Islander

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SNØGG — “ABELOTH”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Dec 242017
 

 

There is something to be said for waiting until the year really is ended before making a year-end list. To take but one example, the EP we’re about to premiere (which could be called an album because of its length) is being released digitally tomorrow — the 25th of December, less than a week before 2017 is interred in the tomb of calendar time — and if I had already made a list of the year’s best EPs, I would have to revise it to make a place for Abeloth.

I admit that the learning phenomenon expressed as “recency is primacy” may have something to do with my reaction to this EP, which is the latest release by the Slovenian black metal duo Snøgg. But I suspect that if I had first heard it on January 1, 2017, I would still be revisiting it here in December — because it’s completely fascinating.

The compositional history of the song is also fascinating. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE… NEVERMORE SONGS

 Exceptions to the Rule  17 Responses »
Dec 232017
 

 

(Andy Synn wrote this installment of his occasional series about things that come in fives.)

As you’ll no doubt be aware, a little over a week ago saw the sudden and untimely demise of Sanctuary/ex-Nevermore vocalist Warrel Dane.

And while this is, assuredly, a heavy blow indeed for his friends and loved ones, it’s also a loss for the Metal scene as a whole, since I would contend that Dane was, without doubt, one of the most unique and distinctive singers (not to mention lyricists) of the past twenty years.

His death also means that the long hoped for Nevermore reunion will never happen and, even though there was some lingering bad blood between them, I’m sure that his ex-bandmates (Loomis, Sheppard, and Williams) must still be reeling from the shock of his passing.

So, having given things a little bit of time to settle (I didn’t want us to be accused of “cashing in” on his death, or anything like that) I’d like to present you with five of my favourite Nevermore songs, as a minor tribute to Warrel Dane and his remarkable voice. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PESTILENCE, ATARAXY, WHOREDOM RIFE, TALSUR, VIELIKAN, HOLYARROW

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Dec 222017
 

 

After a nearly two-week vacation in which I blogged very little, I returned to Seattle late last week and was promptly slammed by my fucking day job, unforeseen personal obligations, bad weather, and a whole bunch of NCS articles to write or edit, including the continuation of our LISTMANIA series, interviews, reviews, and a bunch of premieres. I can’t really say I need another vacation already… but I kind of do.

Anyway, I haven’t written one of these round-ups in 12 days, and I’m way behind in even listening to all the new songs that have appeared since my vacation began 19 days ago. I started working on this collection early this week but decided to include a couple of songs that have appeared more recently. I hope to do more catch-up round-ups this weekend, including a Sunday SHADES OF BLACK feature, because holidays don’t mean shit around here.

PESTILENCE

Roughly four and a half years after their last album, Pestilence will release a new one via Hammerheart Records named Hadeon, and earlier this week Hammerheart previewed the album with a single called “Multi Dimensional“. It didn’t take long for my NCS comrade TheMadIsraeli to send me an alert about the song, wth a positive message. Continue reading »

SHINING – “X: VARG UTAN FLOCK”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Dec 222017
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Sweden’s Shining, which will be released by Season of Mist on January 5, 2018.)

 

Wubalubadubdub! What up, my glip-glops?

That’s right, it’s time for another album of musical misery from everyone’s favourite alcoholic, misanthropic, existential nihilist Rick Sanchez Niklas Kvarforth and his merry band of Mortys… aka Shining! Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: WIL CIFER’S TOP 25 METAL ALBUMS OF 2017

 LISTMANIA 2017  8 Responses »
Dec 222017
 

 

(We present NCS contributor Wil Cifer’s selection of the Top 25 metal albums of 2017.)

 

Here’s my top 25 metal albums of 2017. Making these lists can send my OCD into a spiral, so I have learned to abandon my more complex methods of ranking them and leave it to what Last Fm said I listened to most. In some cases it didn’t feel right so I flipped entries around.

While I adhere to a pretty strict policy of not feeding the trolls, these lists can lead to a great deal of grumbling, so this time around I have included a brief blip explaining why one album ranked higher than the other.

In short these are MY Top 25 Albums of 2017, so if your name is not Wilhelm Satanchild Cifer, then I don’t really care what you think, but feel free to share your thoughts any way since this is the internet. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: SONIC POISON — “COMBAT GRIND”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 212017
 

 

It’s fair to say that Caligari Records has had a banner fucking year in 2017, releasing extremely well-received albums and EPs by such bands as Rope Sect, Boia, Devoid of Thought, Ziggurat, Shaman Ritual, Uttertomb, Funeralium, and Amnutseba (among others). But the year isn’t (quite) over yet, and Caligari has one more release for us, one that will help bring the year to an end in a pile of smoking rubble. And that one last release is the second EP by the Finnish grinders Sonic Poison, which it’s our pleasure to premiere on its release date — which is today!

