Islander

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEXROT — “CONSECRATING LUMINOUS CONFLAGRATION”

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Jun 302025
 

(written by Islander)

Haxes and hexes…

Transcending Obscurity Records has established a global reputation for good taste, and quite varied taste. Their roster of bands run a broad gamut of metal sub-genres, and their releases over many years now have been consistently excellent. At this very site, we’ve had a vivid demonstration of this over just the past week.

Five days ago we premiered an astonishing epic-length song by the Floridian progressive death metal band Haxprocess, and today we’re following that with a song from the Massachusetts duo Hexrot, a much shorter song by comparison but thoroughly head-spinning nonetheless. Its evocative name is “Consecrating Luminous Conflagration.” Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: CAGED BASTARD, OBŠAR, SANGUISUGABOGG, IGORRR

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 292025
 

(written by Islander)

Between signing off on yesterday’s roundup and starting this one, various events conspired to prevent me from making this one as substantial as yesterday’s. One of them involved a surfeit of gin, another a forgetfulness about something I agreed to do today with my spouse; possibly the two are connected.

A rash of new musical discoveries over the last 24 hours was also a contributing factor. They complicated the making of choices at a time when time has become short.

Well, enough about all that, I’d better get started or this collection will turn out to be even briefer than brief. Be forewarned: Nothing in here today resembles conventional black metal, or even black metal at all in some cases. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CRYPT SERMON, CULT BURIAL, AMIENSUS, DEFACEMENT, TETRAGRAMMACIDE, BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS, BRUXIST

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 282025
 

(written by Islander)

As usual I had a lot to choose from for this Saturday’s roundup. I gravitated to six bands whose music I and/or others at NCS have showered with past praise, but chose to end it with one band’s first release.

Geographically you’ll bounce back and forth across the Atlantic, take a trip to the Indian subcontinent, and then go further west and south to Australia for the final two records. Your head will probably bounce around a lot as you go through the music too. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, JUNE 2025

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Jun 272025
 

(In the following piece, NCS writer Gonzo reviews five recent albums he caught up to in June.)

It’s been way too fucking long since I’ve been able to crank one of these out.

Without going into too much detail, life has most decisively gotten in the way of me being able to post much. It’s been long enough, and I’ve done a great job of giving myself a pretty serious case of FOMO since the last time I posted a column that wasn’t a gigantic write-up of a festival. I live for that shit, but it’s also an exhausting endeavor.

Besides, there’s simply been too many good releases in the past few months for them not to be mentioned within these pages. Here’s five of them you should check out. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BIOLENCE — “EXTERMINATION THROUGH MUTATION”

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Jun 272025
 

(written by Islander)

Formed in 1998 in Vila Nova de Gaia (Porto, Portugal), Biolence have more than 25 years of death/thrashing carnage under their belts and no shortage of the will or skill needed to continue delivering what is rightly claimed as “no-frills, old-school intensity”. That becomes vividly apparent when listening to their forthcoming fifth album, the aptly named Violent Obliteration. Its appeal is primal, its punishment ruthless, its effects exhilarating, the kind of music that gets heads hammering and blood rushing.

You sort of have to take our word for it at this point, because the album won’t be released until the first of September this year by a trio of labels — Doomed Records, Raging Planet, and Selvajaria Records. But you don’t have to entirely take out word for it because today we’re bringing you an official video for a mad and monstrous song off the album named “Extermination Through Mutation“. Continue reading »

SÁTAN FESTIVAL, JUNE 5TH, 6TH, AND 7TH, STYKKISHHOLMÚR  (ICELAND)

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Jun 272025
 

(Our French contributor Zoltar made his way to Iceland again to attend the June 2025 edition of Sátan festival, and we received the following report, with a few of Zoltar‘s photos.)

Be warned, you’ll often read this same phrase over and over again in the following report: Only in Iceland…

Mind you, it’s far from being my first time here as after a first visit in the mid-00s as a regular tourist (no metal involved), I had the chance to attend a few times the now defunct Eistnaflug festival and also to be invited to be part of the Wacken Battle Iceland jury. Yet, this tiny country with a big heart never ceases to amaze me, on all levels.

And yes, only in Iceland could a festival be set up in the middle of freakin’ nowhere (that would be in this very case Stykkishholmúr for you, roughly one three-hour drive up from Reykjavik, population 1,300) in early June called Sátan Festival. And yes, there’s a twist here. The accent makes all the difference, since Sátan (look it up, google it if you don’t believe me) is first and foremost the name of a local mountain with an old legend attached to it.

Besides a hard-to-transcribe-on-paper pronunciation – try something like ‘sauthan’ – the name has actually something to do with a legend about a troll, a haystack, a horse, and a couple of extra things I’m not entirely sure of anymore… But that’s not what really matters here, as this new and up-and-coming festival (this is their second edition) encapsulates everything that makes the Icelandic scene such a special one. Continue reading »

THE SUN DOES NOT SET ON THE “SONS OF SET”: A REVIEW OF LYCOPOLIS’ NEW FULL LENGTH

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Jun 262025
 

(After a months’ long hiatus our Vietnam-based contributor Vizzah Harri has arisen again to write (as only he can) about a new album from the Egyptian black metal band Lycopolis, and many other wide-ranging subjects that the music led him into.)

Let’s play a game?

The adults running things are playing lots of games out there these days that started out as silly and became rather fucking terrifying of late.

Our game is simple.

Go to Bandcamp.

Type Sons of Set.

Play Eldest Son.

Try to sit still.

Fuckit, I’ll spare you the effort, here it is:

Verify human?

Success! You’re not a robot if you failed, though if you were absolutely comatose the past 117 seconds, please call a doctor.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS — “IN THE GLOW OF THE VATICAN FIRE”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 262025
 

(written by Islander)

The lyrics of most extreme metal songs are often an after-thought, both for the bands and for fans and “critics”. They’re often written after the musical core of the songs has solidified rather than intertwined with it from inception; they’re usually difficult to hear, since vocals usually function as simply another instrument that adds fuel to the emotional fires; and if we’re being honest, the words are quite often uninspiring and forgettable.

The extensive lyrics of In The Glow Of The Vatican Fire, the forthcoming tenth album from the Connecticut-based “avant-sludge metal” outfit When the Deadbolt Breaks, are a startling departure from those norms. This writer had them in hand and decided to read all of them before listening to anything from the album. They left me shaken. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NO SHELTER — “ROTTEN”

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Jun 262025
 

(written by Islander)

We’re told that the German band No Shelter came into existence in May 2017 as the union of members who had played in many other bands. Since then they’ve discharged a couple of EPs,  a couple of splits, and a couple of albums (Rest In Death and Erasing Life). From the beginning they’ve brought together elements of hardcore punk, crust, and Swedish death metal in varying degrees of combination, spawning references among writers to a collision between such bands as Trap Them and Entombed.

This summer No Shelter will have a third album for us. Entitled Remission/Resolve and encompassing 12 songs (including a “Wolverine Blues” cover), it’s set for a July 25 release by This Charming Man Records. What we’ve got for you today is a song off the album pointedly named “Rotten“. Continue reading »

FORTRESS FESTIVAL 2025 — MAY 31-JUNE 1, SCARBOROUGH, NORTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND: DAY 2

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Jun 252025
 

(This is Part 2 of Daniel Barkasi‘s extensive report on the 2025 edition of the UK’s Fortress Festival, covering the second day of the two-day event, again accompanied by his own photos. To check out his report on Day One, go here.)

Sunday, Day 2

As it turns out, running stage to stage for 11 hours taking in as many bands as possible may sap the energy reserves a little. Who knew? This was always going to be a whirlwind of an excursion, so we were mentally prepared for the madness. My body, however, said no – at least to getting out of bed early enough to grab breakfast at the hotel. Alas, we made due with some protein bars and various other food items I had picked up from a Sainsbury’s, as time was of the essence to get down to the Spa for the second day of insanity. Today would prove just as wild as the first. Continue reading »

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