SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (TOO MANY BANDS TO NAME IN THIS TITLE)

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 102024
 

(written by Islander)

What’s a good metaphor for having too many attractive things to choose from? A kid in a candy store? Maybe, except a lot of the sweet things I’m looking at this morning are also poisonous.

Wandering the aisles of an animal shelter trying to make a connection with a small feline you might adopt? Yeah, but some of these small beasts I’m seeing will suddenly swell up and try to claw out my jugular.

How about a child wide-eyed at a pile of presents under a tree on Christmas Eve, wondering what to open first? Sure, except some of these gifts will explode when touched, or might break your heart.

Here’s what I chose to share from the array of musical delights and dangers I surveyed today. As you can see, I grabbed with both hands, pockets stuffed and both hands overflowing. Presented alphabetically, because trying to figure out how to organize this in any other way was too damn taxing. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THE OTHER SUN — “DAIMON, DEVIL, DAWN”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jul 222024
 

Here at NCS we like to think that in deciding what music to write about we avoid getting stuck in any ruts. Variety, after all, is a powerful antidote to the poison of boredom. And besides, we don’t want people to get too confident in thinking they know in advance what they’re going to experience whenever they land here. If our choices don’t at least occasionally pull people out of their “comfort zones”, then we’re failing by our own lights.

Having said that, the album we’re premiering below is in almost all ways vastly different from the music that populates our own ever-expanding spectrum of musical coverage. Because it is so different, there may be a risk that some of our visitors will shy away from it. However, I fervently hope that won’t happen, because Daimon, Devil, Dawn is a most skilled form of sonic sorcery that should not be missed. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE PATH OF MEMORY — “NOT ALL MADNESSES MAY BE BAD”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 092024
 

Long-time visitors here (and of course many others elsewhere) will recognize the name Bornyhake, the nom de plume of the Swiss musician whose talents have featured in an extraordinarily broad range of bands and personal projects since the late ’90s, perhaps most prominently Borgne, Enoid, Pure, and Kawir.

Just looking at the Metal-Archives list of Bornyhake‘s current and past bands (32 o0f them at last count), and the fact that he also owns a recording studio and record labels, leads to the conclusion that music must be a necessity of life for him, perhaps second only to air (or a close third after the peskiness of food and water).

What’s also evident is that constant exploration and evolution must be an equal necessity, and that conclusion is reinforced by a Bornyhake solo project named The Path of Memory — a name you won’t find on that extensive M-A list, which is something of a broad clue about the nature of the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS DEMO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): RINTRAH

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jul 012024
 

Trust me, writing about metal isn’t easy. The challenge of not using the same clichéd words over and over again in an effort to describe the music is daunting. That challenge is part of what keeps those of us at this place still engaged after so many years, i.e., we’re stubborn fools who strive to become better.

But trust me again, writing about metal in most of its kaleidoscopic shapes is a piece of cake compared to writing about the music of Rintrah, which is like a vine of many colors whose scandent twining runners have hooked into metal but whose roots and other branchings take their nourishment from far different sources of which we can claim no expertise and have little experience.

In other words, prepare for something completely different. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GOLGOTHA — “SPREADING THE WINGS OF HOPE”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 112024
 

Over the course of a career that began in 1992 and has continued fairly steadily ever since (interrupted by one long break following their third album in 2005), the Spanish band Golgotha have remained devoted to musical renditions of melancholy and desolate sorrow. They remain devoted to their own traditions in their newest album, and yet, as the album’s title itself portrays, they have not lost hope.

That album, Spreading the Wings of Hope, comes from a place of maturity and the depth of emotional reflection that only many decades of daily experience can bring — experiences of deceit and pain, of inner psychological trauma and persistent injustice in the outer world, but also experiences of resilience and beauty.

For Golgotha, it is evident, as they say themselves, that they still carry “the flickering flame of hope”: “It burns low, but it burns still…” That comes through in both the lyrics and the music on the new album, though what also comes through is that Golgotha have not forsaken the need to express the doom and desolation that continues to plague human existence, as it always has.

Spreading the Wings of Hope will be released by Golgotha‘s new label Ardua Music on June 14th, and we’re privileged to let you hear all of it today. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NOX — “ENTITY”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 072024
 

Today we’re taking you off our usual well-beaten musical paths as we premiere a full stream of Entity, the debut album of a duo who have taken for themselves the name Nox.

The identities of those two artists are what first led us down this divergent path. They are Inmesher from the German band Rope Sect, whose own new album Estrangement we premiered here not long ago, and Lykaios (aka Lykormas) from the Belgian band Hemelbestormer, whose fascinating post-metal instrumental excursions we’ve written about frequently in the past (he is also the person behind Lhaäd and a member of Rituals of the Dead Hand).

