Islander

LISTMANIA 2015: VONLUGHLIO’S LIST OF 2015’s TOP EPs

 LISTMANIA 2015  6 Responses »
Dec 162015
 

NCS Best of 2015 graphic

 

(Our old friend and steadfast NCS supporter Vonlughlio has once again prepared his year-end list of albums, but first shares with us this list of his favorite EPs from 2015.)

First of all I want to start by thanking Islander for letting me do my end-of-year lists. Last year, for the first time I made my list of favorite albums up to 50, plus made a list of my favorite EPs and Honorable Mentions. This year I’m going to divide my year-end list into two posts. This first one will have my top 15 EPs and mentions of some of the places where I find new music. The second one will have my top 50 albums with the Honorable Mentions (when I’m done with that clusterfuck of a list  – J).

So, to give you an idea of my year, let’s just say that it has been more Brutal than others. Some might like my list, others will hate it, but I’m doing this for me and the bands I like.

Here are my Top 15 EPs of 2015: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FLUMMOX — “PAN’S DAUGHTER”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 162015
 

Flummox-Pan's Daughter

 

(Austin Weber brings us the premiere of a new song from the band Flummox.)

While 2015 is drawing to a close as we speak, the world of music never really sleeps. Every year I’m already working on reviewing releases for the next year before the current one is over. So before the year ends let’s sneak in another new song with fresh music for your ears.

I first covered Tennessee-based progressive sludge/doom/whatever band Flummox here earlier in the year and wrote about their first record, Phlummoxygen. Somehow these crazy genre-bending weirdos are already close to releasing album number two, Selcouth, on February 12, 2016, through Tridroid Records. So if you want an early Christmas treat, we’ve got “Pan’s Daughter” to show you and get you hyped on Selcouth. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: A YEAR-END LIST FROM NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

 LISTMANIA 2015  7 Responses »
Dec 162015
 

NCS Best of 2015 graphic

 

(Once again, we invited Neill Jameson of Krieg to share a year-end list with us as part of our LISTMANIA series, and once again we are very happy to report that he agreed.)

We’re now at that part of the year where everyone sits and jerks each other off in the form of lists of what records industry people are breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for releasing and the inevitable think tank that follows in the comments section complaining that whatever bullshit they like got ignored by the publications they spent the other 364 days of the year saying they hate anyway.

I personally like to use these lists to look into releases that fell through the cracks for me during whatever given year (this is for 2015 I think, I don’t remember anymore) and also when someone is nice enough to want my opinion (sorry in advance) a way for me to show people some bands they might not even know about.

Much like last year I’m going to skip a lot of the more well-known releases from this year, opting to focus on some great recordings you may have never heard but definitely should look into. If you really must know what captured the top slot for the year for me, go listen to the newest Killing Joke record or Leviathan’s Scar Sighted; both records show an energy and focus that both bands have always been capable of, but in a more urgent manner than before. Both are absolutely brilliant and essential. Continue reading »

A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE DISAPPOINTING ALBUMS

 LISTMANIA 2015  72 Responses »
Dec 162015
 

Disappoinment valley

 

(Andy Synn wrote this. Let me repeat, ANDY SYNN WROTE THIS.)

Well, here it is, the one column of mine a year which I know Islander truly hates with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns!

Ok, maybe not that much, but I do know that the boss-man doesn’t like us being negative on this site… and this is probably the most overtly negative thing that we publish all year, so I can understand where he’s coming from!

Still… we all know it’s important for there to be balance to the force, and I think having this *slightly* more negative than usual post at the end of the year definitely serves a purpose, in the grand scheme of things.

Let me reiterate, though, that just because I feel like these albums are “Disappointing”, to a greater or lesser extent, doesn’t necessarily mean I think that they’re “Bad” albums, per se, nor am I trying to tell you what to think or what you’re allowed/supposed to like.

In fact the general theme of this year’s column is just how many of these albums simply ended up being surprisingly bland or boring – as opposed to utterly terrible – particularly when compared not only with the rest of the year’s best output but also with the usual high standards set by the band’s themselves! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: IRON VOID

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Dec 152015
 

IRON VOID - Doomsday Band Photo (CD Booklet Back)

 

(Comrade Aleks brings to us this entertaining interview with members of the UK doom collective Iron Void, along with music from their new album an previous releases.)

There is too much news about releases of old and new big bands in virtual space. It’s easy to get lost in this maze of names, artworks, and riffs, but here we go to lend you a hand and introduce music that you could miss in this endless stream of promo! Today we bring a gospel of Doom for you brothers and sisters, so open your hearts and ears to Iron Void.

This band was born in West Yorkshire, England. Jonathan “Sealey” Seale (bass, vocals), Damien Park (drums), and Steve Wilson (guitars, vocals) have successfully done their best in the form of a power trio and have recorded two full-length albums for the last two years: Their self-titled release was born in 2014 with the help of Barbarian Wrath records, and the new Doomsday work was published by Steve’s own label Doomanoid Records.

