Islander

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MONOLITHE

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Jan 062025
 

(Last November Hammerheart Records released the fantastic tenth album by the ever-intriguing French band Monolithe, and that led our Comrade Aleks into an interview with the band’s new vocalist/guitarist Quentin Verdier — a very good one that you’ll find below.)

The Parisian long-running doom band Monolithe continues its mission to explore the boundaries of the genre and this time they’ve turned to the theme of futuristic noir. They have already recorded a series of albums loosely based on the work of Stanley Kubrick, the Soviet cosmic program, and their own fantasies. Now they approach the cultural and philosophical legacy of Blade Runner and The Matrix.

Monolithe’s lineup went through some changes shortly before the album’s recording, but the founding members Sylvain Begot (guitars, keyboards, programming) and Benoit Blin (guitar) are still at the helm. Their tenth full-length Black Hole District ​​consists of ten tracks: five instrumentals exactly one minute each interspersed with five ten-minute long compositions. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 3): HIGH ON FIRE, MANDROID OF KRYPTON, ACID MAGUS

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Jan 062025
 

(written by Islander)

On behalf of all of us here, we wish you a Happy Monday. Actually, that’s mainly wishful thinking. Some of my colleagues may hope your Monday is as miserable as theirs is. But either way, we hope to make you happier with the following Part 3 of the ongoing Most Infectious Song list. (To see the other Parts and to understand what this list is about, go here.)

HIGH ON FIRE

I was immediately floored ten months ago by the video directed by Lars Kristoffer Hormander for High On Fire‘s “Burning Down.” Back then I couldn’t find any details about how he made it, and I haven’t looked for details since then, but it’s still just fucking stunning to watch it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VINTRAS — “IN DEATH’S DREAM”

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Jan 062025
 

The old adage is true: Misery does love company, especially when the company is as powerfully talented as the UK post-black metal band who call themselves Vintras. But even listeners who are happily basking in brightness will be gripped by how well Vintras shatter all rose-colored glasses.

The band’s debut album Timescarred will be co-released in late March by Void Wanderer Productions and War Productions. They have presented an eloquent statement about the grim perspectives that inspired the music: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SKALDR, STELLAR FOREST, JZOVCE, SPECTRAL LORE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jan 052025
 

I had a decision to make that I knew would have a significant impact on how many new releases I could cover in this Sunday column. That decision is discussed in the intro to today’s last item. I made the decision in a way that forced me to cut down the total, and leaves a lot of other songs buzzing in the back of my head as if clamoring for the attention I didn’t give them.

But I better truncate this opening verbiage before I have to further truncate the selections. In short, I’m beginning with three singles, and then moving to a very long demo at the end.

SKALDR (U.S.)

The first single today is a song from this Virginia band’s new album Saṃsṛ (their second full-length overall). I’ve been meaning to include it in one of these columns for weeks, but one thing or another has kept delaying the follow-through on my intentions. The song’s name is “The Crossing.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SABHANKRA, ANDE, HOLY DEATH, MEGATON COMMUNION, CRACKWHÖRE, GASH FAITH, THE FALL OF MOTHER EARTH, ЧЕРНОПЛОДЬ

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jan 042025
 

 

We’ve reached the end of a long holiday period and that left me feeling glum last night, morose over the realization that the rat race will resume on Monday. I felt much better after going through a big batch of songs I wanted to consider for this Saturday roundup.

Apart from enjoying the music, I’m enjoying the idea of how wobbly these eight selections will leave people who make it through all of them; there are many twists and turns along the way.

I arranged the choices in four two-band blocks. This doesn’t mean the selections in each part sound alike, but I did perceive some connections, except in the final two. Those two are together at the end only because I didn’t want to leave them out. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 2): ALTA ROSSA, CANDY, BLACKEVIL

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Jan 032025
 

(written by Islander)

Welcome to Part 2 of this list of 2024’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. If you’ve stumbled across this for the first time today and have no idea what I’m doing, you could take a look at the introductory verbiage in Part 1. But today I’m just going to get right into the next three selections without delay, each one radically different from the others.

