SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES: ANTICIPATED 2018 METAL RELEASES OF INTEREST

 Listmania, Metal News  81 Responses »
Jan 062018
 


artwork by Kali 15

 

Our LISTMANIA 2017 series isn’t over yet, though it will be soon. I have five more lists to publish for sure, and I hope a sixth one I’m eager to see will arrive soon, but we should be finished during this coming week. And I’ll also begin rolling out my list of 2017’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs next week as well.

But having said that, we’re also looking ahead to what 2018 will bring us… and of course a huge flood of additional releases is headed our way. We’ve been in the midst of a metal Renaissance for years now, and it shows no sign of ending.

I spent hours over the last two days assembling a list of 2018 releases (by band name) that I’m interested in, or that I think our readers would be interested in. I scrolled through our overstuffed e-mail in-box, visited label Facebook pages, conducted internet searches, and canvassed a few members of our own staff. And the result of that effort is a list of 112 albums, EPs, and splits. And almost all of them are expected to be released in just the first quarter of the year! Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: EUCLIDEAN, BALMOG, BHLEG, SAMMATH, BLACK KNIFE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  12 Responses »
Dec 272017
 

 

I’m three days late with this week’s edition of SHADES OF BLACK, and still woefully behind in sharing new music in a blackened vein that I’ve discovered over the last month. I’m bound and determined to do at least one more of these features before 2017 is interred in a moldy grave, as long as I’m sufficiently unbound by other distractions.

This particular collection includes one complete new album, advance tracks from two more, some new live videos, and a new single.

EUCLIDEAN

To begin this selection of music, I want to strongly recommend Quod Erat Faciendum, the debut album of the Swiss band Euclidean, which was released on December 21 and came strongly recommended to me by starkweather and by Miloš. Continue reading »

POST-CHRISTMAS NECROSIS: ATOMWINTER, LIMOS, REX DEMONUS, HUSK

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Dec 262017
 

 

I hope everyone had a good Christmas Day, even if the day itself is nothing special to you. As you may have seen, NCS was alive and kicking despite the holiday, with three premieres yesterday. And we’ll continue to kick for the rest of the week with a rollout of more year-end lists by NCS contributors and invited guests, plus assorted other posts.

I wasn’t able to get a SHADES OF BLACK post done for Sunday, but it’s coming soon… and may be a two-parter, because there’s a lot I want to write about. But to start the six days that remain before New Year’s Eve, I selected three recent songs and one new EP that sound like the antithesis of peace on earth, good will toward men, because I can only take so many demonstrably impotent platitudes of that nature before I have to dose myself with flesh-eating music.

ATOMWINTER

The consumption of flesh commences with a track from Catacombs, the new third album by the German harbingers of total death in Atomwinter. The album will be released by Trollzorn on February 9 (digital, CD, and gatefold LP). And isn’t that a hellishly fantastic album cover? Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PESTILENCE, ATARAXY, WHOREDOM RIFE, TALSUR, VIELIKAN, HOLYARROW

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Dec 222017
 

 

After a nearly two-week vacation in which I blogged very little, I returned to Seattle late last week and was promptly slammed by my fucking day job, unforeseen personal obligations, bad weather, and a whole bunch of NCS articles to write or edit, including the continuation of our LISTMANIA series, interviews, reviews, and a bunch of premieres. I can’t really say I need another vacation already… but I kind of do.

Anyway, I haven’t written one of these round-ups in 12 days, and I’m way behind in even listening to all the new songs that have appeared since my vacation began 19 days ago. I started working on this collection early this week but decided to include a couple of songs that have appeared more recently. I hope to do more catch-up round-ups this weekend, including a Sunday SHADES OF BLACK feature, because holidays don’t mean shit around here.

PESTILENCE

Roughly four and a half years after their last album, Pestilence will release a new one via Hammerheart Records named Hadeon, and earlier this week Hammerheart previewed the album with a single called “Multi Dimensional“. It didn’t take long for my NCS comrade TheMadIsraeli to send me an alert about the song, wth a positive message. Continue reading »

14 DAYS AND COUNTING (PLUS NEW MUSIC FROM ARKONA)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Dec 172017
 

 

On Friday night I returned to Seattle after a very nice vacation that lasted nearly two weeks. Thanks to the efforts of my NCS writer comrades, I was able to keep my promise to my spouse that I wouldn’t blog (much) while on vacation. And as a further bonus, the loris horde didn’t burn the NCS compound to the ground while I was gone, though I did notice what seem to be the bones of a few small children strewn behind their barbed-wire enclosure that weren’t there when I left. That seems like a fair price to pay if it avoided an assault on our headquarters.

