, eviscerating, hateful, and ferocious at a primal level, but are also intricate, well-plotted, and eerie. In the heat of the moment, they trigger an enormous adrenaline rush, but it takes multiple listens before you begin to follow all the labyrinthine exercises going on within these raging storms of sound”.

It’s thus no wonder that we leaped at the chance to premiere the band’s new album, Dawn Of Annihilation, which will be released via Carbonized Records on November 1st. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MINNESJORD / TEUFELSBERG

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 272021
 

 

On October 31st Signal Rex will release a vinyl-only album-length split by two bands in the raw black metal brotherhood, the Portuguese duo Minnesjord and the Polish duo Teufelsberg. Each band contributes four tracks to the release, both of them revealing their own particular hellish personalities, and collectively creating a harsh and ravaging but nonetheless thrilling experience.

The album is available for order here, as well as through Bandcamp for each band’s side (here and here), and today we’ve got the premiere streams for all 8 songs, preceded (of course) by our own take on what these two groups have created. Continue reading »

INFERI: “VILE GENESIS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 272021
 

 

(We present DGR‘s review of the latest album by Nashville-based Inferi, out now on The Artisan Era, with cover art by Helge Balzer.)

It’s a mantra often repeated when it comes to Inferi albums – and actually, to a much larger extent, the Artisan Era‘s artist roster as a whole, considering the label’s specialization – that Inferi releases are the sorts of albums that put the tech-death concept of “everything and the kitchen sink” songwriting to shame, the sort of releases where long after the first listen you’re still finding new things that will perk your interest.

Inferi’s latest album Vile Genesis is in that vein, with eight songs absolutely bursting at the seams with different elements, riff worship, frenetic leads, frenzied drumming, hefty bass work, and manic vocals that just constantly seems to be ratcheted up to 120% with absolutely no room to breathe. The band have long since made a name for themselves in the world of ‘we play fast’ but it’s still just as initially overwhelming as it always is.

You’d never think someone managed to figure out how to get a bulldozer to set a landspeed record, but somehow Inferi do it every time they put out an album. You put it on, get run over, and then you do it again and again as the music just whips past you. Which is likely going to be a pretty common occurrence among listeners because Vile Genesis has a lot of really good material to dig into and you’re going to be bowled over constantly doing it. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: LUCIFER’S FALL

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 272021
 

 

(We present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Philip Howlett, guitarist/vocalist of the  Australian doom band Lucifer’s Fall, whose newest album is out now on Sun & Moon Records.)

Finally I return to the doom-laden path and partly that’s because of a new Lucifer’s Fall album, III –From the Deep, released by Sun & Moon Records two months ago. That’s right, here we have their third official full-length but there are a dozen other releases in Lucifer’s discography. The band keep this old-school ongoing ethic so their followers have an opportunity to support this quintet from Adelaide on a regular basis.

Philip Howlett (guitars, vocals) knows how to make doom great again and leads his band towards the highest point on the Australian Doom Metal pedestal. III –From the Deep is an excellent example of traditional doom metal with some punk attitude and imagination, and thus our conversation with Phil about Lucifer’s Fall stuff turned out to be pretty constructive. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SAVAGE DEITY — “PERISH MANGDA”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 262021
 

On November 28th Inhuman Assault Productions will release Decade of Savagery, the infernally barbaric third album by Savage Deity from Bangkok, Thailand, and today we’re presenting the second track premiere in the run-up to its release.

Steadfastly connecting with the kind of ’90s-era death metal spawned in the earliest days of Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Malevolent Creation (among others), Savage Deity have indeed created music that’s genuinely savage, using compelling songcraft, ferocious execution, and authentic spirit to mount their malicious, adrenaline-fueled attacks rather than trickery or gimmicks. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ASTROPHOBOS — “TILL DJUPET”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 262021
 

 

Today we present the third and final single leading up to the release of a new album by the Swedish black metal band Astrophobos. The name of the album is Corpus, but Corpus is more than the album, and is also the title of a cross-disciplinary collaboration spanning several years in which sculpture, photography, and music have intermingled to explore themes of impermanence, death and decay.

