SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3): ANOMALIE, KORONAL, OBLIVION, OUTRE-TOMBE, THUNDERCROW, U-FOES

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Sep 072018
 


Anomalie – photo by Sunvemetal

 

We’ve thrown a gigaton of new music at you on this Friday, but the way I think about, why should we be the only ones who feel like we’re drowning in a sonic flood? The answer is, we shouldn’t. You should feel the same way.

And so here we have Part 3 of today’s gigantic round-up. The bands my NCS comrades and I decided to feature in Part 1 and Part 2 are among extreme metal’s better-known names. The ones I’ve included here (again presented in alphabetical order) are lesser-known, but worth more attention.

You might notice that this 3-part round-up is a bit light on black metal, but that’s only because I’ve pushed those selections a bit further down the road… until Sunday’s SHADES OF BLACK column.

ANOMALIE

We’ve devoted a fair share of attention to the previous releases by this Austrian band, including Andy Synn‘s devotion of one of his SYNN REPORTs to their discography last year and our premiere of a video for a song off their last album, Visions. Although that album was only released last year, Anomalie are back already with a new four-song EP named Integra. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): BEHEMOTH, CRYPTOPSY, RIVERS OF NIHIL, THE OCEAN

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Sep 072018
 

 

Well, this is just getting ridiculous. As you may have seen me observe in Part 1 of today’s round-up, the last few days have brought a proverbial flood of new advance tracks and videos. I had planned to make this a two-parter, with better-known bands in Part 1 and more obscure names in Part 2. But before I could even begin working on the second Part, my NCS comrades brought to my attention all the following new stuff, most of which just appeared this morning.

So, I decided to insert all this late-breaking stuff in Part 2 (again presented alphabetically, but with few words from me) and then turn to what has now become Part 3.

BEHEMOTH

To begin, here’s the official music video for Behemoth’s “Wolves ov Siberia“, which will appear on their new album I Loved You At Your Darkest. The song is a roiling, rapacious, dissonant piece of speed and savagery, with melodic accents that are emblematic of Behemoth‘s penchant for looming, sulphurous majesty. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): ARSIS, EVOKEN, PROFANATICA, PSYCROPTIC, VOIVOD, WOLFHEART

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 072018
 

 

It’s been one of those weeks, one of those weeks when for various reasons I just haven’t had time to compile any round-ups of new music. Unfortunately, it also happens to be one of those weeks when a ton of new songs and videos have premiered (in addition to those we’ve premiered ourselves). I’ve picked a couple handfuls of those, and divided the collection into two parts. This one includes better-known bands, presented in alphabetical order. The next one will include more obscure names.

ARSIS

James Malone sports a shaven head in the Arsis video that appeared overnight, but still screams like a banshee and is obviously still capable of cooking up some tasty riffs, while the people around him help put the spurs to this galloping, groove-some new song and spice it up with a bit of occult aroma, too. Speaking of which… Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GODEATER, ATRAMENT, ZEALOT CULT

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Aug 312018
 

 

The nature of the chemical interactions triggered by the following three bomb-makers differ from each other, but the results are uniformly explosive — and that’s the word of the day for this post.

GODEATER

I confess that I got an advance listen to Godeater’s new single well before its release today (and before its premiere a couple of days ago), and was able to go back to it whenever I wanted, which I did on those many occasions when it seemed like a more efficient and slightly less life-threatening way of juicing my brain, during its sluggish phases, than jamming a wet finger into an electrical socket. Continue reading »

QUICK HITS: SKEPTICISM AND ORKAN

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Aug 302018
 

 

Today has been one of those days when most of the NCS slaves, including myself, have been diverted from NCS slavery by other compulsions. Without meaning to take anything away from the one review and one premiere we’ve furnished today, we just haven’t had time to do more.

This state of affairs gnawed on my brain to the point when I decided I would at least provide another quick hit of new music. I chose the songs in an odd way: I didn’t listen to them before making the choices. For a while this morning I was in a place where I could write but couldn’t listen, so I wrote first and listened later, and then wrote a bit more before having to bid NCS good-by until tomorrow.

SKEPTICISM

Admittedly, I wasn’t taking a complete shot in the dark when I picked this first song without listening to it. First, duh, it’s Skepticism. Second, I’ve heard the song before… sort of. Allow me to explain. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR, MONSTROSITY, BLOOD STORM, XALPEN, ARROGANZ

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Aug 292018
 

 

The first three items in this mid-week round-up are big blasts from veteran bands, two of whom haven’t been heard from in a while. The last two just seemed to suit the mood I fell into after making those first three picks — though I’ve had a difficult time trying to describe the mood. With apologies to friends who recommended brand new tracks by the likes of Beyond Creation and Nekromant, that hard-to-define mood explains why I left those off (though they’re definitely good), as well as other tracks among the couple dozen I checked out yesterday. Inadequate time explains other omissions.

