Islander

AN NCS INTERVIEW: OWL (CHRISTIAN KOLF)

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Feb 122019
 

 

(Comrade Aleks is back! And he brings with him this interview of Christian Kolf from the German band Owl, whose most recent album, Nights In Distortion, was released last fall by Temple of Torturous.)

Owl is the Bonn-based project of Christian Kolf (vocals, guitars, synth) who created it together with Patrick Schroeder (drums, percussion) in 2010 in order to explore death-doom territory that he hadn’t crossed yet in his progressive death-doom band Valborg. Christian is pretty prolific. He also played atmospheric progressive sludge in Woburn House, some prog metal in Island, not not long ago he joined the black metal crew Absolutum, and he gained some experience in a few other acts as well.

Owl’s a strange creature, more so that owls seem to be. Their first two full-lengths, Owl (2011) and You Are The Moon, I Am The Night (2013), were experiments in the field of pretty proggy death-doom metal with quite complex and aggressive compositions, and the following EPs — Into The Absolute (2014), The Last Walk (2014), Aeon Cult (2015), and Orion Fenix (2018), show Owl’s development in another direction. The latest result of the band’s inner changes is the Night In Distortion album (Temple Of Torturous, 2018). It’s tagged as ambient doom metal, and this description is partly close to the matter.

I was impressed by this material and got in touch with Christian to ask him a few questions about Owl’s past, present, and future. Continue reading »

PENSÉES NOCTURNES : “GRAND GUIGNOL ORCHESTRA”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 122019
 

 

(Wil Cifer prepared this review of the new album by Pensées Nocturnes, which was released on February 1st by Les Acteurs de L’Ombre Productions.)

This French band’s last album was an eccentric mix of black metal and chaotic cabaret jazz. This time they are fully committing to a Circus theme. Seeing this report, I assumed this album was bound to sound like Mr. Bungle. In some ways, they don’t prove me wrong.

Where Mr. Bungle hinged heavily on the vocal power of Mike Patton, these guys instead invest more in setting the stage of a place back in time. The vocals are more of a chattering narrative and swing back and forth from operatic singing to growls of anguish. Blast beats are thrown in, against a sway of an angular waltz. This time around the sounds are more layered. It is this layering that paints the exotic sonic pictures. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2018’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 24): KHEMMIS AND AMORPHIS

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2018  3 Responses »
Feb 112019
 

 

With the weekend now behind us we’re resuming the rollout of this list, beginning the 6th week of the trek, with a self-imposed stopping point looming closer (by the end of this month, and possibly earlier — not sure which, since I haven’t finished compiling the list).

Almost every year I’ve shoe-horned music into this annual escapade that doesn’t really fit the label of “extreme metal”, and I’m doing it again today (and might do it yet again before I’m finished this year). Among other things, these two songs have plenty of (very good) clean singing. But although they may not be as extreme as almost everything else, they’re heavy enough — and they’re also damned memorable

KHEMMIS

I’m very happy to say that we’ve been backing this Colorado band since long before they became household names — and if they’re not yet at household name status, they can’t be far away, after three such exceptional and broadly appealing albums — Absolution, Hunted, and now Desolation. Among the core group of NCS writers, Andy Synn was the last to tumble to how good Khemmis‘ music is, though he tumbled pretty hard once he gave it a chance following the band’s performance last year at Maryland Deathfest. Continue reading »

OBSCURA / FALLUJAH / ALLEGAEON / FIRST FRAGMENT – LIVE IN LONDON 08/02/19

 Concert Reviews  6 Responses »
Feb 112019
 

 

(Andy Synn wants you to know that he took in another show. This time, Obscura, Fallujah, Allegaeon, and First Fragment drew him to the environs of London on February 8th, yielding this report plus video of the event.)

For whatever reason, possibly known only to the gods themselves, tonight’s show was one of three big package-tours plying their metallic wares in the capital all on the same evening, with Behemoth/At The Gates/Wolves In The Throne Room on at Kentish Town Forum and Psycroptic/Aversion’s Crown/Within Destruction/Hadal Maw/Hollow World making The Dome in Tufnell Park their home for the evening.

Thankfully, as I’d caught the latter tour a few days earlier in Manchester, my choice between the remaining two options was an easy one to make, as while I’m a fan of practically all the bands on both bills (to a greater or lesser extent), I wasn’t hugely taken with either of the most recent Behemoth and At The Gates albums, whereas I was very high on the most recent Obscura album (and, spoiler alert, the upcoming new Fallujah too).

So it was off to the O2 in Islington for me! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ATARAXIE — “PEOPLE SWARMING, EVIL RULING”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 112019
 

 

The looming approach of a massive new Ataraxie album should be enough to cause some fragile listeners to cower in fear, and even to lead stronger souls to gird their emotions for a catastrophic assault on all hope and joy, to prepare for total immersion in madness and pain.

