Islander

AN NCS PREMIERE: MIASMAL SABBATH — “THE ORACULAR VOICE”

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Aug 212020
 

 

On their debut album Ominous Radiance, the Greek band Miasmal Sabbath have pulled off a neat trick. They’ve combined d-beat death metal with — as the album title itself beautifully conveys — the sound of ominous radiance, which is to say the music radiates a sensation of otherworldly exoticism that’s charged with peril and dreadful grandeur.

The album masterfully accomplishes even more than that, but those are the sensations that probably best describe the song we’re presenting today in advance of the record’s September 25 release by Unholy Prophecies. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PITCHBLACK — “THE WORLD IS MINE”

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Aug 212020
 

 

That’s quite an arresting image up there, isn’t it? It’s the cover art accompanying Death & Disbelief, the forthcoming third album by the Danish band Pitchblack, which is set for release on October 23rd by Emanzipation Productions. The music turns out to be quite arresting too, as already demonstrated by a single from the album named “The World Is Mine“.

That single was released two weeks ago, but one good turn deserves another, and so today we’re premiering a lyric video for the same song. If you missed the single’s release, the video will give you the chance to discover the kind of hard-charging, ferocious, hook-filled melodic death metal that Pitchblack serve up on this newest full-length. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INDOCTRINATE — “FORBIDDEN RITES OF FERTILITY”

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Aug 202020
 

 

The Chilean black/death band Indoctrinate are making their recording debut in September, but are not newcomers to the realms of extreme musical mayhem. Indoctrinate is instead a new slaughtering vehicle for two former members of the now-defunct Sadistik Goathammer (they are also bandmates in Henosis), whose mission was to carry forward the lineage of such bestial rampagers as Sarcofago, Mystifier, Abhorer, Parabellum, Blasphemy, and Conqueror.

Indoctrinate haven’t abandoned those roots, but as you’ll discover through the song we’re premiering today, they’ve leavened their attacks of primitive barbarism with other ingredients that give the music an even more primal and carnal appeal as well as a frightening paranormal aura.

As a harbinger of those sensations, the name of Indoctrinate‘s debut album, which will be released by Unholy Prophecies, is Antilogos: Arcane Transmutation in the Temple of Flesh. And the song we present today is “Forbidden Rites of Fertility“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SENSORY AMUSIA — “BEREAVEMENT”

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Aug 202020
 

 

Friends, Romans, countrymen (and everyone else out there), lend us your ears… for a bit more than 17 minutes. That is how long it will take for Sensory Amusia (who hail from Perth rather than Rome) to run you through the gauntlet of their new EP, Bereavement. That title may suggest a doom-y, tear-stained experience, but the only tears to be shed will be from those who manage to survive this death metal meat-threshing machine.

A dismal guitar arpeggio backed by the sounds of a drenching and thunder-cracked storm begins to set the mood before the real storm breaks in the EP’s introductory track — a storm of blasting drums, rapidly raking riffage, and mercilessly pulverizing groove. And what comes next are four tracks of death metal chaos interwoven with influences of tech-death, hardcore, and grind. It’s our sadistic pleasure to present a full stream of the EP now, on the day of its release by Lacerated Enemy Records. Continue reading »

AT THE ALTAR OF TECH: ATRÆ BILIS / CYTOTOXIN / DEINÒS / DENOMINATE

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Aug 202020
 


Atræ Bilis

 

(Andy Synn has prepared and packaged together these four reviews for your reading pleasure.)

As every good Metalhead knows, Thursday is the day that the Lord dedicated to Technical Death Metal.

After all, was it not written “and on the fourth day, he shredded”?

So, as the scriptures command, I’ve elected to use today’s column to focus on a handful of bands, each one a disciple of death in one form or another, who choose to worship… at the altar of tech. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SUNKEN — “ENSOMHED”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 192020
 

 

Two active metal bands have adopted the name Sunken, and both of them are releasing excellent albums this year. Because we’ve already devoted some attention to the Finnish doom/death band Sunken at our site, we thought we’d explain up-front that the Sunken whose music we’re premiering today isn’t that one. This Sunken is a Danish collective, and on their newest album they devote their talents to a heart-rending and immensely immersive form of atmospheric black metal.

That album, Livslede, is set for release on September 18th by Vendetta Records. It’s a 43-minute work divided among four substantial tracks and one comparatively brief introductory piece. Those four main songs are long for a reason, and the time is not wasted. Sunken use the time to create experiences of such deep emotional power that it’s hard to imagine how the soul-swallowing effects of them could have been achieved in less time.

