Islander

AN NCS PREMIERE: WALD KRYPTA — “POSSESSED BY NOTHINGNESS”

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Jul 082021
 

 

Wald Krypta are a black metal duo hailing from the U.S. and Canada. To date, they’ve released two demos – Pandemic Winds (2016) and Lost Relic (2019), the former later released on cassette tape by the Eternal Death label – and two albums, 2018’s Nature Enigma and 2019’s Where None Remain, both also released on cassette by Eternal Death. Now they’ve readied a third album entitled Possessed by Nothingness, which will also be released by Eternal Death, on August 6th.

What we have for you today is the premiere stream of the new album’s title track, which seems to perfectly represent the core aspects of Wald Krypta‘s uncompromising musical devotions. Continue reading »

SUMMONER’S CIRCLE: AN ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT AND TRACK PREMIERE (“CHAOS VECTOR”)

 Metal News, Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 072021
 

 

Today it’s our devilish pleasure to help spread the word that on August 27th the Tennessee sextet Summoner’s Circle will release their third album, Chaos Vector. And to draw further attention to that welcome news, we’re also premiering an extravagant music video for the album’s equally extravagant title track.

The song itself is sonic alchemy, not merely because it creates a frightening atmosphere of dark magic being practiced and dangerous forces being unchained, but also because it blends together different sensations and stylistic ingredients from the realms of black, death, and gothic metal to create an experience that’s greater than the mere sum of its parts. Continue reading »

DEAD AND DRIPPING: “MIASMIC EULOGIES PREDICATING AN ETERNAL NOCTURNE”

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Jul 072021
 

 

(Vonlughlio returns to NCS with a review and recommendation of the second album by the New Jersey brutal death metal band Dead and Dripping, which was released in mid-May of this year.)

It’s been a long time without yours truly doing a small review, mainly due to work commitments and family time in this pandemic-infested world. If you are reading this, I hope you and your loved ones are well.

This time around I have the opportunity to write about the solo BDM project Dead and Dripping from the multi-instrumentalist Evan Daniele. I became aware of this project back in 2017 when they re-released their demo Disillusioned by Excessive Human Consumption, which I believe is back in the Dominican Republic with other CDs I could not take with me when I moved to US.

Last year saw the release of the debut album Profane Verses of Murderous Rhetoric, which we reviewed here at NCS, and that release made it to my list of top 2020 BDM albums. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OWL CAVE — “BROKEN SPEECH”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jul 072021
 

 

Prepare yourselves for an extraordinary 43-minute trip, because that’s what you’ll find in Broken Speech, the extravagant debut album by the French band Owl Cave that we’re premiering today in advance of its release later this month by the new French label Time Tombs Productions.

For those who need genre references, this creation is very difficult to pigeonhole in such ways. Over the course of its twisting and turning path, you can pick out ingredients of dissonant and avant-garde black metal, industrial, electronica, and prog, among others.

It incorporates widely varying but relentlessly visceral rhythms and an equally wide and richly textured array of hallucinatory emanations that are both entrancing and unnerving; in those ways it’s both earthbound and completely unearthly. It’s often monumentally heavy, and continuously capable of seizing control of your reptile brain, but equally capable of uncomfortably twisting your mind inside-out or placing it under the power of spells, some of them seductive and some of them harrowing. Continue reading »

HANNES GROSSMANN: “TO WHERE THE LIGHT RETREATS”

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Jul 072021
 

 

(We present another one of DGR’s typically deep-dive reviews, this time focusing on the latest album by Hannes Grossmann, which is out now.)

Hannes Grossmann has over the years become one of metal’s more prolific names and certainly one of metal’s more recognizable drummers, and for good reason. His unerring precision behind the kit could make anyone jealous. Had Gene Hoglan not already earned the nickname ‘The Atomic Clock’ through his own hard work, Hannes could easily step up as the next candidate to experiment with how gravity affects time via blastbeats after being launched into space.

