Islander

OMINOUS RUIN: “REQUIEM”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 062025
 

(Below we present DGR‘s review of a new album by California-based Ominous Ruin in advance of its release this coming Friday by Willowtip Records.)

Is it possible for a band to do a complete lateral in their music and yet feel as if they are starting from the same spot they stepped away from? Bay Area tech-death group Ominous Ruin have been around a little over ten years now, yet it sure does feel like with their new album Requiem the group have stepped out to soft-relaunch themselves.

You’d almost never guess it based off the gap of close to four years between releases – and a lot can happen in four years, mind – but it’s as if the Ominous Ruin crew effectively never stopped. Instead, they just did a step to the side and started over again with about the same bar in quality that they established on their album Amidst Voices That Echo In Stone as the starting point. The result is interesting, less cross-pollination among three different subsections of the tome of death metal and instead a laser-like focus on one particular chapter, the tech-death section. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SERPENT CORPSE — “METEOR SUMMON”

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May 052025
 

(written by Islander)

“The Montreal band Serpent Corpse named themselves for a dead thing, and their brand of death metal does channel the stench of rot and ruin. But the great serpent brandished in their name still lives, a monstrous presence that will not be subdued, but finds an ally in death.”

That’s how we began introducing our last song premiere for Serpent Corpse two years ago, which helped pave the way for their debut album Blood Sabbath. And now we have the fiendish pleasure of premiering another Serpent Corpse song, this one from their new EP Retaliate, which will see release on June 27th via Transcending Obscurity Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AFFLICTION VECTOR — “NERO GORGO”

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May 052025
 

(written by Islander)

Today we have for you the second song released so far from Contra Hominem, the debut album from the Italian duo Affliction Vector that’s now set for release by Iron Bonehead Productions on June 6th.

But before we get to today’s song premiere, let’s consider the first song from the album that has already exploded into the surface world — “Ephemeral Lifeless“. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: A DEAD POEM, THE SUN’S JOURNEY THROUGH THE NIGHT, IRGA, GLYPH

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
May 042025
 

(written by Islander)

Today’s blackening of the sabbath will be shorter than usual. After finishing yesterday’s Seen and Heard column I did chores, then conversed for hours with a visitor to our home (a good friend from across the water in Seattle), then spent the late afternoon and evening watching a great baseball game at the local sports bar, then slept for 9 1/2 hours. And now I’ve got to leave home soon for another activity with friends.

So there’s the excuses. I know you didn’t need them. A shrink would make good money trying to diagnose why I feel the need to make them, and more money trying to figure out why I feel equally compelled to do these columns instead of fucking off like a normal un-churched person on Sunday mornings. Enjoy! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AZURE EMOTE, CHTHONIC, SKJOLDEN, TENEBRAE IN PERPETUUM, JOLIETTE, CWFEN

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 032025
 

(written by Islander)

It should be called “Bandcamp Week” instead of “Bandcamp Friday”. Every week ending in one of those Friday’s, including last week, tends to see a greater than usual volume of new-music releases, a reflection of the principle that “recency is primacy” when it comes to spending decisions. This “Bandcamp Week” phenomenon further complicates the preparation of these Saturday columns, but I’m still glad Bandcamp is continuing the tradition this year.

While I have your attention, I want to add a note about changes planned for NCS next week before we get to the new metal I picked for today. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: PUTRESCENT — “SPECTRAL SANCTUM”

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May 022025
 

(written by Islander)

The name chosen by Los Angeles based Putrescent is like a code word for aficionados of underground death metal. It sends morbid signals of ugly death and stinking decay, a foul vision of the rot that lies beyond life, and it leads us to expect music that manifests that malodorous decomposition.

But though the music of Putrescent is certainly capable of fulfilling all those expectations, it turns out to embrace darkness in savagely explosive ways as well, as you’re about to discover through our premiere of a song from their debut album — Darkness Embraced — in advance of its release on June 6th by Rotted Life Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HIBERNUM — “BELIAL (THE LORD OF THE EARTH)”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 022025
 

(written by Islander)

Hibernum arises again from the darkest depths of Croatia with its debut album Djavo set to see the shadowed light of day on May 15th in a co-release by Satanath Records (Georgia) and InsArt Records (UK).

The solo work of one Insanus, Hibernum first emerged in the early 2000s with a debut EP (Cold and Worse) divulged in 2003. Decades passed, and Hibernum surfaced again with a 2020 single that featured Knjaz (Zvijer, Sahrana) on vocals.

Now comes the Djavo album, and to help introduce it we’re premiering its second advance song, “Belial (The Lord Of The Earth)“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NIGHTFALL

 Interviews  No Responses »
May 022025
 

(Today Season of Mist is releasing the monumental 11th album by the Greek metal band Nightfall, with cover art by Eliran Kantor, and in anticipation of that Comrade Aleks conducted an extensive interview with founder and frontman Efthimis Karadimas. It is an excellent read, and we have it for you below.)

Nightfall was always one of those charismatic Greek bands that had its own identity despite all the changes in style. Once they were neck-deep into a rebellious seething stream of death and black metal, then they entered territories of doom and gothic metal. Always on the move, always searching. It’s not a surprise that Efthimis Karadimas (vocals, bass) is the only original hand of Nightfall who has stayed with his creature since the day it was born back in 1991.

However, the band returns with its eleventh album – Children of Eve – full of power and boiling artistic intention. This epic album carries on traditions of ancient Greek metal and keeps its grim identity untouched. However, I find it stupid to tell a lot of pompous words about the band, as we have Efthimis here, and this interview turned out to be a pretty in-depth one. So enjoy Nightfall. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CHAMBER OF MIRRORS — “SOUL OF SORROW”

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May 012025
 

(written by Islander)

For this premiere it’s probably best to cut to the chase and then come back and fill in necessary details.

What you’re about to hear is a non-stop storm of wholly engulfing sound, so typhonic in its power and intensity, and so fiery and furious, that it’s guaranteed to get listeners’ blood racing and lungs pumping hard.

Though it flies fast in its combination of gale-force and incendiary intensity, it is also more elaborate than you might be expecting from that preceding paragraph, and so it’s a head-spinner as well as a breath-taker — and it proves to be spellbinding too. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DÉTRESSE — “DIE RUHE TRÄGT”

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May 012025
 

(written by Islander)

The names of the people in Détresse should draw attention among ardent listeners of black metal whose appreciation for the art goes much deeper than merely skimming the big names at the surface:

Guitars + vocals: S.P. (Lebenssucht, Einst)
Bass: C.S. (Gevurah – live)
Drums: L.S. (Anomalie)

Well, initials rather than names, but with a bit of searching you can learn who they are. What these three have done together from their locations in Austria and Québec is manifested in a debut Détresse album named Pessimismes that will be released by Vendetta Records on May 17th. The words offered in preview on behalf of the label are worth sharing: Continue reading »

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