Islander

MOTHER OF GRAVES: “IN SOMBER DREAMS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 102021
 

 

(We present Todd Manning‘s review of the debut EP by the Indiana band Mother of Graves, which was released on January 8th by Wise Blood Records.)

Mother of Graves are not the first band to rise up from tragedy, but the pain and sadness on display on their debut EP, In Somber Dreams, is palpable. The formation of this band came in the wake of the death of a friend and former bandmate, and as founding guitarist Chris Morrison explains, Katatonia’s EP Sounds of Decay became a focal point for channeling his sorrow.

Mother of Graves take their moniker from a Latvian entity that functions as a protector of graves, but much of their inspiration comes from Britain, Katatonia notwithstanding. We are of course referring to the Peaceville 3, i.e., Paradise Lost, Anathema, and My Dying Bride. The early work of these three bands laid the groundwork for the marriage of the violence of Death Metal and the depressive strains of Gothic Rock, and Mother of Graves have learned their lessons well. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2020’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 17): MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY, REBEL WIZARD, SIELUNVIHOLLINEN

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2020  2 Responses »
Feb 092021
 

 

There’s not much rhyme or reason as to why I grouped these three songs together. Other than the fact that each of them includes some really nasty ear-shredding vocals, they’re very different from each other musically. I guess it’s a matter of me realizing that I’m running out of time to finish this list (though it’s more a matter of making myself stop than really finishing), and I just want to pack in as many of the songs that really grabbed me last year as I can. Hope you like them too.

MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY

This slasher-film side-project of Anaal Nathrakh’s Mick Kenney, Fukpig’s The Void,  and perhaps other members of those bands, certainly struck a chord with listeners last year. Make Them Die Slowly released not one but two albums in 2020 (Ferox and The Bodycount Continues…), plus a hell of a good Christmas single (“Silent Night, Murder Night“), and as far as I can tell, people loved the shit out of all of it. I sure as hell did. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABYTHIC — “DOMINION OF THE WICKED”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 092021
 

 

Iron Bonehead Productions has recently pushed back the release date of Abythic‘s third album to February 19th, but the more prolonged wait will be easier for fans to bear because today we are presenting a full stream of this momentous new record, the name of which is Dominion of the Wicked.

Informed by mid-period Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, Grave, and Pentacle, the album represents a more thorough-going embrace of crushing doom than this German band (now stripped down to a power trio) might have previously achieved, and certainly a more powerful (and sophisticated) rendering of haunted and harrowing atmosphere. All of the songs flow together, and as the band maneuver you through them you experience the dynamism of the band’s songcraft and their capacity to create a lasting spell, notwithstanding how frequently oppressive and horrifying the sensations often become. Continue reading »

AN NCS “PREMIERE” (AND AN INTERVIEW): ANARKHON — “FAR BEYOND BLOOD AND DEATH”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 092021
 

 

The Brazilian band Anarkhon took shape in the underground during 1999, initially devoting themselves to brutal death metal under the influence of such bands as Cannibal Corpse. But after releasing a number of well-received demos, splits, and full-lengths between 2002 and 2013, a hiatus of six years ensued. When the band revived and began working on their next album, they pursued a different path, one in which they embraced the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft, not only in their lyrical themes but in the contours of their music.

That path led them to their latest album, Phantasmagorical Personification Of The Death Temple, which was released on CD last September by Soul Erazer Records. It seized the attention of Debemur Morti Productions, and their collaboration with Anarkhon has begun with the label’s decision to release Phantasmagorical Personification… on vinyl this coming March 26th. To help spread the word, we are today presenting a stream of that album’s second track in the running order, “Far Beyond Blood and Death“, along with an interview of Anarkhon vocalist/guitarist Aron Romero. Continue reading »

HYSTERORRHEXIS: “MAGGOTS INFEST THE LIMB”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Feb 092021
 

 

(Here’s Vonlughlio’s review of the debut album by the Indonesian brutal death metal band Hysterorrhexis, which was recently released by Dismembered Records.)

Hello dear readers, I hope you are all well and staying safe in this 2021. I have not been able to do reviews recently due to my family and myself having COVID-19 (we are well, with no major consequences in our health). Self-quarantine, medicine, and a lot of Death Metal in my household.

