SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AMORPHIS, PROGENY OF THE SUN, TEMPEST, LAANG, DARK WATCHER, ZLOBNIK, CRUSTY OLD TOAD, DISTRESS

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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 »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: OMNEUM GATHERUM, BELPHEGOR, WRETCHED, AUTHOR AND PUNISHER, GORLEBEN, ORBSTRUCT

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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 »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A WEDNESDAY: HOODED MENACE, MORS PRINCIPIUM EST, GORYCZ, ORBIT CULTURE, LOWBAU, ASHEN

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
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 »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PESTILENGTH, HYPERDONTIA, RIBSPREADER, MALEVICH, SARNATH ETERNAL

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Aug 022025
 

(written by Islander)

I’m going to get right to the music today and dispense with the usual personal anecdotes that no one really wants to read, like whether I had to clean up cat vomit this morning (I did), if I’ve learned to make washing dishes by hand a Zen-like experience since the dishwasher broke (nope), the best thing I’ve seen and heard outside the house this week (the pair of hawks that have re-located into the forest and apparently scared all the other fowl into silence), how much I’ve enjoyed beautiful mild PNW days while reading about much of the country getting brutally microwaved (a lot), the only new item I read this morning that didn’t make me furious and/or nauseated (about an anti-poaching campaign in South Africa that involves injecting the horns of rhinos with radioactive isotopes), and my opinion on the rendition of “Paranoid” by the Kings’ Guards at Buckingham Palace (meh).

So yeah, none of that irrelevant personal stuff, getting right to the music, right away, no delays: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: RUNEMAGICK, NEW WORLD DEPRESSION, INNUMERABLE FORMS, TITHE, CANCER VOID, SUM OF R

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Aug 012025
 

(written by Islander)

Today is another Bandcamp Friday, a good time to buy or pre-order music because a greater percentage of the proceeds will reach bands and labels. I had a few hours to myself yesterday afternoon and this morning that I spent surveying new music that’s come out over the last week or so. From that, I picked music from six bands to recommend today.

With one exception, all these songs are advance tracks from albums that will be released either later this month or in September or October. The one exception is the first single from an album that’s being released in full today. There’s a hell of a lot of great cover art in today’s collection too.

If things go as planned, I’ll have more recommendations in the usual space for these roundups tomorrow. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ESOCTRILIHUM, KAMRA, HUYA GENUS, YOTUMA, VICTIM OF FIRE, ESSES

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Jul 262025
 

(written by Islander)

I got a late start on this Saturday’s roundup of recommended new music, and I feel the need to rush in order to keep it from appearing too late in the day. So my review-ish commentary will be somewhat briefer than usual (please hold your applause) and I’ll cut the rest of the introduction to just this:

I would suggest that this collection is a mix of brain-scramblers, bone-smashing punishers, muscle-twitching groovers, headlong racers, and seductive clean-sung sorcery, more or less in that order. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: TOMBS, HORNWOOD FELL, ACEPHALIC VOID, DEF/LIGHT

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Jul 252025
 

(written by Islander)

With only one premiere to handle today and nothing else waiting in the queue for our site, I had a combination of opportunity and need, anxiety about us not posting the usual amount of stuff in recent days and the time (barely enough time) to do something about it. So, as a head-start on Saturday’s roundup, I got this four-band collection done, focusing on two old favorites and two brand new discoveries. The cover art for all four was part of the initial attraction.

TOMBS (U.S.)

The first of the old favorites is Tombs. Earlier this week we got the news that they have a new album named Feral Darkness now set for release on October 17th by their new label Redefining Darkness Records. The “FFO” references for Tombs have changed over time. As a clue about this new full-length, which follows 2020’s Under Sullen Skies, it includes Fields of the Nephilim, Samhain, Mayhem, and Goatwhore. The lineup also includes new guitarist Dan Higgins. Sera Timms also provides guest vocals on one song.

And then there’s this from the press release: Continue reading »

R.I.P. OZZY

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Jul 222025
 


photo by Ross Halfin

(written by Islander)

This isn’t an entertainment news site, unless the news concerns the release of a record whose music we’re writing about. But the death of Ozzy Osbourne is an event we can’t overlook.

Many of us grew up listening to Black Sabbath and/or Ozzy‘s solo records. That music became part of the language of our minds, not just what we heard and felt but how we reacted to the world around us, as much a part of our internal “culture” as an external part.

And then, add to that the tens of thousands of other bands whose music Ozzy and his bandmates influenced down to this very day, musicians who took those influences, either directly or indirectly from other bands who had already built upon them, and spun out music into hundreds of new directions they might not have found if Ozzy hadn’t been born. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT, ELBE, SHADOWS, ORDEALS

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Jul 192025
 

(written by Islander)

Yesterday I doubted I’d have time for a roundup today due to picnic preparation participation (the post-pandemic PPP). But as you can see, I did, due to waking up way earlier than I thought I would.

I’m going to miss those extra hours of lost sleep by the time this day and night end, but getting to delve into these four tremendous new songs, three of which arrived with excellent videos, is the silver lining to that wearying cloud.

The keywords for what follows are “immensity” and “intensity”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: RITUAL MASS, PROSCRIPTION, KRIGSGRAV

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 182025
 

(written by Islander)

This has been a rare week in which our other writers seem to have collectively been diverted by other life events, leaving us since Monday with not a lot else besides the premiere features I’ve put together each day. To help fill the gaps, I’ve managed to scrawl one stand-alone album review and a couple of new-music roundups, this being the second one of the week.

It’s just as well, because I’m not confident I’ll be able to prepare the usual SEEN AND HEARD column on Saturday or the usual SHADES OF BLACK on Sunday. My spouse and I will be working both days to help put together an annual two-day picnic where we live, and some of that work begins today and tonight. In fact, today’s work is about to begin, so this Friday roundup is relatively brief and devoted to “hot off the presses” music from a trio of dependable labels. Continue reading »

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