SEEN AND HEARD: KRISIUN, DOEDSVANGR, SERPENT COLUMN, NERVOCHAOS

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Aug 272021
 

 

This round-up is a Brazilian death metal sandwich with some poisonous charred goods inside. I’m anticipating I’ll have time for a second round-up later today, which will be some other kind of tasty but toxic meal.

KRISIUN (Brazil)

Yesterday Century Media released a video for the title track from Krisiun‘s latest album, Scourge Of The Enthroned, which is has been out since September 2018.

This is such a good song — jagged and jolting, weird and wailing, menacing and mad. Moving mainly at turbocharged speed, it gives your skull a hard slugging and your guts a good gouging, blaring and boiling with maniacal ferocity but also packing a pulse-pounding punch and infiltrating bits of eerie melody. The soloing screams, the vocals are savage, and the drumming is lights-out. And it’s a blast to watch these veteran barbarians perform the song. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GOAT TORMENT, MORTIFERUM, ANOMALY, TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE DISASTER

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Aug 262021
 

 

As you can see, I found time to stitch together another round-up of new music today. As usual, it barely scratches the surface of new songs and videos I’ve spotted this week, but I thought the choices would collectively give our visitors whiplash, and it pleased me to think so.

The music I’ve chosen for today comes from three pre-established personal favorites and one newcomer that’s already made a very positive first impression.

GOAT TORMENT (Belgium)

We begin with a supercharged adrenaline rush, a track that delivers storming, Marduk-like sonic warfare which marries bullet-spitting and bomb-throwing drums, wild, incendiary riffing, dominating vocal savagery, and an exotic wailing solo with an Arabian flare. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (TOO MANY NAMES TO PUT IN THIS TITLE, AGAIN)

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Aug 212021
 

 

The usual torrent of new music continued this past week, culminating in the expected high tide on Friday. Harried by my day job, I couldn’t keep up with what happened yesterday, though my compatriot DGR did, and he again funneled a lot of the new stuff my way. Five of the selections you’ll find below came from him, though I did manage to add eight more advance tracks that I scoped out this morning, to create a lucky 13.

As in other instances of gigantic round-ups such as this one, it includes a lot of bigger names, but I’ve infiltrated some lesser-knowns. It’s like putting out honey to attract flies, and then hoping something they weren’t expecting bites them. Welcome aboard flies! Here we go in alphabetical order:

1914 (Ukraine)

It’s exciting to see an underground favorite such as 1914 (whom we’ve been writing about since their early days) getting picked up by a big label such as Napalm, for the simple reason that it will expose their prodigious talents to a wider audience. The fact that Nick Holmes makes a guest appearance on the song/video that leads off this collection will help as well. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: AEON, UNDERGANG, BEYOND GRACE, THE SILVER, DOLD VORDE ENS NAVN, ATRÆ BILIS, FURZE, SARKOM

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Aug 192021
 

 

I thought I could get this round-up finished in time to post it yesterday when most of these songs and videos were hot off the presses, but I got diverted by my day job. But day-old bread is still pretty good bread. (We don’t have any rule against mixing metaphors here.)

AEON (Sweden)

To begin, we worship in the “Church of Horror“, the first song from the first album by Aeon in nine years. It’s a fast one, with a blazing blizzard of jittery riffing and skull-assaulting drums providing the accompaniment to guttural fury directed against pedophile priests and the church that’s sheltered them. Bits of dismal melody and jolting slamtastic groove play a role in this outraged musical tirade, along with a queasy and maniacally quivering solo. If your ass is dragging, this will fix that for you. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CARCASS, CADAVER, CALLUS, SUN OF THE SUNS, STORMGREY, SHADECROWN, SOMBRE FIGURES, THOMAS BEL, ZORNHEYM

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Aug 142021
 

 

Upon awakening this morning I gave some passing though to concentrating on one or two albums and trying to write something that might pass for a review or two. As you can see, the thought didn’t last long, and I instead dove back into the giant list of new songs and videos that had become the source of the giant two-part roundup I compiled yesterday. And that led to this further compilation… though it does include one album review after all.

CARCASS (UK)

“I’d describe this album as dad rock.” So says Jeff Walker about the new Carcass album, Torn Arteries. The song that premiered (here) at Rolling Stone along with an excellent animated video (created by created by the inimitable Costin Chioreanu), an extensive history of the band, and a very enjoyable interview of Walker, is definitely more of a rocking song than most others in Carcass‘ storied discography, but the song’s rapidly chugging riff, worming leads, squirming solo, and booming drums do get their hooks in the head. Moreover, Walker’s vocals are damned nasty, and there’s a devilish atmosphere surrounding the song as well. I like it! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): LLNN, ROTHADÁS, SEPULTURA, SKEPTICISM, SUL AD ASTRAL, SWELLING REPULSION, UNTAMED LAND, THE ZENITH PASSAGE

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Aug 132021
 

 

This is Part 2 of a mountainous round-up of new songs and videos that surfaced during the last week. If you haven’t perused Part 1, it’s here. Before cutting these 16 offerings into two pieces I arranged them in alphabetical order by band name, and so here we have L – Z. Musically, this one might be even more wide-ranging than what you’ll find in Part 1.

