Islander

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HELL:ON — “MY TESTAMENT”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 202020
 

 

Three weeks ago we premiered a song named “The Architect’s Temple” from a forthcoming album by the Ukrainian death metal band Hell:On. That album, Scythian Stamm, is Hell:On‘s sixth full-length in a career that began in 2005, and it’s set for release on November 1st. Today we have the pleasure of premiering another song from the album, which is presented through a video that includes the lyrics.

Those lyrics are taken from an English-language translation of a poem named “Заповіт” (Zapovit), which translates to “Testament”. The poem was first published in 1845 and written by Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, and political figure, as well as folklorist and ethnographer. According to this article, “His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language.” The article also reports that he was convicted in 1847 for promoting the independence of Ukraine from Russia and for ridiculing members of the Russian Imperial House. The translation of “Заповіт” used in the video was made by John Weir. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PSYCHOSOMATIC — “PERSONALITY AGENDA”

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Oct 192020
 


Photo by Michael Alvarez

 

Psychosomatic have been slugging and slashing their way across the heavy metal landscape for more than 30 years, and with their seventh album released in late August of this year by Nefarious Industries they savagely banished any worry that all the years and miles might be slowing them down. With the feral energy of teenagers but the songwriting and performance skills of a band who’ve played over a thousand shows in North America, they put together a ripper of an album under the title of The Invisible Prison.

All the shows and all the recordings have honed the blades of Psychosomatic to an even sharper gleam, but the passing decades haven’t mellowed them in the slightest. And why would they? There are just as many reasons to be pissed-off now as there were in 1988 when these Sacramento thrashers first came together, and probably more. The rage and disgust certainly burn through in the full-tilt riot of “Personality Agenda“, the song that’s the subject of the video we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

AN NCS DEMO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WATASHI DAKE — “FERAL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 192020
 

 

The pandemic brings physical and emotional misery on a vast scale, but as someone once said, life finds a way — including musical life. Creative people continue to create, perhaps as much to treat their own pandemic wounds as to offer a balm to others. And so, for example, 2020 has given birth to a fascinating musical project named Watashi Dake. Who knows, maybe in a more normal year it wouldn’t have happened.

The phrase is Japanese and means “Only Me” or “Just Myself”. But the musical project that took this name is the work of a Romanian artist, R.S., who dwells in Transylvaia rather than Japan. The phrase connects to the lyrical themes and inspirations of the music on the band’s first demo Feral, which speaks of failure, freedom, and struggle. “Feral,” we are told, ” is first and foremost a call to rebellion against the chains that imprison our true nature”. It’s thus not surprising that in addition to two original songs, the demo also includes a cover of Dead Kennedys‘ “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”.

Feral was composed and recorded in the summer of 2020, and it will be released on October 25th by Inferna Profundus Records. Today we’re presenting a full stream of its three tracks. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DAVE INGRAM (BENEDICTION)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Oct 192020
 

 

(Last Friday, the 16th of October, Nuclear Blast released Scriptures, the first Benediction album since 2008, with Dave Ingram back behind the mic. And it is thus very good timing that DJ Jet has brought us this interview with the man himself.)

Dave, you have such an extensive career in death metal stemming back to the golden ages of the genre, having been in Benediction, then Bolt Thrower, and many other bands since then, and now back in front of Benediction today. What were the early days like in Benediction and Bolt Thrower?

Hey there, my dear friend. Thanks so much for the interview!

Right, jumping straight into it I can say that “back in the day” there was no internet to help facilitate self-promotion. You really had to work for things and have patience, since snail mail took a while. There were way more phone calls back then. I can remember standing around inside the one rehearsal studio we were at in early 1993. We were playing pool, and awaiting a phone call from the record label (Nuclear Blast) to let them know we were going to re-sign with them. While we waited, in walked Robert Plant and asked if he could use the phone. We explained the situation and he fully understood, saying he would come back later. One of us (I forget who) said to him, “You were great in Whitesnake.” He left with a confused look on his face. That’s just one example of what life was like back then. It was always fun, and it still is today! Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DARK BUDDHA RISING, SPYROS APOSTOLOU, INFANTS OF THE AFTERLIFE, GORRCH, SANCTUS HEXE, LYCOPOLIS

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Oct 182020
 

 

Although this column is principally devoted to flavors of black metal, sometimes I branch out and include music that’s outside the genre. Usually that happens when it’s something I don’t want to delay recommending, but it’s also usually music that at least to my ears has a “spiritual” kinship to black metal. And by “spiritual” I don’t mean satanic, but rather a kind of pitch-black mood that makes its placement in the playlist suitable (for want of a better word). I’ve done this today with the first two items.

DARK BUDDHA RISING

To begin, I’ve chosen an astonishing video made by Dehn Sora for the song “Sunyaga” by the Finnish dark underlords of psychedelic drone, Dark Buddha Rising. The song is from the band’s forthcoming seventh album, Mathreyata. Continue reading »

STAYING IN TOUCH (AND SOME MUSIC BY VACANTFIELD)

 Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  20 Responses »
Oct 172020
 

 

I haven’t done this in a long time, so long that I had to research when the last time was — and it was in May, if you don’t count a post I made in July soon after the Covid death of a man who was an influential mentor and father-figure in my life. But I was stunned to see a map and accompanying data this morning, which made me think it was time again to invite people to share their thoughts about what has been happening to them and their communities during the pandemic. As usual, I’ve included some new metal for people who don’t feel like doing that.

