Islander

VACUOUS: “IN HIS BLOOD”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 032025
 

(Here we have Wil Cifer‘s review of the second album by the UK death metal band Vacuous, which is set for release on February 28th by Relapse Records.)

Death Metal continues to gain popularity with bands like Cannibal Corpse as festival headliners and playing arenas. Its aggressive release makes it perhaps the most fun of all metal sub-genres yet it is all too often stuck in its ’90s nostalgia. This leads to bands idolizing the Morbid Angel‘s and Obituary‘s of the past and not always pressing forward with fresh new sounds and songwriting that moves beyond the bounds of its double-driven and growled vocals.

The sophomore album of Vacuous, In His Blood, finds the band breaking out from the pack to create their niche and find their way without leaning too heavily on their influences. Sure, guttural vocals are the main narrative, but other anguished vocalizations are employed, to give the tormented-larynx approach more purpose, rather than an obligatory gurgle underlying the frantic din. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MNAJDRA, PLUTONIAN SHORE, PURE WRATH, SIVYJ YAR, SLEEP PARALYSIS, SVRM, UTHULLUN

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 022025
 

(written by Islander)

In both these Sunday columns and the more genre-scattered ones I do on Saturdays I tend to write about individual songs more than complete EPs or albums. That allows me to cover more ground, and to bring more bands and their forthcoming releases to people’s attention.

The downside is that lots of listeners don’t really put much weight on individual songs. They want to know about the complete record, maybe through a review or more likely by listening to all of it when that becomes possible.

I don’t have any way of knowing whether the pluses of my strategy outweigh the minuses, but I’m wedded to it for better or worse. Today’s column is a classic example of that, though I have included a trio of complete but short EPs in the mix. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MANTAR, BALMOG, JUODVARNIS, DARK MEDITATION, GRAVEWITCH, MESSA, MARES OF THRACE, IMPURITY

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Feb 012025
 


These are bathrooms I visited in Port Orchard, Washington

(written by Islander)

It’s been a hell of a week hasn’t it? More like a week from hell. The daily news has become a series of Hieronymus Bosch paintings, the ghastly ones whose details have frequently appeared on the cover of metal albums.

On the other hand, it’s been a heavenly week if you focus on the kind of music that typically makes its way into these Saturday roundups. So let’s forget about the news for now and move right to that!

MANTAR (Germany)

I’m never going to not rush to check out new music from Mantar. (Forgive the double-negative, I guess I haven’t completely forgotten about the news.) Especially when it’s prefaced by this kind of statement from guitarist/vocalist Hanno Klänhardt: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 22): LOSTRÉGOS, Ὁπλίτης (HOPLITES), CANTIQUE LÉPREUX, MEFITIS, BEEHIVE REVOLT

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 312025
 

(written by Islander)

It’s the last day of January and therefore I’ve reached the end of this list. It’s still likely that Andy Synn or DGR, or perhaps some other NCS writers, will chime in next week with songs I failed to include, but my work is done, other than compiling the usual wrap-up post listing all the songs in one place, with links to where they can be found.

Approaching the conclusion has increased the internal agonies. There are so many songs I didn’t want to leave out, so many difficult decisions to make, even with a list as long as this one turned out to be. That explains why there are five songs today instead of three or four.

As for why I grouped these five together, it’s because I decided to conclude with variants of black metal, which over time has become my favorite extreme genre. Maybe it’s because I listen to a lot of such variants in organizing my weekly SHADES OF BLACK column, but my list of candidates for this list has been heavy on the metallic black. These five have their own personalities, but I’ve found all of them exhilarating, memorable, and highly likely to spin your minds like a centrifuge.

I’ll save concluding thoughts about this list until the forthcoming wrap-up post. Onward to the music! Continue reading »

ACT OF IMPALEMENT: “PIERCING THE HEAVENS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 312025
 

(written by Islander)

The musical trajectory of Nashville’s Act of Impalement has been intriguing (and scary) to observe. Their 2018 debut album Perdition Cult (released by Unspeakable Axe) quickly proved they could pull off a whole lot of monstrous magic acts, veering from one parcel of extreme influences to another without losing their footing.

Their second album Infernal Ordinance (their first one on Caligari Records), was more focused, less likely than their debut to throw listeners off-balance but still packed with thrilling and chilling variations. As one writer put it, that album was “akin to a morbid melting pot of Cianide, Bolt Thrower, Prophecy of Doom, and Archgoat.”

And now we have Act of Impalement‘s third album Profane Alter on the way, again to be ushered toward us by Caligari Records. It’s introduced on behalf of the label with these reference points:

Though still drawing from the likes of Autopsy, Incantation, and of course Cianide, Act of Impalement‘s third album is a filthy & finely honed assault of bestial death metal, drawing more inspiration from the likes of Belgium’s Possession, Finland’s Belial, and ever more Archgoat.

What we have for you today is the second song to be disgorged from Profane Altar, the vividly and accurately named “Piercing the Heavens“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ATARAXIE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jan 312025
 


photo by Ben Redcatcity

(Last fall we had the privilege and pleasure of premiering and reviewing a full stream of Le Déclin, a new album by the veteran French band Ataraxie. Today it’s an equal pleasure to present an extremely interesting and topical interview by our Comrade Aleks with two founders and key members of the band.)

