AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MANES — “ENDETIDSTEGN”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 242018
 

 

Like their countrymen in Ulver, the Norwegian band Manes have traveled far from the kind of music that first drew so many to their side. And it hasn’t been an uninterrupted trip. The first releases in the mid- and late-’90s, which revealed an atypical kind of black metal that soon attracted a fanatical following (many of whom continue to seem fanatical to this day), ended in a hiatus, and when Manes surfaced again with 2003’s Vilosophe, they had become exponents of a very different sound, which led to much gnashing of teeth and tearing  of hair.

Even that journey also seemed to come to an end in 2011, despite the release three years later of Be All End All.  But Manes are now returning again, with a new album whose intriguing title is Slow Motion Death Sequence. It’s scheduled for release by Debemur Morti Productions on August 24th, and as an introduction to what it holds in store, we are helping to premiere a video (the band’s first one ever) directed by Guilherme Henriques for a track called “Endetidstegn”, which opens the record. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RYAN C. SCHMEISTER — “VICTIM”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  4 Responses »
Jul 032018
 

 

In early August of last year, thanks to a recommendation from Rennie of starkweather, I discovered a song called “Legacy” by a solo project named Vorean. As I wrote then, I found it “little short of astonishing”. Rennie likened it to the sound of Florida’s Solstice, with a hint of black metal. It reached out almost immediately and seized me by the throat with the first instances of a bleak, twisted melody, and then erupted into an electrifying rush of hyper-speed riffing and blazing drum fire, with Vorean crying out in scalding howls.

That track displayed a lot of very impressive guitar work and a lot of compositional talent as well, becoming melodically memorable as well as just downright jaw-dropping in its execution. And part of what made the track — and the whole album from which it came — so astonishing was that it was the work of a single individual from Powell River, British Columbia (Ryan C. Schmeister) who had just turned 19 years old at the time of its release. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: JUNIUS

 Exceptions to the Rule, WAXING LYRICAL  3 Responses »
Jun 302018
 

 

(This Saturday’s edition of Andy Synn’sWaxing Lyrical series presents thoughts about lyrics from Joseph Martinez of Junius, whose most recent album, Eternal Rituals For the Accretion of Light, was released by Prosthetic Records in 2017.)

There’s a certain argument (not that it’s one I agree with) that proggy Post-Rock/Post-Metal collective (and celebrated Synn Report alumni) Junius don’t really “belong” here at NCS.

After all, their music is certainly far from “extreme” (though it does have its heavier moments), and the vocals are almost entirely clean-sung, meaning that the band’s whole existence essentially runs counter to the site’s original ethos.

But the truth is that NCS has grown far beyond its original remit, and the fact that we often cover lighter, more melodic fare is balanced out by the way in which we also give coverage to bands and artists who are leaps and bounds heavier and more abrasive than anything the site’s original founders could have predicted.

Personally I’m proud of the way in which we’ve broadened our scope, while still retaining our focus on quality and integrity as two of the key values in all the music we feature, just as I’m proud to have been able to convince Junius frontman/vocalist/lyricist Joseph Martinez to participate in this latest edition of “Waxing Lyrical”. Continue reading »

KHEMMIS: “DESOLATION”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  2 Responses »
Jun 192018
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Colorado’s Khemmis, which will be released on June 22nd by 20 Buck Spin in North America and by Nuclear Blast everywhere else.)

I’m more than happy to admit that I’m a very late joiner to the Khemmis train.

Oh, sure, I’d heard the name around, I knew they were pretty well liked and that there was a fair bit of hype building behind them, and had even caught a glimpse of their eye-catching artwork here and there, but – for whatever reason – I’d just never found the time to actually listen to one of the band’s songs/albums.

Thankfully, their brilliant performance at this year’s edition of Maryland Deathfest made me an immediate convert to their cause, and I’ve spent the time since then immersing myself in the band’s back-catalogue and catching up on everything which I’ve been missing, just in time for Desolation to drop into my inbox with a resounding (digital) boom. Continue reading »

LACHRYMOSE: “THE UNSEEN”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  No Responses »
Jun 122018
 

 

(Vasilis Xenopoulos, a guest writer from Greece who has contributed to NCS in the past, rejoins us with this review of the new EP by the Greek band Lachrymose, which was released in May and is an exception to the “rule” in our site’s title.)

Doom metal and tragedy are intertwined. The music, slow and heavy, leads gradually towards redemption and serves as a means for the unfolding of the stories of the pain and woes of man. Doom metal is a dance, a bleak and sorrowful waltz that sings of the suffering of man while at times praises the spirit of revolt and the pursuit of salvation.

In 2015 Lachrymose released the story of a witch who was accused and sentenced to the pyre for the crime of defiance against the dogma of religion. Carpe Noctum is doom metal that brings to mind the aesthetics of Paradise Lost in the times of Gothic and Icon. Through their music we follow her journey, as it is performed by vocalist Hel, from life to death and her return from the dead by a necromancer’s ritual.