It happens that the track we’re bringing you today, at nearly 12 1/2 minutes, is the longest of those four. One of the best compliments we can pay to successful long-form music is that in listening you lose track of time passing, as you lose yourself in the music. And that is certainly a compliment that “Ensomhed” richly deserves. Continue reading »

PANZERFAUST: “THE SUNS OF PERDITION – CHAPTER II: RENDER UNTO EDEN”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Aug 192020
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s lavish review of the new album by Toronto-based Panzerfaust, which will be released by Eisenwald on August 28th.)

It’s been well-documented, several times now, just how much I love Panzerfaust’s 2019 album, War, Horrid War (part one of the still-unfolding “Suns of Perdition” saga).

Not only was it the album which signalled the band’s effective rebirth – transforming them from relative unknowns into “ones to watch” – but it also snagged them a coveted slot at the 2020 edition of Maryland Deathfest, where they were one of my most anticipated bands of the entire festival.

Sadly, as we’re all too aware, this year’s MDF was cancelled/postponed, so it looks like I’ll have to wait a little longer to experience the explosive power of the band’s live show, but, in the meantime at least, I can content myself with the knowledge that not only is Render Unto Eden (arguably) even better than its predecessor but also one of the most outstanding albums, Black Metal or otherwise, of the year. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CHROME WAVES — “NEW SKIN”

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Aug 182020
 

 

The Chrome Waves song we’re presenting here has multiple meanings, some intended and perhaps one that’s merely a relevant coincidence. As for the intended meanings, the band’s James Benson (also in Amiensus) explains:

“‘New Skin‘ is quite literally about shedding away your past, and the growth of humans as they begin to learn. It pertains to the way someone is raised is not always the worldview of the entire population of the country, or world. However it also addresses recognizing that there is some type of comfort in going back to how you were raised, and the worldview you grew up around, or the culture.”

That conception is a kind of dichotomy: The process of maturation inevitably involves, to greater and lesser degrees, shedding the skin of where we came from and who we were, sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse. If we’re lucky, we continue to slough away bad habits and bad memories and allow ourselves to become new, but sometimes we lose good things as well. Especially in godawful times, what we’ve left behind can sometimes be worth re-discovering. Continue reading »

MESARTHIM: “THE DEGENERATE ERA”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 182020
 

 

(Andy Synn combines two reviews in this post, one each for the latest two releases by the Australian band Mesarthim.)

If you want to upset a wide swathe of the Metal and Metal-adjacent public, just play them something by Atmo-Black Trance duo Mesarthim.

Too spacey and synth-driven for most of the Black Metal scene, too upbeat and dancey for the Dungeon Synth crowd, and too abrasive for the Synthwave crew, the duo’s (incredibly prolific) output has proven to be exceptionally divisive over the years, even as it has also attracted an incredibly dedicated fanbase who can’t seem to get enough of the band’s signature blend of bleeps, bloops, and blasts.

That being said, I know I’m not the only one who felt like the group’s most recent works – most notably 2018’s Coma Wall EP and last year’s Ghost Condensate album – didn’t quite achieve the same sense of balance and equilibirum between the various disparate elements of their sound (although not for lack of trying) which helped define the band’s earlier works.

Which makes the recent surprise release of The Degenerate Era, the fifth full-length Mesarthim album in five years, an opportunity to reset and reassess things… for both the band and their fans. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CONSUMPTION — “FERMENTED TISSUE”

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Aug 182020
 

 

Håkan Stuvemark and Jon Skäre are ever-busy men. Stuvemark’s list of active bands includes Wombbath, Skineater, Reek, Pale King, PermaDeath, and Rex Demonus, each one of them providing a different kind of outlet for his musical proclivities. Skäre has been a fixture in Defiatory and Wachenfeldt, in addition to joining Stuvemark in many of those projects just mentioned. But now the two can add one more project to their resumes, because they’ve joined forced to create Consumption.

This new band, in which Stuvemark performs vocals, guitars, and bass, and Skäre is of course behind the kit, was created under the influence of early ’90s Carcass and some old Finnish death metal bands, most prominently Disgrace. Their debut album is named Recursive Definitions Of Suppuration, and it’s our horrid pleasure to share with you today the opening cut, “Fermented Tissue“, in advance of the album’s September 15 release by Iron Blood and Death Corporation. Continue reading »

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