AN NCS INTERVIEW: KOSTAS PANAGIOTOU (PANTHEIST, TOWARDS ATLANTIS LIGHTS)

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Oct 012018
 

 

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview of Kostas Panagiotou of Pantheist, whose latest album was released on September 14th by Melancholic Realm Productions, and Towards Atlantis Lights, whose first album was released earlier this year by Transcending Obscurity.)

I bet every doom metal fan knows Pantheist. Started as funeral doom studio project in 2000 by Kostas Panagiotou, it has grown to the size of a full band and went through a series of stylistically metamorphoses. After seven years of secret workings since their last album, Pantheist have returned with an updated lineup and a new full-length album, Seeking Infinity. Besides that, Kostas managed to take part in the international doom project Towards Atlantis Lights, whose first album Dust Of Aeons saw the light of day in March 2018 through Transcending Obscurity Records.

In light of these events, it seemed there were several questions that we should ask Kostas, and so we did. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ETERNAL SOLSTICE

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Sep 212018
 

 

(Our constant ally Comrade Aleks today brings us this interview with Ramon Soeterbroek, the guitarist/vocalist of the Dutch death metal band Eternal Solstice, which still lives after almost 30 years — and has a new EP headed our way.)

Formed in 1989 in Bodegraven, South Holland, Eternal Solstice spent about eight years spreading down-tuned and sinister death metal. In sequence they released the albums The Wish Is Father To The Thought (1994), Horrible Within (1995), and Demonic Fertilizer (1997). Eternal Solstice was disbanded after the last of these releases, and who could predict that thirteen years later the outfit would be returning to life in order to continue their dark crusade?

I contacted Ramon Soeterbroek, the band’s original guitarist and vocalist, in order to clarify the facts concerning Eternal Solstice‘s career and suddenly found out that they have brand new EP, Inner Sadist, almost in their hands. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: WOEBEGONE OBSCURED

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Sep 062018
 

 

(Comrade Aleks rejoins us with this interview of Danny Woe from the Danish band Woebegone Obscured, whose most recent album was released this summer.)

Danny Woe is one of the two founding members of Woebegone Obscured (Denmark), alongside K.Woe. Danny performs vocals, drums, and keyboards in the band, and occasionally guitars. Previously he played in the black metal bands Tronraner and Rimfrost and also the death metal outfit Skinned Beyond Recognition. However, none of these projects went further than demo records, but the experience helped him to create Woebegone Obscured from pieces of his black, death, and doom metal influences.

Growing from album to album, the band released their most mature record The Forestroamer through Aesthetic Death in July 2018. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PHLEBOTOMIZED

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Aug 292018
 


photo by Josefien Hupkes

 

(We present Comrade Aleks‘ interview with Tom Palms, founding guitarist of the Dutch death/doom band Phlebotomized, whose last album was released in 1997 , who have revived after an extended absence, and whose first new album in 21 years is now on the horizon.)

As you probably know, the Netherlands’ avant-garde death-doom and whatsoever metal legends Phlebotomized  didn’t stop working after their sudden resurrection in 2013. The band actively forged their sound in the early ’90s, moving from pretty brutal death metal toward a new direction through experiments which took place on their full-length album Immense Intense Suspense and the absolutely different sophomore record, Skycontact.

It’s now 2018, and Phlebotomized are on Hammerheart Records and at work on their third album (the first one in 21 years!) under the title Deformation Of Humanity, which should come to light soon.

The only remaining original Phlebotomized member, Tom Palms, helped me to learn more about the band’s history and reveals a few things about the new stuff. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: RYAN J. PARKS (CONTEMPLATING MURDER, CONQUEROR WORM, POETS OF THE PLAGUE)

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Aug 202018
 

 

(Comrade Aleks rejoins us with this interview of Ryan J. Parks, vocalist/guitarist of Contemplating Murder and a former member of Conqueror Worm and Poets of the Plague.)

Contemplating Murder is an extreme band that mixes death, thrash, and doom metal with other minor elements in their music. It was created in 2014 by Ryan J. Parks (guitars, vocals), Alan Evans (bass), and Gregg Drummond (drums). With only one self-titled album in the discography, they have a longer history indeed, as Ryan started another band of this kind in 1996, Poets Of The Plague, and then after its disbanding spent a few years with Conqueror Worm.

We had a talk with Ryan, and here’s his story. A story of extreme metal, murder, metal, horror, death, and metal. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: REBEL WIZARD

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Aug 152018
 

 

This is an interview of NKSV, the Australian man behind both Nekrasov and Rebel Wizard, though the latter project was the focus of this discussion. The interview was conducted through a long chain of back-and-forth e-mails that lasted for several weeks, ending only yesterday when I forced myself to stop asking question because we’re only a couple days away from Prosthetic Records’ release of Rebel Wizard‘s new album, Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Response.

