SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: DIMMU BORGIR, SHADOWSPAWN, THORIUM, TERROR, VEIL OMEGA, IVOIRE, SLEEPBOMB, BLOOD GRAVE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Mar 282026
 

(written by Islander)

I took a break from NCS last weekend, a short vacation that led me to eastern Washington. That means I now have twice the usual number of new songs and videos sitting in front of me as I ponder what to feature today. But rather than try to go back and figure out what I might have done last Saturday, today I focused mainly on what surfaced within the realms of metal over just the last week. It was a lot, and so I’ve made this roundup a bit bigger than usual.

I’ve managed to pull out eight new songs, six of them accompanied by videos. I think they provide considerable variety, and I’ve arranged them in a way that made sense to me as I listened to everything. Of course, they’re also a reflection of the darkness inside my head these days.

Tonight I’m going to a retirement party for a close friend. She’s too young to be stopping work altogether, just closing one chapter in her life and starting a new one, but I still want to be there. Doubtless, it will keep me out late, with probably a three-hour round-trip on the travel alone. I don’t know if that will impact tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK column, but it might. Another reason why today’s collection is bigger than usual. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR, SKAPHOS, WITCH RIPPER, SISYPHEAN, VOID OF LIGHT, DEPRESSION NAP, APOSTLE, NOISE AHOLIC

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Mar 142026
 

(written by Islander)

Technology is treacherous. I had this post written five hours ago, but a glitchy security feature prevented me from accessing the site and posting it. Our web host fixed the problem just minutes ago. Which is why this roundup is appearing so late.

Other than weeks ending on a Bandcamp Friday and weeks that include Halloween, my perception is that weeks ending on a Friday the 13th tend to be the most bulging with new metal. That was certainly true of the past week (and the few days before it began). You want proof? Well, here are 10 well-known bands who released new songs and/or videos during that period:

ALLEGAEON (U.S.)

EMPLOYED TO SERVE (UK)

HELLRIPPER (Scotland)

IMMOLATION (U.S.)

INFERI (U.S.)

MONSTROSITY (U.S.)

PORTRAYAL OF GUILT (U.S.)

SARCASM (Sweden)

SIX FEET UNDER (U.S.)

VOMITORY (Sweden)

I easily could have included any of those songs and videos in this column, because they’re all damned good. And you won’t go wrong going after them, which I’ve made it easy to do via those hyperlinks. But I decided instead to do what we often do around this place, and that’s dig deeper under the ground. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GOMMA, GORMA, GHOROT, GOATPSALM, GLUTTONY

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Mar 072026
 

(written by Islander)

I’m experiencing technical difficulties. For the second time since February 1st, our DSL service shut down. The last time we waited two weeks for the DSL company to send out a repair technician. He got it going again. He explained that a pair of wires in the main line to which our house was connected had shorted out. He connected us to a different pair, but said there were a bunch of other pairs in the line that were also shorted out.

He said he would report the need for maintenance, but I got the impression this need for maintenance is widespread around the island where we live and that we shouldn’t get our hopes up. I guess there’s not enough money to be made here for the DSL company to spend money. And so, 16 days after the last repair, the DSL service stopped working again. It’s been out since last weekend. A repair technician is supposed to visit us again on Monday. Just a one-week wait this time instead of two weeks.

No DSL means our TV is useless for streaming. It also means no internet connectivity except what I can get from my phone. I’ve been using that as a hotspot for my desktop computer. The cell service is good enough that I can get online and do most of what I can do when the DSL is working. But there’s one drawback: a lot of the time the cell service isn’t good enough to stream music and videos, in part because my wife piggy-backs on my phone too since she uses a different cell service that’s borderline useless where we live. Kind of a big drawback for a music blog like ours. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PHASE MERIDIAN, COGNIZANCE, PIG’S BLOOD, NUNSLAUGHTER, SWÆRMMM, FRACTURED INSANITY, NIXIL, GODLESS ANGEL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 282026
 

(written by Islander)

I did a better job than usual this past week going through NCS e-mails every day, compiling a list of what I thought might be worth checking out, and digging through that list with sharp ears. I still had to leave a lot behind, but made a voluminous 8 picks for this Saturday’s column.

And then… I went out last night to party without writing anything, and woke up very late today. I thought about cutting my planned column in half so I could get it finished before sundown, but then decided, fuck that, I’ll keep everything but cut way back on the verbiage — to the likely consternation of music scholars who will be studying my writings for decades into the future (yeah, that wasn’t serious).

If my plan for the day works out, these 8 choices (many of them with good videos) will leave you with whiplash and a scrambled brain if you manage to make it through all of them. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AT THE GATES, THE SILVER, THE LEAVING, DEFECT DESIGNER

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Feb 212026
 

(written by Islander)

Today’s collection will be shorter than usual, because I need to leave house and computer fairly early this morning for a day-long outing with my spouse. We have a ferry departure we need to make, so I won’t have any wiggle room.

I suppose my first choice for today is an obvious one, for reasons I suppose I’ll identify in case it’s less obvious than I think. After that I settled on a couple of “proven commodities” who are proving their worth again, and one new band that drew attention because of its lineup. I hope these songs and videos get your weekend off to the right start, as they did for me. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MELECHESH, KADAVEREICH, ARCHITECTS OF AEON, A FOREST OF STARS, THE HOLEUM, VOIDSPIRE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Feb 142026
 

(written by Islander)

I felt a cold coming on yesterday when I woke up, and that was quickly followed by the discovery that anyone trying to get to NCS experienced frantic meltdowns from their browsers, which warned people that our site was insecure and might expose all their personal finances and identities to theft, might turn their children into ghouls, might cause cats to have sex with dogs, etc., etc. In other words, it seemed our site’s SSL security certificate had expired.

Or at least that’s what I concluded based on some googling, because I hadn’t received any advance notice or warning. I had forgotten what an SSL is, had no idea when we implemented it, and was completely clueless about what I was supposed to do to fix the problem. I e-mailed our IT consultant, who I think must have implemented SSL for NCS years ago (I still haven’t heard back from him).

I also opened a support ticket with our security provider, because our web host told me they maintain the site’s security certificate. I haven’t heard back from them either — though late yesterday afternoon the scary browser warnings stopped, so I guess they remewed our certificate, but I really am still in the dark about the whole incident. Which means I’m also in the dark about how to prevent this bullshit from happening again.

Oh, and my cold was also in full bloom by late afternoon yesterday. Continue reading »

“RAGE, RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE CHILDREN”: FOUR COMPILATIONS IN AID OF THE PALESTINE CHILDREN’S RELIEF FUND

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 102026
 

(written by Islander)

Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Hungry is a UK-based charitable organization that has been releasing music to raise funds for various causes. On February 6th they released four massive compilations of music with the pledge that all proceeds will be contributed to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Each compilation has its own title and artwork, and they organize tracks contributed by bands into these four genre categories:

Death Metal & Grindcore (33)
Black Metal & Noise (35)
Heavy & Atmospheric (35)
Punk, Hardcore, Thrash & Madness (34)

Altogether, the compilations include music from 137 bands, and many of them will be familiar to our visitors. The number of songs included on each comp is in parentheses above. Each compilation is very modestly priced — £3.50 per comp — but purchasers can pay more if they wish, and of course the charitable purpose of this endeavor provides a good reason to do so. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PANOPTICON, UPRISING, LUCERNE HAMMER, BIAŁYWILK, VANISHING EARTH, LAST SADNESS, FOTOCRIME, EGREGORE, TRANSILVANIA, KATHAREIN

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 072026
 

(written by Islander)

At this point Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis” is probably the most widely heard protest song to emerge from the ICE invasion of the Twin Cities and the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. But it hasn’t been long, only 14 days since ICE agents shot Pretti to death, even though it seems much longer than that.

Undoubtedly other songwriters have already started releasing their own protests across many genres of music, though I wouldn’t know (you’re looking at the wrong dude if you want insight into the breadth of modern musical culture). Where I do tend to notice things are in the genres of extreme metal, and I guess a few “metal adjacent” realms.

Over the last week I noticed a handful of songs from those realms that were either protest songs or tracks designed to raise money in support of the resistance in Minneapolis to the sweeping seizure of immigrants (and racially profiled U.S. citizens). In the first section of this Saturday roundup I’ve collected those songs, and one other that seemed appropriate. Fortunately, the music’s good, in addition to the artists’ hearts being in the right place. (If you know of more, please leave a Comment.)

To round things out, I added three other very good songs that surfaced last week. I could have added 20 more, because it was a big week for new metal, what with yesterday being a Bandcamp Friday. But we do what we can. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: HANGING GARDEN, WINTERFYLLETH, CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX, NERVOSA, CHAINED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN, IGORRR

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 312026
 

(written by Islander)

In deciding what to feature in these Saturday columns I sometimes spend a lot of time making my way through a lot of songs. Sometimes many of them are deflating, and the hunt goes on. Sometimes a lot of them are great, and the choices become difficult. But this week I happened upon seven songs in a row and knew right away that six of those would be here today. (I left one of them aside, so the usual collage of cover images would be symmetrical.)

As it also happened, the following songs include an unusual amount of singing — not singing we have to just put up with because other aspects of the songs make them commanding, but because the singing is itself a big part of the draw. And as it happened, all but one of the songs debuted with good videos.

None of these bands is even close to the Metallica strata of stardom, but I think it’s fair to say that most of them are well-known among metal lovers, or at least the kind of metal lovers who show up at our doorstep. Most of these bands have had careers of significant length and discographies that are well-respected. For these columns, I usually try to work in music by bands from deeper under the ground, using bigger names as lures for visitors who might not know of the more obscure names. But I didn’t have room to do as much of that today as I typically do. My goal is to make amends tomorrow. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: WITCH RIPPER, CNOC AN TURSA, DIABOLUS MECUM SEMPERTERNE, UNMOTHER, GROWTH, MIRE, SLÔDDER, SUNDOWNER, MALUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 242026
 

(written by Islander)

A quick note before embarking on the new songs and videos I’ve collected for today: Tomorrow there will probably be no SHADES OF BLACK column. I’ll be over the water in Seattle tonight for a big annual party. Between getting ready, getting there, partying, and getting back, I won’t have much time for NCS and I don’t expect I’ll have a clear head whenever I wake up tomorrow.

And then tomorrow will also serve up a couple of NFL playoff games I want to see, especially the second one.

As for what I’ve picked for today’s roundup, out of a really mammoth week of new releases, I’ve leaned further into shades of black metal than usual because of the likely absence of the Sunday column, and for the same reason I’ve made this collection bigger than usual. I’ve also probably leaned pretty hard into music that seems in line with my perception that the world is going to hell even faster than I thought it would, with way too many people beginning the year still thinking thoughts like these. Continue reading »

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