NWTF BLOG BREAK

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Jun 302022
 

The fourth installment of Northwest Terror Fest begins today (Thursday) in Seattle and runs through Saturday night. Three of us here at NCS — Andy Synn, DGR, and myself (islander) — will be working the festival, which is an event we’ve helped produce since the first year,

This is going to be the best-attended installment of NWTF ever, which probably is in part a reaction to two years of covid screwing up everyone’s life, and obstructing the ability of NWTF to proceed safely. We’re obviously not out of the woods yet, and the festival is requiring pro of vaccination to get into the venues, but people are obviously ravenous for this kind of thing to happen again.

As you can see, the line-up is also great — though some covid-produced last -minute changes aren’t reflected there, including Cryptic Slaughter having to drop and Midnight agreeing to step up and take their place at the literal last minute. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MANTAR, WAKE, MERGER REMNANT, ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE, HOURS OF WORSHIP, TOADEATER, NON SERVIAM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jun 182022
 

 

A Friday night spent carousing followed by a lazy Saturday morning doesn’t make a good predicate for a Saturday music roundup. And yes, I was languid this morning, rather than hungover, after exercising rare restraint on the alcohol last night. But though functional today, I wasn’t feeling motivated. The cool, gray, damp weather outside may have had something to do with that. While the rest of the country seems to be an oven, I was luxuriating in a Pacific Northwest gift.

And then, and then, I still spent an hour and a half flitting through a list of new songs and videos I’d made in as the week went by. Finally, I made these picks.

MANTAR (U.S./Germany)

Mantar have a new look, at least for the video you’re about to see, and new stylistic ingredients in the music too, but they haven’t forsaken their visceral intensity. It pours out through the vocals, which reach shattering zeniths (and also bring Kurt Cobain to mind at times), and through the angst-ridden but soaring riffs and keys, and the booming and battering drums. It’s also damned difficult to get out of the head once you’ve heard it. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PANZERFAUST, THE WAKEDEAD GATHERING, NORDJEVEL, BLACK ROYAL, GODTHRYMM, TRIUMVIR FOUL, ENDROT, TELESTERION, ZORYA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 112022
 


Panzerfaust – photo by Samantha Carcasole

I got an unreasonably early start on the day. On the plus side, that gave me the time to pull together the following large roundup of new discoveries before too much daylight burned. All these songs and videos came out since the first of June.

Fair warning: I have equally exorbitant plans for tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK column.

PANZERFAUST (Canada)

When I saw Panzerfaust at this year’s Maryland Deathfest I wrote this on my FB page: “A wizard of a drummer seated in a garden of cymbals and using all of them; a man-mountain of a frontman who by his mere presence enhances the frightfulness of the music; a pair of axe-slingers who play their instruments near-upright; the creation of an aura of ritual but with visceral thrusts: an amalgam of hallucination and hammering. Well, I’ve missed a lot of sets at MDF but the one by Panzerfaust tonight is the best of the bunch so far and it isn’t close.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BEGRIME EXEMIOUS, PILORI, OISEAUX-TEMPÊTE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jun 102022
 


Begrime Exemious

In the olden days I was able to put together a couple of new music roundups every work-week. Nowadays I’m usually able to do it only once, on Saturdays, when the NCS audience tends to dwindle. I do miss those old days, but to return to them, something else would have to give way, something related to what else I do for the site (e.g., all the daily premieres) or something related to the rest of my life (e.g., speaking to my wife).

As you can see, however, I did manage to find a small margin of time for a round-up today, so small that I nearly didn’t even bother. But the thought of shaving even three worthy songs off the gigantic list I’ll be staring at when contemplating tomorrow’s Saturday S&H seemed worthwhile. So here we go…. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MASSACRE, FLESHROT, ENTRAILS, AMON AMARTH, ANTIGAMA, ANCIENT DEATH, NEGATIVE 13, SUFFER IN SILENCE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 042022
 

 

This has been a discombobulating week for me, which began with a long trip back to Seattle on Monday from a crazy time at Maryland Deathfast and stumbling into my house at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Apart from being worn out, I had the thrill over the next few days of learning that about half the people I traveled and hung out with at MDF, all of whom were vaxxed-up, were testing positive for covid. (If you were at MDF you need to get tested even if you feel fine, because MDF is showing strong signs of being a super-spreader event.)

I also had a ton of shit to catch up with at my day job, and things to do in the planning for Northwest Terror Fest, which is fast approaching. On top of that, my spouse and I had a house guest for one of those days. And on top of that, I paid almost no attention to new releases while I was in Baltimore.

Long story short, I’m way behind on what’s been happening with new songs and videos. That makes today’s selections even more random than usual.