They’ve played extreme death-doom since 2000; they have three guitarists in the lineup; they are Ataraxie, and their fifth album Le Déclin was released in October 2024. The band demonstrate a high level of stability, as their new material consists of four tracks with a total duration around 80 minutes. It means that Ataraxie keep on holding to their old patterns and mix both slow and crushing funeral doom riffs with bloodthirsty death metal slaughter and merciless blast beasts. These elements help to make an emphasis on the band’s nihilistic manifest against the foulness of humanity corrupted to the core.

Honestly, it’s a familiar picture to Ataraxie’s fans, because its founders Jonathan Théry (bass, vocals), Pierre Sénécal (drums), and Frédéric Patte-Brasseur (guitars) are still here. And their companions Hugo Gaspar (guitars) and Julien Payan (guitars) aren’t rookies either; they’ve spread these bleak vibes of doom and damnation for the entire decade.

But these guys not only know how to perform such painful, agonizing music, but also how to represent it precisely in a verbal way. And in the end, this interview with Jonathan and Frédéric is something I’m proud of.

Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 21): FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, VITRIOL, DEFEATED SANITY, CONVULSING

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 302025
 

(written by Islander)

You can tell I’m getting close to the end. How can you tell? Because I expanded yesterday’s entry to four songs and am doing the same again here in Part 21 today. Unless I collapse from writer fatigue, tomorrow’s final episode will probably include five. I’m trying to cram in as many songs as I can before I hit the February wall that will abruptly halt this list.

The four I’ve grouped together today are all high-speed, high-octane, high-intensity onslaughts on the senses, and they’re all mind-benders of a high order too. Obviously, I also think they’re all contagious. For reasons you’ll see, this grouping will also especially please my comrade DGR.

One more installment left ahead for tomorrow, and 20 other Parts lined up behind us for you to explore if you haven’t already, and you can do that via this link. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EXORDIUM MORS — “OATH”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 302025
 

(written by Islander)

“After more than two decades of relentless chaos, the blackened legions of Exordium Mors return once again, forging their path with maniacal speed, blistering melody, reckless vitriol, and sheer violent brutality. Their sound is hammered with an iron fist, delivering ruthless, in-your-face hostility.”

That is how PR materials we’ve received begin to introduce Sworn To Heresy, a new EP by New Zealand’s Exordium Mors that will be loosed upon the world by Praetorian Sword Records on March 1st. The words are in line with this band’s dominant reputation, a reputation for discharging sounds of frenzy and ferocity. But that is only part of the Exordium Mors story, albeit a significant part.

To quote ourselves this time, from our premiere of the band’s last album As Legends Fade and Gods Die (2022), their music “moves at a dizzying, high-octane pace,” generating “storms of vitriol and volatility,” but it also interweaves “mood-changing melodies that are sinister and gloomy but also exotic and brazenly imperious,” as well as incorporating “wild soloing that reaches epic heights.” And it has proven to be multi-faceted (“every song is a kaleidoscopic adventure”) and executed with surgical precision.

To return to the PR materials for the new EP, they promise “a bold evolution” in the band’s sound as Exordium Mors enter their third decade. What does this mean… and is it cause for concern? Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 20): SINISTRO, MAN’S GIN, DEVIN TOWNSEND, YOVEL

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  2 Responses »
Jan 292025
 

(written by Islander)

When I picked the name for this blog in 2009 it was partly a joke and partly dead serious. A joke, because I made clear from the outset that some of my favorite metal bands included singing in their music; serious, because at the time I was annoyed by a budding trend among metalcore bands I liked to substitute fairly lame singing for yelling and snarling.

In the ensuing years we’ve written about many bands who have included singers, but it’s fair to say that they’ve been in a minority. Speaking only for myself, I still generally prefer extreme vocals in metal, and it still takes a special singing voice to overcome the prejudice.

In the case of all four songs that I’ve bundled together today, I thought the exception was well-earned, although I’m not sure you would agree that “singing” is the correct way to describe the vocals in the fourth song. Of course, I think all four songs are infectious too. (If you’re new to this series, you can find all the other songs on the list via this link.) Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SCARE — “CROWNED IN YELLOW”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 292025
 

(written by Islander)

The Québec City-based quartet who named themselves Scare pose a question in the title of their new album that seems quite relevant at an anxious time when humankind seems bent on devouring itself and the world through selfishness, greed, delusional paranoia, ignorance, and hatred: In The End, Was It Worth It?

It follows their debut LP from 2019, Not Dead Yet, Probably…, another title that also seems quite fitting for where we found ourselves then, and now, and their 2021 EP Congratulations On Your Death.

The band’s music has become increasingly interesting over time. It has a backbone of lead-weighted metallic hardcore, with the kind of sludgy punch that loosens teeth and vocals that can cause intracranial bleeding, but they’ve also revealed a talent for creating gripping, mood-changing, and even atmospheric melodies that get under the skin and stay there.

You’ll understand this for yourselves when you hear “Crowned In Yellow,” the immediately addictive song we’re premiering today, a song that’s at once supernatural, physically compulsive, and rabidly deranged — and yet also sounds like an anthem. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries