Islander

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GOLDEN BATS — “VIII”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 182020
 

 

I was about six years late in discovering Golden Bats, a one-man band then based in Brisbane but now ensconced in Rome. I climbed aboard this musical sludge/doom juggernaut in 2017 after the release of the Superplateau EP and then hung on for dear life through the band’s 2018 debut album Residual Dread and a 2019 EP entitled VII, reviewing all of them.

In the recording session that produced Residual Dread, the original plan was to track material for both an album and an EP. But the songs chosen for the album changed once they were all recorded, as some fit better together, so the EP changed as well. And it’s that EP — named VIII — that’s finally being released today, with this premiere as a way of helping spread the word. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ZED DESTRUCTIVE — “RAPED EXISTENCE”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 182020
 

 

The Israeli band Zed Destructive shares the name of its founder, who is the vocalist of Winterhorde and the former lead guitarist of Thokkian Vortex. He started the band in 2017 after leaving Thokkian Vortex and began working on music with former Thokkian Vortex drummer Ariel Lior. In time Dani White joined the band as second guitarist, and Daniel Kitchka rounded out the group as its bassist.

Their first record is an album named Corroded By Darkness, which will be jointly released on August 31st by Satanath Records‘ label-partner GrimmDistribution (Ukraine) and Wings Of Destruction (Russia). In the music there are occasional hints of Winterhorde’s air of theatrical drama, but don’t go thinking that Zed Destructive is Winterhorde by a different name, because the music here is a distinctive experience that stands apart, a hybrid of death and black metal that rightly led the releasing labels to recommend it for fans of Deicide, Death, Behemoth, Dissection, Gorgoroth, Marduk, and Dark Funeral. Continue reading »

NCS ON GIMME METAL (A REMINDER)

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Aug 172020
 

 

As previously announced in this post, three of our writers (Islander, Andy Synn, and DGR) will be appearing as guest DJs at GIMME METAL in a two-hour show just a few hours from now. This is scheduled to happen today (Monday, August 17th) at 12 p.m. Pacific Time, 3 p.m. Eastern Time, UTC-08:00 (for everyone who counts that way).

The show has been pre-recorded and includes a playlist of metal, with three segments curated by each of the three of us on the show, including our own attempts to speak without sounding like total idiots (but no promises). However, all three of us will also be participating in a live chat as the show goes on, which you too can participate in by registering (for free) at the GIMME METAL site. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): PATHWAY, CRUST, THE INFERNAL SEA, ANCST

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Aug 162020
 

 

Here’s the second Part of today’s column about newly discovered black and blackish metal. If you’ve been following my observations about my vacation, I was waylaid in finishing this Part because the golfers returned.

Thankfully, they seemed none the worse for wear despite the heat (which turned out not to be quite as punishing as predicted), though they did give up after 14 holes. Thankfully, they told very few war stories, but did share some spectacular photos of mountain-and-forest vistas from the course (I’ve left one at the end of this column), and then we tucked into lunch and some mid-day whisky, and then I got back to this writing while they immediately began napping.

Anyway, that explains the odd timing of this post.

PATHWAY (Russia)

You may have noticed that I have a weakness for black metal that incorporates unusual instruments, whether it be woodwinds, brass, horsehair fiddles, or medieval lutes. And thus I was probably predisposed to like the music of the Russian horde Путь (Pathway), because the band incorporate the accordion into their distinctive rendering of atmospheric black metal. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): SKYBORNE REVERIES, DYSYLUMN, WAYFARER

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Aug 162020
 

 

I passed a cognitive test this morning. It was even easier than “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.” I turned down the offer to ride around in a golf cart and watch four of my idiot friends embarrass themselves in heat that’s expected to hit 100°F before they finish.

Instead I stayed behind in the place we rented for this mini-vacation with another person who also passed the test, surrounded by vistas of forest and mountains. And I listened to a lot of new black metal, and I wrote this post, which comes in two parts.

