SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (PART I): LÖMSK, DJEVEL, DEUS MORTEM, GHOULHOUSE, SVARTKONST

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 022024
 


Lömsk

(written by Islander)
Halloween (or Samhein if you prefer) is in the calendar’s rear-view mirror but not out of my head yet. That’s the best way I can explain why I picked some of the selections for this roundup, and not just the ones that sound hellish but perhaps especially the ones that are carried by (gasp!) clean singing. Many of the songs were actually released on Halloween.

There’s again a lot to see and hear today, so much so that I again divided the collection into two Parts, with Part II coming in an hour or two from now. But rather than default to alphabetizing the picks, I organized things based on what I was hearing, to create a little flow, a river of greater and lesser turbulence and gloom.

P.S. Happy Día de los Muertos.

P.P.S. If you live in the U.S., don’t forget to roll your clocks back an hour before you go to sleep tonight. Also, fucking plan to vote if you haven’t already voted early! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY, PART II: H-W

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Oct 272024
 

(written by Islander)

Moving on from yesterday’s Part I of the usual weekend roundup, I’m starting with the next letter of the band-name alphabet and continuing through W (no X, Y, or Z bands in this collection).

I mentioned yesterday that I had a few complete releases in this collection, in addition to all the singles, but I realized that one I thought had come out on Friday isn’t actually out yet, so I’ll push that one to a subsequent weekend.

But the first band today does have a complete release to their name, and it’s an interesting one. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: FOR CENTURIES

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Oct 252024
 

(Here we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Ivan Bloodhunter, founder and vocalist of the Mexican Epic Doom band For Centuries.)

Epic doom metal from Mexico is a really rare thing, and it’s good to have such an opportunity and to talk with For Centuries from Guadalajara about their first full-length album Before the Eyes of Doom (Per Sæcula Sæculorum). This band was founded in 2017, so their underground career is relatively short, yet the material which fills Before the Eyes of Doom is absolutely worthy of listening for fans of traditional and, yes, quite epic doom metal.

For Centuries rely on the classical sound of good old doom metal with lyrics based on medieval prejudices and stories of the deviltry. As you see, the vibe is already very old school, so you know what to expect from them. However, I’ve always preferred interviews over reviews, because this way it is easier to discover what the authors put into their music, much better than trying to interpret it yourself.

Today I invite you to make a trip to the Mexican underground with Ivan Bloodhunter, the band’s vocalist and founder. Continue reading »

HIGH PARASITE: “FOREVER WE BURN”

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Oct 232024
 

(This is DGR‘s review of the debut album of “Death Pop” by High Parasite, fronted by Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride, produced by Gregor Mackintosh of Paradise Lost, and released by Candlelight on September 27th.)

There’s an acceptance that comes with the idea that people aren’t required to listen to music the same way you do. You can bang the drum forever about how to experience something but in reality sometimes people just want to be able to throw something on and let it whip past them without a second thought.

The reality of which is perfectly fine. Not everyone needs to be able to fantasy-draft a death metal band together like Nader Sadek does with his releases. Not everyone needs to be able to fold an album over again, and again, and again, such that it eventually resembles a musical and intellectual rolled omelette. This of course being the long walk toward a simple question:

That being, have you ever listened to a release that has caused you to think about it way more than you could possibly justify any reason for? Thinking about it far more than the album might reasonably deserve? Because that may be what’s happening here with High Parasite’s debut album Forever We Burn. An album that has somehow caused the gears to turn here far more than one could intellectually justify. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (HEADSPIN EDITION): MITOCHONDRION, AVHATH & KUNTARI, RINTRAH, THE HOLY FLESH, HIGH INQUISITOR WOE, DUKH DÄKOMPOSITA

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Oct 022024
 


Mitochondrion

(written by Islander)

With my wife out of town visiting one of her sisters and me having gotten a head-start on the premieres I’d committed to write for today, I found myself with a rare chunk of time to go musically exploring yesterday, and to prepare this rare mid-week roundup.

Entirely by coincidence, most of what I listened to was head-spinning in different ways (as you can tell by the post title). I think it’s fair to call all of the following songs unconventional, and maybe even experimental in some respects, including the ones that feature singing (and yes, some of these are “exceptions to the rule” around here).

But lest you think I’m about to load you up with many melodious things, let’s incinerate that assumption immediately. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (15 BANDS, 16 SONGS)

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 212024
 

(written by Islander)

Yesterday morning my fellow NCS slave DGR sent me the names of 11 bands whose new songs he thought would make good fodder for this Saturday roundup. That was on top of more than a dozen new songs and videos I had on my own list. What to do?