I ought to explain that I swore off doing interviews more than a year ago after I finally accepted the reality that they consume time I don’t have, because I agonize too much in an effort to come up with non-standard questions that won’t bore the shit out of both myself and the person on the other end of the conversation. I made an exception here because, based on previous communications with NKSV, and because I’m such a big fan of Rebel Wizard, I thought it would be fun. And man, it really was.

This interview is also very long. VERY LONG. And sometimes it turned into a meeting of a mutual admiration society, which in retrospect might prove a bit embarrassing to both of us (though I don’t take back anything I said). If for those reasons, or others, you lose patience with this, I don’t need to tell you how to escape, though I do believe that this will prove interesting, insightful, thought-provoking (and fun) to a lot of readers despite its length — because, man, NKSV is an unorthodox wizard of a talker/writer, too. So maybe don’t pull the plug too soon?

One last word of advice before we begin: I think this conversation will make a lot more sense if you listen to Rebel Wizard’s first album (The Triumph of Gloom) and/or the new one (which premiered through a full stream at DECIBEL yesterday) before you begin reading, or while reading, or maybe even afterward. I’d encourage you to listen to those albums whether you read any further or not… and I’ll have some thoughts about the new one tomorrow in case we don’t completely exhaust your reading faculties today (you can get the new record here). Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: INGURGITATING OBLIVION

 Interviews, WAXING LYRICAL  1 Response »
Aug 042018
 

 

(In this Saturday’s edition of WAXING LYRICAL Andy Synn posed the usual questions to Florian Engelke of the German band Ingurgitating Oblivion.)

Germany’s Ingurgitating Oblivion have been making dark, dissonant waves in the European Death Metal scene (and beyond) for a number of years now, with last year’s Vision Wallows in Symphonies of Light not only majorly increasing the band’s worldwide fame and notoriety, but also expanding their sound in ever more complex and progressive ways.

If you’re unfamiliar with the group and their work, then this edition of The Synn Report should make for a good primer, or you can just dive straight in with the following interview with the band’s guitarist and primary lyricist Florian Engelke! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: RUNEMAGICK

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Jul 302018
 

 

(Comrade Aleks brings us this new interview with Nicklas Rudolfsson, founder of the Swedish band Runemagick, whose first album in more than a decade was released not long ago by Aftermath Music.)

Runemagick was started as a death metal project named Desiderius in 1990. They chose their current name a few years later, and alongside that developed a more doomy, low-tuned sound. Nicklas Rudolfsson took his time to gather a full lineup, and one by one, the first three albums — The Supreme Force Of Eternity, Enter The Realm Of Death, and ‘Resurrection In Blood — appeared in the 1998, 1999, and 2000, respectively.

Despite a ten-year-long hiatus and other issues, Runemagick is still alive and their eleventh album Evoked From Abysmal Sleep was released by Aftermath Music on the 20th of July. More death, doom, and damnation! I feel it’s the right time to clarify few facts from Runemagick’s history, so here’s Nicklas himself. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: GIANT OF THE MOUNTAIN

 Interviews, WAXING LYRICAL  1 Response »
Jul 282018
 

 

(Andy Synn’s guest in this week’s edition of WAXING LYRICAL is vocalist/guitarist Cody Daniels of the Texas band Giant of the Mountain.)

Texas metalloids Giant of the Mountain have been a band we’ve followed here at NCS for quite some time, and our very own DGR recently reviewed their latest (and probably best) album, Nature’s Wrath, describing it as a complex and creative piece of Prog/Black Metal that “takes on a hypnotic quality as it traverses down the multitude of twisting and winding paths within each song”.

So I thought, why not keep the coverage and momentum going by getting the band’s guitarist/vocalist Cody Daniels to sit down for a few moments and pen us some thoughts on his lyrical process, his love of hooks, and the important contributions of H.P. Lovecraft and Spongebob Squarepants to the band’s conceptual evolution? Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: DVNE

 Interviews, WAXING LYRICAL  4 Responses »
Jul 212018
 

 

(Lyricist, guitarist, and co-vocalist Dan Barter of the Scottish band Dvne is the subject of this week’s edition of Andy Synn’s Waxing Lyrical series.)

The phenomenal Asheran, by Edinburgh Prog-Metal quartet Dvne, was, without doubt, one of the best, brightest, and most brilliant albums of 2017 (I even said so in my review), and the fact that it didn’t feature in more EOTY lists is perhaps the greatest injustice of the last decade…

All joking aside, it really is a fantastic piece of work, and one which immediately marked the group as one of the major up-and-comers of the UK scene.

So, in the hope of bringing the band’s music to a wider audience, and with the aim of learning more about the in-depth sci-fi concept(s) behind their sound, we’re pleased to publish this detailed feature from the band’s guitarist/co-vocalist Dan Barter for your edification and enjoyment. Continue reading »

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