Islander

OBSCURITIES VOL. XII: THE SEASON OF THE LIST

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Dec 132024
 

(Daniel Barkasi is back with us again, this time providing reviews of eight recommended albums of varying style that were released in November 2024.)

No, we’re not talking about Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and we certainly won’t be seeing any odd witch masks with a piece of Stonehenge in them. That movie is rough, but also strangely entertaining. It was better than almost all of the subsequent Halloween sequels that came after, though that isn’t saying much, is it? Now that infernal Silver Shamrock song is stuck in my head. Go ahead and click on that link. Now it’s in your head, too.

Halloween has long since passed, and now also Thanksgiving being in the rearview – and a huge thank you to our awesome KevinP for having the wife and myself over. Seeing him and his awesome family on Thanksgiving has become a tradition for us, and one we’re incredibly thankful for. Certainly hope there were some good times with good people, whether you celebrate the holiday or not.

The sheer volume of releases the last few years has been staggering, with 2024 being no exception. Sometimes it’s an overwhelming circumstance, however, as we don’t want to miss much, so there are plenty of long listening sessions. It’s impossible to not miss releases, and once we get into next year, there will always be some that we can hardly believe evaded our ears by perusing the many lists out there. Especially the many lists that’ll be present on this fine site – Andy Synn is on a roll, and he always unearths plenty of gems. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HARKANE — “ARGO”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 122024
 

(written by Islander)

When I was a very young lad my mother gave me an illustrated book of Greek myths. One of the tales that especially captivated me was the legend of Jason and the Argoanuts’ quest for the Golden Fleece. Later, I was equally captivated by the classic film Jason and the Argonauts, which featured stop-motion animation visual effects by the great Ray Harryhausen.

I didn’t know then, and only learned recently thanks to the Italian band Harkane, that the principle source material for this legend was an epic Greek poem, The Argonautica, written in the third century BC by Apollonius Rhodius, who served as a scholar and librarian at the great Library of Alexandria.

I learned this because Harkane have made an ambitious concept album entitled Argo, soon to be released by the Dusktone label, that itself narrates this epic adventure, with express credit given to Appollonius. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THE GREAT OLD ONES

 Interviews  No Responses »
Dec 122024
 


Photos by ©Daphnea Doto / Solweig Wood

(We proudly present Comrade Aleks‘ excellent interview with Benjamin Guerry from the French band The Great Old Ones, whose new album is set for release in January by Season of Mist.)

As you noticed, there were almost zero interviews with Lovecraft-influenced bands in the previous two months. Hard times for those who follow the Cult, indeed! But the patient ones will be rewarded, as Season of Mist proclaimed that the fifth release of French black metal heroes The Great Old Ones, Kadath, will be released on January 24th!

Fifteen years of boiling activity, four full-length albums behind, a damn lot of live rituals served – the band has solid luggage and this entire experience was reworked and channeled through a concept album based on Lovercaft’s most psychedelic and bizarre Dream Cycle.

Benjamin Guerry (guitars, vocals) is the only founding member who stood at the dawn of The Great Old Ones and who remains its mastermind; it was sheer luck that we’ve caught him and got the interview done in the most operative way. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: BANDCAMP DAILY’S “THE BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2024”

 LISTMANIA 2024  4 Responses »
Dec 112024
 

(written by Islander)

Reading year-end lists that someone other than you made tend to provoke mixed feelings of validation, perplexity (which sometimes verges into anger), and discovery. The opportunity for discovery is the main reason we here at NCS devote so much space to our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza, even though we know those other feelings will also be in the mix of reactions. The list we’re re-publishing from Bandcamp Daily will probably be no different in any of these respects.

Bandcamp, of course, has become a vital platform for the digital release of music of all stripes (and physical merchandise as well) since its founding in 2007. Bandcamp used to release an annual compilation of performance statistics, but I haven’t found a similar report since the one they released for 2017. However, the main Bandcamp page today reports that “Fans have paid artists $1.42 billion using Bandcamp, and $194 million in the last year.”

Those are staggering totals, and some part of those enormous sums has been the result of Bandcamp’s laudable decision to continue the monthly tradition of “Bandcamp Fridays” that they began during the height of the pandemic. The last of those for 2024 occurred last week. We won’t know for a while whether it will be continued in 2025. It better be, or else! Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: STEREOGUM’S 10 BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2024

 LISTMANIA 2024  3 Responses »
Dec 112024
 

(written by Islander)

This is a tough list to share, not because it’s a bad list but because it’s the swan song of the Black Market column, which has been running at Stereogum on a monthly basis since February 2013. As the kids used to say, I has the sads about this news. Well, but let’s back up a bit, for those who might be unfamiliar with that now-defunct institution.

Stereogum easily qualifies as one of the “big platform” web sites whose year-end lists of metal we perennially include in our LISTMANIA series. Of course, the site appeals to an audience of music fans much larger than devoted metalheads, but its staff has included a talented and tasteful (though gradually dwindling) group of metal writers who have been responsible for the site’s monthly The Black Market column.

I’ve always looked forward to Stereogum‘s annual metal list prepared by the Black Market writers. The one for 2024 came out on Monday of this week. As usual it consists of only 10 entries, with accompanying reviews of the choices by Ian Chainey, Michael Nelson, Doug Moore, Wyatt Marshall.