That map I saw is the same one you can see at the top of this post. It was accompanied by this chart:

 

 

This shows that at least 909 new coronavirus deaths and 70,451 new cases were reported in the United States on October 16th. Over the past week, there have been an average of 56,040 cases per day, an increase of 29 percent from the average two weeks earlier. As of Saturday morning, more than 8,090,500 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 218,400 have died, according to a database maintained by The New York Times, which is where I found this dismal news (here).

That 70,451 number is eye-popping because it’s close to the all-time daily high of 73,523 on July 24th. In other words, here in the U.S. we’re in the vicinity of a new peak that would rival the worst days of the outbreak over the summer. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FRIDAY: BENEDICTION, DARK TRANQUILITY, WARDRUNA, REFUSED

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 162020
 


Benediction (photo by Karen Rew)

 

(Another Friday has arrived, and that means another selection of new songs and videos chosen and introduced by our contributor Gonzo.)

It’s always fun when I wake up on Friday mornings and discover new music I never saw coming, especially when it’s from bands I’ve loved for 20+ years. It reminds me of simpler times. For me, though, nothing beats the old feeling of walking into a record store and browsing through new releases for hours at a time.

Alas, the modern conveniences of having gigabytes of new shit funneled into your ears simply by opening your phone these days is nice, but this week’s new music is a trip into a universe of nostalgia for me. Why? I’ve bought CDs from all four of the bands I’ve included this week – some of which I still have in a giant binder that I don’t open very much anymore. Maybe I’ll go revisit that now.

Anyway, hope you enjoy these tracks as much as I do. Continue reading »

AN NCS DEMO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ÅSKOG — “VARG”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 162020
 

 

The Swedish duo known as Murdryck began musical life in 1999 as a “Blackened Dark Ambient” project, disappeared for a time, and then rejuvenated themselves as a Black Metal band in 2014. Thereafter, they released two excellent albums, 2016’s Antologi MMXV (reviewed here at NCS) and 2019’s Födelsen. And then, to the sorrow of Murdryck’s fans, they disbanded. But it turns out that the two men behind Murdryck weren’t finished after all.

That duo — bassist/vocalist Lars Hansson and guitarist Adam Chapman — came back together early this past summer, inspired to renew their cooperation in pursuit of fresh ideas. Adopting the name Åskog, they ensconced themselves in a decrepit forest house owned by Lars deep in the woods of Värmland and wrote four songs between July and August. As they explain, the themes of the music were spawned by the band’s presence in that old forest house, with its own morbid history and its wilderness setting, during a time when the Covid-19 pandemic turned the world into chaos: “You only have to watch nature documentaries to realize the natural world is truly a horrific place. The great outdoors is romanticized, but the reality is it is brutal with no room for concession or concern.”

But what kind of music was born of this reunion, and Åskog’s focus on the cold and harsh brutality of nature? You are about to find out, because today we’re streaming Varg, Åskog‘s first demo, on the eve of its October 17 release. In its digital edition, it includes two of the four songs written this past summer, and a cassette tape edition will include a third one as a bonus. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: FVNERAL FVKK

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 162020
 

 

(We welcome back Comrade Aleks, who has brought us a long-gestating but highly engaging interview with Frater Flagellum, drummer of the German epic doom band Fvneral Fvkk, and we thank him for his time as well.)

Probably there’s still an intrigue for those who skipped Fvneral Fvkk’s debut full-length Carnal Confessions (released on the 27th of September, 2019). What does a band with a name like this play? Death’n’thrash? Blasphemous black metal? Or its punkish version?

Actually, this outfit from Hamburg preaches epic doom metal with texts focused on modern Catholic crimes against children, but I bet you’ve heard about them despite your musical preferences because Carnal Confessions was one of most noticeable albums of this kind for the whole of 2019.

Fvneral Fvkk has remained a quartet since 2015, and although session musicians have joined their live masses, the core lineup has been the same since then: Cantor Cinaedicus (vocals), Vicarius Vespillo (bass), Frater Flagellum (drums) and Decanus Obscaenus (guitars). The band’s members tend to keep their personalities incognito, though it’s well-known that there are members of Crimson Swan, Fäulnis, and Ophis in the band. Not a big secret then, right?

This interview was started 11 months ago or so, but things happened as we know… However I need to thank Frater Flagellum for the time he spent on answering all of this, it’s much appreciated – God speed you on, oh good Frater! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PESTE UMBRARUM — “WHERE VILE TEMPESTS CONVOKE (I AM BORNE)”

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Oct 152020
 

 

Barely more than two years ago I was floored by Night Shines Eternal, the debut demo by Peste Umbrarum, a Portland, Oregon black metal band that includes members of Panzergod, Death Fetishist, and Deathsaw, and former members of Daemoniis ad Noctum, Cult of Unholy Shadows, and Hiding. I wrote then, at the end of a lengthy review: “This demo really is a stunner, powerfully expressing a range of moods from debilitating depressiveness to incendiary euphoria. If I had to sum up it up in a single word, it would be this one: Magnificent”.

It was thus with genuine excitement that I learned Peste Umbrarum would be releasing their first full-length. Entitled Night Canticles of the Ancient Ana’themae, it shows every sign of being not just as magnificent as that first demo, but even more spectacular. It’s projected for release in time for Samhain by Astral Nightmare Productions, and it’s our great pleasure today to present the first advance track, an exhilarating experience named “Where Vile Tempests Convoke (I Am Borne)“. Continue reading »

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