ALTA ROSSA

Alta Rossa‘s A Defiant Curse hit fairly late in the year, near the end of November, and Andy jumped on it fast. In his review he wrote:

“Dealing in a form of Sludge/Post-Metal that errs more towards the Hardcore-inspired end of the spectrum – think LLNN, Herod, and early The Ocean (i.e. when the band were at their best… yeah, I said it) – Alta Rossa hit hard and refuse to pull their punches…. As punchy and pugilistic as the band’s sound is, however (and there’s no question that Alta Rossa came ready to fight), it’s also brimming with dark, desolate atmosphere…. those who connect with this album will be in for one hell of a ride, equal parts primal, gut-level impact and deeper, darker soul-scarring slow-burn.”

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VOMITRISTE — “VOID SERMON”

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Jan 032025
 

(written by Islander)

We are about to premiere a surreal video for a track from a new album fittingly named Black Abyss Invocation by the enigmatic Finnish duo known as Vomitriste. Set for co-release later this month by Roman Numeral and Machine Tribe Recordings, it represents a horrifying new chapter in the band’s creative impulses.

What they’ve done before consists of six albums, which Vomitriste have recently released as a compilation called Droneworks (2022-2024). As that collective title suggests, the music could be (too simplistically) summed up as an amalgam of “colossal, noisy drones and profound dark ambient.” But what they’ve done on Black Abyss Invocation leaves that behind and makes a new start.

The change was unexpected even to the band. They say the new creations, which were created in a single session overnight, left them “perplexed” as they opened their minds and accidentally stumbled across new methods of expression. Here’s how they explain it: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NAKED WHIPPER — “DEPRAVED TO THE BONE”

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Jan 032025
 

(written by Islander)

I don’t think I’d heard of Naked Whipper until Neill Jameson mentioned their forthcoming album not once but twice in his year-end articles at NCS, as something to look forward to in January. He made the same observations on social media. Just about every time, he included exclamation points. I began to think that was part of their actual name: “Naked Whipper(!)”

And then serendipitously we got asked to host this premiere. Sadly, I discovered that exclamation points aren’t part of their official name. Happily, I discovered why Neill was always adding that punctuation.

One reason is that their new album, Chapel Defilement, is the band’s first release of any kind since 1995, so there’s the surprise that comes from thinking something’s dead and dusted and then suddenly seeing it breathe again. But there’s another reason, which you’re about to discover. Continue reading »

TWO MORE FOR 2024: FRONTIERER AND SACRAMENTO

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Jan 032025
 

(Though we’ve turned the corner into 2025, DGR has a couple more records from 2024 he wants to recommend, through the reviews below.)

Ah, it’s the most wonderful time of a website’s year. That brief breather where we get to both get started on stuff coming out in 2025 and kick ourselves in the shins over stuff we missed over the course of the previous year – usually in about equal measure.

It is imagined then, that I shall not be the only one with a few demons still resting on my shoulders that I felt compelled to acknowledge before fully launching myself into the inevitable shitshow that will be the new year. This time around, I’ve managed to dig up two more – one which saw very late release at the end of the year and another that I am in awe I did not come across during my many bandcamp and youtube music rabbit hole tumbles.

So, I shall attempt at the very least to see that they get some sort of spotlight here lest the guilt overwhelm me to the point where I become locked in a paralysis unknown to man up to this time. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 1): DARKTHRONE, CRYPT SERMON, DÖDSRIT

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 022025
 

(written by Islander)

I wasn’t able to make this list last year due to the rude demands of my day job. Especially because of that, I’ll repeat some things I’ve written in the past about this final part of our annual LISTMANIA orgy:

This particular series isn’t about best albums or best shorter releases, and it isn’t even about best songs. As the title says, it’s about “most infectious” songs. Some of those might be among the year’s best songs, but in every year there are stand-out songs that aren’t immediately infectious, and actually might never be. Conversely, there are some highly infectious songs every year that most people wouldn’t critically acclaim as great works of art.

The process of compiling this list, as in every previous year, is a bit bizarre, or at least very poorly planned. Let me explain: Continue reading »

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