LLNN (Denmark)

“Although the song begins with spacey ambience, it quickly falls forward into a mighty chug that’s then handed off to vocalist-guitarist Christian Bonnesen‘s stone-scraping howls. It only gets heavier from there, as avalanching bass rumbles and violent drums bash the groove into the ground with the force of King Kong punching the earth.”

That’s what Revolver’s Eli Enis wrote in introducing the premiere of this next song two days ago, presented through a video that depicts an entity from beyond our solar system swallowing our planet whole. And it is indeed a humongously heavy track, and a creepy one. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): ALDA, ARAN, CHROME WAVES, CULT BURIAL, EUCHARIST, FAMISHGOD, KAECK, KORPIKLAANI

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Aug 132021
 

 

It’s a rare day when I have no premieres to write for our site, and no posts to edit and format from any of our other writers either. So I spent the extra time listening to more than the usual number of new songs and videos released this week, and found a whopping 16 of them I wanted to recommend.

Rather than put them all in a single post, which might have been like hitting you in the mouth with a bag of nails, I’ve divided them into two parts, arranged alphabetically from the beginning of Part 1 to the end of Part 2 — beginning with A and finishing with Z.

ALDA (US)

It’s been a long wait for something new from this very talented Washington State black metal band, but now they’re back with a new album named A Distant Fire, and a first advance track from the album that’s a sure sign the wait has been worthwhile. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ALUSTRIUM, FLUISTERAARS, JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS, SERMON OF FLAMES, SEEDS OF PERDITION, SHED

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Aug 102021
 

 

If a blogger like me could pull together roundups of recommended new music on a daily basis, it would be a lot easier to keep my head above the constantly rising musical tides. But sadly I don’t have enough time for that, and so I wind up doing things like this and this as the week ends and the weekend begins. Which is to say that what you’re about to embark on has become a rarity — a roundup early in the week. And this one, again arrangd alphabetically, turns out to be a real roller-coaster ride. Enjoy!

ALUSTRIUM (US)

The lead-off item is a new video (with a message) for a song that’s a head-spinner, one that melds barking growls and caustic screams, darting symphonics and scintillating drumwork, feelings of jolting hostility and jittery tension, a jazz-like interlude, and abundant flurries of flickering and fret-leaping guitar. Deep drilling tones give the music a cold, grim, and desolate mood as the song draws to a tragic and haunting end. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (STILL TOO MANY NAMES TO PUT IN A POST TITLE)

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Aug 072021
 

 

By some kind of industry consensus Fridays have become big days for the release of new music. When you stack a Bandcamp Friday on top of that, you get a deluge of biblical proportions. In an effort to keep up with the torrent, I compiled an extra-large roundup yesterday, but even though it included 14 new songs and videos that I enjoyed it still only scratched the surface. So I decided to do it again today, and to go even bigger, though I didn’t quite make it to Z in the alphabet.

Once again, there are a lot of bigger names in this collection, and once again I’ve injected some lesser-knowns as well. I’ve also included some playthrough videos. There’s not a lot of black metal in the mix, but that’s because tomorrow is Sunday, and you know what that means. Don’t you?

A THOUSAND SUFFERINGS (Belgium)

In this first song the dark, folksy, acoustic opening grabbed me, and then I felt both swept aloft and heart-stricken by the ensuing waves of bleak but grand melody and the shattering screams. The sounds are immense, stately, and emotionally crushing, even with the softer, haunting interstitials that arrive. The music boils over into sounds of torment and fury, and becomes almost hallucinatory in its agony, which makes this rendering of black/doom even more powerful. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A BANDCAMP FRIDAY (TOO MANY NAMES TO PUT IN A POST TITLE)

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Aug 062021
 

 

Over the last few days my NCS comrades (well, mainly DGR) have been shoveling links at me for new songs and videos, in anticipation that I would put together a round-up by today — which is a Bandcamp Friday. Most of those links were for music by bigger-name bands. The thought was that I could also add more obscure names, and that the allure of the bigger names might help introduce the lesser-knowns to more fans.

The problem is that the pile of links has grown to gargantuan proportions, which has made it tougher for me to insert as many other discoveries as I might want and still write up some thoughts about everything. Ah well, there’s always tomorrow. Here’s the A-to-Z deluge I have for today, in alphabetical order.

ARCHSPIRE (Canada)

Prepare for relentless high-speed bludgeoning and crazed fretwork mania as a big rabid mastiff barks in your face at equally high speed. Exhilarating! Continue reading »

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