When you have a resume that has included banner names of the tech-death scene and on some of their landmark works, it’s easy to understand how Hannes has gained the following he has. It also makes sense, then, that he could easily make his way in the world of solo projects, and in fact has been doing so for four albums now, the most recent of which — To Where The Light Retreats — saw release in early June, following a solo single last year. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MÜTHERLOAD — “Ü”

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Jul 062021
 

 

After releasing three albums and an EP from 2005 to 2011, the melodic death metal band Heaven Ablaze from London, Ontario, called it a day and went on indefinite hiatus eight years ago. But one of the relationships within that group later created the seeds of something new. Years later, a chance encounter between guitarist Patrick Davidson and drummer Matt Ashton led to jam sessions, and eventually to the fleshing out of a complete new band with the addition of bassist Chris McKichan, guitarist Derek Haley, and vocalist Derek Lee (ex-Ataxia). They chose the name Mütherload.

Melodic death metal is still in the mix in Mütherload’s music, but so are ingredients of groove, thrash, and hardcore, so much so that references to Lamb of God wouldn’t be out of line. And as reflected in the band’s debut EP, Ü, which we’re premiering in full today in advance of its July 9 release, they’re capable of creating moments of sublime beauty — as well as discharging punishing fury. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BAXAXAXA — “KINGDOM ABLAZE”

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Jul 062021
 

 

Although the German black metal band Baxaxaxa released their first demo in the long-lost days of 1992, a decade passed before something new emerged (a split with Ungod), and then an even longer silence descended before the release of the Old Evil EP in 2019. Thankfully, the band’s creative fires have clearly been reignited, because yet another EP followed in 2020 (Devoted to HIM), and now we’re approaching the August 6 release date of their debut album Catacomb Cult on The Sinister Flame label.

Vital clues to the music on the new album are revealed in all the titles that have come forth since Baxaxaxa’s revival a few years ago. It is indeed the sound of old evil and of devotion to infernal occult power, with the overarching atmosphere of a death cult performing their sinister ceremonies in the deepest, darkest, and most haunted of catacombs. Further clues my be found in comparative references to such bands as Mortuary Drape, Root, Hungary’s Tormentor, early Samael, and very early Mayhem.

But the best clues come from the musical previews that have already surfaced and the one we’re bringing you today — a song named “Kingdom Ablaze“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FLAME, DEAR FLAME — “THE WOLVES AND THE PRIORESS PART I”

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Jul 062021
 

On July 23rd the Eisenwald label will release Aegis, the debut album of the German band Flame, Dear Flame. Thematically, it is a two-part tale, with each part musically focusing on different aspects of the band’s impressive talents. Because epic doom is one of those ingredients, our friend Comrade Aleks, best known for his doom-metal interviews for us and other publications, shares these thoughts about the album, in the lead-in to our premiere of a song:

“Brunswick, the city where Tijl Uilenspiegel was born, has fed a band who combine the spirit of good old traditional doom and acoustic folk alongside a witch’s charms. Obviously, any doom band with a lady on vocals easily receives the tags “occult” or “mysterious”, and it seems that Flame, Dear Flame aren’t going to be an exception. Down-to-earth riffs, episodic bleak folk-oriented tunes, and the out-of-this-world soaring voice of Maren Lemke distinguish the band from many others.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACK MASS — “A PATH BEYOND”

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Jul 052021
 

The first thing that’s going to hook people’s attention to the new album by Boston-based Black Mass is Mike Hoffman‘s fantastic artwork, which evokes fond memories of the legendary Frank Frazetta. But it’s the savage thrill of the music on Feast at the Forbidden Tree that will set the deepest hooks.

This new record adds to a discography that includes two previous full-lengths, 2015’s Ancient Scriptures and 2019’s Warlust, and it’s set for release on September 10th by Redefining Darkness Records. What we have for you today is the album’s first preview — the premiere of an electrifying track named “A Path Beyond“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HINSIDES — “UNDER BETLEHEMS BRINNANDE STJÄRNA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 052021
 

 

Last year Shadow Records introduced denizens of the underground to the Swedish black metal band Hinsides (which is the solo project of Ultra Silvam’s M.A.), through a split release with Monstraat. Only two Hinsides songs were presented, but enough to make a fiendishly promising impression. From there Hinsides went on to complete work on a debut album, which the same Shadow Records is now set to release on July 9th.

The album’s name is Under Betlehems brinnande stjärna, and it is a confluence of surprises that create what might seem to be paradoxical results, harboring music that at first blush is so willfully abrasive it might repel rather than attract, but turns out to be exhilarating and unexpectedly enthralling — even magical. Continue reading »

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