Islander

AN NCS PREMIERE: CORR MHÓNA — “AN TSLÁINE”

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Mar 292021
 

It has been a long wait for this Irish band’s second album — six-and-a-half years to be precise. It’s probably not the case that the two pairs of brothers (Quinn and Farrow) who form the line-up spent all that time working on their new full-length. Just figuring out how to live probably occupied a fair share of that time. Yet the new album, Abhainn, is one of those that’s unmistakably the result of tremendous care and craft, not the kind of thing that was ever hurried.

Corr Mhóna‘s continuing devotion to their homeland is also manifest in the new record. Abhainn means “river” in the Irish language, and it is indeed a concept album about water, and specifically the rivers of Ireland (each track is named for an Irish river). We’re told that “themes from the folklore and mythology attached to each river can be seen in the lyrics”, and that “the musical course of the album also follows that of a river — from the initial trickling spring, to the river growing in speed and weight as the body of water grows, to the final torrent that flows to the sea in peace”. Continue reading »

ANGKOR WAT: “WORST ENEMY”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 292021
 

 

(What is old is new again. Wil Cifer reviews a come-back EP by the Texas crossover band Angkor Wat, who first made their deep marks with albums released in 1989 and ’90.)

Once upon a time bands were discovered in zines, Maximum Rocknroll, or on college radio, and yeah I am not counting MTV, it was bullshit. In those golden years you would find bands that seemed like your little secret. Maybe you might get one of your friends into them, but they were a deserted island for your ears otherwise. This Texas band was one of those.

When Corpus Christi came out in 1990 it was light years ahead of its time, though both of Angkor Wat‘s albums held up over the years. They remained marginally active after 1990, with a few small tours here and there. When I stumbled across this EP Worst Enemy released on their website with zero fanfare, it was a wonderful surprise. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: CODE, DOLDRUM, ESOCTRILIHUM, NIHTSÎN, GNOSIS, VITRAIL

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHADES OF BLACK  6 Responses »
Mar 282021
 

 

We had a rare Sunday premiere earlier today, but fret not, Shades of Black has not been forgotten.

I enjoyed figuring out how to arrange the music I picked for today. The music of the first three bands seemed to complement each other, so I started there — and then made a hair-pin turn in the road with the full album stream that follows them. And, given how chilling and unearthly that album sounds, I decided to follow it with a couple of tracks that will give your adrenaline levels a sharp kick in the ass.

CODE (UK)

As usual, I owe some of today’s picks to reliably tasteful friends. I would have eventually discovered this first one on my own, but listened to it a lot faster because of the enthusiastic message I received from Rennie (starkweather). He called this new song by Code “fantastic”, and possibly his “favorite song of theirs since the first album’s ‘Brass Dogs.'” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVEYARD OF SOULS — “ERES LIBRE”

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Mar 282021
 

 

After nearly a decade of life the Spanish band Graveyard of Souls are approaching the release of their seventh album. That’s a heavy discography, one that includes nothing but full-length releases, and most of them coming in quick succession. But three years passed between the band’s previous album and this new one, Infinity Equal Zero. In creating it, the band sought to draw together aspects of their previous works, but also to give the new record its own identity, so that it is both familiar and new.

Infinity Equal Zero will be released on April 14th by Satanath Records and Negre PlanY. To help pave the way today, we’re premiering a remarkable song named “Eres Libre“. It is built upon the foundations of death/doom, wherein the influence of such old school sounds as Paradise Lost and Tiamat comes through, but the song has ethereal qualities that give it a mystical radiation, and it’s deeply moving and memorable as well. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GOJIRA, NIGHTRAGE, SHADE OF SORROW, AGELESS OBLIVION, [4672], VICTORY OVER THE SUN, URANIUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 272021
 

 

In yesterday’s round-up I burrowed deeply into the underground and surfaced with a collection of six songs that I thought were insane and unnerving in different ways. Today I’m on a different tack, leading off with some bigger names and then tunneling into underground depths again.

In addition, all of the following tracks were recommended to me by NCS colleagues and other friends. They didn’t let me down; hopefully you won’t feel let down either. There’s so much genre-spread here that you ought to find at least something that strikes a chord.

(I should mention that my friends didn’t just send me music. They also made me aware of the news that Meshuggah is recording a new album, and that it will feature the return of Fredrik Thordendal, trading places with Per Nilsson. They also passed along an announcement, accompanied by the photo of Peter Tägtgren above, that Hypocrisy’s new album has been completed.) Continue reading »

ROUND THREE: NCS RETURNS TO GIMME METAL

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 262021
 

 

Way back on the 17th of August, 2020, three NCS writers — (Andy Synn, DGR, and Islander) appeared as guest DJs at GIMME METAL, curating a two-hour on-line radio show in which we spun tracks of our own demented choosing, interspersed with our own pre-recorded banter, and also engaged in live on-line chats with listeners. And then we did it again on on October 28th. And now we’re on the verge of doing it a third time — on next Monday, March 29th, at noon Pacific Time, 3 p.m Eastern Time, and 8 or 9pm in Europe.

