Islander

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 16): PAYSAGE D’HIVER, MERRIMACK, AKVAN

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Jan 232025
 

(written by Islander)

The unifying theme that explains the grouping of today’s three selections for this list is… black metal… but although they all fit under that large and ever-expanding genre tent, each is quite different from the others.

To explore the songs laid out in the preceding 15 Parts of the list, go here.

PAYSAGE D’HIVER

In Part 6 of this list I included a song by Calcarata that I was confident was the longest song I’ve ever picked for one of these lists in the 16 years I’ve been doing them. That song was 17 minutes long. But today I’m starting with one that’s even longer, the 18+ minute opening track from Paysage D’Hiver‘s monumental 2024 album Die Berge. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OOBRIS IOS — “DOSTRATIS SATOD DUVON XAGAN”

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Jan 232025
 

(written by Islander)

Many people, including people at this site (witness these six articles going back to 2015), have had many good things to say about the music of the Canadian atmospheric black metal band Wilt, and that is reason enough to pay attention to Vospat, the forthcoming debut EP of Oobris Ios, because its three-person lineup includes two members of Wilt. Those two people are vocalist Jordan Dorge and drummer Jordan Sanderson, and the third member is guitarist/bassist Ryan Forsyth (from the death metal band Dissolution, among others).

It’s fair to say that Oobris Ios represents a departure (perhaps fair to say an experimental departure) from the members’ previous bands. Among other things, the songs on Vospat represent the telling of a dire and daunting science-fictional or fantastical narrative, related to us in an ancient alien language but prefaced in English this way:

Before light, there was darkness. Almost 14 billion years ago, the entity known as the singularity was slain, and its followers scattered across what is now known as the universe. Their chants within the dark matter echo in the light, constantly trying to diminish its power. Oobris Ios is the dimensional reverberation that those in the light can hear. Bring hate. Bring the dark out of the light and extinguish it once and for all. Continue reading »

CONCRETE ICON: “VORACIOUS STREAMS”

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Jan 232025
 

(Our Norway-based contributor Chile has brought us (and you) the following review of a new album by Finland’s Concrete Icon, released just a few days ago by Memento Mori and Fetzner Death Records.)

Maybe the dark, frozen months of the winter and the thick snow cover are not the right time to think about the reasons why there are not more death metal records played at the summer barbecue parties, but here we are. Just think about it, for it’s a perfect match-up, as both deal in the themes of dead, carved tissue, the eternal flames of charred remains, and the cult-like gatherings around those very flames, and are normally a whole lot of fun. Now only to find the place where this idea falls on fertile ground.

Not trying very hard, we turn our gaze towards Finland, the most metal-bands-per-capita country in the world, so if you’re going to make it anywhere, you can make it there with these random ideas. Anyway, all of this brings us today to our guests in Concrete Icon who, you might have guessed it, are indeed Finnish and play death metal. As if the spiky band logo and the toxic, green-tinged cover art by the brilliant Juanjo Castellano didn’t inform you enough, then heed these words. It really is a death metal album through and through. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 15): KANONENFIEBER, BLOODCROSS, DARKENED

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Jan 222025
 

(written by Islander)

Continuing on with my plan to group songs in most of the remaining installments of this list in ways that make sense to me, today’s Part 15 includes three tracks from three very good 2024 albums that are highly propulsive, and all of them would fit into my weekly SHADES OF BLACK column, even though the last band is usually classified as death metal.

Also, all three album covers gives places of prominence to… skeletons.

The albums that house these songs are also records from which I easily could have picked different tracks for the list, which is one reason (among others) why they were so good. So I won’t be surprised if any of you would have made other picks; on a different day, I might have too.

To explore the songs in the previous 14 Parts of the list, use this link. Continue reading »

THE HALO EFFECT: “MARCH OF THE UNHEARD”

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Jan 222025
 

(Not long ago Nuclear Blast released the second album by the Swedish melodic death metal band The Halo Effect, and today we have DGR‘s review of the record.)

We are now a couple weeks removed from the release of The Halo Effect‘s newest album March Of The Unheard and the one thought that keeps rattling around the ole’ brainpan is a discussion of what exactly you might come to music for.

This can seem repetitive of course because everyone has a chosen purpose that music might fulfill for them, whether it’s simple enjoyment or some deeper resonance with the artist. I am more often part of the second club, which is why you’ll see many screeds penned that spend more time pontificating about why a specific piece of art might have arisen versus the actual general quality of it. Yet in the case of a group like The Halo Effect I’ve found myself firmly in the former camp.

