Islander

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DRITTMASKIN — “SVARTPØNK”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 082021
 

 

From their outward trappings and the way they talk about themselves and their music, you might not be inclined to take the Norwegian band Drittmaskin as seriously as you should. They seem to relentlessly make fun of themselves and under-sell what their music is capable of accomplishing. But pay no attention to that — instead, pay attention to the 12 tracks on their frankly astonishing new album Svartpønk. You’ll have your first chance to do that today, because we’ve got a full stream of the record in advance of the album’s October 8 release.

Trying to pigeonhole these new songs in genre terms is a confounding exercise. Svartpønk translates to “Blackpunk”, and there is indeed a hybrid of d-beat punk and black metal strongly at work here. But that’s not nearly an exhaustive list of the ingredients that Drittmaskin have joined together. They also pull from the wells of old-school thrash, arena-ready “classic” heavy metal, crust, death metal, and more. Some ingredients are more pronounced in some songs than in others, i.e., they are definitely not interchangeable, and that’s part of what makes the full run through the album such a relentless thrill-ride, but every song is a genre-bender. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEVIANT PROCESS — “HOMO HOMINI DEUS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 082021
 

 

About five and a half years ago the then-unheralded Québec City band Deviant Process released their debut album, Paroxysm. It caught our attention, much as an unforeseen meteor shower would. Our man Andy Synn wrote about it here, in a review that included this passage:

“Imagine if you will a band who marry the hi-tech riff-craft of Anata to the high-octane melodic intensity of Beyond Creation, with more than a dash of the unconventional hookiness of bands like Gorod and Hieronymus Bosch (RIP), along with a generous helping of pure, groovesome heaviness, and you’ll probably find yourself somewhere in the vicinity of what Deviant Process sound like. But… and here’s the twist… the Canadian quartet do all that, and more, without ever sounding derivative or predictable.”

And now Deviant Process are returning at last, this time with a new album entitled Nurture on the Season of Mist label. It might not be as big a surprise as its predecessor was, because we already know what they’re capable of doing, yet it’s still a stunner. As SoM rightly proclaims, Nurture will be a big turn-on for “those obsessed with the likes of classic Death, Cynic and Pestilence as well as contemporaries Obscura, Beyond Creation and Fractal Universe“.

Two singles from the album have been released so far, and today we bring you a third one: “Homo Homini Deus”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: THECODONTION, VESSEL OF INIQUITY, VEILBURNER, ZAQQUOEM, EXSUL, CHARRED, CONCRETE, DESOLATOR, DECAY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 082021
 

 

The usual deluge of new music is already under way this week, but for the most part what I’ve pulled together in this round-up is music that surfaced last week. As I was making my way through a gigantic list of new tracks over the past weekend, I squirreled these away because I thought they’d make a good compilation.

All the music leans hard into death metal, though not without some other ingredients, and the three sensations that come to mind when I think about all of this after the fact are these: Violence, eeriness, and derangement.

THECODONTION (Italy) / VESSEL OF INIQUITY (UK)

To begin I’ve chosen a split released last Friday by Xenoglossy Productions and I, Voidhanger Records. Entitled The Permian​-​Triassic Extinction Event, it includes two tracks by Thecodontion and one long one by Vessel of Iniquity. Thematically, it is based on “the titular Permian-Triassic extinction event (commonly known as ‘The Great Dying’), and life emerging anew afterwards”. To quote further from the introduction on the Bandcamp page: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS — “INFINITE UNIVERSE INFINITE DEATH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 072021
 

 

Almost a quarter-century passed between the debut album from Journey Into Darkness and the second one, Multitudes of Emptiness, that emerged in 2020. But the creative fires were clearly burningbright, because now the third one — Infinite Universe Infinite Death — is already on its way. It will be released on September 10th by Spirit Coffin Publishing, and today we draw the curtain all the way back on this astonishing piece of star-faring musical theater through our full streaming premiere. In addition, we’re presenting complete track-by-track commentary by the band’s sole member, Florida-based Brett Clarin.

For those who may be new to this symphonic black/death project, it’s worth knowing that Clarin‘s roots in extreme metal are deep. Between 1987 and 1993, he played guitar in the death metal band Sorrow (formerly Apparition), which released two records on the Roadrunner label. After Sorrow called it quits in the mid-’90s, Clarin started Journey Into Darkness as an all-synth solo project, having been inspired by the intros and interludes on extreme metal albums.

After releasing that 1996 debut album (Life Is a Near Death Experience), he put the project on hold for a long time. When he resurrected it with that second album, he made Journey Into Darkness sound like a full band, though the synths still played distinctive roles. The same is true of this new album, though it’s fair to say that the darkness in the music is even more pronounced. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DETEST — “THE PROCESS OF DOOM IS ON”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Sep 072021
 

 

The story of Detest is yet another tale which proves that death (metal) conquers time. If you check this Danish band’s history at Metal-Archives you’ll see that December 12, 1990, was the date on which Detest was founded, and you’ll further see that their initial demos were released in 1991 and 1992, and that their debut album Dorval was released in 1994. But following one more demo discharged in the following year,  fell into a very long silence. As they describe it, they fell prey to booze, drugs, and in-fighting about how their music should sound, and thus dissolved in 1996.

Yet their entombment was not to be a permanent one. 2014 saw some reunion shows, and in the years after that original guitarist John Petersen recruited and tested new members who would have the ambition and focus to bring new Detest music into the world. That led to the band’s 2019 EP A Moment of Love, and now the new Detest trio (which also includes bassist/vocalist Simon Springborg and drummer Danni Jelsgaard) have recorded their first album since Dorval more than 25 years ago.

