Islander

SEEN AND HEARD: ROTTING CHRIST, POPIÓŁ, WARDRUNA

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Nov 292018
 

 

Last Sunday when I wrote about my imminent two-week vacation I though it was unlikely that I would be able to assemble any new-music round-ups. But for my traveling companions, yesterday was an especially lazy day, and so I found a bit of guilt-free time to explore new music.

Not a lot of time, mind you, and so I didn’t cast a very wide net over everything of interest that had surfaced since the last of these round-ups, nor was I able to choose as many songs as I usually do. But these three struck a strong chord, and I’m happy with the choices.

ROTTING CHRIST

Season of Mist uses the term “anthemic” to describe the new Rotting Christ song it released yesterday, and so it is — in a way that’s distinctively Rotting Christ. If you’re familiar with their music, you would know it’s them even if no one told you. Continue reading »

ABORTED / CRYPTOPSY / INGESTED / UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION – LIVE IN NOTTINGHAM 27/11/18

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 282018
 

 

(Despite having spent last night in Nottingham running a gauntlet of especially vigorous sonic punishment, our Andy Synn still had sufficient remaining wits about him to deliver this report of the event, with video documentation of the beatings.)

Those of you who know me well, and probably some of those who barely know me at all, will be aware of my general distaste for the whole “brotherhood of Metal” shtick that frequently gets bandied about by certain publications.

Don’t get me wrong, the power of music to bring people together and unite them behind a common cause, a common feeling, still astounds me at times, but the whole cliché about Metal being a “brotherhood” is one that’s too often deployed as a disingenuous disguise for arrogant elitism or a flimsy excuse for chasing the lowest common denominator (and, occasionally, both at the same time).

Still, there are times when even my well-documented cynicism has to be put on hold, and the overwhelming sense of camaraderie and positive energy of last night’s show was certainly one such occasion. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A GUEST REVIEW): BANE — “ESOTERIC FORMULAE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Nov 282018
 

 

(Today we premiere a full stream of the third album by the blackened death metal band Bane, which is recommended for fans of Dissection, Behemoth, and Rotting Christ. It will be released on November 30th by Black Market Metal Label, and we introduce our premiere with a guest review of the album by Caleb Newton.)

The once Serbia-based and now Canadian experimental black metal outfit Bane present a complex and nuanced but ruthless sonic monster that demands some digestion via Esoteric Formulae, their November 30 full-length on Black Market Metal Label. The album hinges on some truly ambitious concepts, to the point that rather than sticking with the human morbidity that other similarly styled albums tack their themes to, this record focuses on the cosmos. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2018: REVOLVER’S 30 BEST ALBUMS OF 2018

 LISTMANIA 2018  33 Responses »
Nov 282018
 

 

As part of our annual LISTMANIA series we re-publish “best album” lists from some of the the few surviving print publications that cover metal, and from a handful of “big platform” sites that include metal in their coverage, along with a range of other music genres and other aspects of popular culture.

Of course, as soon as you see the words “popular culture” you know there’s not going to be too much attention devoted to the kind of music we cover at NCS. But it’s still amusing, and sometimes even edifying, to get a glimpse of what the above-ground world is seeing acclaimed as metal’s best releases. Continue reading »

INHUME: A PREVIEW OF THE “EXHUME” COMPILATION AND AN INTERVIEW OF BEN JANSSEN

 Album Reviews, Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 272018
 

 

(On December 7th Xenocorp will release a special 25th-anniversary compilation of remastered material across the long career of the Dutch extremists Inhume. In this post Vonlughlio provides a preview of the release, including music, and an interview of the band’s guitarist Ben Janssen.)

This small preview is about Inhume, a Dutch BDM/Grindcore band that was founded back in 1994 who have released albums and shorter releases that for some (including me) are classics.  However, this project has not gotten the recognition it deserves, despite creating  quality music that is pure raw aggressiveness and reminds us of a golden era in the underground.

They have released some demos, splits, and four albums that are fast, deadly, in-your-face BDM/grind; the band just wants to rip your face off.  But their last release was the full-length Moulding The Deformed back in 2010, so you might understand that I’d given up on more music until I saw a FB status from the Xenocorp label that they would be releasing a compilation collecting all of Inhume’s demos and splits, tribute tracks, and previously unreleased material. Continue reading »

KUNSTZONE: “SOLARBORN”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 272018
 

 

(In this post DGR reviews the latest album by one of his favorite projects, the two-headed industrial-death monster known as Kunstzone.)

I’ve followed Kunstzone for a long time, having covered them at this site since their debut release — an interest spawned by my having enjoyed its two component musicians’ prior projects: Khaozone and the various messes musician Alex Rise involves himself in, at the time his Tyrant Of Death project.

Half of the fun of following Kunstzone has been witnessing the tug-of-war for the group’s sound on each one of its releases, with one side slowly gaining a victory over the other. If one were to pick apart the industrial death metal group’s sound, one would note the slow favoring of more and more overall extremity on each one of the band’s releases, with the group’s 2017 single Creatures Of Sinew And Lard serving as a bellweather for what the group’s newest album Solarborn was going to subject us all to. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WITCHING HOUR — “AS I WALK AMONG SEPULCHRAL RUINS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 272018
 

 

“Blackened thrash” was an overly simplistic label for the music of Germany’s Witching Hour even in the case of their first two albums, 2009’s Rise of the Desecrated and especially 2011’s Past Midnight…, but it’s an even more superficial and inadequate way to describe their new record, …And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon, which is due for release on December 21st by Hells Headbangers.

I suspect that most of us who are fans of black/thrash come to it for the blood-rush and the ferocity, for the feeling of demonic cruelty and chaos — intertwined with neck-wrecking riffs. What we usually don’t expect, and what Witching Hour deliver through the new album, are other dimensions of sound, style, and emotional resonance that give their music a mystical, dreamlike, and even somber aspect in the midst of all the slaughtering. Continue reading »

BLASPHEMER: THE PREMIERE OF “NAZARENE” AND A REVIEW OF “LUST OF THE GOAT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 262018
 

 

The British band Blasphemer, whose roots go back to 1990, returned to the field of battle with a self-titled album in 2017 after a 20-year gap in their musical output. The story of what happened to the band after their auspicious beginnings is recounted in this NCS interview. Fortunately, as that interview foretold, Blasphemer have let much less time pass between releases since then, with a second album now due for release by Grind Scene Records on November 30th.

While last year’s self-titled album was a roughly 50/50 mix of old Blasphemer compositions and new ones, Lust of the Goat brings eight newly-written tracks, one of which (“Child Catcher”) debuted last month, and we’re bringing you another one today. This new track, which closes the album, is “Nazarene“. Continue reading »

SVARTIDAUÐI: “REVELATIONS OF THE RED SWORD”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Nov 262018
 

 

(Andy Synn prepare this review of the new album by Svartidauði.)

As a fan of this weird and wonderful sub-genre we call “Extreme Metal”, you’d have to have been living under a rock for the past several years not to be aware of how impressive and influential (not to mention incestuous) the rapidly developing Icelandic Black Metal scene has become over the last several years.

But even though the scene is, in terms of wider international exposure at least, still relatively young, such is the prolific nature of the various bands and artists involved that a recognisable hierarchy of heretics has already begun to take shape.

And right at the top of the totem pole, in my opinion at least, are Svartidauði. Continue reading »

BLOG SLOW-DOWN AHEAD (AND NEW MUSIC FROM HELLLIGHT)

 Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 252018
 

 

Over the next two weeks you’re probably going to notice a diminution in the number of posts at NCS, compared to what you’ve become accustomed to. Rest assured that it’s not a sign of some awful catastrophe that has befallen us, or an indication that we’re getting tired of what we do. To banish any such concerns, I’m writing now to explain that I (Islander) will just be on vacation.

Of course, it’s likely that the rest of the NCS staff and contributors will continue to send reviews and interviews to me for publication at their usual pace, but because I tend to write most of the daily posts, things will probably slow down a bit. Continue reading »

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