Islander

AN NCS PREMIERE: EYE OF PURGATORY — “WHERE LIFE SLOWLY FADES”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
May 192021
 

 

Among the masterful Rogga Johansson‘s multitude of bands and solo projects, each of which seems to indulge some different aspect of his interests under the encompassing umbrella of Swedish death metal, Eye of Purgatory is one of those in which emotive melody plays a more vital role than in others.

Eye of Purgatory released a debut full-length (The Rotting Enigma) in 2018, and a second album is now headed our way. Entitled The Lighthouse, it will be released on June 18th by Transcending Obscurity Records, and for this new record Rogga is joined by Taylor Nordberg (Ribspreader, Goregang, The Absence) on drums, lead guitars, and keyboards, and by Jeramie Kling (Venom Inc., Goregang, The Absence) on bass.

Through the premieres of three previous tracks from the album, it’s likely that many people have already discovered how much enjoyment The Lighthouse brings us, but perhaps we’ll still pick up additional ears through the song we’re presenting today — one that’s thrilling to hear but also has genuine staying power. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SCARRED — “NOTHING INSTEAD”

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May 192021
 

 

In January of this year the Klonosphere label released the third full-length by the Luxembourg-based death-metal group Scarred — almost eight years after the band’s second album, Gaia – Medea. The product of four years of work, this new album was self-titled, an intentional signal that it represented a transformation of the band’s sound. And indeed it is a remarkably wide-ranging experience, organized by design in a way that was intended, from start to finish, “to embark the listener on the same journey the band has traveled, from the initial disaggregation, up and down, to the final liberation”.

The album is daring and risky, repeatedly confounding expectations — not just expectations based on the band’s past releases, but also based on the last song you just heard. It’s stylistically diverse to the point of being unpredictable, which perhaps explains why the many reviews it has received collectively name-drop references to Gojira, Amenra, Opeth, Gaerea, Devin Townsend, and Pink Floyd (among others).

To showcase the album, Scarred have also released a sequence of music videos, all of which are well worth seeing (as well as hearing), and today we’re adding another one, the subject of which is a song that appears dead-center in the album’s track-list progression. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CATHEXIS — “GIVEN TO THE COLONY”

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May 192021
 

 

(Nathan Ferreira wrote the following introduction to our premiere of a song from Untethered Abyss, the forthcoming third album by the Texas band Cathexis, which will be released by Willowtip on June 25th.)

The meteoric rise of bands like Ulcerate, the rebirth of Gorguts, and the general need of tech-death fans to move into more nuanced and tasteful realms have all combined to make tech-y dissodeath a saturated genre. It’s easily marketable with its immediately harrowing aesthetics, but like any style of music, it takes a careful ear to make something worth coming back to more than once, and it could be argued that outside of the big names, there are far more unmemorable misses than hits.

That’s why I approached Cathexis with a bit of caution – not because I’m not expecting something good, but simply because I’ve been burned and had my time wasted before. That being said, they get the seal of approval from Willowtip, who have been a mainstay for this kind of music long before it was ever popular or trendy, so that’s worth at least one honest listen. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: XINGAIA — “I TOUCH MYSELF”

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May 182021
 

 

In November 1990, the Australian band Divinyls released “I Touch Myself” as the lead single from their fourth album. Described as “a paean to eroticism, orgasm and female masturbation”, it became a big international hit, driven in part by the song’s music video directed by Michael Bay, which was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year. Almost 15 years later it was covered by a big group of female performers as part of a project designed to raise awareness about breast cancer — the disease that had taken the life of Divinyls vocalist Chrissy Amphlett about 12 months earlier.

It’s a catchy post-punk song that hasn’t lost its allure — witness the fact that as of this writing the music video (here), which didn’t launch on YouTube until 2009, has been viewed almost 34 million times. But it hasn’t exactly been crying out for a death metal/grindcore cover. Nevertheless, that’s what it’s gotten, courtesy of Spokane’s Xingaia, a band lovingly named after the disease of the Sumatran rat-monkey from the ultra-gory Peter Jackson film Dead Alive.

Xingaia have also given the song their own video treatment, whose humor derives (at least in part) from how it repeatedly confounds what you think is really going on. And thus, with smiles on our faces, we present the Xingaia cover and video to you today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NECROGOD — “REMAIN THE SAME AGAIN”

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May 182021
 

 

As many will already know, Necrogod is a Rogga Johansson death metal project that combines his well-established songwriting and instrumental talents with the vocal horrors of The Master Butcher from Costa Rica, who is also a fixture in Morbid Stench and Insepulto.

