Islander

AN NCS DOOM SESSIONS INTERVIEW: 1782 AND ACID MAMMOTH

 Interviews  1 Response »
Sep 162020
 

 

(Earlier this year the Heavy Psych Sounds label announced a series of splits called Doom Sessions, and Volume II (which will be released on September 18th) features songs by the Italian band 1782 and the Greek band Acid Mammoth. Comrade Aleks reached out to both bands with a few questions, and we present the results today, along with music from the split. Aleks‘ interview of the bands who participated in Volume 1 is here.)

Heavy Psych Sounds Records keep on providing us more of modern doom/stoner vibes, and the second volume of their series of splits named Doom Sessions is on its way. Volume 2 features Acid Mammoth from Greece and the Italian 1782. Both bands are quite fresh but they have already proved their serious attitude with full-length albums.

Once more the label’s owner Gabriel Fiori (Black Rainbows band) introduces us to these participants in the Doom Sessions, as members of both bands are going to reveal a few things behind their work. Marco Nieddu (vocals, guitars, bass) on behalf of 1782 and Chris Babalis Jr. (guitars, vocals) on behalf of Acid Mammoth bring us the folowing words from behind a quarantine curtain. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE LAST REIGN — “EVOLUTION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Sep 152020
 

 

Four years in the making, the new second album by The Last Reign from Buffalo, New York, is now rapidly approaching its September 18 release date. Bearing the title Evolution, it’s a 12-track, 55-minute concept album built around a science-fiction narrative that’s “about the world’s resources being long depleted, sending the human race on a quest for an uncertain future.”

Honestly, though I’m a die-hard sci-fi fan, I’m at the point in my long listening career when I blanch at the thought of a nearly hour-long album. It’s such a rarity when a record of that length has real staying power, and more common, even in generally strong records, to encounter the creeping monotony of sameness or the insertion of sub-par tracks that would have been better left on the cutting room floor. But I’m happy to report that Evolution easily avoids those pitfalls, and instead creates an “edge of your seat” momentum that doesn’t flag. The fact that the band’s chosen field is melodic death metal, a field that’s been well-furrowed to the point of exhaustion, makes the accomplishment all the more impressive. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GELKHAMMAR — “DAUGHTER OF THE WIND”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Sep 152020
 

 

In the Mediterranean straits between Sicily and Tunisia lies the ancient volcanic island of Pantelleria, originally named Kossyra (or Cossyra) by Greek cartographers. The original Arab name for the island was Bint al-Riyāh (بنت الرياح), meaning “Daughter of the Winds” after the strong gales that constantly buffet the island coming off the north coast of Africa.

Pantelleria, which is now part of Italy, has a long and storied history, and perhaps surprisingly given its small population it also has a black metal scene. Cossyra Tapes, as you might expect from the name, was founded as a sub-label of Xenoglossy Productions to release music from that scene, and our focus today is on a forthcoming debut album named The Sword of Gelfiser by the Pantellerian band Gelkhammar. Continue reading »

NAPALM DEATH: “THROES OF JOY IN THE JAWS OF DEFEATISM”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Sep 152020
 

 

(Here’s DGR’s review of the eagerly anticipated new album by Napalm Death, which is set for release by Century Media on September 18th.)

Napalm Death have realized that they are one of those groups whose name and cultural brand makes it so they can do whatever the hell they want musically, and it’s been fun watching the group throw their weight around. The Napalm Death banner extends far beyond just music, as mentioning them raises the specter of grind as a whole genre, and so in one way or another the two have become inextricable. Yet as their career has proven, the band have long aimed past the idea of incredibly short musical tantrums and into realms both far heavier and more violent, and also worlds slower and much more atmospheric.

Apex Predator – Easy Meat was a good example of that sort of musical exploration. It existed like a condensed version of the band’s career and musical tastes in a head-on collision, resulting in a dense package that was all over the map musically but as heavy as a group with the name Napalm Death should be expected to make. Logic Ravaged By Brute Force, released earlier in the year, suggested something different. It contained both the punk-flavored title song and a noisier than hell Sonic Youth cover.

You could glean from that some sense of where the band might be aiming in the future, but their recent comments that they were really leaning in a noise-rock direction with their newest release Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism suggested that the album might be something very different for them. Which makes the release all the more fun because it is a very different exploration of music for the band. Continue reading »

ANCST: “SUMMITS OF DESPONDENCY”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Sep 152020
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Berlin-based Ancst, which will be released on September 18th via Lifeforce Records and the band’s own label Yehonala tapes.)

Evolution is a strange thing. For the most part it’s such a glacially slow process that its effects are almost invisible, except in hindsight. Yet it’s also extremely unpredictable, sometimes progressing in random fits and starts, or even the occasional dramatic leap, in a manner that seems to defy understanding.

