SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: WATAIN, KREATOR, NIHILO, SLUGDGE, CEREMONIAL DECAY, SIDEREAN, BESTIA ATER, OTTONE PESANTE

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Feb 052022
 


Photo Credit: Evelina Szczesik

 

I heard a couple of the following tracks last Saturday and saved them for what I hoped would be one of these collections during the last week, but I never had enough time to put one together. The rest of them I checked out this morning (they’re even more recent), along with others I took a pass on, and more that I’ve saved for tomorrow’s Shades of Black column.

In assembling this collection I followed one of our fairly standard strategies: I decided to include some big names at the outset, in the hope that would lure people into the more obscure names that follow, and I included a curveball at the end.

WATAIN (Sweden)

When you know the band is Watain and you see they’ve released a song named “The Howling“, you already have a good idea what’s coming. But Eric Danielsson spelled it out: “‘The Howling‘ refers to the wordless voice of the wild, wailing eerily through the ages, urging us to leave our safe spaces and explore the dark recesses of the great Abyss both within and without. To see it, to learn from it, to know it.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MESHUGGAH, AMORPHIS, CENTINEX, DAWN OF SOLACE, THE SPIRIT, BEASTIALITY

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Jan 292022
 

 

I spent the first part of this morning pulling together the second-to-last installment of our Most Infectious Song list, which hasn’t left a lot of time for me to make my way through the typically giant list of songs and videos which surfaced over the last week that I thought might be worth recommending. I jumped around that list like a hummingbird (if hummingbirds moved at the pace of sloths). Here’s what I came up with:

MESHUGGAH (Sweden)

Even a blind hummingbird would know to stop and taste the nectar of a new Meshuggah song, and I’m not blind. Nor are the 150,000 people who’ve listened to the song’s YouTube stream in the last two days. But what to make of “The Abysmal Eye“? Continue reading »

A REMINDER: THE NEXT NCS GUEST DJ SPOT AT GIMME METAL IS… TODAY!

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Jan 252022
 

We’ve already given you a heads-up that today — January 25th — three of our writers (DGR, Andy Synn, and Islander) will again be appearing as guest DJs on a two-hour show at the Gimme Metal online music platform. We promised you a reminder, for those who are calendar-challenged, and this is it.

The way the show works is that Gimme Metal will broadcast a playlist of songs we three chose, interspersed with our recorded dialogue about the music (and possibly other words of timeless wisdom, or not), and we will also be on-line to participate in live chats with anyone who drops by to listen.

Today’s show will air at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, 7:oo pm Eastern Time, midnight in the UK, and 1:00 a.m. on January 26 CET. If you haven’t listened to Gimme Metal before, here’s how: Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: IMMOLATION, MIDNIGHT, THE HALO EFFECT, FETAL BLOOD EAGLE, MORMÂNT DE SNAGOV, NEBULA ORIONIS, FACELESS ENTITY, KONTUSION, DEATHBELL, SPIRITUAL DECEPTION, OLD IRON, GHOST

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Jan 222022
 

 

I hope you’re having a good weekend. I hope to make it better by sharing a dozen new songs and videos I picked after sliding down the interhole for hours early this morning. I made an effort to provide a broad span of genres, and to arrange everything so as to take advantage of the contrasts. I’ve also put every damned one of these tracks on my list of candidates for 2022’s Most Infectious Songs.

Also, when a round-up swells to these proportions I usually don’t take time to download/upload the artwork, but I made an exception today because there’s a lot of good cover art in this group, beginning with Eliran Kantor‘s stupendous painting for the new Immolation. Speaking of which….

IMMOLATION (U.S.)

Does anyone need any more reason to get stoked over a new Immolation album? I don’t see any hands up. I guess I could have skipped this first song and video. I guess you could skip over it too. But I’m getting more and more near-sighted, so I could have missed a hand, so here goes. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KRALLICE, NEGATIVA, UNRU, HAUTAJAISYÖ, IMPLORE, BLAZEMTH

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Jan 202022
 

 

Here are a half dozen new tracks and videos from forthcoming records that caught my attention over the last 24 hours, and are worth your attention. I think you’ll find that altogether they make for an interconnected playlist that flows well.

KRALLICE (U.S.)