Having been beckoned by those two names and the attractions of the music they’ve made in their other projects, we were curious about what they chose to do as the Nox entity. Hints of what they accomplished were provided in the PR materials furnished on behalf of their label Neuropa Records, which is releasing the album today. For example, this: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CRYPT SERMON

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  1 Response »
Jun 072024
 


Photo credit: Scott Kincade

(Today we’re very happy to present Comrade Aleks‘ excellent interview with frontman Brooks Wilson from Crypt Sermon, whose new album is set for release on June 14th via Dark Descent Records.)

The Philadelphia doom crew Crypt Sermon took the matter seriously from the very beginning, and the first album Out of the Garden (2015) became, if not a modern classic, at least a significant phenomenon for the doom scene. The second release The Ruins of Fading Light (2019) cemented Crypt Sermon’s reputation as one of the most relevant “new” epic doom bands, but how to grow further with such a triumphant start?

The band’s new album The Stygian Rose is to be released on June 14th, and its lyrics are partly inspired by the ideas of American medium and occult writer Pascal Beverly Randolph. They mix very traditional doom with magical retro metal, combining crushing riffs and shimmering guitar melodies, and Crypt Sermon go into the large-scale and epic doom-ascension with no final destination.

Crypt Sermon are endearing due to their fidelity to heavy metal doom roots and their artistic take on the rigid form of the genre. We have done the interview with the band’s frontman Brooks Wilson, and it’ll help us learn more about the story behind The Stygian Rose and further. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ARÐ

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  No Responses »
May 312024
 


photo by Gavin Forster

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Mark Deeks, the man behind the UK doom band Arð (and a member of Winterfylleth). The delay in presenting the interview is entirely our fault, but fortunately it remains a timely and engaging discussion.)

It was in the Pantheist interview… As you probably remember, the band took part in the Organic Doom event together with Arð from Newcastle upon Tyne. It was a live gig where two doom metal bands performed their sets with church organ, and even the BBC was interested and covered this gig. As Pantheist included their live set in the new EP Kings Must Die, so you can find Arð’s set as a bonus to the band’s new album Untouched by Fire, released by Prophecy Productions on April 26th.

The only man who stands now behind this band is Mark Deeks. He performs all instruments and sings, though during the recording he relied on the help of Atavist’s drummer Callum Cox. Untouched by Fire is Arð’s second album in five years, and Mark keeps on exploring Nothumbrian history and culture through this authentic melodic doom metal. I invite you to make a trip to the world of medieval Anglo-Saxon doom together with Mark himself. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DISTORTED REFLECTION

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  No Responses »
May 212024
 


Left to right: Stelios Pavlou, Kostas Salomidis, Vangelis Yalamas

(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Kostas Salomidis, founder of Sorrows Path and of the now-ongoing Distorted Reflection, whose debut album Doom Rules Eternally was released earlier this year on Iron Shield Records.)

All of us come from traditional metal in many of its forms; thus, sometimes we publish here the stories of very clean singing bands, and it never hurt anyone (as far as I know). Although our readers are rather into Hellenic Black Metal, a well-known cultural phenomenon, today we have for you an example of Hellenic Doom, a rare thing in itself.

Distorted Reflection’s essence is rooted in the code of the first Greek epic doom band Sorrows Path, as its founder Kostas Salomidis left Sorrows Path two years ago in order to start something new and still traditional. As a result, Distorted Reflection’s first album Doom Rules Eternally serves as a good representative of traditional yet quite epic doom.

Kostas (guitars, vocals) joined his efforts together with Stelios Pavlou (drums) and Vangelis (bass, synths), but if it was a sort of declaration, he invited three guests to take part in the creation of this album, and one of them is the now 70-year-old Ross the Boss, Manowar’s original guitarist.

Now you know what to expect from Doom Rules Eternally, and I invite you to learn more through this interview with Kostas. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: AGRICULTURE / ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE / BA’AL / MALEVICH / REJECTER / VOGEL

 Exceptions to the Rule, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
May 142024
 

(In this column Andy Synn focuses on short-form releases that emerged in recent months.)

It seems like every year I make a promise – to myself, if no-one else – to stay more on top of covering all the various EPs and short-form releases that come out… and every year I fail miserably.

Well, here’s my chance to make up for that by digging back into the last six months and selecting a handful of heavy/harsh/heartfelt releases for you all to check out.

Continue reading »

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