Musical evolution is no different. Different bands evolve at different rates, and in different ways, especially as new members – and new musical DNA – are introduced.

But, you know what they say, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”, because while Blackened Metallic Crust-Punk crew Ancst may have cycled through quite a few members over the years (with stalwart mainman Tom S. as the band’s constant linchpin) as well as a few different sounds (their alternate, drone-based material is also well worth a listen) their third album (which is something like their 20th release overall, not counting demos and compilations) finds their sound largely unchanged and their modus operandi – big riffs, big blastbeats, and even bigger vocals – still just as intense, and just as effective, as ever. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISRUPTED — “HUMAN STEW”

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Sep 142020
 

 

It is time for all true slaves to old-school Swedish death metal to prostrate themselves and prepare to worship. What we have for you is a track off the new album by the Swedish heavyweights Disrupted, who should be recognized as pack-leaders among the modern-day bands who have embraced the legacy of Nihilist/Entombed, Interment, Grave, and God Macabre and proudly (and savagely) carried it forward.

We’ve observed before (as have others) that this old, often-emulated style of HM-2-driven death metal horror can’t be tinkered with very much or it loses the right to claim the name. And so what addicts of the style (including this writer) are after isn’t novelty or nuance but spirit and skill, not merely devotion but the songwriting chops and executioner’s talent needed to both trigger adrenaline and stick a song in your head like a rusted, blood-caked spike.

Disrupted have become masters in those black arts, and although they don’t really need help, they’ve got some über-talented guests along with them for the hell-ride of Pure Death, which is the name of the new album — set for a CD release on October 26th by Memento Mori and for a vinyl LP release on October 9th by De:Nihil Records. Continue reading »

A SEROCS PLAYLIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 142020
 

 

If you missed out on the June 26 release by Everlasting Spew of Serocs‘ new EP Vore, you should fill that gaping hole in your life immediately! It really is an extraordinary record, one that we referred to as “a brutalizing, electrifying, high-speed carnival ride”, so head-spinning in its conception and so technically extravagant in its execution that (as we wrote before), if it doesn’t leave you with an ear-to-ear smile, the virus may have mutated and given you facial paralysis.

We’re so high on the EP that we welcomed the chance to share with you a playlist created by two Serocs stalwarts, guitarist Antonio Freyre (who first started the band as a solo project) and guitarist/bassist Antoine Daigneault. Together they assembled 22 tracks in a Spotify list, focusing ion music that has inspired them, and that list is a hell of a great ride all its own. Here’s what the two men had to say about it: Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ORDINUL NEGRU — “NEBUISA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Sep 142020
 

 

In just two days Loud Rage Music will release Nebuisa, a new EP by the Romanian band Ordinul Negru, but you won’t have to wait to hear it, because we’re presenting a full stream today.

The EP seems to be a bit of a musical collage, at least in the way the songs came together, but the combined effect of the four tracks is to create a ravaging and ravishing experience. The music is richly multi-faceted, often intricate, and elaborate in its combination of moods and energies, again proving that Ordinul Negru‘s approach to black metal, which includes inventive songwriting and superior musicicianship, is neither conventional nor mundane. It stirs up the emotions but equally arouses the imagination, and has an electrifying visceral impact as well. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ABDUCTION / NOCTURNAL PRAYER, ABYSS / BESNA, ALGHOL / PANZERWAR, SHAGOR

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Sep 142020
 

 

As I forecast in Part 1 of this column yesterday, Part 2 focuses on three splits, two of them released within the last week and one of them whose arrival is imminent. And to close this Part, like the first one, I picked an enticing advance track from a forthcoming debut album.

ABDUCTION / NOCTURNAL PRAYER

The first split, Intercontinental Death Conspiracy, pairs the UK band Abduction (from Derby) and the Canadian band Nocturnal Prayer (from the wilds of Newfoundland and Labrador). It was released on September 7th by Inferna Profundus Records in variant LP vinyl editions, and digitally. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): BARGHEST, TRYBLITH, NARKVLT, MYSTHICON

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Sep 132020
 

 

As you can see, I’ve planned a two-part column today. This part includes too-brief reviews of three albums and comments about an advance track from a forthcoming record. In Part 2 I’ve gathered some splits and another advance track. I haven’t written all of Part 2 yet and am not sure I’ll get it done today, because the Seahawks are playing their opening game of this weird NFL season, and I’m not going to miss it. So, maybe Part 2 comes tomorrow…

BARGHEST

I’ve taken my sweet time writing about Barghest’s new album, not for lack of desire but because of one diversion after another. But it’s an album that I can neglect no longer, because I’ve continued to listen to it off and on since before its mid-July release. And as someone who’s constantly flitting from new thing to new thing, that fact alone is meaningful. Continue reading »

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