The list feature also includes a retrospective about the column by Ian Chainey, and an entertaining but also poignant interview of all those old-timer writers listed above.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DRUON ANTIGON – “OFFER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 112024
 

On November 29th of this year Consouling Sounds released Het Donkere Volmaakte Al, the compelling second album by the Belgian solo project Druon Antigon, a musical outlet for Lennart Janssen (who has also been one of the creative forces in Thermohaline). Here is the label’s evocative description of the album (or it might be Janssen‘s):

The new full-length Het Donkere Volmaakte Al (translating to both ‘The Dark Perfect Universe’ and ‘The Dark Perfected All’) aims to reflect that which lies beyond our own bubble of breathable air. Vast, majestic and beautiful. Uncaring, dark and inhospitable. A perfect and unchangeable system in which humanity is but an accidental stowaway. A clockwork of which the workings and origins are still largely a matter of speculation. Hic sunt dracones.

To help spread the word about the album, today we’re premiering a gripping video for a stunning song off the album named “Offer“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DRAIN DEATH — “SACRIFICE MASTE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 102024
 

(written by Islander)

With chills and thrills galore, we welcome to our pages the Indonesian band Drain Death. A duo formed in the Yogyakarta region in early 2022, and with a three-song demo released that same year, they bring a mixture of old school death metal and crust punk, indirectly influenced by Nihilist, Nirvana 2002, and Autopsy, as well as Bombandfall, Anti Cimex, and Bastard Priest.

Early next year (a precise release date hasn’t yet been set), Drain Death will have their debut album Merciless Of Doom released in different formats by a quartet of international labels, and to help spread the word we’re today premiering a chilling and also electrifying album track named “Sacrifice Maste.” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: URFEIND — “WEAVING THE ABYSS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 102024
 

(written by Islander)

On January 10th of the impending new year Nine to Zero Productions will release Dauþalaikaz, the third album by the German black metal entity Urfeind. It includes re-recorded versions of the four songs present on the band’s 2021 EP Wraiþaz, preceded by five other new songs.

Through previous releases Urfeind has established its thematic connections to dark Germanic heathenism, misanthropy, and Anti-Cosmic Philosophy, interests that also seem to be reflected in the band’s very name, bearing in mind that “Ur-” is a German and Nordic prefix (or combining form) that refers to a primeval and primal stage of a phenomenon, the earliest stage, and in this case it’s combined with the German word “feind” — meaning “enemy”.

Well, to be clear, those are our own speculations about the significance of the band’s name, but they’re supported by the experience of the album track we’re premiering today. “Weaving the Abyss” is indeed primeval (and deeply chilling) in its atmosphere. It may also seem primitive in its construction — but only at first, because the music subtly but ingeniously and powerfully evolves, and it seamlessly morphs the mood as it does. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BECERUS

 Interviews  No Responses »
Dec 092024
 

(On December 20th Everlasting Spew will release the second album by the Italian death metal band Becerus, and in anticipation of that event our contributor Zoltar conducted the following highly entertaining interview with Becerus guitarist Giorgio Trombino.)

Granted, death metal can be smart. But you can add as many lengthy lyrics and concepts about quantum physics or ancient philosophy as you want, and at the end of the day, nothing beats good ol’ in-your-face and fuck-good-taste death freakin’ metal, innit?

To those willing to go back to the stone age, Becerus would be more than happy to provide the soundtrack to your journey while banging two stones together. Three years ago, their debut Homo Homini Brutus proved to be one of those guilty pleasures for anybody looking for that kind of US thrash-infused early ’90s inspired death metal à la Broken Hope, full of palm-muting riffs and sudden blasts which don’t even pretend to be looking for an excuse to practice what they preach.

Although ‘preach’ might not be the most fitting word here as their first album bore a massive ‘no fucking lyrics’ stamped all over its inside booklet, with Balatonizer vocalist Mario Musumeci using his larynx as an actual instrument to convey strange, menacing sounds instead of delivering a so-called message.

Unsurprisingly, due on December 20th in the ever-reliable Everlasting Spew imprint, their new album Troglodyte – whose title song premiered on NCS last October – is as ruthless and savage, yet not short of rhythmic left turns and groove either. Proof that those Sicilians may not be as caveman-like as they want you to believe, even if guitarist Giorgio Trombino, former Haemophagus and Morbo and now steering both Assumption and Bottomless, enjoys covering his tracks and fucking around… Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: LYSERGIC — “OF RAGE AND POWER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 092024
 

Lysergic is a relatively new band, but its members aren’t newcomers. It’s the long-gestating brainchild of Portuguese guitarist João Corceiro, whose experience includes bands like W.A.K.O., Okkultist, Allamedah, and more. In Lysergic he’s joined by other talented and experienced performers whose names we’ll give you below.

The band’s debut album is named Black and Blue, and it’s set for release on January 27, 2025. We’re told that it “was written, recorded and mixed entirely alone by João Corceiro silently over the last decade, and can be considered an autobiography in the form of music and poetry.”

One song from the album, which shares the name of the band, was released with an excellent video a couple of months ago, and today we’re happy to premiere another excellent video for another compelling album track, this one called “Of Rage and Power.” Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries