Islander

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEVIL’S GATEWAY — “WASTELAND SANCTUARY”

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Feb 142025
 

(written by Islander)

Let’s start with a “FFO” reference for Devil’s Gateway that you should find interesting, though maybe perplexing: Sacrilege, Axegrinder, Amebix, Prophecy of Doom, early Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, Godflesh, Deviated Instinct, Bolt Thrower.

In my case, all those names ring like golden chimes. But thinking about how all those influences would blend together leaves a big question mark, especially because I was not familiar with Devil’s Gateway before we were asked to host the premiere of a song (with lyric video) that will soon be placed before you. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CHÜZO — “BRUISED AND BROKEN”

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Feb 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Last fall the Montreal outfit Chüzo released an EP named M.T.M.D (Maximum Threshold, Minimum Decay). It was intended to introduce the world to their new lineup (still intact today), which features an internationally sourced group of Taiwanese/Brazilian transplant Mischa M on vocals, first-generation Chilean Canadian and mastermind Cristian S. on guitars and vocals, Carlos G from Venezuela on drums, and Alex S from Russia on bass.

The EP also served a second and even more important purpose — to introduce the world to the nature of their new music, a blender of grindcore, Swedish death metal, thrash, and hardcore punk that they named “Aggro Metal.”

To help spread the word about Chüzo in their new incarnation and the M.T.M.D EP, what we have for you today is the premiere of a video for the record’s third and final song, “Bruised and Broken,” which is a good description of how the song and video will leave you. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GLORIOR BELLI — “WELTSCHMERZ WIELD POWER”

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Feb 132025
 

(written by Islander)

Cleveland-based Dark Empire Records was originally founded by Dwid Hellion of Integrity in the early 1990s. It released music from such bands such as Confront, Apartment 213, and Integrity, as well as the 1994 compilation Dark Empire Strikes Back, which featured acts like Ringworm, Face Value, Pale Creation, and The Guns.

The label ceased operation in the mid-’90s but has revived, and its newest release will be a self-titled album by the French band Glorior Belli, headed our way in March.

The tale of Glorior Belli has been an interesting one. Their musical evolution began with the debut album Ô Laudate Dominvs in 2005, and then Manifesting the Raging Beast in 2007. By the time of their fifth album, Gators Rumble, Chaos Unfurls, they had made a name for themselves as purveyors of black metal infused with swampy Southern rock and blues (and their sole recording member Infestvvs had long before that re-named himself “Billy Bayou” in line with that evolution). Since black metal has loaned itself to hybridization probably more than any other extreme metal genre, others would have eventually done this (and probably not as well), but as far as we know, Glorior Belli was one of the first. Continue reading »

16: “GUIDES FOR THE MISGUIDED”

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Feb 132025
 

(Let week Relapse Records released a new album by 16 [aka -(16)-], and this week we’ve got Gonzo‘s review of the record below.)

Outside of the unholy trinity of The Melvins, Eyehategod, and Crowbar, you might be hard-pressed to name another longstanding sludge band that’s left their swampy mark on the scene quite like those three have.

If that’s the case, Southern California’s 16 would like a word. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CARCOLH — “TWILIGHT OF THE MORTALS”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 122025
 

(written by Islander)

Carcolh is the name of a mythical beast from French folklore, a large snail-like serpent that oozed slime and grasped with hairy tentacles. Carcolh is also the name of a powerhouse French doom metal band from Bordeaux/Herbignac. They have two albums to their credit so far, and are about to have a third one released on February 14th by Sleeping Church Records. Its name is Twilight of the Mortals.

Thankfully, the band and the label didn’t put too much weight on the name of our site — because Carcolh‘s Sebastien Fanton sings the words (in a voice that is truly spine-tingling) — and so we have been invited, and have happily agreed, to premiere the entire album today.

The new album is an honorable devotional to the old gods of traditional doom metal, but with a steadfast orientation toward musical narratives that earn the adjective “epic.” As we discuss in greater detail below, they have created dynamic music that is earth-quaking in its heaviness, pulse-pounding in its surges, and melodically sinister and stricken, glorious and gutting. We venture to predict that it won’t be soon forgotten. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: JORDAN WHITEMAN (AND “THE UNLIKELY STORY OF DUNGEON SYNTH”)

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Feb 122025
 


photo by Betsy Whiteman

(In this interview with writer Jordan Whiteman, Comrade Aleks delved deeply into the story behind Whiteman‘s recently published book about the history of dungeon synth, and the passion required to make the book a reality. Like the book, the discussion is essential reading for any fan of the subgenre, and for anyone interested in exploring it for the first time.)