If there is now any kind of reliable forecast for new music from Krallice, it is to expect the unexpected. It seems evident that the many creative forces within the band are simply uninterested in plowing the same furrow twice, and instead they give free rein to what interests them and how they’re feeling at the moment. Like all good mavericks, the impulse to shake things up also seems to be alive and well. Continue reading »

ROUND SIX: NCS TAKES OVER GIMME METAL AGAIN ON JANUARY 25TH

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Jan 182022
 

Way back on the 17th of August, 2020, three of the slaves who toil at NCS (Andy Synn, DGR, and Islander) appeared as guest DJs at GIMME METAL, curating a two-hour on-line radio show in which we spun tracks of our own demented choosing, interspersed with our own pre-recorded banter, and also engaged in live on-line chats with listeners. Since then we’ve done it four more times, and as you can see we’re going to show up again for a sixth episode on January 25, 2022.

The three of us have so much fun doing this that we start planning our next playlists almost immediately after one of our appearances ends, hoping that we haven’t screwed up so badly that Gimme Metal won’t invite us back. In fact, planning the playlists is more than half the fun. The rest of the fun comes when we gather through Zoom to record the interstitial banter (though it’s probably not so much fun for Andy when he goes through all of our blabbing to cut it down) and when we get on-line during the show to engage in discussions with listeners. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 2)

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Jan 172022
 

 

As explained yesterday in Part 1 of this immense round-up, I made an initial cull of 23 songs and videos, most of which surfaced during the last week. I had intended to sift through those more carefully to reach a more manageable number, but due to lack of time I decided to just throw the whole boiling mass at your face. And I actually added another track last night to make the total an even two dozen.

I alphabetized the list by band name and then cut the mass in half, which might have made it a little easier on your senses and your time; we begin today with the letter “I”. Unlike most of my round-ups I also didn’t have time to include the usual links, artwork, or much commentary — mainly just small bits of info about the releases. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 1)

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Jan 162022
 

 

This weekend hasn’t been conducive to my NCS plans. I didn’t have time yesterday morning to post a round-up of new songs and videos, only time enough to share some artwork and news. During Saturday afternoon I plowed through a lot of new tracks and videos that mostly surfaced over the last week, and found a whopping 23 of them that I enjoyed to varying degrees.

Obviously, that’s way too many to post about, even for an OVERFLOWING STREAMS type of round-up. Some sifting was required. But sifting takes time, and for reasons I won’t bore you with it turns out that free time has been in very short supply this weekend. What to do?

Well, what I decided to do was just to say Fuck It and foist all 23 of those songs and videos upon you, with almost no commentary about the music and not even the usual links and artwork, just a small amount of info about the releases that include them. Even with that approach I’m dubious that I’ll get everything ready to go before I have to depart my computer for the rest of the day. So I alphabetized everything by band name and cut the group into two parts.

Part 2 might come tomorrow instead of later today. Sadly, I won’t have time for a SHADES OF BLACK column, though there is some black metal sprinkled through this giant collection, along with music across a big range of other sub-genres. Continue reading »

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD: THE SPIRIT, HAUNTED SHORES, MESHUGGAH

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Jan 152022
 

 

I have a gigantic list of new songs and videos which appeared over the last week (or two) that I want to sift through. I had hoped to make selections for a round-up today, but got a very late start on the morning, and not long from now I’ve got to be at a virtual meeting for the job that pays the bills around here, which will further screw up those plans. I’m not sure if I’ll get to the round-up in time to share it today. But I wanted to do something through NCS before having to disappear, and so…

…I decided to just share some artwork for three forthcoming albums (and a little bonus at the end). As the title of the post implies, there’s no music available from for two of the albums, and although at the last minute I did discover one preview track that’s become available for the third one, I haven’t listened to it yet. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: VASTATUM, A PALE DECEMBER, NEUROTECH, DEATHCULT

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Jan 082022
 

 

I had grandiose ambitions for this Saturday round-up, but remembered at the last minute that I had to join a Zoom meeting this morning for the job that pays the bills around here. After that ended I didn’t have time to pull together any more music than what you’ll find here from a quartet of bands. But these four have enough high-energy intensity to keep your heart-rate elevated from start to finish (and probably for a while afterward too).

VASTATUM (Canada)

The whining sounds of this first song swells over turbulent drumming and throbbing bass notes, and then swirls like wind-driven flames. Fiery vocals join the fray as the riffing generates a sound that’s both tormented and glorious. The incendiary intensity of the music subsides, and it becomes more mysterious and hypnotic, and then it roils again, with a feeling that’s beleaguered and desperate, as the vocals become even more shattering in their tortured extremity. The lead guitar whirls once more in a mad dance as the sound fades away…. Continue reading »

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