Islander

AN NCS PREMIERE: EXILETH — “DEATH OF THE ALMIGHTY”

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Feb 192025
 

(written by Islander)

At least on the global stage, our sense is that the Armenian extreme metal scene has gone relatively unnoticed. And that includes our own site: We try hard to look beyond the usual landscapes of North American and Western European extremity, but a search of our posts reveals that in our 15+ years of existence we’ve only written about seven Armenian metal bands — ARTE-X, Eternally Scarred, Ildaruni, Basturma, Garhelenth, Temple of Demigod, and Dogma. That’s probably more often than many sites devoted in whole or in part to extreme metal, but it’s still a number dwarfed by our coverage of music from many other locales.

In the case of Armenian metal, ignorance is not bliss, because even the relatively small sampling across our own pages reveals a lot of talent. And today we have another case in point — the eighth time we’ve written about an Armenian band, and this time it’s the gnarly and galvanizing death metal quartet Exileth. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: THE COMPLETE LIST

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Feb 182025
 

(written by Islander)

This year I was able to pick up my tradition of gathering a list of the last year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, having been unable to do that last year (though Vizzah Harri picked up the baton I dropped for songs from 2023). In compiling my list of infectious songs from 2024, I wound up with 69 songs before forcing myself to stop at the end of January. (Yuck it up, but I promise that number was coincidental.) That was just a tad more than the 66 songs on my list for 2022.

Of course, I really wasn’t finished when I stopped. A lot of candidates just as worthy as those 69 were left by the wayside when I hit the wall — as witnessed by a couple of posts that got added the week after. For the first time that I can recall, both DGR and Andy Synn created their own addenda to my list. In one fell swoop, DGR added 70 songs, though there was a small overlap with my own list. Andy added 10 that weren’t on my list or DGR‘s.

Knowing that those addenda were coming, I delayed putting together a wrap-up post with links to all the songs I picked. And then after we published those addenda I forgot about the wrap-up — until yesterday. And so now you have it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FELGRAVE — “OTHERLIKE DARKNESSES”

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Feb 182025
 

(written by Islander)

The Norwegian one-man band Felgrave has created a new album that could be superficially represented as the raising of three monuments. Entitled Otherlike Darknesses, it consists of three songs of towering dimensions, two of them at 18 minutes or slightly above and the third at 12 1/2.

That’s a prospect that may be daunting to consider. It boldly tests the attention spans of most listeners, and it’s a test for Felgrave as well. Although the project’s 2020 debut album A Waning Light also included much longer-than-average songs, and did so successfully, these new monuments are even bigger. The test is whether they can succeed in drawing listeners into their environs and creating enough wonders and thrills to keep those listeners from wandering away.

Some of you have already begun grading the test, because the band’s new label Transcending Obscurity Records has already debuted “Pale Flowers Under An Empty Sky,” the song that’s 12 1/2 minutes long. Today we’re premiering one of those even longer two songs, and it’s the title track — “Otherlike Darknesses” — which comes last in the running order. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: U KRONAKH — “NIGHT VISIONS FADE”

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Feb 182025
 

(written by Islander)

In 2020, the Ukrainian musician Artem “Voidger” founded U Kronakh as a studio one-man band, drawing upon veins of atmospheric black metal and death metal as the elements for his intended alchemy. Since then U Kronakh has released two albums in which Voidger has brought along session performers to assist him, with a third album — Archaic Dance of Winds (Архаїчний Танець Вітрів) — due for arrival on March 21st.

In their lyrics and their inspiration, we’re told that all of the albums draw upon the mistiness and mysticism of Carpathian mountain forests, ancient events, and never-ending reflections about the nature of the cosmos and our place within it.

What we have for you today is a lyric video for the first song to be disclosed from U Kronakh‘s new album. Its English name is “Night Visions Fade“. Continue reading »

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XIII: CHAOS AND FINDING THE LIGHT

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Feb 182025
 

(Daniel Barkasi is back, with another monthly selection of new albums and reviews, this time focusing on what January provided.)

It’s been a bit! My last musings at NCS was my overly indulgent 25 For 24! year-end debacle, and since the turn of the new year, unless you’ve been living in a cave (you have my envy if you have – any room for two people and a shitload of animals?), the world has further descended into the toilet. I could write a thesis on all of the wild things that have happened since the turn of the calendar, and most are no doubt aware of these happenings.

Admittedly, I’m a well-established pessimist. I like to say that I’m a realist, but that often leans toward looking at the dire side of things rather than the hopeful. I see chaos, injustice, greed, and sheer stupidity, but struggle to see any light trying to crack through the toxic dump of slime that often gets spewed upon us at the speed and power of a high-pressure hose.