Entitled Combat Grind, this is Sonic Poison’s second release, following their 2016 debut (also released by Caligari), Harsh Demonstration…, and it reveals the work of a band who have surged ahead to new heights of mauling destructiveness. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2017: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JOSEPH SCHAFER — PART II

 LISTMANIA 2017  9 Responses »
Dec 212017
 

 

(Joseph Schafer, the ex-editor of Invisible Oranges and current writer for Decibel, was one of this site’s earliest regular writers under the pseudonym BadWolf and has been a steadfast friend of all of us ever since. This week he returns to NCS once again with a year-end list. This year it comes in two parts. In this Part 2, Joseph lists his Top 10 albums of 2017. Yesterday’s Part 1 (here) named 25 albums that narrowly missed his top slots.)

 

Picking a ranked selection of ten records to represent the best metal in 2017 presented an unusual challenge. As I outlined in my previous list of runners-up, narrowing in on a single trend or trajectory of the genre proved untenable. Of course, metal globally is at what seems like peak production. Literally every week of the year produced at least one record in the genre worth revisiting.

Moreover, focusing on anything, least of all music, seemed difficult. Much of this has to do with the trouble international and domestic political climate. How are we supposed to appreciate the nuanced aesthetics of a record when for a while there every morning news update seemed like a potential nuclear air raid siren. Metal ought to comment on and illuminate these affairs. At least the best metal of the ’80s and ’90s accomplished that feat while delivering great tunes as well.

Instead, metal seems unable to agree on what its own identity is. Instead of the music reflecting the world at large, the culture around that music exhibits the same symptoms of our global culture’s disease. Partisan dogfighting. An unwillingness to think beyond the short term. A total breakdown in shared moral consideration. Fuck picking a record, how are we supposed to pick one problem to fix first? Or at least to write a song about? Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MICHAEL ERDODY (ACID WITCH / TEMPLE OF VOID)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Dec 212017
 

 

(Comrade Aleks brings us one more interview for 2017, and it’s a big one — an extensive discussion with Detroit-based vocalist/guitarist Michael Erdody, who is a key part of two distincive bands who released excellent albums this year — Acid Witch and Temple of Void.)

 

Michael Erdody is a perfect interlocutor. He plays in a bunch of bands, including two outfits which represent the stronger side of US extreme doom bands and has a lot to tell.

In 2010 he joined a lunatic psychedelic death doom carnival known as Acid Witch; he plays guitar with these monsters, and the release of the band’s third full-length Evil Sound Screamers on October 31st was a big event in the underground metal scene. Besides that, since 2013 he has run the bloodthirsty Temple Of Void, who are well-known for their uncompromising and aggressive death doom works; Michael is responsible for growls in the Temple, and their sophomore album appeared a few months ago on Shadow Kingdom Records.

I’ve tried to shoot two hares with one round and asked Michael about both bands. It took some time but I’m glad to say that he provided answers patiently and in detail. Continue reading »

BLASTEROID: “UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 212017
 

 

(Andy Synn prepared this review of the new EP by Blasteroid from Athens, Greece.)

 

List season may be over (for me at least), but that doesn’t mean it’s time to stop covering new music, so you can expect to see a bevy of new reviews – some from 2017, some from 2018 – popping up here and there over the next couple of weeks.

And what better way to begin than with the debut EP by progressive Tech Death fret-wizards Blasteroid – a band with simultaneously the greatest and worst name of any band ever. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PERPETRATÖR — “ALTAR OF THE SKULL”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Dec 202017
 

 

André Coelho has done a fine job rendering the artwork for Altered Beast, the forthcoming second album by the Portuguese thrash marauders in Perpetratör, which will be released by Caverna Abismal Records on January 31. The cover art captures both the entirely appropriate title of the album and also a sense of the music’s own rampaging ferocity.

However, although the music has the kind of wild and berserk energy as those mutant barbarians depicted on the cover, it’s fiendishly clever music as well — as catchy as chlamydia and executed with razor-sharp skill. And you’ll see what we mean when you kneel before “Altar of the Skull“, which is the song from Altered Beast we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

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