Islander

AN NCS PREMIERE: FRIISK — “DEM WIND ENTGEGEN”

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Jun 042021
 

 

The German black metal band Friisk made a strong impression with their first EP, De Doden van’t Waterkant, in 2018. They followed that last year with a split release, joined by the French band Loth, but they’ve mainly devoted their creative energies over the last two years to the development of a debut album. Entitled …un torügg bleev blot Sand, it has now been announced for release on July 2nd via Vendetta Records.

Friisk draw inspiration from the landscapes of the East Frisian region in which they live — and the lyrics themselves were written in German, Low German, and the Sater Frisian dialect — as well as from a need to confront the negative experiences of individual human beings, and to explore in cathartic fashion the realities of fear, devastation, depression, illness, and death.

The resulting music, as displayed on the new album, is emotionally powerful on multiple levels. It surges with ravaging intensity, hostile and assaulting. But at least equally, the music is also atmospheric. In its melancholy melodies it provides an authentic reflection of the unavoidable emotional damage that’s inherent in the human condition, yet also points the way to the possibility of hope.

We have a great example of these facets of Friisk’s music in the gripping and intensely memorable song we’re premiering today: “Dem Wind entgegen“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GRAVERIPPER — “RADIATED REMAINS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 032021
 

 

Indiana’s Graveripper are open and obvious in their admiration of Germanic thrash, but equally attracted to the stylings of early Norwegian black metal, as well as the rollicking riots of first-wave black metal. As the band’s founder, vocalist/guitarist Corey Parks has quipped, “We’ve described ourselves as if Exodus and Kreator had a kid and Immortal babysat frequently. We’ve received comparisons to Venom, Toxic Holocaust, and Skeletonwitch, which I can see. I think there is a lot of Midnight in there, and bands like Bonehunter, Bewitcher — all that.”

Of course, it’s one thing to tick off all those influences and another thing to witness how well Graveripper have drawn together the ingredients of ’80s death/thrash, blackened speed metal, and savage rock ‘n’ roll — while also incorporating dark and memorable melodies so seamlessly into their blood-rushing onslaughts.

And witness it you shall, because today we’re presenting a full stream of the band’s explosive and moving new EP, Radiated Remains, the day before its release by Wise Blood Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE NEGATIVE BIAS — “TAPEWORM PYRAMIDS”

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Jun 032021
 

 

Narcissus Rising, the second album by the Austrian band The Negative Bias, was released almost two years ago — though due to the pandemic time-dilation effect it seems like two decades ago. That album, which we enthusiastically premiered and reviewed here in advance of its release by ATMF, opened many eyes to the band’s impressive but unsettling talents. We wrote then:

“The new album by the Austrian alchemists The Negative Bias is so ambitious in its conception, so extravagant in its composition, and so tremendously powerful in its execution that it merits the often-overused term “visionary”. It becomes a form of breathtakingly dramatic musical theater that seems calculated to create shock and awe, to assault and bedazzle the senses, forcibly shattering commonplace perceptions in order to make the mind more receptive to new and unexpected visions.”

It was thus exciting to learn that The Negative Bias had recorded a new EP for release this year, and today we have the pleasure of presenting a full stream of that EP — entitled Tapeworm Pyramids — the day before its issuance via Vendetta Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CIRCLE OF SIGHS — “NARCI”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 022021
 

 

This coming Friday, June 4th, Metal Assault Records will release Narci, the second album by the anonymous international collective known as Circle of Sighs, and today we bring you a full stream of all its wonders — and the wonders are indeed manifold.

“Progressive-synth-doom” is a label you might have seen for their constantly surprising music, but that barely scratches the surface. More revealing are the PR characterizations which drop references to glitch-pop, prog rock, dark jazz, industrial gaze, and grindcore influences, or which remark upon the band’s exploration of “the outer reaches of metal’s avant garde”. Not for naught is the album recommended for fans of such disparate groups as Yob, Tubeway Army, Pallbearer, King Crimson, Depeche Mode, Thomas Dolby, Brian Eno, and Neurosis — and that’s not nearly an exhaustive list. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NOCTAMBULIST — “ENGULFED”

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Jun 022021
 

 

(Nathan Ferreira introduces our premiere of a track off the new album by Denver-based Noctambulist, which will be released by Willowtip Records on July 2nd.)

It’s difficult to stand out in any style of music, but that challenge is heightened for The Barren Form – first impressions of it will bring to mind the claustrophobic fretwork of Portal distilled into the blistering intensity of Hate Eternal. Such overstimulating qualities don’t tend to leave a lot of room for dynamics, and on top of that, Noctambulist like to write slabs of 6+ minutes of chaotic cacophony. The few moments you do get to breathe are barely able to be savored before a song powers into another turbulent assault, highlighted by the mind-boggling speed and stamina of drummer Michael Nolan.

The musicianship on The Barren Form is top-notch, as is expected from a Willowtip Records release, but what is striking about Noctambulist is how much emotion they can inject into a suffocating, abstruse template. A couple of staccato chops at the right time hammers the riffs in deep, and the guitars themselves don’t tend to noodle around the fretboard a lot – either that or it’s muffled amidst the discordance. What then emerges are jagged, unsettling chords that simultaneously release tension as it’s built.