The new album, We Will Get What We Deserve, is projected for release in November by Emanzipation Productions, and to whet your appetites for it we are today presenting a lyric video for an album track named “The Process Of Doom Is On“, which will be released as a stand-alone single this coming Friday, September 10th. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ANGUISH

 Interviews  No Responses »
Sep 072021
 

 

(We have a new interview from Comrade Aleks to present, one with members of the Swedish necro doom band Anguish, whose most recent album Doomkvädet was just released days ago by Sun & Moon Records.)

Check Metal-Archives and you find there a dozen bands named Anguish, but if you’ve ever heard this grim crew from Uppsala, Sweden, you won’t confuse their necro doom with anything else. Don’t get me wrong, they perform pretty traditional low and slow doom metal but their vocalist, the mighty J. Dee, seems to think he’s still in his old death metal band Graveless! Someone tell him!

I’m kidding, which I do sometimes.

But listen – that’s true, because from their debut album Through the Archdemon’s Head (2012) up through the most recent Doomkvädet they’ve stubbornly kept the same macabre delivery of doom things with the almost pious zealotry of bloody cultists. They aren’t as extreme as one might expect but following Anguish never was an easy ride, and certainly I need some help to introduce the band to our readers. And J. Dee… eh, nope… the band’s original guitarist David lends his helping hand (though J. Dee does make an appearance near the end). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GRIM FATE / THE SOMBRE — “FROM ANCIENT SLUMBER / THE HORRID SILENCE THUS BEGAN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 062021
 

 

As amalgams of death and doom metal go, we’ll be so bold as to say that you won’t find a more formidable offering this year than the new album-length split by the Dutch bands Grim Fate and The Sombre. Entitled From Ancient Slumber / The Horrid Silence Thus Began (reflecting the names of each band’s side), it will get a CD and digital release by Chaos Records on September 10th, but we have a full stream of this ravishing experience for you today.

As you’ll discover, these two bands have different approaches in their explorations of death/doom, with Grim Fate‘s music more crushing and crippling and The Sombre‘s more entrancing (but still heavy as hell). This difference is part of what explains why the split is so tremendously good as a whole, and the rest of the explanation comes down to just how talented both bands are in the pursuits they’ve chosen for themselves on their sides of this split.

We have further thoughts about each band’s sequence of tracks (three from each of them), but of course feel free to skip ahead to the album stream so you will know more immediately what’s going on as you read. Continue reading »

IRON MAIDEN: “SENJUTSU”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Sep 062021
 

 

(Here’s Wil Cifer‘s review of the new Iron Maiden album, which was released three days ago.)

The unholy trinity of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden spawned all metal since their influence trickled down to Metallica, Slayer, Bathory, and pretty much anyone wearing a bullet belt since then. Now with album 17, Iron Maiden comes back stronger than ever after a six-year hiatus from the studio. I assumed The Book of Souls was going to be their last album, and even after hearing the single for “The Writing on the Wall“ I was not expecting a double-album worth of material.

When I press play on any Maiden album since Brave New World my immediate worry is what shape is Bruce‘s voice going to be in? Now that he’s at age 63 this is an even more legitimate concern given the fact that his leather-lunged voice is a defining staple of their sound. This is put to rest after hearing how Bruce belts it out on the title track that opens the album. Given that the producer was Kevin Shirley, who worked with Rush, Dream Theater and Journey, another surprise is how beefy the guitar tone is — though Steve Harris co-produced, so I am sure breathing over his shoulder every step of the way. “Stratego” that follows is even more of an urgent headbanger and has its boot firmly on the monitor. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NUR RUN, NIFROST, ADOPERTA TENEBRIS, SATURNIAN MIST, SOREM, GLYPH, LURID, DEATHFUCKER

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Sep 052021
 

 

You want to know how the sausage gets made? Okay, I see one hand at the back of the room and that’s all I need even though the rest of you are recoiling.

When I woke up at 4:30 a.m. this morning I had about half a dozen candidates I was considering for this column based on previous listening. But I didn’t stop with that. After feeding the cats, caffeinating myself, and smoking a couple cigarettes, I collected links to more than 20 other possibilities, some of them from tabs I’d opened on my computer during the past week and some I found from crawling through arrivals in the NCS email in-box over the last few days, which I hadn’t perused carefully until yesterday afternoon.

I then copied all those links into the NCS WordPress editor and opened them again at a computer in our house that has shitty wi-fi. The one with a decent internet connection is in the “family room” where the TV is, and my wife was in there catching up on the news (she wakes up ridiculously early too). Even with headphones on, I can’t listen to metal in that room when she’s there. I have to crank up the volume, and her ears are so sensitive that she can hear the sound leaking through the headphones. It annoys her because she can’t stand extreme metal. I strongly prefer that she not be annoyed. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 042021
 

 

Can’t you read plain English? It says “Labor Day”. It doesn’t say “Holi-Day”. So I’m just following the prescribed agenda, and laboring.

Because I unexpectedly agreed to write a whopping four premieres yesterday, I had no time to begin rounding up a selection of songs and videos that surfaced this past week. Leaving that until today has resulted in another massive collection, again featuring too many bands to name in the post title.

As it happens, the majority of the new music you’ll find below is accompanied by videos. It also happens that almost all of the new songs are high-speed devastators. This isn’t entirely by accident, because many of them were recommended in our NCS group by DGR, who tends to prefer musical riots over other forms of audio entertainment. And once I’d gotten into that kind of groove, I tended to stick with it in choosing from among other possibilities I checked out.

ARCHSPIRE (Canada)

We’ll start with a new lyric video for a frantic new song by Archspire, in which vocalist Oliver Rae Aleron goes faster than a cattle auctioneer and the rest of the band spits a variety of bullets even faster — but then abruptly the song gets dreamy. Continue reading »

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