Islander

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OPIUM WARLORDS — “EARLY IN THE MORNING THE BODY OF THE GIRL WAS FOUND”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 242021
 

 

For those of you unfamiliar with baseball, a curveball is a pitch that causes the batter to expect it will cross the plate in one place, but instead it dives, or veers, or does both. When thrown well, it’s a nasty thing because it confounds and discombobulates the hitter and may make them feel foolish for swinging and missing so badly.

I actually enjoy throwing musical curveballs at our visitors even though I don’t do it often. Usually people come here expecting harsh, extreme, and perhaps very unsettling sensations, but the music may veer away. Which is what is about to happen.

It’s fitting that today’s veering pitch comes from Opium Warlords, because the man behind the project has himself been a living musical curveball for more than 30 years. Perhaps best known as Albert Witchfinder for his work with Reverend Bizarre, Sami Albert Hynninen has been involved in many diverse projects, and even just focusing on this one, you never know where a new release by Opium Warlords is going to go until you experience it. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: KRANIUM

 Interviews  No Responses »
Feb 242021
 

 

(This time Comrade Aleks interviews one of the members of the unorthodox Peruvian metal band Kranium, whose roots go back to the early ’90s and whose new album Uma Tullu (which you can stream below) was released on December 1st, 2020.)

Kranium is a legend of the Peruvian underground. The band was formed in 1985 as Murder but since 1986 it’s been known as Kranium. Their early material tended towards savage a thrash/death meta, but years passed, some members left and others joined the band, and their first full-length Testimonios finally was released in 1999. The story behind its making is long and far from easy, as Kranium drew the attention of the Swedish label Plasmatica Records  who promised to fund their recording sessions but had a hard time, and lack of money prolonged recordings for almost three years.

This material appears to be a mix between traditional doom metal with a bit of a raw edge, lyrics in Spanish, and arrangements of traditional Peruvian instruments. I’m surprised that this album is a kind of “lost gem”, forgive me this cliché, and I hope Kranium’s new and authentic-as-always album Uma Tullu (released in December 2020) will reach more listeners all over the world.

The band’s lineup has changed, yet its core remains the same: Eloy Arturo (guitars, songwriting) is one of the founding members, and Mito Espíritu (guitars, wind instruments, charango) has been in the band since 1991 (there was a break for a few years, but it doesn’t make a difference). Dennis Yamazato (drums) has played in Kranium since 2005, and Ian Chang (bass) since 2010. Our current guest Christian Meléndez (vocals, keyboards) is a relatively new member — his experience in Kranium is “just” ten years. But he’s quiet a talkative collocutor, and I’m glad we had this interview. Continue reading »

PAN-AMERIKAN NATIVE FRONT: “LITTLE TURTLE’S WAR”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Feb 232021
 

 

(In this review Andy Synn turns his attention to the new album by Illinois-based Pan-Amerikan Native Front, which was released earlier this month.)

The more I think about Black Metal (and, trust me, I spend a lot of time thinking about Black Metal) the more it occurs to me just what an astounding paradox the genre is.

Founded by a bunch of no-good Norwegian punks (though if you called them “punks” to their faces you probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the response) whose back-story has since been retold and mythologised almost beyond recognition, Black Metal was originally just one big “fuck you” to the rest of the world, a purposefully introverted and isolationist rejection of ideas such as popularity, normality, and musicianship.

And yet, somehow, despite this – or, perhaps, because of this – it’s gone on to become not only a global phenomenon, but one of the most artistically adventurous and progressive genres in all of Metal.

How did this happen? Well, for me, it’s the underlying primitivism of Black Metal which makes it such an unexpectedly universal musical language.

Whether they knew it or not, those crazy kids somehow managed to tap into something truly primal and innately human with those ramshackle early recordings, something which connected with people all around the world and which they could then use as the foundation of their own art, and as a way to tell their own stories.

Stories like Little Turtle’s War. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CANNIBAL ACCIDENT — “NEKROKLUSTER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 232021
 

 

Let’s cut to the chase: While the Finnish band Cannibal Accident look like a group of blood-soaked killers who’ve lost their minds, their new album Nekrokluster is one of the best old-school death-grind releases you’re likely to encounter this year. There are many reasons for that, but one of them which might not be expected from outward appearances is that these maniacs turn out to be really good songwriters, and top-shelf in their execution (pun intended).

To be clear, the album is blood-soaked and lethal, and well-calculated to leave its listeners gutted and bone-fractured. But there’s more going on here than obliteration of body and mind — as you’ll discover through our premiere of a full stream in advance of its February 26 release by Time To Kill Records. Continue reading »

BURIED: “OCULUS ROT”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 232021
 

 

(The subject of this latest recommendation and review by Vonlughlio is the new album by the Dutch band Buried, which was released on February 14th by Brutal Mind.)

Today I have the opportunity to write about a project from the Netherlands named Buried who have been around since 2013 and just released their debut album Oculus Rot via Brutal Mind. Before this release they had a 2013 EP Tenebrous that I have not had the chance to listen to. Therefore, coming into this new album I had no conception of what they would sound like.