Released in December 2024 by Cult Never Dies, the book The Unlikely Story of Dungeon Synth became a good extension of the publishing house’s black-metal-oriented catalogue. It’s not something you would expect probably, but this subgenre, as a development of majestic synth-driven soundscapes accompanying a lot of black metal albums, has its history, its ethos, and influence too.

This well-written and well-illustrated book brightened up this January, so I decided to take a look behind the curtain and discover more of Dungeon Synth and its origin with the book’s author, Jordan Whiteman. Continue reading »

An NCS INTERVIEW: ADE

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Feb 112025
 

(In mid-March Time To Kill Records will release a new album by the Roman death metal band Ade, and that drew our Comrade Aleks into a very interesting discussion with the band’s founder Fabius and its vocalist Diocletianus. The interview provides excellent insights into the band’s ambitions and techniques, and of course the new album as well.)

For seventeen years the Italian band Ade has performed their own Ancient Roman Death Metal. It may sound ambitious, but they truly do their best to pave their own way, choosing original themes for their albums and integrating folk instruments in their riffs and mountain-splitting melodies.

They already had album dedicated to the Punic Wars (Carthago Delenda Est, 2016), and there’s the album Spartacus (2013) dedicated to the riot of Spartacus himself, for example. But the new album’s title Supplicium could be translated as “suffering”, and the idea behind it is a bit difficult to interpret.

This interview with the Ade’s founder Fabius (guitars) and his bandmate Diocletianus (vocals) will shed some light on the band’s history and the story of Suffering as well. Time To Kill Records is going to release the album on March 14th, but we just needed to forewarn you as soon as possible! Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ABOLISHMENT OF FLESH — “DISAVOWED”

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Feb 112025
 

As the calendar pages turn fast, as if riffled by a strong wind, we’re now 18 months past the release of Resurrecting Misanthropy, a decimating EP from Abolishment of Flesh, a band born in the panhandle of West Texas. It added to a discography that includes three albums and another EP dating back to 2008, and drove forward the band’s lyrical themes “shaped by war, violence, disease, corruption, and the systematic collapse of human civilization.”

That most recent EP also further evidenced the band’s musical evolution, which now draws freely from ingredients of death, black, and thrash metal and has found a place for melody and groove amidst the carnage of brutality. As a reminder of how good that last EP was, today we’re premiering a video for one of its three songs — “Disavowed“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HAIL CONJURER — “NEW ORDER”

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Feb 112025
 

The Finnish black metal band Hail Conjurer has been following a year-after-year album release cycle since the first full-length (Dreams of Serpent) in 2018, with other releases in between. We’re now beginning a new calendar year, and so we will have a new Hail Conjurer album, the band’s ninth. The new one, which will be released by a triumvirate of labels, is named Order of Disgrace.

For those who might be encountering this band for the first time, it’s the solo endeavor of a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who is also a member of Hooded Menace, Horse Latitudes, Ride For Revenge, and Regere Sinister (among others), but Hail Conjurer seems to be his most personal project, and a vehicle he always goes back to.

As you can see, today we’re bringing you a song from the new album named “New Order,” presented through a video. But before we get to it, we’ll share a bit of info about the new album and how it compares to the last one. Continue reading »

MORAST: “FENTANYL”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Feb 112025
 

(Below you will find Wil Cifer‘s review of a new album by the German black metal band Morast, which was released last week by Ván Records.)

I have an odd relationship with Black Metal. If you asked me what my favorite sub-genre of metal is I would have to say Black Metal. The caveat here is certain types. This German band Morast certainly captures what my type is.

When most people think of Black Metal they think of blast beats, tremolo-picked guitar, and the production quality of a room mic in a dank dungeon. That is the sound that bores me to death. It also feels odd that a genre dedicated to misanthropy and non-conformity to mainstream metal trends would repeatedly follow a formula because “that’s how Black Metal should sound”.

Morast do a wonderful job capturing the needed worship of darkness and misery to make me smile — anguish as depressive black metal. Yet they paint a sonic picture of a junkie’s despair in a manner we have not seen done with this kind of authenticity since mid-2000s Nachtmystium. Continue reading »

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