Putting two dozen new tracks into this roundup seemed excessive, if not for you then certainly for me. That’s just way too much work. I thought about just embedding all the streams, without any further info or my own priceless commentary. I even thought about asking someone who’s on Spotify (which I am not) to make a playlist of all the songs and sticking that in here, which would have been an even lazier strategem.

I figured out a solution. It’s not a great solution, just a compromise, and like all compromises it leaves the contending parties unhappy (the contending parties here being two argumentative parts of my brain).

The songs below are alphabetized by the name of the band that made them — another lazy strategem, but one that has resulted in some amusing and interesting contrasts and complements. Nostalgia had something to do with some of these picks (that will be obvious when you come to them). This collection also includes more than a few exceptions to our “rule” about vocals and some curveballs that dive outside our usual strike-zone (sometimes at the same time). Continue reading »

KALANDRA: “A FRAME OF MIND”

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Sep 052024
 

(We present Didrik Mešiček‘s review of a new album by the Norwegian band Kalandra, in advance of its September 13 release on By Norse Music.)

Nothing goes together as well as the extreme heat of the summer and really depressive black metal, right? Or is that just me again? Well, anyway, it’s basically autumn and surely we can agree this is a season for romance and softness – the leaves are turning a lovely colour and slowly withering away in a cruel but beautiful reminder of our passing nature. Yet few things in this world would be as pretty were they not as fleeting.

This article isn’t about extreme metal, nor about any sort of metal, really, it’s about a Norwegian band called Kalandra who play a sort of Nordic folk – but not in the vein of Wardruna, it’s a band with a more modern tone and expressing a softer, more feminine touch. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MONDOCANE, LILJEVARS BRANN, INVERNOIR, UNHEALED, FABULAE DRAMATIS, KILLING SPREE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 312024
 

(written by Islander)
Here we are, in the dog days of summer. Unless you’re in the southern hemisphere, and I don’t know what kind of animal these days are named for down there.

Actually, these days are only indirectly named for an animal up here. The term “dog days” of summer came from the Romans, in the hot days that coincided with the sun’s rise and set alongside the dog star, Sirius. This time was referred to as diēs caniculārēs, or “days of the dog star.”

What comes next? Well, I read this in an e-mail from a seller of wine (same e-mail I cribbed from above):

Late August marks a transition from dog days into a period known as ‘cat nights,’ a little-known Irish legend involving roaming witches turning themselves into cats… we’ll spare all the details! In any case, the timing is associated with a season of nocturnal prowling, earlier nightfall, and an instinctual, impending cool on the horizon.

Well, you can’t say you never learn anything at NCS. You might also learn something from the music I picked for this Saturday’s roundup as you get ready for some cat nights ahead. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: DEATH OF GIANTS — “ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG”

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Aug 292024
 

Cover songs usually fall into one of two categories: Either they’re straightforward and faithful renditions of the original (though vocal variations inevitably introduce some differences), or they’re efforts to re-imagine and re-configure the originals, sometimes creating truly new originals.

The latter type of cover song is risky because listeners who are fans of the original may continue hearing it and thinking about it as they listen to the cover, which is a distraction, and at worst they may be annoyed at the changes. But when a cover song “works”, it’s far more interesting than a faithful repetition.

Death of Giants‘ cover of Iron Maiden‘s “Only the Good Die Young“, a video for which we’re premiering today, unmistakably falls into the second category — a striking reinterpretation of the original that turns it into a very different song, and one that works supremely well. It’s even more interesting and moving when you understand how the cover was inspired, though it would be powerfully moving even if you didn’t know. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SINISTRO — “ELEGIA”

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Aug 222024
 

We’re about to premiere a video for the second advance song from Sinistro‘s new album Vértice. But before we get to it, let’s take a few steps back.

This Portuguese band’s last album, 2018’s Sangue Cássia, made a big and favorable impact around our crumbling and gore-streaked halls, and a very distinctive one given that their music was a very big exception to the permeable “rule” in our site’s title.

Our Andy Synn named Sangue Cássia to his year-end list of 2018’s “Critical Top 10” albums, calling it “one of the most intensely intimate, moodily mesmerising releases of the year.”

For us (and for many others) it was therefore very exciting and intriguing to learn that Sinistro would be returning this year with a new album, with a new singer (Priscila Da Costa) and a new label (Alma Mater Records), masterminded by Moonspell singer Fernando Ribeiro. Continue reading »

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