In this period I was able to listen to some BDM releases that, if I had heard them before doing my year-end list, would have been included, and to some new projects that are releasing music this year. Which is the case of the Indonesian band Hysterorrhexis who have just dropped their debut album Maggots Infest the Limb via Dismembered Records. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2020’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 16): DAUGHTER CHAOS AND FAWN LIMBS

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2020  1 Response »
Feb 082021
 


Daughter Chaos

 

Well, this is embarrassing. After a previous gap in the daily rollout of this list I resumed, with promises to steadily continue, and then my day job and personal obligations fucked those plans (again). So now here we are, launching Part 16 a full week after launching Part 15. Honestly, knowing what lies ahead of me this week in my day job, I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to add installments every day this week either. But I’d still like to forge ahead a little bit more before giving up altogether.

In case you’re coming here for the first time, all the previous installments for this list can be found here.

DAUGHTER CHAOS

This is kind of a “Chosen by DGR” segment of the list. Both songs were on the set of recommendations he sent me, and on top of that Andy Synn reviewed (with praise) the records that included them. So, I paid extra attention to them and found them to be worthy additions. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEMON KING — “THE FINAL TYRANNY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Feb 082021
 

 

What can you do with an 18-minute block of time today? Wash those dishes that have been in the sink since January? Ponder whether you should start showering more than once a week? Beat your head against the wall for wasting four hours watching that dull-as-dishwater Super Bowl? Rush through sex like you’ve got somewhere else to be?

We’ve got a better idea: Listen to Demon King‘s debut EP The Final Tyranny. Though to be fair, the odds are high you won’t stop with just the one listen. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MARASMUS — “INSURRECTION”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 082021
 

 

(NCS contributor Nathan Ferreira prepared the following introduction to our premiere of a song from the forthcoming third full-length by Kansas City-based Marasmus, which is set for release on March 20th by Transcending Obscurity Records.)

The “old school vs. new school” debate in death metal is a dead horse that’s been flogged repeatedly ever since I’ve been an enthusiast of the genre. On one side you’ve got the classic death metal camp, firmly grounded in some of the old Swedish and Finnish textures and modern bands that recreate their primitive, pioneering nature. On the other side you’ve got the modern extremophiles, lovers of all things technical and slamming. Death metal is around three decades old, and within those 30 or so years are two distinct phases of music, each with their own set of enduring, timeless classics. It’d be near-impossible for me to pick one or the other if I had to.

Fortunately, Marasmus figured out an even more novel solution: why not have both? Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SERTRALINE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Feb 082021
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us the following interview with the members of the New York band Sertraline, who are at work on a debut album and whose three EPs to date were released last month in a compilation package by Hypnotic Dirge Records.)

I’ve got Sertraline’s new release The Streetlight Was All We Needed from Canadian label Hypnotic Dirge, among a few other releases. This post-black metal band from Buffalo has been active since 2015, and there are three EPs in their discography. The Streetlight Was All We Needed is a sum of those three small recordings – Shade (2017), From Both Our Hands (2019), and These Mills Are Oceans (2019).

Shelly Muehlbauer (guitars), Tom Muehlbauer (vocals), Jason Roman (bass), Jay Zgoda (guitars), Ken Culton (drums), and David Lopian (guitars) are together for all these years, and this interview is a unique situation, as all the band’s members answered together. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): MISOTHEIST, AKVAN

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Feb 072021
 

 

I’ll be so bold as to say that lovers of black metal, or at least those whose tastes aren’t rigidly hemmed in by convention, are in the midst of a musical Renaissance. I don’t mean to say that every band and every variant are worth our time or our devotion — as in all art, there is wheat and there is chaff to be separated. But there are giant bushelfuls of wheat to fall into!

Sadly, out of the many noteworthy releases I discovered during the last week, the timing of which perhaps had something to do with Bandcamp Friday, I only have time to feature a couple, and I chose these two. Even with just these two, time prevents me from going into great depth about them

MISOTHEIST

I’ve been impatiently waiting for a new Misotheist album ever since coming across a preliminary version of a new song named “Benefactor of Wounds” in the spring of 2019. I had thought that Terratur Possessions would release the album that year, but the year passed, and so did 2020, and we continued to wait — though the debut of the album version of that same song last November did bring with it the news that the album would finally arrive this month. And so it has. In a word, it’s stunning. Continue reading »

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