Islander

AN NCS PREMIERE: FETID ZOMBIE — “BREATH OF THANATOS”

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Jul 162021
 

 

Almost five years have passed since Epicedia, the last album by Mark Riddick’s Fetid Zombie. That long stretch of time didn’t represent a hiatus, because Fetid Zombie continued releasing splits and EPs every year, but the time has finally come for a new full-length. Bearing the title Transmutations, it’s calendared for release by Transcending Obscurity Records on July 30.

Long before this new album it was evident that Riddick’s songwriting wasn’t going to stagnate with the passage of time. Instead, it has become increasingly exploratory and inventive, and those tendencies are in full bloom on the new album. While it may be true that classic death metal heaviness and ferocity are still at the core of the music, it wouldn’t be wrong to call Transmutations a progressive death metal thrill-ride.

As proof of that we’re presenting today “Breath of Thanatos“, an amazing song that’s a genuine kaleidoscope of sound, as elaborate and enthralling as it is punishing and frightening. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: BENIGHTED, BEYOND GRACE, THE BREATHING PROCESS, BURN IN HELL, CHOKE, DDENT, DEVIANT PROCESS, GHOROT, PREY FOR NOTHING

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 162021
 

 

As you can see, I had time enough yesterday to make my way through a lot of music that surfaced over the last week or so, and found a lot to like — even more than you’ll see here, because I decided to devote this round-up exclusively to songs with videos and leave the others for another time. The visual approaches are quite wide-ranging and so is the music. I decided to set them out in alphabetical order by band name, and that coincidentally turned out to make for an interesting sonic sequence.

Get popcorn, or whatever else you like to chew on while glued to a screen, and perhaps a preferred intoxicant, then sit back and get ruined or rapt or both.

BENIGHTED (France)

Benighted teamed up with Metal Injection for the premiere of a lyric video for a new digital single, “A Personified Evil,” which includes guest vocals by Francesco Paoli from Fleshgod Apocalypse. As if the song weren’t slaughtering enough without him. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ANGUISH — “HEREIN I BURN”

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Jul 152021
 

 

On August 4, 2021, Sun & Moon Records will release a new album by the “Necro Doom” band Anguish from Uppsala, Sweden. Entitled Doomkvädet, the album adds to a discography that includes a few shorter releases and the previous full-lengths Through the Archdemon’s Head (2012), Mountain (2014), and Magna est vis Siugnah (2018).

To help introduce the new album, today we’re presenting a lyric video for a frightening, soul-suffocating track named “Herein I Burn“, one that brings into play ingredients of traditional occult doom, but merge them with elements of death metal and other sonic elements that help create a truly unearthly and terrifying atmosphere. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BRILLIANT COLDNESS — “PHANTASM”

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Jul 152021
 

 

Last month we had the pleasure of premiering a mind-blowing song off the new album by the Ukrainian technical death metal band Brilliant Coldness, and today we’re premiering another extraordinary adventure from the album, a song named “Phantasm” that will be released as a single on July 16th. And although we’ll later repeat some of the background info we provided in our first premiere, what we’re going to do now is jump straight to the music.

Brilliant Coldness are the kind of band who don’t waste time. It’s as if there’s a timer ticking down and they’re going to explode if they don’t eject the music as fast as they can and without delay. And so “Phantasm” immediately discharges wild, cavorting riffage that feverishly needles at the listener’s mind over bullet-spitting drumwork and equally febrile and fantastical bass escapades. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ATRA HAERESIS — “PRETIUM?”

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Jul 152021
 

 

The song we’re about to premiere through a lyric video is one of those which we sometimes accompany with a warning — that you’d better take some big gulps of air before diving in, because it’s so exhilarating on so many levels that you’ll need the extra oxygen. And on top of that we should add the warning to loosen up your neck muscles, because its powerfully hammering grooves will trigger the good old headbang reflex in extravagant fashion.

The song we’re talking about, “Pretium?“, is a powerhouse track from the debut album by Atra Haeresis, an international black/death band that features members from such other projects as Ethir Anduin, Obscuration, and Навьяра, along with mastermind Alexander Dorokhin and a trio of guest performers. The album, named Pretium, is set for a joint release on August 26th by Satanath Records, Kryrart Records, and Death Portal Studio, and a tape edition will also be available through Void Wanderer Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HELL STRIKE — “HELLSTRIKE”

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Jul 142021
 

 

The allure of some metal releases begins and intensifies even before you hear a single note. Sometimes that allure is even more intense when you don’t have a previous musical repertoire from the band that would more concretely tell you what to expect, which is the case with Hell Strike‘s debut EP Hellstrike.

In the case of this writer, the allure and the intrigue were first kindled by the pedigree of Hell Strike‘s line-up, which features members of Ascended Dead, Ritual Necromancy, and Bloodsoaked. And then it intensified upon seeing the EP’s cover art by Misanthropic Art (which turns out to be an effective visual rendering of the diabolical atmosphere of the sounds). And then the allure became greater still upon seeing comparative references in the press materials to the likes of Sadistic Intent, Grotesque (Sweden), The Chasm, Necrophobic, Mortem (Peru), and Order From Chaos.