As I try to get my head back in the game, I count 14 days remaining in 2017, and I thought I’d give you a preview of what lies ahead at NCS before the year dies and we cremate its remains. And because I detest posting anything here that doesn’t include music, I’m throwing in one new song after that. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (BY DGR): AFGRUND, ALTERBEAST, SHINING, HELLISH GOD, HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, LONG DISTANCE CALLING

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Dec 122017
 


Afgrund

 

(Like the good cowboy he is, DGR has stepped forward to handle round-up duty today.)

We at NCS are big fans of posts full of genre whiplash, and this roundup of things that caught our eyes and ears last week will likely be one of those. We try to always keep our giant fish net of news-and-music catching open for stuff to fall in and we like to clean it out whenever we get the chance, even though you would’ve figured that last week things should have slowed down just a bit…you would think.

However, just because it’s close to the end of the year and time for everyone to begin writing up summaries of their favorite albums of 2017, and just because our editor managed to escape from the loris horde encircling the NCS compound for a vacation, does not mean heavy metal got the hint and decided to slow down for a bit. We did here in our little comfortable corner of the ‘net, but that doesn’t mean everyone did. And so we go outside to clean off the radar dish and see what landed in the net over the past week. Continue reading »

ONE AT A TIME: COMMUNION (“WITCHING THRUST”)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Dec 032017
 

 

As I’ve mentioned more than once, I’m leaving the country today on a 12-day vacation. I was able to write the two premieres posted earlier today, but ran out of time before I could put together a SHADES OF BLACK feature for this Sunday. As I’ve also mentioned, I made a pact with my wife that I will severely restrict my blogging during this trip. That’s my interpretation of the pact; hers is that I won’t blog at all. This is an ominous misunderstanding.

Before we began the negotiations that led to this pact, I had committed to write three premieres spread over the coming 12 days. I will keep those commitments. I also plan to format and post Andy Synn’s year-end lists, which traditionally kick off our staff’s contributions to LISTMANIA, and I further intend to keep my eye out for the appearance of year-end lists by certain print publications and “big platform” web sites that I usually include in our LISTMANIA series. And I have one more modest goal:

I’m going to attempt to briefly write about one, and only one, new release in order to avoid barrenness on days when we would otherwise have nothing new to post at NCS while I’m gone. It might be a single new song or as much as an entire new album. This post you’re now perusing is an example of that. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: INQUISITOR, GODLESS ANGEL, DEMONSTEALER, GHOSTBOUND, LENTO

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Dec 022017
 

 

We’re rushing toward the end of the year like an out-of-control car speeding toward a precipice. And I find myself getting a similar panicked feeling, as if it will be a world-ending event for a metal writer and I only have four weeks to finish spouting off about 2017 releases, a task made even more daunting by the fact that I’m leaving on a 12-day vacation tomorrow (as explained here), and by the prospect of all the LISTMANIA stuff we will be doing between now and December 31 as well.

Of course, this is a completely irrational feeling. There’s no law which prevents us from continuing to write about 2017 releases after New Year’s Day, and no doubt we will. Nevertheless, I’m still feeling a feverish compulsion to give as much attention as I can to recent releases (and a few forthcoming ones) before “time runs out”. So I’ve crammed music from five bands into this post, without nearly enough time to say what I want about them, and I also have some hopes of finishing a SHADES OF BLACK post for tomorrow before beginning my 12-day hiatus. Don’t know if that will work out or not….

INQUISITOR

Thanks to a message from Conor O., and then a subsequent e-mail from the Dutch label Hammerheart Records, I learned that after a 22-year hiatus, Inquisitor have returned with a new album, and it’s an explosive resurrection for sure. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TAARNA, CONVULSING, SIBERIAN HELL SOUNDS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 282017
 

 

This is a rare kind of round-up, relative to what I usually pull together. Most obviously, there are only three bands featured in this one. And the other difference, which is related to the first one, is that while I’m including only one song by each band, each of these songs is more than 20 minutes long.

Wait! Don’t leave! I promise you won’t become bored — though your emotional well-being will be assaulted and your sanity may be severely tested. Yes, 20 minutes is a long time to arrest your constantly flitting and dithering mind and apply a little focus. It will be worth the effort.

TAARNA

Actually, Taarna’s track, “Sanguine Ash“, is almost 30 minutes long. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: TRIBULATION, DDENT, TRESPASSER, CAVEMAN CULT, LEFT ALONE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 252017
 

 

It seems that the four-day Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. has made mincemeat out of our site’s traffic, and while we don’t depend on traffic for money, it’s not much fun to put a lot of work into a post and then realize that few people will see it. It’s a test of the severity of my own blog compulsion. As you can tell, my compulsion passed the test with flying colors.

These are a few recent things I enjoyed last night and this morning, and hope you will enjoy too.

TRIBULATION

Well, this is sort of recent. I somehow missed it when it came out 8 days ago. Not sure how that happened, but anyway, I found it last night. It’s a video for a new song named “The Lament” off the next album by Sweden’s Tribulation. Continue reading »

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