Yes, it’s true — the people in charge of lining up guest DJs at Gimme Metal asked us to do it again, once again putting us in the midst of a bunch of stellar musicians who normally handle the guest spots. We apparently haven’t provoked listener boycotts through our previous appearances, and maybe even a few people thought our music choices were cool. But whatever the reason, we’re once again happy as hell to be invited back, because once again we’ve had a ton of fun putting our playlist together and recording our incredibly meaningful and entertaining commentary, and we’re also again looking forward to chatting with people during the show. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2020’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: THE COMPLETE LIST

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2020  8 Responses »
Mar 262021
 

 

Well, my list of 2020’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs died a sad death, allowed to wither away from neglect. I made it from Part 1 through Part 17, which collectively included 47 songs, and then I just never got back to it. I posted Part 17 on February 9th of this year, which was around the time when my day job started crushing me, and Part 18 never arrived. At some point in early March it dawned on me that it would be kind of ridiculous to try to pick it back up so long after 2020 ended. And then I kept forgetting to even do this “wrap up” post.

Some of you might think that I should just provide a list of the songs I never got around to, instead of writing features for each one as I usually do. That would be a logical idea, except I don’t know what all the other songs would have been. I always mostly make up this list as I go along, and there are still hundreds of tracks on my 2020 candidate list. It’s better to just acknowledge that we’re done for 2020.

Below you will find links too Parts 1 through 17 of the list as they appeared over time before time ran out, and of course the names of all the songs. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DÏATRÏBE — “ODITE SERMONIS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 262021
 

 

The French one-man band Dïatrïbe came into existence in 2019, “with the aim” (as its creator explains) “of creating radical and intense music, an extension of the French Orthodox scene.” Embracing the mysticism and spiritual subject matter of black metal, Dïatrïbe devoted itself to “the artistic exploration of something else, creeping and powerful like a fiery cloud, uncompromising with very clear guidelines, acceptance to let go to the unknown, the search for this unexplained vibration that grabs us between fear and fascination… an artistic vision of the unfathomable, indomitable abyss hidden behind all things”.

We use those words to begin introducing our premiere of Dïatrïbe’s debut EP Odite Sermonis because they succeed so well as a preview of the music to come — perhaps especially in their reference to the “unexplained vibration that grabs us between fear and fascination”, because that is indeed what these six tracks achieve in striking fashion. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KHANDRA, BORGNE, ADUANTEN, RORCAL & EARTHFLESH, NONE, GHASTLY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 262021
 

 

As you can see, I had enough time to pull together a round-up of new tracks and videos today. It’s the first time I’ve managed to do this during the work-week in ages, usually having to wait until Saturdays before I can pull it off. As I meandered among things I was interested in checking out, the following six items began to cluster together in my head. Other things I enjoyed didn’t fit in this cluster, so I’ll leave them for tomorrow.

What caused these songs to coalesce in my thinking is because all of them seemed made of madness. For sure, they do have their distinctive thrills, but in varying ways they’re almost all a fracturing of sanity in sound.

KHANDRA (Belarus)

The first song I’ve chosen is the first single from a new album by this black metal band from Belarus, whose past music we’ve gratefully premiered and reviewed on two previous occasions. The name of the song gives you fair warning about what’s coming:  “Irrigating Lethal Acres with Blood“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THE PLAGUE — “FESTERING IN SICKNESS”

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Mar 252021
 

 

Hailing from Sydney, Australia, The Plague erupted from cemetery earth in 2017 with a debut EP appropriately named Mass Genocide, and then honed their grisly blades with live performances in support of such bands as Angelcorpse, Master, Entombed AD, and Ensiferum (among many others). And now the time has almost come for them to reveal their debut album Within Death, which will be released on April 21st by Bitter Loss Records.

The music of this full-length debut does indeed live within death — death metal of the old school to be precise, of a particularly mauling and murderous, gruesome and ghastly variety. Powered by that beloved chainsawing guitar distortion, propelled by bone-smashing drumwork, and elevated into rarified air by truly astonishing vocal madness, The Plague‘s music is electrifying. We have little doubt that (as the advance press claims) it will strongly appeal to fans of classic Dismember and Entombed as well as more recent entrants such as LIK and Entrails.

The band have released a couple of singles from the album already, and today we’re presenting another one — “Festering In Sickness“. Continue reading »

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