MASSACRE (U.S./Sweden)

I decided to begin with a heaping helping of rotten red meat for lovers of old school death metal, beginning with a track off a forthcoming EP by the venerable Massacre. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AZTLAN, CELTEFOG, TRUNK, NON SERVIAM, EXTERMINAS, NIGHT ATTACK, SWAMPWORM, ASHENSPIRE, DIOPTASE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 212022
 

 

In yesterday’s roundup of new music and videos I explained that I had pushed forward by one day a lot of choices I originally intended to spread around yesterday. I did that to make room for some even more-late-breaking stuff, But now, as promised, I’m circling back to those original picks — and of course I added a couple.

What lies ahead of you is in some instances off the usual beaten paths, especially in the first two tracks and the last two. The very last track represents the biggest divergence of them all, but might just be the most brilliant offering of everything here. And now that I’ve (hopefully) teased you into staying with me to the end, let’s begin….

AZTLAN (Mexico)

I begin with two songs that I suppose could crudely be summed up as “folk metal”, but I don’t mean folk metal in the vein of this new song by Schandmaul. Both are much more interesting (though that Schandmaul song definitely is a toe-tapper). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT, WITCHERY, LUNA’S CALL, AWAKENING SUN, REEKING AURA

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 202022
 

When I woke up this morning I had planned to do a big round-up of 8 new songs and videos that I’d picked during a listening/viewing session yesterday afternoon. Bleary-eyed, I found messages from Mr. Synn telling me about four other new songs and videos that had popped up overnight from bands we all favor. What to do?

What I decided to do was go with those four newer ones today, plus one of the 8 I picked yesterday, and push the others I found yesterday into another round-up tomorrow. Trust me, even with the slight delay those others will be well worth your time on Saturday.

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT (U.S.)

“Atmospheres awash with mysterious origins. Sacred rites of passage and formidable knowledge lead to marvels of engineering. Funnelling the mass into a finite horizon all roads travel in duality. Blurred is the line between real and illusion as the last scream of truth is destroyed by evil so grotesque. It transforms into a lone rider traveling into the forbidden darkness…”

Those are the words proffered by Imperial Triumphant for “Maximalist Scream“, the first advance track from their new album Spirit of Ecstasy, which comes with this intriguing cover art: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ORNÆMENTAL SHINE, ATRAMENTUM, TOMBS, NON SERVIAM

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May 172022
 

I have the freedom to do whatever the hell I want with these round-ups, which should mean an absence of any pressure but somehow doesn’t work out that way. No one tells me to pick this song or that song, no one will live or die (or succeed or fail) depending on what I pick, and I guess the only “wrong” choice is one that no one else likes. So where does the pressure come from?

Damned if I know. Some gremlin in my head that gnaws at the wiring and gibbers “You could have done better! You could have done more!” Begone you devil, I’d rather forget about you and listen to these devils instead:

ORNÆMENTAL SHINE (U.S.)

Not too long ago I, Voidhanger Records launched a flurry of new album announcements and advance tracks from each of them. Eventually I hope to touch on all of them. Today I’ll touch on Deima Panikon, the debut album from Ornæmental Shrine, an avant-garde U.S. quintet that includes members of Uada and Black Hate. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: WORMWITCH, VORARE, TORTURER, SERPENT ASCENDING

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 142022
 

If you happened to wade through my windy intro to yesterday’s small-ish roundup, then you know I had a ton of new songs and videos to check out, and hoped to pull together a lot more picks today than I managed to do yesterday.

Unfortunately, for reasons I won’t get windy about today, I haven’t been able to dig as deeply into that big pile of new things as I’d hoped, so this followup roundup will also be smallish, but hopefully still worth your time. (More to come tomorrow.)

WORMWITCH (Canada)

Kyle Tavares has been a very busy man this year. Aided by some talented bandmates, his group Vital Spirits released a new album, and his band Seer released a new EP (both of which we premiered, here and here), and now Wormwitch (the third active band in which he is a key participant) just released a new digital single yesterday, along with a video that had its premiere at Decibel. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BEHEMOTH, ALTARS, RIBSPREADER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 132022
 

 

In the outer world, Friday the 13th is often perceived as an unlucky day. But in the crypts, swamps, deserts, and various infernal and post-apocalyptic dimensions where most of our beloved music dwells, the signifiers of luck are reversed. Which makes it strange that on this Friday the 13th we have no music or video premieres on our calendar.

On the one hand, since I write almost all of our premieres, that should have meant I had a block of free time to round up some new songs and videos. On the other hand, I used most of the block going through the thousand NCS e-mails I had mostly ignored all week long. What did that get me? Links to about a hundred new songs and clips I thought might conceivably be interesting — and almost no time to listen and watch. I question my judgment.

To deal with the conundrum, I just quickly picked the following three items and deferred the rest of the sifting process to some point later today or tonight, with the goal of having a more fulsome round-up on Saturday. Continue reading »

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