Sometimes after becoming intensely enticed in such ways, we’re left downcast and disappointed after listening to the music. But as you’ve no doubt already guessed from our hosting of the EP’s full streaming premiere a couple days before its release, all the excited expectations were not merely fulfilled, but exceeded. Continue reading »

LAVA: “SACRIFICIAL RITUAL OF PRIMORDIAL FIRE”

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Jul 142021
 

 

(Today we have a guest review by Lonegoat from the Necroclassical project Goatcraft and the host of the podcast Necropolis, and he’s spreading the word about the debut album by the Ukrainian band LAVA.)

Cut from a similar cloth as Panzerfaust, Sacrificial Ritual of Primordial Fire, the debut album from the Ukrainian band LAVA, centers upon its design a powerful exterior. A blend of modern death metal and black metal susceptibilities, namely the worship of intense chord tension, LAVA presents itself as a formidable new project worth paying attention to.

Although this kind of black/death hybrid music generally focuses on its textural components, LAVA allow the chord tension to wane enough so that fierce riffs have room to emerge, at times with flashes of high melodicism. Songs have distinctive flow, permitting bleak themes to materialize and develop in relentless fashion. Venerableness is on display with the addition of angular bass tintinnabulations, which in turn grant the music surprising depth. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DUNGEON SERPENT — “WORLD OF SORROWS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 132021
 

 

Who doesn’t love a breathtaking surprise? The sight of meteor showers blazing at night, a sudden murmuration of starlings overhead, the penetration of sun rays through heavy clouds… such things create a sense of wonder. Other surprises are more frightening and destructive — earthquakes, flash floods, gunfire going off in crowded gatherings, bombs raining on villages.

Such thoughts have come to mind in listening to World of Sorrows, the debut album of the death metal band Dungeon Serpent from Vancouver, British Columbia. It comes out of left field, preceded only by a two-track 2020 demo (though the demo itself was a very promising surprise). And like those other contrasting surprises mentioned above, it both inspires a sense of wonder and also inflicts breathtaking levels of sonic obliteration. The music is morbid, mauling, and merciless, but also home to both emotionally evocative melodies and the kind of pyrotechnic guitar mastery that drops jaws.

And there’s an especially big surprise at the end.

Little wonder that we leaped at the chance to present a full stream of the album today in advance of its July 16 release by Nameless Grave Records. Continue reading »

SHADES OF SPEED: DUNGEON STEEL, WRAITH, BONEHUNTER, PHANTOM FIRE, SCHIZOPHRENIA

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Jul 132021
 


Bonehunter

 

(Our Norwegian friend and long-standing NCS supporter eiterorm steps up today with a round-up of new music, and we’ll let him give his own explanation of it. [And yes, we were trying to trick him, and yes, it worked.])

“Shades of… wait, what? That’s not a thing! And why is this black metal dude sending speed metal all of a sudden?”

That is how I started my latest e-mail to Islander, which contained a few recommendations about new music. I send him such e-mails from time to time, but I haven’t done so in a little while, because lately I’ve had a bit of a music backlog. So by the time I’ve gotten to the news, they have already been posted on the blog, or they’re no longer “news”. And this blog seems to cover most of what I’d recommend even if I don’t send tips as quickly as usual. It’s almost as if I’m not the only person following great labels like World Terror Committee, Iron Bonehead, Ván, etc…

This time, however, Islander wanted to post my message as a guest post on the blog, for some reason. (I think he’s trying to trick me into writing more posts for the blog.) The e-mail I sent him didn’t quite suffice as a blog post, though, so I decided to add a few more words to what was mostly a list of links to recommended music.

Now, to answer that opening question: I’ve been listening to a lot of speed metal lately, which is why this post is all about the speedy stuff. It’s not at all unlike me to listen to that kind of music, but not so much that it outweighs everything else. And coincidentally, some bits of speed metal news surfaced lately, so I thought I’d round them up here. Well, not all of it is news at this point, but none of it has been featured on the blog, so you’re getting it anyway. Let’s go through them in order of newsiness: Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SEVERED BOY — “TRAGIC ENCOUNTERS”

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Jul 122021
 

 

You might wonder how the Massachusetts duo Severed Boy chose their name after the quarantine gave birth to their collaboration. One of the two, Nicholas Wolf (the other is his Lunglust bandmate Reid Calkin), explains the choice:

“When I was writing the songs and starting to think about what the lyrical content would be, I wanted to focus on how people could be capable of acting out such horrible acts on each other – whether it’s not caring, or in this case, NOT KNOWING. There’s a sample from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in our drone track ‘Agony and Despair’. I started to fixate on the subject not having a conscience like the monster, or being able to just turn off the conscience. The name SEVERED BOY is the idea that someone could sever the actions of their mind from the actions of their body, and the consequences of doing so.”

Those consequences, as explored on the band’s debut EP Tragic Encounters, are among the absolute worst acts committed by the human mind and body. How the band address such abominations in their music is a question answered by our complete EP stream today, leading up to the record’s July 15 release by Caligari Records. Continue reading »

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