However, I did know that three of their members were part of the legendary band Pyaemia, who are held in the BDM community as a classic band due to their 1998 EP Cranial Blowout and their 2001 album Cerebral Cereal. That material is highly regarded as a pure representation of what BDM was at the time of its release. To this day the material is loved and considered as among the great releases of all time in the genre. Continue reading »

BLEEDING ANTLERS: “STAGMATA”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 222021
 

 

(It looks like Andy Synn had as much fun writing this review of Bleeding Antlers‘ debut album as he did listening to it — and he had a LOT of fun doing that.)

Heavy Metal is, as we all know, a “no fun allowed” zone.

It’s a place for serious musicians to write serious songs about serious subjects, riddled with serious darkness, while wearing their most serious faces.

The thing is, no-one seems to have told London lotharios Bleeding Antlers that, because their debut album, Stagmata (yes, there’s even a pun in the title) is one of the most ridiculously riff-happy and unashamedly fun experiences I’ve had in a long, long time.

Don’t go making the mistake of thinking the band are a joke, however.

While the group clearly aren’t taking themselves too seriously, the music itself is more than capable of standing on its own two (or four) feet, while also answering the age-old question… what would happen if you took the catchiest bits of Candlemass, the hookiest parts of Paradise Lost, added a dash of the grim grandeur of Primordial and a touch of almost Nu-Metal-ish groove, and then laced the whole thing with a hefty helping of folk-goth glamour, Hammer-horror camp, and drunken satanic swagger?

Well, you’d have a hell of a good time, I can tell you that. Continue reading »

SWAMPBEAST: “SEVEN EVILS SPAWNED FROM SEVEN HEADS”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 222021
 

 

(This is Todd Manning‘s review of the new album by the SoCal band Swampbeast, which was released in mid-February by Translation Loss Records.)

Outsiders may not realize that there are swamps in Los Angeles, but Death Metal trio Swampbeast have arrived to show us what kind of madness lurks in those fetid waters. Their debut, Seven Evils Spawned from Seven Heads, just issued on Translations Lost Records, is a nightmarish journey of blackened Death Metal that threatens to drown the listener in a miasma of filth.

While not exactly revolutionizing their chosen genre, Swampbeast burst out the gates with a sound of their own, surprisingly well-developed given their lack of history. The hammering assault of opener “Orcs Anvil” echoes the bludgeoning of Entombed’s Left Hand Path, but they also check some Morbid Angel and Black Metal boxes as well. Second track, “The Blind God” adds the subterranean mystique of Portal into the mix to great effect. While the speed of the opener remains, a great deal of evil atmosphere works its way in. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BECERUS — “PRIMEVAL IGNORANTIA”

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Feb 222021
 

 

Rising from Palermo, Sicily, Becerus is a new band who openly declare their love for ’90s death metal, and the first demonstration of their devotion is a debut album named Homo Homini Brutus, whose title alone provides significant clues to what Becerus have done with their music. That savage cover art up there, created by Karl Dahmer, provides another significant clue. But an even more tangible clue comes in the form of the album track we’re premiering today.

Before we get to that, you should know that none other than Everlasting Spew Records, who know a thing or two about slaughtering death metal, will be releasing the album on April 30th. The song that has been chosen for the first premiere is “Primeval Ignorantia” — and that’s another title that’s in keeping with part (but only part) of this band’s overall aesthetic (though “aesthetic” is probably too fancy a word for what they do). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CREEPING FEAR — “HATEGOD TRIUMPH”

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Feb 222021
 

 

The Italian maestro Paolo Girardi has created the artwork for so many metal album covers that trying to count the number would be a daunting task. But in the humble opinion of this writer the one he created for the new album by the French band Creeping Fear is among his best (and most frightening), and surely will be an enticement for fans to pick up a physical edition of the record — IF the record is any good. Is it any good?

Well, hell yes, it is very good indeed, a big slab of red meat for slavering carnivores of death metal in the vein of such bands as Hate Eternal, Immolation, and Cannibal Corpse. The name of the album is Hategod Triumph, and today we present evidence of its brutal, barbaric, and unhinged attractions through the premiere of the title track in advance of the album’s March 26th release by Dolorem Records. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: PALUS SOMNI, RITUALS OF THE DEAD HAND, CONSTANT NAUSEA, COLDCELL, HEGEROTH, MORK, VIPÈRE

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Feb 212021
 

 

In exploring what I might choose for today’s column I wound up going down a weird rabbit hole. By chance, the first few tracks I picked put me in a chilling frame of mind, and in sorting through others I decided to just stay there, immersed in a mood of cold, frightening eeriness. However, I did decide to pick a couple of more carnal (for want of a better word) selections to finish off this compilation, to shake off those other moods like a wet dog shedding water.

There’s obviously a lot of music here, but maybe not as much as you might guess because until the very end these are all advance tracks rather than full releases. So don’t be daunted… dive all the way in….

PALUS SOMNI (UK/US)

I’m beginning with “Unholy Cosmic Quintessence“, the first advance song from the debut album of Palus Somni, a trio that combines (to quote the label) “the twisted dissonant riffs of Stroda (known for this work on U.K. based Industrial / Black Metal act Decoherence), the thundering vicious percussions of Eoghan (known for his work on U.S. Black Metal bands Akhlys and Aoratos) and the distant cold icy screams of Imber (from U.S. based record label Noxial)”. Continue reading »

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