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LISTMANIA 2015: WIL CIFER’S TOP 10 DEATH METAL ALBUMS OF 2015

 LISTMANIA 2015  2 Responses »
Dec 292015
 

VEHEMENCE_FORWARD_WITHOUT_MOTION_COVER_HI_RES

 

(Here’s Part 3 of Wil Cifer’s five-part year-end list. Parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here.)

While death metal doesn’t get as much air time with me, I am no stranger to the genre, having bought my first death metal album Leprosy in 1988. From there Morbid Angel and Deicide would become my favorite death metal bands, with Incantation, Obituary, Cancer, Nocturnus, and Unleashed picking up the slack. As with all things, the darker the better, so that will factor in as we leave no grave unturned and dig into the best of 2015.

This list is going to touch on every aspect of the genre, sometimes getting so melodic I had to question if they were death metal and then give the album another listen to ease my doubts. There was not one sub-genre or genre that dominated this year. Though I tend to lean more toward the doomier and more blackened side, we still have more traditional, tech, and experimental death metal bands making good showings. So here are my top ten death metal albums, ranked according to which ones got the most rotation on my iPod.

10. Vehemence – “Forward Without Motion”

Certainly could have stood to listen to this one more, but I suppose I’m not always in need of this much shredding mixed in with my death metal. It was a guitar player’s album for sure. The drummer was no slouch either, but the focus is more on the sweep arpeggios. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2015’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 5)

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2015  9 Responses »
Dec 282015
 

Altars of Grief Side B

 

Welcome to Part 5 of our list of Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs for this year, as selected by me and only me from the massive list of candidates received from numerous sources, as well as my own notes haphazardly created as the year rolled along. To learn about the selection criteria and to discover the songs that have already been named to the list, go HERE.

For each of the first four installments in this series I included three songs, grouped together because they seemed to go well together. And I’ve done the same thing with this installment, though beginning tomorrow I plan to drop down to two songs per post.

ALTARS OF GRIEF

In June we had the pleasure of premiering for you a fantastic track named “In Dying Light” by the Canadian band Altars of Grief. It appeared on a split release entitled Of Ash and Dying Light that also included excellent tracks by the band Nachtterror. I’ve been a huge fan of the song ever since and never had any doubt about including it on this list. Continue reading »

FLESHGOD APOCLAYPSE: “THE FOOL”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Dec 282015
 

fleshgod-apocalypse-the-fool

 

We have been waiting, not so patiently, for the first music from King, the fourth studio album by Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse, and now we have it. The name of the song is “Fool“, and it will be individually released as a digital single on January 1.

It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge fan of this band for years, and am therefore probably predisposed to like whatever they do next. But having made that confession, I’m really digging this new song. It’s fast, furious, and bombastic, with touches of the symphonic keyboards and high, theatrical clean vocals that we’ve come to expect. But the song also punches damned hard, with a clear production quality that lands those punches with palpable death metal force. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: A YEAR-END LIST FROM VONLUGHLIO (PART 1)

 LISTMANIA 2015  8 Responses »
Dec 282015
 

NCS Best of 2015 graphic

 

(Our old friend from the Dominican Republic Vonlughlio once again brings us his list of the year’s best releases. It’s a Top 50 list, with honorable mentions as well, so we’re dividing it into two parts. We’ll bring you Part 2 tomorrow.)

So, the time of year has come for my Top 50 albums of 2015. This time around I’m going to divide the list in two. In this post the list will unfold until position 25. The second post will be from 24 to 1, and honorable mentions. The reason for dong this is that putting the entire list in one post might make it too long.

I would also like to say that this year I’ve been listening to more Brutal Death Metal than before. As I always say, some will hate it, others will like it. Regardless of that, please check out the bands, and I hope that if you do like them you will show your support. Well, here it goes: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CARDINALS FOLLY (MIKKO KÄÄRIÄINEN)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Dec 282015
 

Cardinals Folly - 3

 

(In this interview, Comrade Aleks has a conversation with Mikko Kääriäinen, vocalist/bassist of Finland’s Cardinals Folly.)

As you probably remember, a few days ago we published an interview with Church of Void, a cool Finnish doom metal band. Their vocalist Magus Corvus (a common name in this region) revealed that Church and two other bands plan a dark conspiracy in the name of occult powers, recording a sinister split-album!

