Sep 052025
 

(written by Islander)

Today is another Bandcamp Friday. If you’ve forgotten the fine print, this means that from midnight last night to midnight tonight (PST) Bandcamp will waive its usual revenue share (10% for physical items and 15% for digital items) for sales through the platform.

Sadly, there’s other fine print you can find here about the impact of the Trump administration’s elimination of the de minimus exemption from tariffs. There is apparently an exception for “informational media” entering the US, which includes vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, books, sheet music, and other items, but don’t forget the decision of many European postal services to suspend shipments to the U.S. following the elimination of the de minimus exemption. Of course, this tariff-related shitstorm will not affect purchases of digital music.

Speaking of storms, our in-box blew up over the last 24-48 hours with messages from bands and labels seeking to take advantage of this Bandcamp Friday, which always happens every time one of these Friday’s rolls around. I managed to keep my nose above water and picked a few recommendations for you — on top of the great volume of other recommendations we’ve made since the last Bandcamp Friday. I wish I could make this a bigger roundup of recommendations, but life has gotten in the way. Continue reading »

Sep 022025
 

(written by Islander)

I only had one premiere to write up for today and only one other post on the calendar (an interview you can find here), so I felt a compulsion to add something more, hence this brief roundup of new songs.

The first two picks were pretty obvious to me, coming from bands we’ve been following at NCS for a good long while. The third one was from a project I knew nothing about before this morning, but after hearing it I felt like a cut of meat that had been “tenderized” until paper thin, and I thought you might like to feel that way too. Continue reading »

Aug 302025
 

(written by Islander)

This Saturday roundup is larger than usual — one new music video, seven songs from records due for release over the next couple of months, and an EP released a week ago.

Once again, I fell down a rabbit hole of high-powered musical intensity expressed in differing ways, from brutal and bludgeoning to mind-lacerating. I’m also going to give myself a pat on the back (because you’re too far away to do it) for arranging the songs in a way that I think provides a coherent flow (flow really isn’t the right word for the movements from song to song, but I haven’t thought of a better one).

P.S. In the U.S. this is Labor Day Weekend, a three-day break from work for a lot of people (but not everyone). As is our habit around here, we’re not taking a break. As usual for us during holidays, we’re just going to ignore this one and continue fouling the airwaves straight through Monday. Of course we hope you’ll come back to see what we have in store tomorrow and the next day, but even if you aren’t here we will be. Continue reading »

Aug 292025
 

(written by Islander)

With only one track premiere on our calendar for today I grabbed the free time to once again get a head start on our usual Saturday roundup of recommended new music. I picked four songs out of the great flood of new things that surfaced this week.

This little collection includes offerings from bands that have been personal favorites for a while (I’ll get to some newcomers to my ears over the weekend), and it begins and ends with songs paired with very good videos, both of which also include some very different combinations of metal and classical music (and the third song does too). Continue reading »

Aug 282025
 

 

(Our Slovenia-based contributor Didrik Mešiček plans to go to a festival near Milan in September and decided to make everyone else jealous about it — unless you go too, which he hopes you will, and he’ll be easy to find there. If he survives, we expect a report.)

Are you sad summer is almost over and with it festival season? Yeah, me too, mate. But while most, if not all, week-long festivals have concluded there are still smaller hidden gems waiting for us in September and in the autumnal months. One of those that caught my eye comes from Italian colleagues at https://metalitalia.com/ who are one of the biggest Italian metal webzines and, of course, also organise their own two-day festival at the end of September right on the outskirts of Milano, which they’ve called – and I hope you’re ready for this – Metalitalia.com Festival.

Where and when exactly? Well, the festival takes place on the 27th and the 28th of September, which is a weekend so it’s a bit easier to take a trip to Lombardy and see some majestic lakes while you’re there as well. Or tell your wife (if she’s not a metalhead) you’re actually going for the fashion and whatever else is in Milano that non-metalhead women are interested in, while you sneak off to see some really cool bands in the Live Music Club (yeah, they didn’t try very hard with the name of the venue, I know).  Continue reading »

Aug 232025
 

(written by Islander)

I got a late start today. When I collapsed late last night I had many ideas about what to recommend, a very long list of potentials, but only one decision. The choosing came this morning, and was painful because I knew I needed to get this thing finished before the sun got too high in the sky and therefore left some songs behind. I can put a few of them into tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK column.

Unlike yesterday’s head-start on this roundup I haven’t pinned a couple of big names at the top to act as a lure for all the swimming fish out there. This will be more like using a dragnet to trawl for bottom-feeders. Continue reading »

Aug 222025
 

(written by Islander)

The year is almost two-thirds finished, 63.84% done and dusted as of today, to be precise. (I didn’t do the math, but relied instead on this extremely helpful website, which shows that the year will be 66.03% complete on August 29th.) We know from experience that the remainder of the year is going to rush by like a flood, even with a bunch of holidays bobbing along in the froth. We’ll be in year-end season before we know it.

Speaking of a churning froth, this past week included a big surge of worthy new songs and videos, and fortunately I had enough time to get a head-start on the usual Saturday roundup. I seem to be renewing a habit of leading off with some large names most of you will know and then falling down a crevasse into lesser-known territory, comparatively speaking. If you know all these names already, congratulations, you have excellent (though possibly deranged) taste! Continue reading »

Aug 092025
 

(written by Islander)

It’s unlikely I will be able to write a SHADES OF BLACK column for tomorrow, due to conflicting weekend plans with my wife. So I’ve made this Saturday roundup a big one, and I’ve included a greater-than-usual number of black metal bands.

I decided to put a shiny bauble at the top of the group, hoping that it might lure some people to dig deeper into the pile before realizing they’ll get cut up by all the sharp objects underneath. Which is to say, there’s really nothing like Amorphis waiting for you later on. Continue reading »

Aug 082025
 

(written by Islander)

For the second time this week I found myself with enough spare time to pull together a week-day roundup of recommended new music and videos, getting a head-start on the usual Saturday collection.

Like the one I sorted out for Wednesday, today’s collection includes some very well-known names but also foists upon you a couple of comparative obscurities to help even things out (and by my lights the most interesting song — and the strangest one — in today’s group comes from one of those lesser lights). Continue reading »

Aug 062025
 


Hooded Menace photo by Pasi Nevalaita

(written by Islander)

Today is another rare day when we have no premieres on our daily calendar, and we only had one on Monday and one on Tuesday. This seems to be just a brief ebb. Next week we have either two track premieres or an album premiere slated for every day. Other premieres are already scattered across the calendar through the rest of August and into September.

But in light of this week’s ebb, I used the free time to pull together the following mid-week roundup of recommended new songs and videos. This one might lean into a greater share of bigger names than usual, but I have also sling-shot a few into the mix that will even out the notoriety scale. Continue reading »