Ataraxie’s world-view is implacably bleak, just as their music is unsparing in its daunting intensity. Almost five years ago, in the aftermath of Ataraxie’s last album (2013’s L’être et la nausée), the band’s vocalist/bassist Jonathan Théry told our interviewer (here): Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IMPRECATION, NOISEM, CREMATORY STENCH, LYSITHEA, MARIANAS REST, OATH OF CRUELTY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 112019
 

 

I delivered a double dose of new music and video recommendations last Thursday, but of course (as expected) a ton more new stuff appeared since I made those selections. In fact, everything I’ve chosen for this post surfaced just since I finished that last round-up. I had planned to post this collection on Saturday, but it snowed at the NCS compound, the power went out, and that was the end of that plan. Just as well — now you can use this playlist to start the new week on a heavy note.

I’m beginning with a trio of vicious death metal attacks, moving to a pair of more melodically-minded, and much more entrancing and doom-influenced, songs, and then finishing up with a real ripper. We don’t want anyone locked into a steady place for too long; that’s how brain cells get moldy.

IMPRECATION

By chance, two of the new songs in this post are from albums slated for release by Dark Descent Records, and this is the first of those. This is also the first of two Texas bands in this playlist. The album is Damnatio Ad Bestias, the second full-length released by the venerable Texas band Imprecation since they rose from the dead in about 2009 after a long hiatus. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DUNKELNACHT — “AMONGST THE REMNANTS OF LIBERTY”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 112019
 

 

DunkelNacht’s last album, 2014’s Revelatio (reviewed here), was an explosion of creative exuberance, an extravagant combination of diverse styles that defeated easy summarization, perhaps something like a three-way orgy among Belphegor, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and The Black Dahlia Murder, with Dissection and Blut Aus Nord in the mix, too. Since then this part-French, part-Dutch band have released a pair of EPs, and have incorporated both a new vocalist and a new drummer into the line-up, and now have a new album set for release by Non Serviam Records on February 28th.

Like the last album, the new one — Empire of Mediocracy — has a unifying conceptual underpinning, one that continues to explore the stratification of society and the sources of true power.  Musically, it represents a further progression of the band’s sound (which has been evolving all along), yet is still a source of extravagant creative exuberance , which is abundantly on display in the song we’re premiering today: “Amongst the Remnants of Liberty“. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ZLOSLUT, SVARTHYMN, DEFACEMENT, ENDLESS DISEASE

 SHADES OF BLACK  10 Responses »
Feb 102019
 

 

Part 1 of today’s recommendations of black metal consisted of “singles” from three albums due for release later this year. In this second Part are streams of four full releases that surfaced in the last week. For reasons explained in Part 1, my words will be hurried, but the music here is so good that I hope, in your listening, you won’t be as rushed as I am in my writing.

ZLOSLUT

Sahar, the third album by this Serbian band (whose name roughly translates as “ominous”), and the first since it expanded from the solo project of Agnarion into a full line-up, is an interesting and very effective interweaving of stylistic ingredients, made with a blazing loom. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): GAAHLS WYRD, TRISTE TERRE, SOL SISTERE

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Feb 102019
 


photo by Jørn Veberg

 

The conditions were correct for frostbitten music yesterday, when the Seattle area received more snow in 24 hours than it usually gets in a year. Granted, it was a laughably small amount by the standards of people who live in truly wintry climes (8 inches at the airport, and greater or lesser amounts around the area), but enough to paralyze the region and knock out the power (and internet service) in the forest where I live from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. We’re obviously not really set up to deal with snow very well.

The absence of power and net access put a crimp in my usual Saturday surveying of new black metal; I spent more time feeding the wood-burning stove to stay warm. I did catch up a bit this morning, but also relied on listening I’d done during last week before the weather turned hostile. There’s enough here to justify dividing the group into two parts. But I’m kind of hurrying through the words since more snow is expected today, and I’ve got to make preparations.

Part 1 consists of advance tracks from three forthcoming albums. Part 2 is devoted to recent full releases.

GAAHLS WYRD

The presence of Gaahl (Kristian Espedal) at the front of this formation will guarantee attention for their debut album, GastiR – Ghosts Invited. But for that recording he had some impressive talent around him, too — Ole Walaunet (The Batallion, God Seed, Grimfist), Frode Kilvik (Krakow, Aeternus), and Kevin Kvåle (Horizon Ablaze). Continue reading »

PSYCROPTIC / AVERSION’S CROWN / WITHIN DESTRUCTION / HADAL MAW / HOLLOW WORLD – LIVE IN MANCHESTER 06/02/19

 Concert Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 092019
 

 

(On February 6th our man-about-town Andy Synn made the trek to Manchester, England, to take in a show at Rebellion Club, and this is his report, with videos of the event.)

If there’s one thing I know about Metal fans it’s that we, both individually and collectively, are often willing to put up with a lot of shit – be it a long journey, or an excessive amount of sub-standard music – to see the bands we love live.

Well, for tonight’s show, featuring four Australian acts and one Slovenian group, I had to contend with both, making a five-hour round trip and sitting through a couple of less than stellar performances, just for the opportunity to see Hadal Maw live for the first time (although, let’s be honest, I doubt I’ll ever turn down an opportunity to catch Psycroptic either). Continue reading »

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