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR

I can gauaran-damn-tee you that one of the two tracks below will be on my list of 2018’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs — unless my brain suffers a seizure trying to decide between them, which is entirely possible. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NIGHTGRAVE, SCORCHED, ABYSSOUS

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Aug 242018
 

 

As I mentioned in yesterday’s last post, I’m leaving my home for a short vacation this morning (in fact, by the time you read this, I will have already left), and that probably means we won’t have the usual number of posts today. I’m not 100% sure that I’ll be able to put together our usual Sunday post either.

But before vanishing for two or three days, I did want to contribute something, and this short post is what I’ve done. It consists of a grand total of three songs that surfaced during the last 24 hours, and only three, but they’re very good and I hope you’ll dig ’em.

NIGHTGRAVE

Nightgrave ought to be a familiar name to you if you’ve been a patron of that regular Sunday column mentioned above, SHADES OF BLACK, because I’ve written there frequently about this one-man Indian band, the work of self-taught musician and vocalist  Sushant Rawat. But rather than hold my thoughts about his newest music until Sunday, I thought I’d provide them now, in the hope of catching the ear of some new listeners. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: EVOKEN, BENIGHTED, KĀLA

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Aug 232018
 

 

After three premieres today, we’re nearing the end of our normal posting hours, and I find myself with just enough time to quickly assemble a shorter-than-usual round-up. Tomorrow will probably be a fairly barren day around here, because I’m leaving home at about 4:15 a.m. to begin the journey to Sea-Tac airport, and from there to a top-secret location in Wyoming where I’ll be meeting with world leaders in a training session I call “How To Pull Your Head Out Of Your Ass Even If You Have the IQ of A Ground Squirrel, With Apologies to Ground Squirrels Everywhere.” I expect the event will be well-attended.

Despite the awfulness of my departure time from home tomorrow, I do hope to get at least something short completed to start the day before I sleep tonight, and I do have a review in hand from one of our contributors, and perhaps something else will show up unexpectedly.

EVOKEN

Six years is a long time to wait for a new album when the band in question is as immensely talented as Evoken, and a long six years it has been since Atra Mors. But this morning’s e-mail arrivals brought a press release announcing that on November 9th Profound Lore will release a new Evoken album named Hypnagogia. And as an added bonus, it features cover art by Adam Burke. Continue reading »

QUICK HITS: IMPERIAL DOMAIN, HITWOOD, LA PETITE MORT, RANCORUM

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Aug 222018
 


Imperial Domain

 

I’m in between things at the moment. Got home later than usual last night, lungs choked and eyes watering from the thick smoke shrouding the Puget Sound region all day yesterday, and the forests here aren’t even the ones burning, though they seem to be the only ones in the West that aren’t on fire (yet). I slugged a few fingers of Scotch and hit the rack without dinner, and without getting anything ready to go for NCS today.

My brother Mr. Synn tells me he’ll be sending in a Mantar review at some point this morning, TheMadIsraeli has given me a review as well that I need to get ready to go, and I have a premiere slated for later today but haven’t written it yet. I’m feeling antsy about the page just sitting here with nothing new at a time when we normally have something new, so here’s this thing for you.

As I listen to new music I make lists of things I think might go well together. Sometimes I get around to pulling them together in a round-up; more often I don’t. What you’ll find here is one such list I made a couple of weeks ago. You’ll figure out why I thought these four songs would go well together. Actually, you’ll have to figure out everything about them for yourself, because in order to get this posted before more of the morning disappears, I’m dispensing with my usual commentary. Hope you enjoy. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BLOODBATH, OPETH, BARÚS, WARBRINGER, DÖDSRIT, CONCRETE AGE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Aug 172018
 


photo by Steve Brown

 

Despite the fact that we had a two-part round-up of new music yesterday, metal stops for no one, and so there’s a bunch more stuff, most of which surfaced over the last 24 hours, that has prompted yet another round-up today. And of course, what you’ll find below isn’t nearly everything I’d like to foist upon you, but it will have to do for now.

P.S. I’m in a hurry, and so I’m afraid I’ll have to dispense with my usual impressions of the music I’ve included here. Even more unusually, the first item in this collection includes no music at all, but it seemed sufficiently newsworthy that I’m including it anyway.

BLOODBATH

Today’s torrent of e-mails in the NCS in-box included an announcement by Peaceville Records that a new Bloodbath album has been set for release on October 26th, the name of which is:  The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn. Which is a very promising title, as are these excerpts from the press release: Continue reading »

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