Where contemporaries in this realm of death metal might focus more on snaking subtleties and enhancing the overall creepiness and confusion, Noctambulist are fast, heavy, and fucking loud. It feels like everything is just coming at you all at once, with a roomy, modern production job giving proper balance so no one element is neglected. Continue reading »

“RUINS OF HUMANITY”: A SPLIT BY HAJDUK, AKANTHA, NIMBIFER, AND SØRGELIG

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 022021
 

 

(We welcome guest writer Nick Awad, who shares his review of a 2020 black metal split release among Hajduk, Akantha, Nimbifer, and Sørgelig that deserves more attention.)

Though the style of Raw Black Metal is not particularly new, it is currently having a moment. These days, countless bands are emerging from the shadows with ominous promo photos, grainy audio production, and fast-selling physical releases. Depending on who you ask, this is either a golden age or the dumbest thing since the recent OSDM revival. As with most things, there is some validity to either stance. For every worthwhile Raw Black Metal project, there are about a hundred duds. Duds that may check plenty of the grim aesthetic boxes, but offer no real substance. That being said, those aforementioned worthwhile projects are absolute gold. Among those praiseworthy projects is a split released in the late summer of 2020.

Ruins of Humanity is a four-way split full of vicious songwriting and macabre ecstasy. The bands on the release; Hajduk (Bulgaria), Akantha (Greece), Nimbifer (Germany), and Sørgelig (Greece); prove themselves to be an arterial cut above the endless menagerie of aesthetic-obsessed internet vampires. Though the songs on this split do nod to the ideas that precede them, they are far from the soulless riff recitations of a “worship-style” project. They represent a culmination of traditions coupled with modern influence that does not stray from the necessary orthodoxy of the craft of Black Metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ARTACH — “SHE GATHERS LEAVES”

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Jun 012021
 

 

You would be forgiven if you got the wrong idea about the music of Artach based on their location and some of the ideas that inspire their approach to black metal. This duo hail from St. John’s, Newfoundland, a place they describe as “the coldest, windiest, snowiest, foggiest, provincial capital city in Canada”, a location that would “give many Norwegian cities a challenge for gloomiest weather”.

Moreover, many of their songs are about nature, and many of those involve winter. Their 2020 debut album was entitled Chronicles of a Black Winter, and their forthcoming sophomore full-length, Sworn To Avenge, includes such song titles as “Ice Throne”, “Endless Tundra” (an epic 20-minute exploration about the doomed Franklin expedition of 1846), and “Into the Frozen Woodlands”.

But if you’re expecting naught by icy grimness, think again. As you’ll discover from the song we’re premiering today through a lyric video, Artach’s music is equally capable of discharging full-throttle fieriness, maniacal fervor, and a feeling of visceral lust. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DANTALION — “TIME TO CLOSE THE CIRCLE”

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Jun 012021
 

 

On July 31st the Spanish label Darkwoods will release the eighth album by the powerful Galician band Dantalion. Bearing the name Time to Pass Away, and adorned by the cover art of the great Russian artist Vergvoktre and further artwork by el dios perezoso, it represents a return to the band’s black metal roots (as well as the spectacular return of Sanguinist as the vocalist).

Today it’s our privilege to help spread the word about the new album by premiering a gripping video for its first single, “Time To Close the Circle“, which is being digitally released today as a stand-alone track. The dark emotional power of the song is undeniable, and so is its blood-rushing intensity. Continue reading »

EVILE: “HELL UNLEASHED”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Jun 012021
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the latest album by the UK band Evile, which was released in April by Napalm Records.)

I think the story going on with this album and band right now is pretty cool: Matt Drake stepping down from Evile due to health issues, only for his brother, who’d left the band previously to pursue other endeavors, to come back and keep the band going.

Matt and Ol Drake both worked hard on this band. Evile is undoubtedly at the absolute top of the thrash resurgence hierarchy if ever a band deserved it. Their immaculately calculated mix of technicality, precision, speed, melody, chaos, and brutality is something a lot of their contemporaries just lack in some form or another, Moreover, Matt and Ol Drake are one of the most comprehensively synergistic guitar duos in modern metal. Ol Drake is, frankly, probably the only shredder in the modern thrash metal space worth paying attention to right now.

So, considering what just happened — the Evile we knew didn’t unify; it just changed forms again with only half of the core that defined the band still present — what do they do from here?

They write the best thrash metal record of 2021, past, present, or future. Continue reading »

MEMORIAL DAY METAL?

 Off Topic  4 Responses »
May 312021
 

 

In the United States, today is Memorial Day, a national holiday. Here, it marks the unofficial beginning of summer and is typically a time of social gathering and celebration. This year its celebratory aspects are even greater, because many of the pandemic-related restrictions on social activity have been lifted. People are traveling by air and car at levels not seen since March of last year. Bars and restaurants are packed. So are parks and beaches.

I don’t want to pour cold water on any of this, but the Memorial Day holiday was not established as a day of celebration. It was created as a day of remembrance and mourning of American military personnel who died in the performance of their duties. In its earliest incarnation after the Civil War, it was called “Decoration Day”, because mourners honored the Civil War dead by decorating their graves with flowers.

Nowadays, there are still solemn remembrances, but those are usually overshadowed by all the fun-loving activities, and by politicians and businesses who use the day as an excuse to engage in flag-waving glorification of the military. Many of those are the same people who hypocritically do nothing to help military personnel once they’re out of uniform, but badly need help because of physical or mental injuries suffered during their service. Trying to survive apparently doesn’t count nearly as much as dying. Continue reading »

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