But something went terribly wrong. When the thin veil between the living and the dead opened, vengeful spirits passed through and got inside her now living body. Her mind remained in the medium world, between the living and the dead, where everything and nothing is true, where spirits dwell in the fog of the underworld. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KRAKOW — “BLACK WANDERING SUN”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
May 302018
 

 

In this post we happily present the North American premiere of a new song and a new video from the new album, minus, by the Norwegian alchemists in Krakow, which will be released by Karisma Records on August 31. And as a prelude, let’s begin with the band’s own words — in part because the final sentence seems particularly fitting in the context of this new song: “black wandering sun“:

“Following the laborious process of distilling two albums worth of material into one focused gem, we give you “minus”. The pinnacle achievement of Krakow’s thirteen-year existence. After a year of recording, shaping, re-recording and refining, “minus” has been reduced to the bare essence of who Krakow are as individuals, as a group and as story tellers. An album that defies any attempts at genre definition. This release covers the heavy, the subtle, the melodic, the atonal, the groovy, the sluggish, the dense, the airy, the naked, and always, always, the wall of sound where no light can escape.”

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GHOSTBOUND — “ALL IS PHANTOM”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
May 222018
 

 

Given our usual proclivities at this site, perhaps it’s best to begin by paying attention to the elephant in the room: Roughly 99% of the vocals on Ghostbound’s debut album All Is Phantom are clean. And there’s another elephant standing in our room, too: Metal is only one ingredient in the music, and not even the dominant one. Nevertheless, we’ve agreed to present the full streaming premiere of the record here today despite the fact that it goes well off our usual beaten paths — because it goes off our usual stamping grounds so very well, blazing its own trails in such remarkably vivid and memorable ways.

The band’s name was well-chosen, and so is the album’s title. The music wears its passionate and very human emotions right out on its extravagant, embroidered sleeves, to the point of becoming theatrical at times, but almost none of it sounds completely earthbound. Ghost-bound, indeed it is — edged with angst, shadowed by sorrow, haunted by death. And it’s also beautiful, inspiring,  even joyous. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DOOMSWORD

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  1 Response »
May 172018
 

 

(Greek writer John Sleepwalker returns  to NCS with an in-depth interview of Deathmaster, frontman of Italy’s DoomSword, shortly before their appearance at Greece’s Up The Hammers Festival. Themes in the interview span the band’s entire epic metal career, as well as the status of DoomSword’s work on a new record. A Greek version of this interview originally appeared at Avopolis.gr.)

 

DoomSword haven’t released a new album since The Eternal Battle (2011). A wait that has been quite long, I must say. When should we expect the new opus? Have you been writing/rehearsing any new material?

Hi John, I hope you are well. To your first question I can answer that I do not have a precise timeline for the release of a new album, but works are underway. The guys in Italy are rehearsing and I am continuing with the songwriting. Therefore, I expect that completing the album is a matter of months. As for the long absence: I had in fact an album ready (and enough ideas for 2 albums, I would say), but if you let compositions sit for a while, then when you go back to them, you may feel dissatisfied with what you had. It may be because your mind has evolved, or because you are not in the same mood and want to express other emotions on your next album. Either way, what you have is unsuitable. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KHÔRADA, PHARAOH OVERLORD, CHUBBY THUNDEROUS BAD KUSH MASTERS, OWL COMPANY, DAAGH

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 152018
 

 

This round-up is more musically diverse than what I typically select, ranging further afield from my usual extreme-metal stamping grounds. It’s also less littered with words. I got a late start on the posting day and am hurrying toward a couple of EP premieres on the schedule, but wanted to share these five tracks before getting there… because they made for quite an eclectic and enjoyable morning here at my metallic island home.

KHÔRADA

Finally, we have the first single from the debut album by Khôrada. It’s been a long and anxious wait since the news emerged last year that former Agalloch members Don Anderson (guitar), Jason Walton (bass), and Aesop Dekker (drums) would be forging ahead in this new group, alongside ex-Giant Squid guitarist/vocalist Aaron John Gregory. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: WAYFARER, ATAVISMA, NATTVERD, THRONEUM, FINIS, 酸葬儀 ACIDFUNERAL, WITCHSKULL, HAMMERS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 082018
 

 

I had enough time last night to turn myself into a musical glutton. Just kept stuffing myself to the point of swelling up like a dirigible, hoping I’d come across something that wasn’t tasty before I exploded. That didn’t happen, so I had to summon the last vestiges of willpower and make myself stop.

So here’s a whole bunch of music, and only pithy impressions from me.

WAYFARER

Wayfarer’s third album, their first for the Profound Lore label, is described as “a reflection of the Rocky Mountains and high plains of their native Colorado”, “drawing influence as much from the dusty, dark Americana of the ‘Denver Sound’ and the scores of epic westerns as they do the fury and melody of black metal….” Continue reading »

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