As Astrophobos explain, “Teaming up with artists Lisa Wallert and Morgan Norman, the band ventured into these concepts, taking inspiration from their work to write both music and lyrics”. The artwork of Wallert and Norman can be found on the cover of the Corpus album and throughout the layout of the gatefold vinyl record. The collaboration will culminate in an exhibition/live show taking place in Stockholm on November 13th

But now let’s get to the song you’ll have the chance to hear for the first time today: “Till Djupet“. Continue reading »

BETRAYAL: “DISORDER REMAINS”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 252021
 

 

(This is DGR‘s review of a new album by the German band Betrayal, which was released last April by Rising Nemesis Records.)

There are some albums that, no matter how late in the year it may be when we’re able to write them up, feel like we absolutely must do so, especially when we would otherwise have to explain why all of a sudden the album seems to appear basically out of nowhere on our year-end list. Betrayal’s Disorder Remains is one such album.

Disorder Remains was released six months ago in the middle of April, and I do expect it will be barreling onto my year-end list, despite our previous failure to talk about it at length (we did premiere a song from it in April). We’ve covered the German genre-splicing group in greater depth before, as their previous release Infinite Circle was an album that won a few of us over five years back, so if you’ve been with us a while you’ve likely seen the name. But with Disorder Remains the thrashier-prog-death hybridization that Betrayal get up to is elevated to a whole other level, playing out like the most natural evolutionary step the band could’ve made with their sound. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CONTRITION — “BROKEN MORTAL COIL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 252021
 

 

The resumes of the people in Chicago-based Contrition open eyes. Those people are Jerome Marshall (Cobalt, Yakuza) on vocals, Garry Naples (Novembers Doom, Without Waves) on drums, Jeff Wilson (Chrome Waves, Deeper Graves, ex-Wolvhammer) on guitars and synth, and Jon Woodring (Bones, ex-Usurper) on bass. As an educated guess, they’ve got all sorts of different music swirling through their heads from day to day, even making room for the silence of sleep and maybe a few other silences. So, where did they go under the name Contrition on their debut album, Broken Mortal Coil?

The astute among you will already have an idea, based on the singles that have emerged in the run-up to the October 29 release by Wilson’s Disorder Recordings. Some of you may even know that a couple of these people already collaborated in a band called Doomsday, which released one self-titled EP in 2012 (worth tracking down if you don’t have it), and which itself provides some distant clues.

But I’m going to pretend you don’t know where these four (and their noteworthy guests) coalesced on Broken Mortal Coil, that your minds are as clean as an erased chalkboard, still dusty but ready to be filled, or wrecked. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): INTAGLIO — “II”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 252021
 

 

The second album by Russia’s Intaglio, unassumingly entitled II, follows their debut by more than 15 years. It is filled with moments that set off fireworks inside a listener’s head.

That’s probably not something you expect to read about a band whose music is classified by Metal Archives as “Funeral Doom”. Most music so classified is more likely to mesmerize than it is to provoke gasps of wonder. But II isn’t typical, and while it is indeed entrancing, the magnificent spell it casts derives from unusual ingredients and an unusual conception (and Funeral Doom is no longer an adequate description).

In its conception, II was intended to be experienced as a single long piece. It has a 7-part track list (though there are no pauses between the tracks) and consists of movements, but it is accurately described as a single “doom opera” which achieves its full impact only when heard from beginning to end.

For its ingredients, Intaglio assembled a large cast of performers and live instruments. Seven professional singers contributed voices that range from basso profundo to soprano. The instruments included not only a panoply of electric and acoustic guitars and percussive sources but also classical instruments such as upright bass, cello, chimes, and flute, as well as mouth harp. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): SOL SISTERE, FERAL SEASON, DARKEST MIND, END ALL LIFE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Oct 242021
 

 

As promised, this is Part 2 of the column I began here earlier today. It includes reviews and streams of two recently released albums, a track from a forthcoming debut full-length, and a very promising two-song demo.

SOL SISTERE (Chile)

In the summer of this year I premiered a song and video for this next album of atmospheric black metal (which is self-titled though it’s the band’s third full-length). Sometimes that’s the best I can do to help spread the word about a new release, but for this one I felt I should do something more.

At eight tracks and an hour of total music, Sol Sistere provides a lot to take in. More than merely the accumulated length, the music itself provides a wide-ranging experience. At their heights of intensity, the songs deliver jaw-dropping panoramas of sweeping, soaring, incendiary magnificence, with an emotional impact equal to the colossal sonic impact. The moods are often wrenching, manifesting anguish in shattering ways (the vocals alone are relentlessly shattering). Even when the breathtaking typhoons of sound soften, sorrow usually reigns. Continue reading »

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