OVERFLOWING STREAMS: ARCHITECT OF SETH, CLØUDY SKIES, DUMAL, DUNGEON SERPENT, IMMORTAL DISSOLVER, MESSE DE MINUIT, OUTER HEAVEN, TEMPLE OF VOID, VELNIAS, WITCH RIPPER

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Sep 192026
 

(written by Islander)

It has been quite a while since I’ve done this, 92 days to be precise — “this” being to use the OVERFLOWING STREAMS banner for one of these Saturday roundups instead of the usual SEEN AND HEARD. I don’t have a precise dividing line between them, it’s more of a gut feel, but my gut tells me that 10 selections is an overflow.

Beyond using the different banner name for collections of this size, I also dispense with the time required to download, upload, and re-size album art, and I put the release info in lists instead of sentences. I also had delusions of trying to be a bit more concise in my comments about the songs and videos, too, but for the most part I didn’t succeed.

I also didn’t spend time trying to figure out a flow for the music, a sequencing that would generate either companionability or stark contrasts among the songs (or both), but instead put everything in alphabetical order by band name.

The objective of all this was to be more efficient with the time I’ve got this morning so I can include more instead of less. In some settings less can be more, but not today. Continue reading »

NORTHWEST TERROR FEST 2027: FIRST LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT AND TICKETS ON SALE

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Sep 182026
 

(written by Islander)

As you know by now (or damned well should!), No Clean Singing is the chief sponsor of Seattle-based Northwest Terror Fest. Since the first year of the fest in 2017 we’ve been supporting the event in a variety of ways, including our core cadre of writers lending their brains and brawn (but mainly brawn) to the three days of music before and after doors open. We are very proud to be NWTF’s main sponsor again for the next edition of the fest on May 6-8, 2027.

Today NWTF has officially announced the first wave of bands confirmed to perform next year, and you can see those 19 names on the poster above. It’s a hell of a roster, and more great names are yet to come. In addition, NWTF launched Early Bird sales of full-festival passes yesterday at a discounted price. Those passes were first offered only to people who had subscribed to the NWTF e-mail newsletter, and they sold out quickly even though we hadn’t announced any of the bands.

Another round of full-price festival passes goes on sale today at 10 a.m. Pacific Time at this location:

http://tinyurl.com/nwtf2027

This round of 3-Day passes is being offered at the lowest price you’ll see for the full weekend (aside from the already-gone Early Bird round). Quantities are limited, and once this allotment evaporates the fest will release a second round of 3-Day passes at a higher price.

Now, for a few more details: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: UNDERDARK, LIZARD CULT, LŌTICO, OF WOLVES, METHEDRINE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 122026
 

(written by Islander)

Welcome to The Department of Broken Records. I know that’s what I’ll sound like if I explain how tough it was for me to make choices for this roundup or how late I slept this morning, so I’ll just skip that (get it?) and go straight to the songs and videos, which I hope you’ll enjoy as much as I have — even though the oversleeping has made the collection briefer than average. Continue reading »

COVENANT FESTIVAL XI PREVIEW: 11 YEARS OF CANADIAN CHAOS

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Sep 102026
 

(We welcome back to NCS a Seattle-based contributor who goes by the moniker KAOS_Agent. He prepared the following preview of the next edition of Covenant Festival, which is scheduled to take place in Vancouver on September 24-26.)

There’s something special about a festival being able to enter into its second decade of existence while at the same time maintaining a high-calibre roster of underground and emergent bands. This year, Vancouver, Canada-based Covenant Festival has assembled an ensemble of black metal bands from corners of the earth both near and far, and showcases the organizing collective’s careful craft and artistic taste. What started as a group of friends spinning vinyl has now grown to one of the preeminent extreme and black metal festivals in North America, and considering the state of the world, there’s never been a better time to visit Canada. Covenant takes place September 24-26 at the venerable Rickshaw Theater, and both single and three-day passes are available here.

Because Covenant Festival is located a mere 2.5 hours away from Seattle, I’ve always viewed it as a sparring partner to the NCS-backed Northwest Terror Festival, but with an extra dose of blasphemy. This should come as no surprise, as the inception of the festival started with Shawn Hache and Sebastian Montesi from Mitochondrion, with promoter Abelardo Mayoral-Fierros soon joining the fold.

Since then, the ethos, complexities and ambitions of the festival have grown to now a 9-person collective, fueled by metal maniacism and operating in an entirely DIY, zero-sponsor capacity. Running a festival can be a soul-wrenching journey, but the expanded team allows them to build off of last year’s momentum to  “always aim to create a world-class experience for both attendees and performing bands.” This year, the activities are centralized to the Rickshaw Theater, a venue well-known in the Vancouver metal community, and one I’ve always wanted to go to ever since seeing internet videos of Strapping Young Lad way back in the day. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: DARKEST HOUR, GREAT FALLS, WORM ALTAR, NERVOCHAOS, MILIM KASHOT VOL. 7, GRISEVILLE

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Sep 052026
 

(written by Islander)

As we all do, some days I wake up feeling like shit but still have to forge ahead with daily tasks. Today is one of those days.

