Islander

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ARSENIC ADDICTION — “MOON AND SUN”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 232021
 

 

Although the command in our site’s name has always been subject to exceptions, it’s nevertheless true that those exceptions are rare and must be well-earned. The singing in the song that’s the subject of a stunning video we’re premiering today is one of those well-earned departures from our usual nastiness — though it’s joined with throat-slitting vocal viciousness.

The song in question is “Moon and Sun“, a thoroughly gripping track from the third (and most recent) album by the band Arsenic Addiction from Salt Lake City, Utah, the title of which is XIX. As you’ll discover, if you’re not already familiar with the song, it’s a multi-faceted affair that brings into play ingredients of gothic metal, melodic death metal, and symphonic metal (among others). It’s heavy and hard-hitting but also completely enthralling, and it’s disturbing as well as beautiful. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LUTHARÖ — “LOST IN A SOUL”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 232021
 

 

After releasing a trio of EPs that includes 2020’s attention-grabbing Wings of Agony, the metal band Lutharö from Hamilton, Ontario are at last ready to present their debut full-length. Entitled Hiraeth, it’s now set for release on October 15th.

For those familiar with Lutharö’s previous output, the new album expands their sonic palette, interweaving ingredients from melodic death metal, thrash, and power metal, with occasional astute uses of orchestration. As the advance press for the album accurately states, Hiraeth delivers plenty of raw power and aggression but is equally effective in presenting emotionally potent and head-hooking melodies and creating hauntingly beautiful atmospheres.

And today we’re premiering a video for “Lost in a Soul“, a song that displays all those qualities in abundance. Continue reading »

SEPIROTH: “CONDEMNED TO SUFFER”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jul 232021
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli‘s review of the third album by the Dutch death metal band Sepiroth, which was released earlier this month via the Petrichor label.)

I’ve had a tough time finding death metal that appeals to me these days. I’ve found it so difficult to locate anything that isn’t drowned in gimmicks of rudimentary slam or isn’t consumed with trying to write shit that would’ve felt dated in 1995.  I may take some heat for this, but at least from my perspective it feels like right now this is the main sub-genre of extreme metal that’s really lagging behind in 2021, and it’s REALLY lagging behind.

Death metal requires riffs, actual composition, and song-writing dynamics to work well.  Especially when its vocal approach is typically not diverse, the music consequently has to do a lot around it to avoid monotony.

Well, I present to you today a death metal band that aren’t living in ’95, don’t waste your time with vapid slam and brutal death metal’s purposefully shit production, and actually sound like they’ve kept up with the genre past the year 2000. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: RYE / ROZH/ РOЖЬ

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Jul 232021
 

 

Comrade Aleks continues his recent excursion into interviews of artists with a bit of black in their veins, and his eloquent correspondent today is the man behind the Russian band Рожь, whose name means “Rye” and whose newest release is Вечное (“Eternity”).

The band’s logo is into English but its Cyrillic original title “Рожь” (which really means “Rye”) could be found everywhere. This one-man band from Russian Karelia was successfully hiding from our radars for a few years, and yet its debut full-length Вечное / Vechnoe (“Eternal”) couldn’t pass unnoticed even though it’s a DIY release.

Black metal, extreme doom metal, and echoes of shamanic folk ambient are entwined in one intensive hymn of death, decay, and cold soil. Dynamic and vivid, this album emits unstoppable waves of energies whose amplitudes vary from nihilistic negative to soaring ethereal tunes.

It’s time to dig out Rye’s roots with its founder Vladimir Frith. Continue reading »

SUPREME CONCEPTION: A REVIEW OF “EMPIRE OF THE MIND” AND THE PREMIERE OF “TRANSGRESSION II: SELF-DISCOVERY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jul 222021
 

 

(In this article we present Todd Manning‘s review of a new EP by the Czech band Supreme Conception which will be released on August 6th, and our premiere of a track from the EP.)

It’s easy to get Tech-Death wron;, endless flurries of indistinguishable notes make for unremarkable material. It’s a good thing then that Supreme Conception avoid the genre’s pitfalls on their new EP Empire of the Mind. The trio consisting of Michal Kusak (ex-Imperial Foeticide) on vocals, Martin Meyer (Heaving Earth) on guitar, and Aaron Stechauner (ex-Rings of Saturn) on drums, display plenty of instrumental prowess on these five songs, but also manage to create an engaging listening experience as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: REJECTER — “DOUBLE SPHINX AT THE ENTRANCE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 222021
 

 

We’ve had a lot of premieres at our site today already, but this final one definitely should not be overlooked, even though the band is an unheralded newcomer of undisclosed origin. A duo consisting of musician Carhaix SSP and vocalist G., they’ve taken the name Rejecter, which is a reflection of their rebellious black metal ethos — an embrace of “the yearning for freedom” (including freedom from the genre’s more rigid and dictatorial voices) and an encouragement of people “to repel the forms of authority that disrupt their lives”.