Is it good stuff? It is nearly perfect stuff! We had a cute conversation with the Iron Void crew, and I welcome you to share in this exciting reading. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BODE PRETO — “WRAITH / THE STAGE AND THE MEADOW”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 152015
 

Bode Preto-Mystic Massacre

 

On January 2 of the impending New Year, Iron Tyrant will release Mystic Massacre, the second album by the Brazilian horde Bode Preto — which in English means “Black Goat”. As a sign of what Mystic Massacre holds within its bottomless crypt, today we bring you the premiere of the album’s ninth track, “Wraith/The Stage and the Meadow”.

On this new song Bode Preto succeed on several fronts:

They unleash the kind of bestial, barbaric fury that summons the spirits of forbears such as Sarcófago, Holocausto, and Impurity (some of whose members have themselves been part of Bode Preto at one time or another). They create an unsettling atmosphere of ominous peril with grim melodies saturated in darkness and with ravenous vocal savagery. They deliver a powerful sound driven by thundering drum and bass rhythms that will get heads moving. And… they’ve written and executed a song with razor-edged riffs that are catchy and memorable as well as pestilential. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VESANIA — “NOTION”

 Premieres  9 Responses »
Dec 152015
 

Vesania

 

In advance of the 2014 Metal Blade release of the latest full-length by Poland’s Vesania, our writer Andy Synn concluded his review of the album with these words:

“As darkly dramatic as it is devastating, Deus Ex Machina, if pushed hard enough and marketed right, could be a real game-changer for Vesania. It demonstrates their songwriting, and their skills, at their absolute sharpest, and takes their sound and vision to the next level.”

Today we are privileged to bring you the debut of a video for a song from Deus Ex Machina named “Notion”, a track Andy characterized as “half blackened blitzkrieg, half glorious symphonic majesty,” a song that “for all its orchestral excess and metallic thunder, takes time to reveal its secrets, telling a story through sound and verse, shape and colour, which unfolds naturally and organically as the song progresses”. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JONNY PETTERSSON (WOMBBATH, ASHCLOUD, JUST BEFORE DAWN, and more)

 LISTMANIA 2015  12 Responses »
Dec 152015
 

Jonny Pettersson

(We invited Jonny Pettersson — vocalist and riff-maker at Wombbath, Lieutenant General at Just before Dawn, and vocalist/guitarist at Ashcloud (among many other projects) — to let us share with our readers his year-end list for 2015, and we are grateful that he agreed!)

I started this list thinking that this year it would be easy to pick the top 10. Halfway through I realized that, as always, there are too many good releases to make easy choices. Continue reading »

“METALHEAD”: AN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA CULTURE CLASH

 Mosh Pit  8 Responses »
Dec 152015
 

Metalhead movie

 

(This post is by Grant Skelton, and he will explain what it’s about.)

After several years, I’m finally back in school finishing out a Bachelor’s. This was an essay I wrote for a journalism class called “Mass Media & Cultures.” In a nutshell, the course covered communication of news messages between (or about) different cultures and how those messages are framed.

My assignment for this essay was to “select a commercial movie that deals with either a culture clash or attempts to depict another culture and discuss the effect this film and its message might have on an average adult viewer.”

I chose the 2013 Icelandic film Metalhead, directed by Ragnar Bragason. One of the class textbooks I refer to is Jaap van Ginnekin’s Understanding Global News: A Critical Introduction. I include these details just to provide some context for the assignment. I really enjoyed writing this paper, because metal culture is still largely misunderstood by the public at large. Most of that misunderstanding has been informed by media platforms that frame heavy metal culture as something that is an antagonistic, subversive art form that directly contributes to acts of violence. But that’s a topic for another day.

A fair warning, this essay does contain some spoilers about Metalhead. It isn’t my intention to ruin the film for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but the paper would have been impossible to write without revealing some of the elements of the film’s plot. You can rent “Metalhead” on Amazon  for $3.99. The DVD looks to be about $13. I haven’t seen it on Netflix or Hulu.

And now for the essay. Continue reading »

2015 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE GOOD ALBUMS

 LISTMANIA 2015  20 Responses »
Dec 152015
 

NCS Best of 2015 graphic

 

(This is the second of Andy Synn’s 5-part year-end series this week. To see his list of the “Great Albums” of 2015, go here.)

Now, depending on how you interpret it, I realise that the word “Good” can be a bit of a… loaded term.

On the one hand it can be entirely positive. “This is really good!” and so forth… and on the other it can be used in a much more grudging manner. “This is good enough, I suppose”.

So rejoice my friends, because the majority of the albums on this list definitely fall into the “Really good!” category, and many of them just missed out on getting on the “Great” list by the skin of their teeth. Continue reading »

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