So, one of these other bands bears the name Cardinals Folly…. This blasphemous outfit was born in Helsinki in 2004. They play doom metal with an anarchic approach, as some members gained experience playing in black metal bands.

I’ve found this band interesting, as they have their own ideas and proper skills to perform them, successfully following traditional doom metal law. Probably they aren’t perfect, yet remarkable and talented — surely this cult has the power, and this power is dangerous!

Mikko Kääriäinen conducted this interview during a nightmarish and bloody séance, the details of which I would like to miss… Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: WIL CIFER’S TOP 10 BLACK METAL ALBUMS OF 2015

 LISTMANIA 2015  9 Responses »
Dec 282015
 

NCS Best of 2015 graphic

 

(This is the second of a five-part year-end list by Wil Cifer. Part One can be found here, and we’ll have the remaining three parts over the next three days.)

In sorting through the black metal albums that stuck with me this year, the key seemed to be diversity. Blast beats for the sake of blast beats have grown stale. These are the bands who took the conventional trappings of black metal and made them their own, and created the kind of music that I looked forward to hearing.

Most of these bands added other elements, ranging from death metal to folk to prog, as they broadened the bounds of black metal rather than just remaining cvlt enough to not be false. This year the bands hail from a little of everywhere: Norway and Sweden still have a presence, but so do America, France, Portugal, Italy, and Iceland. So grab a bic and get ready to torch some churches ‘cus here we go…. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2015’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 4)

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2015  8 Responses »
Dec 272015
 

Alkaloid-The Malkuth Grimoire

 

We have arrived at the fourth installment of our 2015 list of the year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. Like the first three, this one includes three songs. All three of these are types of death metal, but certainly not the same type. It’s also kind of hard even to slap a genre label on any of them individually, other than the broad one to which I just alluded.

If you’re new to this evolving list, go HERE to see the songs we’ve already named to it and to learn what we mean by “most infectious”.

ALKALOID

The debut album of this German “super-group” drew a lot of attention from us this year, including a premiere of the song I’m now adding to this list. culminating with my comrade Andy Synn naming The Malkouth Grimoire both to his list of the year’s “Great Albums” (here) and to his list of the year’s “Critical Top 10” (here) — anointing it “the No. 1, ‘best of the best’ album of 2015” and lauding its “sheer creativity, mind-blowing instrumental prowess, ball-busting heaviness, and esoteric, progressive melodies”. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (VERDUNKELN)

 THE REARVIEW MIRROR  5 Responses »
Dec 272015
 

Rearview Mirror

 

I’ve started rolling out this year’s list of extreme metal’s “Most Infectious Songs” (there will be another installment later today). Back in 2012, I included in that year’s list a song by the German band who’s the subject of this Sunday’s backward look into metal’s past lives. I’ve already forgotten what put this band back into my head, since they’ve released nothing further since that 2012 album. I hope they will make a New Year’s resolution to give us more.

Verdunkeln took shape in the late ’90s. Its two core members Gnarl (vocals, guitar) and Ratatyske (drums) were also in another German black metal band named Graupel. Both bands are still listed as active by Metal Archives, though now only Gnarl is identified as the sole member of Verdunkeln. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ALTARAGE, SELBST, ANCESTORS BLOOD, OCERCO, NABAATH

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  11 Responses »
Dec 262015
 

Satanic statue

 

I had no Christmas rant this year. Truthfully, I said about all I have to say on the subject five years ago. And if I were even more honest with myself, I’d admit that I’m not quite as big a humbug about the day as that post might suggest. It has its good points, to the extent that it provides an occasion for people who actually do like or love one another to get together and enjoy themselves (and I hope that happened for you).

Now that the day has been interred for another year, it’s time to return to the unearthing of new underground metal. In this collection, and in another one I have planned for tomorrow, I’ve got music to recommend in a blackened vein — not all of it black metal, but all of it pleasingly dark nonetheless.

ALTARAGE

In July I reviewed a two-song demo by a Spanish death metal band named Altarage, concluding as follows: “This is primitive, poisonous, electrifying music from a band that’s now squarely on my radar screen for the future.” They’ve now made a new appearance on the screen. Continue reading »

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