Islander

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HYVER

 Interviews  No Responses »
Feb 022026
 

(With apologies for our own delay, today we present Comrade Aleks’ very lively interview from late last year of Léon Guiselin, the proprietor of the always-interesting Antiq Records and a figure in many bands of his own. The broad focus is on his philosophy as a label curator and artist, but with a particular emphasis on the fascinating new album of his project Hyver.)

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been paying more and more attention to releases from the French label Antiq Records, run by Léon Guiselin. Antiq tends to release albums with a story behind it, and whenever I’ve interviewed these bands, the lyrics have been wonderful!

Stylistically, the label focuses on old-fashioned black metal with elements of folk and dungeon synth, which is unsurprising, as Léon himself plays in a number of projects and bands of this kind. One of his solo projects, Hyver, released a new full-length album Shaâtaunoâr in November 2025, the structure of which resembles an old computer adventure game set in a medieval setting. You even have a choice of actions! But first of all, it’s a proper black metal album with good dungeon synth layers!

We did a pretty in-depth interview with Léon in the end of 2025 covering the themes of Shaâtaunoâr, black metal in general, and Antiq itself. And I’m pleased to share it with you. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: GOUR, BERGTAGEN, VAULDERIE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 012026
 

(written by Islander)

January is a schizophrenic month for the release of new music. Labels and bands seem to recognize that people aren’t focusing as much as usual on new music, because they’re diverted by things happening during the “holiday season” and then by the turbulence of returning to work and school, and so the pace of new releases in the early part of January is slower than usual. But after a week or two, the dam bursts, and new stuff starts flooding out in a fury. At least that’s how I see it from where I sit.

I had SO MANY new songs and records I was interested in checking out for purposes of this column, too many for me to realistically investigate, especially since our terribly unreliable internet service has been down since mid-day on Saturday. My phone has worked reasonably well as a hot-spot for some things, like typing what you’re reading now, but it doesn’t provide a very good platform for streaming music.

The result is that I defaulted to music I had already acquired for myself before our net service collapsed. Which is not a bad way to proceed, because there’s a reason why I had acquired all this music for myself — it’s all very good! Each selection is also very different from the other two. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: HANGING GARDEN, WINTERFYLLETH, CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX, NERVOSA, CHAINED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN, IGORRR

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 312026
 

(written by Islander)

In deciding what to feature in these Saturday columns I sometimes spend a lot of time making my way through a lot of songs. Sometimes many of them are deflating, and the hunt goes on. Sometimes a lot of them are great, and the choices become difficult. But this week I happened upon seven songs in a row and knew right away that six of those would be here today. (I left one of them aside, so the usual collage of cover images would be symmetrical.)

As it also happened, the following songs include an unusual amount of singing — not singing we have to just put up with because other aspects of the songs make them commanding, but because the singing is itself a big part of the draw. And as it happened, all but one of the songs debuted with good videos.

None of these bands is even close to the Metallica strata of stardom, but I think it’s fair to say that most of them are well-known among metal lovers, or at least the kind of metal lovers who show up at our doorstep. Most of these bands have had careers of significant length and discographies that are well-respected. For these columns, I usually try to work in music by bands from deeper under the ground, using bigger names as lures for visitors who might not know of the more obscure names. But I didn’t have room to do as much of that today as I typically do. My goal is to make amends tomorrow. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PHASMA — “VI”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Transcending Obscurity Records is helping get this new year off to a hard-charging start, with new records by Mors Verum, Decipher, Apolaustic, and Phasma now set for release in the coming few months and songs from each of them now out in the world for streaming. Three of those bands are new to the label, and one of those is Phasma, a Greek group who have drawn upon a wide range of metal influences to create their forthcoming third full-length, Purgatory.

As a sign of the breadth of influences Phasma have drawn upon, T.O. recommends the album for fans of Mgła, Dying Fetus, Crypts of Despair, Kriegsmaschine, and Psycroptic. And if that lists leaves you wondering how (and how well) these Greeks have interworked such disparate styles, we have a concrete example for you today in our premiere of Purgatory’s startling closing track, “VI” (all the songs are simply and solely identified with Roman numerals). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DWELLNOUGHT — “ILL WHISPERS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Just two days into this dreadful new year I found myself mentally knocked flat by the first song revealed from a debut album by the Italian band Dwellnought. Not completely struck dumb by it, because I was able to feverishly peck out a scramble of words soon after hearing it, but stunned anyway. And so what a stroke of good fortune it was to be invited to premiere another song from the album.

This newest song, which you’ll now be able to hear for yourselves, is “Ill Whispers“. The album is Monolith of Ephemerality (a title that will mean something to you when you listen). And the release date through Caligari Records is February 20th. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 21): PELICAN, DEMONIC DEATH JUDGE, BEWARE OF THE GODS, DAWN OF A DARK AGE

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  No Responses »
Jan 302026
 

(written by Islander)

Well, here we are, at the last installment of this 2025 Most Infectious Song list. On the one hand, I’m breathing a big sigh of relief because I’ve been preparing these segments every weekday since January 1st, and it’s been a lot of fucking work to do that. On the other hand, even though I’ve managed to list 64 songs (including the ones today), I’ve still had to close down without yelling about all the songs worth yelling about from last year.

Given that this is the end, I expected I’d feel a lot of anxiety when picking this last match of songs. But in actuality I didn’t knot up my guts and brains over it. I just kind of let go and allowed impulse to take the wheel, content with the idea that these last four are really good and really infectious songs, even if I’ve had to leave many equally infectious ones off on the side of the road. I also think there’s a bit of a “rock the fuck out” connection between the first three, and how can you go wrong with that?, plus a “what the hell, I’m doing this!” predicate for the last one.

On Monday I’ll do a wrap-up post that lists all the songs in this 2025 collection and includes links to each segment. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WSTRĘT — “ENLIGHTENED MISANTHROPY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jan 292026
 

(written by Islander)

Near the end of last summer I came across a two-song debut EP named Subhuman Eschatology by the Polish band Wstręt. As I wrote at the time, it floored me. It was like someone spun the intensity dial until it wouldn’t go any further.

Those two songs warped together ingredients of black and death metal to create body-bruising blows and to inflict mind-shredding, needle-sharp riffing that dug in deep. The songs generated moods that were wrecking and wracked, terrorizing and tormented, exhilarating and oppressive, coupled with ragged, reverberating roars were heartless and harrowing.

Given the nature of that introduction to Wstręt, I found myself simultaneously frightened and thrilled to discover that Godz Ov War Productions would be releasing a second EP from them, this new one a 20-minute affair named Enlightened Misanthropy.

Now you’ll have a chance to form your own impressions about it through our full stream of these five new tracks in advance of the EP’s release tomorrow — though of course we have some impressions of our own to share first. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 20): PSYCHONAUT, YAROSTAN, FLUISTERAARS

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  2 Responses »
Jan 292026
 

(written by Islander)

We’re getting very close to the end of this list. There’s today, there’s tomorrow, and that’s it. With so little time left I’ve been repeatedly scanning through my giant list of song possibilities and just grabbing things that jump out at me from memory — but also still listening to things recommended by others that I’ve never heard before.

That process resulted in choosing the three songs below. There’s not a straight through-line connecting all three, but I do think the first two, one of which is a song I’d never heard before, fit together pretty well. Continue reading »

THIS IS NOT THE FINAL THING YOU’LL READ ABOUT LAST YEAR (meta lists, sub-radar sounds, immaculate conceptions, and a few records of critical acclaim)

 Album Reviews, LISTMANIA 2025  No Responses »
Jan 292026
 

(Our South African contributor Vizzah Harri decided to follow up our 2025 LISTMANIA series with a monumental listmania of his own, which includes various list-assembling calculations and his abundantly illustrated thoughts about three groups of albums he chose to highlight in his own inimitable fashion, respectively anchored in each section by discursive reviews of releases by Demonic Death Judge, Melpomene, and Imperial Triumphant.)

Hi, it’s your non-resident alien. Can someone please remind us of what the time is, last year is over already? Well, I’ve spent too much time as my second favorite spirit animal, the ostrich. You know, sticking my head in the sand and grubbing around for shiny rocks cos the job market is absolutely grade A dogshit.

Yes, year-end mania is over. The train has left the station and all that’s left are the weeds creeping up the platform and the announcement notice is stuck on loop. So, while we’re waiting for that next train and everyone else is racing ahead into the future, here are some uselessly vital statistix for those of us who aren’t quite ready for the new year. NCS doesn’t have a single authoritative take like other ‘happy camper’ sites that deal in the underground, though the Listmania roundup does a good job of covering a lot of bases.

I’m not a threat to anyone’s job dragging cells, I do however excel at stupidly focusing on mindless chores. Before we get into some things from last year that are still worth your time, a quick diversion into; what a meta list of readers’ lists would produce and what a meta list of NCS lists would produce. I tried compiling a meta list of the mind-numbing data of all the other lists including these, but it ended up being futile. There already is a To the Teeth list of lists, which is careful to account for bias. I’m not a data scientist and I’m biased as fvck, I was however able to gather that across the board, there are two albums that got way more votes on way more sites than any others. Therefore a meta meta list, in the Greek sense, of all the motherfuckin lists weighted and scaled together (the link is to Brazilian avant-jazz band Metá Metá’s pandemic album MetaL MetaL) would mean 2025’s Absolute Elsewheres are: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 19): YELLOW EYES, TRIVAX, TEITANBLOOD

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  No Responses »
Jan 282026
 

(written by Islander)

As I’ve said before, this list isn’t intended to honor complete records like most year-end lists. Instead, it focuses on songs that got stuck in my head (and the heads of other listeners), songs which might be, but often are not, from widely heralded records.

Yet sometimes I’ve been moved by the need to honor great albums in this list, and that desire was a factor in today’s three choices. Continue reading »

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