The covid virus is still spreading around the country, and an updated vaccine for it became available last week. Because I’m in a demographic with an elevated risk of serious infection, I got the updated shot at a local pharmacy late yesterday afternoon. That’s what caused me to feel like shit this morning. I have a mild case of the sniffles but mainly I ache all over. It’s not so bad if I stay perfectly still, but any kind of movement is painful.

If my past experience with the vaccines is a guide, this will all pass by tomorrow or the next day at the latest, and for me the discomfort is a price worth paying for the enhanced immunity. The daily tasks I still feel the need to forge ahead with include preparing this column you’re now reading.

I mean, I could have just blown it off and gone back to bed. No one would have fired me for shirking. No one else would have suffered serious damage (probably). But this is the kind of daily task that takes my mind off of what ails me instead of turning up the torture dial — so on we go. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NAILS, THRONEHAMMER, NIHILO, MORGUE SUPPLIER, PLUTONIAN SHORE

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Sep 042026
 

(written by Islander)

It’s a Bandcamp Friday. But you probably knew that. I failed to put it on my calendar but the engorgement of our in-box over the last 24 hours reminded me. So even though we’ve already published our usual three features for the day I decided to do this fourth one so I don’t feel quite as overwhelmed in preparing the usual Saturday roundup.

Be forewarned: you might experience whiplash as you move from song to song today (and within some of the songs too). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MANNVEIRA, LUGUBRIOUS GARMENT, MORGUE, BEATEN TO DEATH, NO GRAVE, CASA DE PIQUE, FLAGELO, FEAR FACTORY

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Aug 292026
 

(written by Islander)

This happened to be a week when I paid a lot of attention to the emergence of new songs and videos. In my case, what that means is saving links and making lists instead of actually listening and watching. I don’t know why I do this. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, given that the result is just a gigantic string of band names and links staring me in the face on Saturday mornings like this one. I guess it’s further evidence that I have a bit of OCD in my makeup, though “a bit of OCD” probably isn’t a term that clinicians use; I’m wary of finding out what their actual diagnosis might be.

Anyway, the list stared at me and I stared back. A few notable names caught my eye, along with a notable piece of artwork, and so I checked those out. They were all winners, and that greatly speeded my task. I also added one of the few songs on the list that I actually listened to last week; I knew even then that it had to be here.

But I started the morning with music from the two Colombian bands you’ll find below, two bands I didn’t know about until receiving a recommendation for them a few days ago. And then the last thing I heard before finishing the selection is also the last song and video in this grouping — yet another notable name.

The word of the day, by the way, is “pandemonium”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BLACK ROYAL, MOTHER OF GRAVES, ANAGNORISIS, OFFERNAT, STATIC ABYSS, LACONIST

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Aug 222026
 

(written by Islander)

My short vacation which spanned last weekend prevented me from writing both this Saturday column and the usual one on Sunday. So for today I had two weeks’ worth of possibilities to choose among, along with many more on my list from previous weeks. Deciding what to recommend is always difficult, but today’s decisions were monumentlly difficult. That will be true for tomorrow’s column as well.

I think I’m best advised to cut this introduction short and get right into the music. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A BANDCAMP FRIDAY: CH’AHOM, WELLNESS CHECK, DUMAL

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Aug 072026
 

(written by Islander)

We’ve arrived at another Friday when Bandcamp relinquishes its share of sales to artists and labels. The timing is always a bit awkward for me because I usually post roundups of new music on Saturdays, too late to help people take advantage of Bandcamp’s temporary boon to music-makers. Of course, our usual week-long series of premieres and reviews still provide a lot of recommendations, and listeners can always save things for the next Bandcamp Friday (which will happen on September 4th).

I didn’t plan to do a roundup today because I had agreed to premiere and review a new album, but that fell through at the 11th hour. So I have some unexpected time to fill that hole, though not as much as I would have liked. I wish I could do more today, but a little something is better than a lot of nothing, especially because all of the following three songs are stupendous in different ways. If all goes well, I’ll have a lot more music to share tomorrow.

P.S. Although this little roundup doesn’t include releases by Dark Descent Records or Unholy Anarchy Records, both of those labels have pledged to donate 20% of any purchases made today on their Bandcamp pages to the GoFundMe established by Neill Jameson (of Krieg, and a contributor to NCS) to help deal with expenses after the recent passing of his wife Nikki from cancer and his need to become a full-time caregiver for their autistic daughter Vale. Direct donations to the GoFundMe can be made here. Please help if you can. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KRALLICE, BEASTLOR, SEKTION VASORÉ

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Jul 282026
 

(written by Islander)

I only had one song premiere to prepare for today and nothing else for us to share with you besides the review from Andy that opened our day. So I impetuously decided to pull together this roundup of new music.

The first two choices attracted my attention because their overlapping lineups include people who I think it’s fair to say are luminaries among discerning metal listeners, those of us who search for more than “the same old, same old”. These artists’ creative interests and impulses also often lead them in unexpected directions, so there was an important intrigue factor in making the choices.

The third choice was much more impulsive. I just decided to listen to the music of the last band to e-mail us yesterday, a band with no reputation I knew of, and only two demo songs to their name. I’m so glad I yielded to that impulse, and I hope you will be too. Continue reading »

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