Following on the heels of a 2015 debut EP (The Inexorable Death Reign) and a 2017 split with the afore-mentioned Morbid Stench (The Bifid Tongue of Doom & Death), this demolishing duo now have a debut full-length headed our way. Entitled In Extremis, it’s set for a July 23 release by Transcending Obscurity Records, and as you can see, it’s ornamented by the unmistakable cover art of Mariusz Lewandowski.

A couple of beastly and dynamically electrifying advance tracks have been uncaged so far, and today we’ve got a third one — “Remain the Same Again” — which reveals a further dimension of Necrogod’s songwriting for the new album. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ULVEHYRDE

 Interviews  No Responses »
May 182021
 

 

(Karina Noctum brings us this new interview with the vocalist/lyricist of the Norwegian black metal band Ulvehyrde, whose excellent debut album was released last month on the Dusktone label.)

Ulvehyrde started in 2018 and they have recently released their first album, called Englemakersken. The band attracted my attention because they have a cold-tempered sound leaning toward Western Norwegian BM style, while at the same time infusing the necessary groove to keep it interesting.

Naturally, I had to find out more about them, so I talked to Sorath Northgrove, who also plays in Vulture Lord and Hagl. Continue reading »

FALLENSUN: “THE WAKE OF THE FALL”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
May 182021
 

 

(DGR prepared the following very enthusiastic review of the new album by Fallensun from Prince George, British Columbia, which is out now via Bandcamp.)

It has been a blessing in disguise that the recent crop of newer crew inhabiting the upper reaches of the NCS cave have somewhat similar taste to my own. It has freed me up tremendously to just bounce around the internet and look for projects that might otherwise have a hard time getting out into the wider reaches of the metal-sphere while stuff that I would normally consider myself on the hook for has found pretty good coverage here. It’s let me make strange trips, review quieter and more ambient albums, and also get into some crushingly heavy stuff by way of just bouncing around the internet.

To put it mildly, my recent musical discovery quests have been executed with the grace of a body having been thrown down a mine shaft. I don’t know where I’ll land or what stuff might’ve fallen through the NCS net that I’ll catch but its been great so far. The most recent discoveries have been a vast combination of things, including albums that came out earlier in the year – in quite a few recent cases, in February – that are really worth looking in to. Thus, I found myself at the doorstep of Canada’s melodeath/prog-death hybrid Fallensun and their album The Wake Of The Fall. Continue reading »

A YEAR DUMBER PLAYLIST: DIRTY BLACK SUMMER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 172021
 

 

(Here we are, a solid year into the pandemic and maybe you see some signs of hope on the roadside, but if you’re still as confused, haunted, and angry as ever, this playlist compiled and written by Neill Jameson may improve your dark moods, or further darken them. Either way, we’re delighted to present it.)

I was planning on putting together something to mark the year anniversary of the few-part playlist series I did last year that began when everyone was stuck inside, a piece of fabric on your face wasn’t yet considered to be the master’s whip, and taking a shit in the halls of Congress wasn’t a patriotic act, just something the older members of Congress did naturally, but then I had a child and the best-laid plans etc etc.

My initial impetus for it was the same as the listicles (gross word) I did on this very same site starting in 2016(?) where I went genre by genre and that’s because I enjoy shedding light on music I enjoy and I’m an attention-seeking asshole and by reading these you are indulging me. Anyway, here’s some things that have been keeping my interest the last few months: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VORVAŇ — “SUPERSCUM”

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May 172021
 

 

If you’re in need of a high-powered jolt of energy, we’ve got just the thing for you in our premiere of a song off Awakened, the new album by the Russian blackened hardcore punk and metal band Vorvaň. “Superscum” fires on all cylinders, and it happens to be as highly addictive as it is ferociously supercharged.

Lyrically, the song is a condemnation, reflecting the self-entitled and dismissive attitude of a person for whom everything she wishes “works out just fine”. Musically, the song is all about the pulse — its own and yours. Continue reading »

FELLED: OUR PREMIERE OF “SPHAGNUM IN THE HINTERLANDS” AND REVIEW OF “THE INTIMATE EARTH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
May 172021
 

 

(In this article Nathan Ferreira reviews The Intimate Earth, the new album by Oregon-based Felled, and introduces our premiere of a song from the album.)

As any self-respecting metalhead should, I keep regular tabs on Transcending Obscurity Records. Their versatility and ear for quality sets the pace for other small-to-medium-sized labels, and I particularly appreciate their willingness to wiggle a little bit outside of their comfort zone in terms of style/genre. You never quite know what you’re going to get from the folks at T.O., you just know it’s gonna be good.

I am also one of those tree-hugging types that is infatuated with Cascadian black metal. Combine these two factors and it becomes easy to see why, when the label announced they were releasing the debut album of Felled, an Oregon-based band that cited some of my all-time favorite artists as influences (early Ulver, Agalloch, Drudkh, Saor), I was already reserving a spot in my AOTY list for it. Continue reading »

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