When it comes to The Halo Effect, I’m not seeking anything deeper and I’m present for the simple enjoyment of whatever the band are creating, and it seems that largely, the band feel the same way. There’s nothing deeper here. No inner quest, nothing revealing itself, and no long-lasting message with which we can walk away from March Of The Unheard feeling fulfilled, with our lives changed. March Of The Unheard is musical red-meat at its finest and, for lack of better term, a perfectly fine ‘pop’ album. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SACRIFICE

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Jan 222025
 


photo by Kelly Clark Fotography

(On February 21st Cursed Blessings Records and High Roller Records will release Volume Six, a new album by the ’80s-era Canadian thrash metal band Sacrifice — their first one in 16 years and with their original lineup intact. Yesterday we published Wil Cifer’s review, and today we bring you Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Sacrifice vocalist/guitarist Rob Urbinati.)

It’s always cool to know that there are veterans of the metal scene who keeps its fire burning, who are able to give it hot and strong. Sacrifice is one such band.

They started in 1984 as one of the first Canadian thrash/speed bands and evolving at the same time as bands like Anvil, Exciter, and Razor did. Torment in Fire (1986), Forward to Termination (1987), Soldiers of Misfortune (1990), and Apocalypse Inside (1993) left their impact on the world’s scene, but Sacrifice disbanded in 1993 on the peak of their activity, as one may say.

The band returned in 2006 in its original lineup, and they keep on rocking until today. Scott Watts (bass), Joe Rico (guitars), Gus Pynn (drums), and Rob Urbinati (guitars, vocals) haven’t forgotten how to do aggressive, technical, and highly tense metal. Their new album Volume Six easily proves it, as well as this interview. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 14): BRODEQUIN, WORMED, KONKHRA

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Jan 212025
 

In yesterday’s installment of this list I mentioned that I had a certain logic or organizing principle in mind when I grouped songs together in most of the remaining Parts of the list. Today’s feature is evidence of that.

All three of today’s songs are brutalizing experiences, but they’re also head-spinners, especially the first two. And both of those aspects are key reasons why I think the songs turned out to be infectious.

For those of you who might be stumbling into this list for the first time, you can find the preceding 13 installments via this link. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MALACATH — “A HYMN FOR THE HARVEST”

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Jan 212025
 

(written by Islander)

In February Eternal Death will release the fifth album by the New England black metal band Malacath, which began as the solo project of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Lykos but has been a two-piece of Lykos and drummer Hiraeth for most of Malacath‘s discography. (Both members have been involved in many other bands, including their collaboration in Angel Morgue.)

The new album, Eternal Roar of the Thunder and Rain, brings us four substantial songs ranging in length from 10 minutes to more than 16, followed by a relatively brief acoustic closer (“Eleusis”). What we have for you today is the premiere of one of the long ones, an astonishing epic named “A Hymn for the Harvest.” Continue reading »

SACRIFICE: “VOLUME SIX”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jan 212025
 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of a new album by the ’80s-era Canadian thrash metal band Sacrifice, their first one in 16 years and with their original lineup intact. It will be released on February 21st by Cursed Blessings Records.)

Thrash is a metal subgenre perhaps most shackled to a golden era that reached its peak in 1990 with albums like Seasons in the Abyss and Rust in Peace. Death metal gained prominence and bands either doubled down and got heavier to keep up or veered off to follow the ’90s alternative sound. The Canadian thrash band Sacrifice has been kicking it since the ’80s but never caught on to gain the cult status of a band like Voivod. They have however changed with the times on for their 6th album, which finds them sharing sonic ground with bands like Power Trip, who blended hardcore sounds with the thrash of the past.

If you were to listen back to the 1986 album Torment in Fire, while it captures the energy of that time, the guitar tones are a little dated, so the current production value plays to their benefit and breathes new life into what they do. This band is not jumping on a bandwagon to be relevant, but staying true to what they do while packing a suitable song punch, rather than digging up their pedal board from the ’80s to cash in on nostalgia for 1986. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 13): HIPPOTRAKTOR, TEN TON SLUG, IHSAHN

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 202025
 

(written by Islander)

Welcome to the lucky 13th Part of this list. In line with my original plan of posting a new installment every weekday until January expires, I now have 9 Parts left to go. Out of line with previous years’ lists, I’ve already planned which songs to include in each of those remaining Parts, though I suspect I’ll still make revisions because my brain won’t stay still and it’s so fucking difficult to stare at all the worthy songs I haven’t made room for.

As for today’s installment (and most of the ones still to come), I have grouped the songs together because they include certain stylistic ingredients that I thought would fit them together well. But you’ll be the judge of that, of course. To see the songs in the preceding 12 Parts, use this link. Continue reading »

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