Like we’ve spoken about previously, what we do here is a wonderful distraction from the nightmare that society can be (and often is). I also like getting a little personal in this space. Maybe it’s selfishly therapeutic; a hope that maybe my own struggles can help someone, humanize my monthly musings – who knows? Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ACROSS THE SWARM — “INVISIBLE THREADS”

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Feb 172025
 

(written by Islander)

At the end of this week Time To Kill Records will release a new album by the powerhouse Italian death metal band Across the Swarm. Entitled Invisible Threads, it follows up the band’s 2020 record Projections, and we’re bring all of it to you today.

Thematically, the album is about as dark as you could imagine. In the band’s words, it “explores human degradation, unspoken fears, and wars that ravage not only bodies but also minds” — depredations and agonies reflected in the album’s cover art. The music is intended to be a raw and unflinching musical exploration of those terrible themes.

But it must be said right away that the music is the opposite of gloomy and grief-stricken. Instead, it’s absolutely exhilarating – though equally cold-blooded. The album delivers pulverizing, pavement-fracturing thuggery and technically impressive high-speed ferocity, all of it accompanied by monster-show vocals that add to the music’s many spine-tingling (and bone-smashing) effects. It’s a top-shelf example of explosive and rampaging musical malice that’s exceedingly well-constructed, expertly executed, and very addictive. Continue reading »

ZOLTAR’S SHORT BUT SWEET: CRANIAL TORMENT, ETERNAL DIRGE, HOROH, PYRE

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Feb 172025
 

(Our French contributor Zoltar has provided us with short reviews of four recently released records, two of them reissues of music dating to the ’90s and two of them brand new, from just a bit earlier this year.)

CRANIAL TORMENT – STADES OF REPRESSION

There weren’t that many ‘pure’ death metal bands to speak of in Greece in the late ’90s, one of the only notable exceptions being Inveracity and their killer debut Circle Of Perversion released through Unmatched Brutality (who else?) back in 2003. The thing is that most of the leaders of the movement, like Septicflesh – or Septic Flesh in two words as they were called back then – Horrified or Nightfall (the latter featuring a then rather unknown yet super promising drummer called George Kollias who would soon rise to fame with Nile), had all moved on to greener pastures.

So to say that local hardcore maniacs like Vassilis ‘Bill’ Benakis (guitar and vocals) and future Repulsive Echo Records founder Kostas Vaxevanos (drums) were wasting their time talking to a wall would be quite an understatement. Yet as Cranial Torment the pair nevertheless recorded no fewer than three demos – the second being almost album-length, clocking at 30 minutes – in between August 1998 and May 1999 before vanishing into oblivion, until now. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: CHRISTIAN NECROMANCY, ЗАРЕЗНИЦА, FRAGDA, INOMIATUM KALOUNAPTHRAH, MIDRYASI’S KULT, ALDAARON

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Feb 162025
 

(written by Islander)

I hope you’re having a good day. I hope the following music will make it better.

I used roulette-wheel and craps analogies yesterday, and it’s even more fitting today. Without exception, I had never heard the music of any of these bands before, so picking them was a spin of the wheel and a roll of the dice. I did also land on some songs that didn’t bring much payback; those aren’t here, only the winners. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: DORMANT ORDEAL, LABYRINTHINE HEIRS, CHAOS INCEPTION, DECREPISY, BELNEJOUM, HABAK, PIGPEN, ALLEGAEON, BURIED REALM

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 152025
 


Dormant Ordeal – Photo Credit: Piotr Dzik

(written by Islander)

Another week has gone by and I’ve had another session with the roulette wheel of new releases, watching the bouncing ball land in one pocket after another as I mentally spun. It’s a fair analogy, since there are 37 or 38 pockets on a wheel and that’s in the ballpark of new releases from the past week I thought might be worth checking out. Also fair, because of the general randomness of my choices of what to listen to.

But the process is also a little like casino craps, getting an instinct about a shooter and betting on particular outcomes. And so I mentally bet on some of the bands from last week I thought were likely to be winners – and some were and some weren’t.

To be clear, I’ve never played roulette or craps in my life, only watched without much understanding. I’m not much of a gambler with my own money; I care much more about losing than the chance of winning; I prefer to keep what I have; there are other ways of being entertained when the odds aren’t always stacked against you — like listening to the following songs: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SHRINE OF DENIAL — “I, MOLOCH”

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Feb 142025
 

(written by Islander)

It was a daring decision for the Turkish band Shrine of Denial and their label, Transcending Obscurity Records, to emblazon the band’s new album I, Moloch with the above artwork by Juanjo Castellano. A daring decision, because artwork that frighteningly magnificent represents a challenge: Can the music really match it?

Well, we’re in the process of finding the answer to that question, an answer that has unfolded through two songs revealed from the album so far, and a third one we’re about to present today in advance of the album’s March 7 release date. Continue reading »

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