Rejecter’s eight-track debut album, The Vulgar Wine, is being presented by the anti-fascist black metal collective RABM, and today we’re premiering a multi-faceted and immediately gripping track named “Double Sphinx at the Entrance“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VEILBURNER — “VAULT OF HAUNTING DISSOLVE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 222021
 

 

In December 2018 our writer Andy Synn compiled reviews of all the albums released as of that date by Pennsylvania’s Veilburner, including their then-latest (and then-finest) record, A Sire To the Ghouls of Lunacy. In tracing the band’s evolution, he characterized the music as “warped and twisted, tumultuously technical and deviously discordant Black/Death Metal which doesn’t really sound exactly like anyone, or anything, else out there.”

And now here we are, two and a half years later, even more copiously surrounded by bands who have embraced “dissonant death metal” as their dominant style, and yet what Andy wrote at the end of 2018 still holds true: Veilburner still don’t really sound like anyone, or anything, else out there. Their newest album, Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull (set for a September 24 release by Transcending Obscurity Records), is abundant proof of that.

The new full-length is relentlessly fascinating and mood-altering, both horrifying and mesmerizing, ingenious as well as deranged, and thoroughly gripping from start to finish. Although only time will tell, it has all the earmarks of a record that will be remembered for a long time after it emerges in all its fiendishly spine-tingling and skin-chilling glory. As a further sign of this, today we’re premiering a stunning album track named “Vault of Haunting Dissolve“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PROTOSEQUENCE — “BARONESS PT 1: A FALLING KNIFE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 222021
 

 

Prepare to have your head spun all the way around and your pulse galvanized like stepping on a live power line, because we’re premiering a new single by Protosequence that’s being released today by Lacerated Enemy Records.

This new track, “Baroness Pt 1: A Falling Knife“, is the first to appear from a new album and follows up the band’s 2020 EP, A Blunt Description of Something Obscene, which we also had the pleasure of premiering. And if you happen to be newcomers to what these Canadian wizards do, an excerpt from what we wrote with that premiere might still serve as a viable introduction:

“Protosequence have created a genuine musical spectacle, a fusion of tech-death and progressive metal that manages to be both jaw-dropping and beguiling, both head-spinning and bone-smashing. It creates pyrotechnic displays of breath-taking instrumental agility that often seem completely deranged or utterly alien, accompanied by bestial vocal ferocity, but it also seduces the listener with elements of mesmerizing melody. And around every corner (of which there are many in these labyrinthine compositions), a new surprise awaits.” Continue reading »

CRYPT CRAWLER: “FUTURE USURPER”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jul 222021
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of the second album by the Australian band Crypt Crawler, which which was first released in June 2021 (digital and CD), with a vinyl release set for August 6th via Bitter Loss.)

Death metal often worships at the altar of era. Roots in the genre’s beginnings give a needed reverence when creating new offerings, though this should not lead to a slavish devotion that creates cover bands.

This Australian band set themselves apart right from the bass riff leading into the opening song (“The Mouth of Death”). They also avoid creating a sonic monochrome of hyper aggression. This track might warrant the label progressive death metal, if the term goes beyond a tendency to obsess over wanky mathematics. The more adventurous side of their songwriting is at times subtle and their aggression rooted more in a taut thrashing. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BASTARÐUR, CARONTE, NECRONAUTICAL, LOW FLYING HAWKS, DAGOBA, ZAKULA, ANNIHILUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 212021
 

 

This is one of those days when we risk overwhelming even the most voracious listeners who visit our site. I’ve already posted a round-up of blackened metal and a full album stream, but can’t resist using some unexpected free time to pull together another collection. This one is rife with videos, most of them accompanying advance tracks from forthcoming releases, but there’s another full album stream in the mix as well. There’s a lot of stylistic variety in the mix too.

BASTARÐUR (Iceland)

This first track came as a big surprise (at least to me). It turns out that Bastarður is the crust punk project of Sólstafir singer/guitarist Aðalbjörn Tryggvason, drawing upon the influence of such bands as Entombed, Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Motörhead, and Disfear.

He made Bastarður’s debut album, Satan’s Loss of Son, with drummer Birgir Jónsson (Dimma), and the album also includes guest vocals by Marc Grewe (Morgoth, Insidious Disease) and Prmordial’s Alan Averill, as well as guest guitar leads and soloing by Ragnar Zolberg (who has performed live bass for Sólstafir) and Þráinn Árni Baldvinsson from Skálmöld, among others. Continue reading »

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