SKYBORNE REVERIES (Australia)

The first song in this collection is a fiery storm of sound – synths gloriously burning high overhead, the riffing flowing in scintillating waves and flickering in a mad boil, the vocals a mix of a larynx-lacerating torment and ravaged roars. Continue reading »

BLOG BREAK (AND A BIT OF MADNESS FROM TORPE)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Aug 152020
 

 

Yesterday I left home for a long weekend vacation, my first vacation of the year and the first time I’ve been away from home for more than an hour since the March shutdowns. Some friends and I rented a place near the town of Roslyn in the Cascade Mountains, about 80 miles east of Seattle.

You might have seen Rosyln without knowing it, since it was the filming location for The Runner Stumbles, Northern Exposure, and The Man in the High Castle. The whole downtown part of Roslyn, such as it is, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The surrounding environment, as you can see above, is beautiful. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WOODED MEMORY — “MY SECRET HORROR”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 142020
 

 

What will become of us when we die? Merely the eventual reunion of our bodies with the earth? Or will we also leave a residue of memories in the minds of those who survive us? What kind of memories will those be? And when we take our last stumbling steps, what memories of our own will we seek out as most dear?

The video we present today, which has the aesthetic of a silent movie, seems to be a meditation on such questions (and more), seen through the eyes of a person on a solitary walk through brambled woods to their death. With little time remaining they search out a place to relive a beautiful moment.

The words and scenes in the video make for a haunting complement to the music, but it’s the spell of the music that is most arresting. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PRIMITIVE MAN

 Interviews  1 Response »
Aug 142020
 

 

(Today is the day set by Relapse Records for the release of Primitive Man‘s new album Immersion, and it is thus a fine time to share with you this new interview by Comrade Aleks of the band’s vocalist/guitarist Ethan Lee McCarthy.)

Bad times for good guys and bad times for bad guys. It does not matter who you are when the world doesn’t stop crumbling down right beneath your feet. Extreme situations demand primitive reactions, just this basic set which kept our antediluvian ancestors alive, even as it seems we head on towards extinction with each step we’re forced to take by powers behind our backs. You can pray, you can speak your final manifest of disobedience… who knows if it counts?

In this environment the Denver-based crew of Neanderthal sludge-bringers Primitive Man come our way with their third full-length album, Immersion. We’ve searched for the source of its bitterness, ugliness, and anger together with Ethan Lee McCarthy (vocals, guitars) and here’s what we found. Continue reading »

LAST WEEK TODAY: DEATH BY STEREO / FACELESS BURIAL / IMHA TARIKAT / KRALLICE

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Aug 132020
 


Krallice

 

(Andy Synn wrote the following compilation of reviews.)

It seems to me that, over the years, the constant cascade of new albums has swollen into a never-ending, unrelenting, flood, to the point where it often feels like we’re almost drowning in new releases.

The only way to cope, I’ve found, is to simply accept that you’re not going to be able to cover everything. There’s just not enough hours in the day to properly preview, review, analyse, and criticise, all of it, especially if you also want to try and maintain some general standards of quality and insight (which, let’s be honest, isn’t necessarily a concern for everyone…).

That being said, a bit of catch-up coverage never goes amiss, which is why I’m dedicating today’s article to four artists who each dropped their newest record – in one case with little prior warning – last Friday. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: APHONIC THRENODY — “DROWNING”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 132020
 

 

We all have metal bands whom we consider good old friends, not because we’ve ever met or even communicated with their members but because we’ve lived with their music for such a long time, without ever being disappointed by their work, and often associating it with signal events and powerful moods in our own lives. And so when we “meet” them again through a new release, the feelings are akin to a happy reunion. For this writer, Aphonic Threnody are one of those bands — even though happiness is almost always a foreign concept in their music.

I’ve been following and writing about this funeral doom/death band since 2011 when I came across their debut EP First Funeral, and have closely tracked their movements ever since. Their newest work is a full-length named The Great Hatred that becomes the third album in their discography. It’s set for release by Transcending Obscurity Records on October 16, and we’re in the fortunate position of hosting the premiere of the album’s third advance track, “Drowning“. Continue reading »

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