(written by Islander)
In this fifth installment of my Most Infectious Song list I’ve concentrated on tracks that create varying intersections of black and death metal. No two of them are quite alike, but all three have left lasting impressions. I’ve included the first one despite the fact that the album it comes from will be a 2026 release, because the song itself was released as a single last August.
Without further ado, let’s get straight to them. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
There will be days when an installment of this list has a theme, something that connects the songs, at least in my head. The connections may not mean the songs live in the same musical time-zone or camp out in the same sub-genre territory. There might be some similarities of sound, but there might not. It might just be that the bands went off on their own unexpected and hard-to-classify jaunts. Yesterday’s installment was an example of that.
But even in my own addled head I had no connecting theme for today’s trio of songs. I was just scanning my long list of candidates and for no identifiable reason (other than the fact that they’re infectious) I decided to put these three together. If you perceive some connecting theme, please speak up in the Comments. That would be cheaper for me than booking time with a psychotherapist. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
As I’ve explained before, I think a song can be infectious because it’s catchy but also because it’s memorable, and those two qualities aren’t necessarily the same thing. Even when “catchiness” is a stand-out quality, that doesn’t necessarily mean the song is straightforward. Even quirky, twisted, and otherwise unorthodox songs can be catchy, though it might take a band with a special kind of creative lunacy to make that work.
These thoughts were running around my head as I decided to stitch together the following three songs in this third installment of the list, and if you haven’t heard all of them before, you may understand why if you listen to all of them now. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
As a reminder, I plan to post a new installment of this Most Infectious Song list every weekday until January ends, and so here’s another one to begin the first full week of the month.
If you’re like me, this is a dismal day. The holidays are over, jobs command obedience again, and the calendar just seems to stretch endlessly ahead into this new year, one footfall after another into whatever new miseries or joys 2026 holds for us. (Hopefully it won’t bring a war in Venezuela, but bozos are running this country so who knows?)
However, although the day has a dismal cast from that perspective, these next three songs in our list should brighten it, and by “brighten” I mean bust it into fragments and set it on fire. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
Today we begin the final part of the annual NCS LISTMANIA orgy:
This particular series isn’t about best albums or best shorter releases, and it isn’t even about best songs. As the title says, it’s about “most infectious” songs. Some of those might be among the year’s best songs, but in every year there are stand-out songs that aren’t immediately infectious, and actually might never be. Conversely, there are some highly infectious songs every year that most people wouldn’t critically acclaim as great works of art.
The process of compiling this list, as in every previous year, is a bit bizarre, or at least very poorly planned. Let me explain (again): Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
You might not have noticed, but our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza at NCS has begun, as evidenced by this post from last week. But we didn’t really give this project a proper introduction (though I did make an effort in our new-music roundup this past Saturday), so we’re doing that now. For those of you new to the orgy, our LISTMANIA blockbuster comes in four parts:
First, like that post linked above, we re-print assorted lists of the year’s best albums, leeched from other big web sites and magazines. Second, we will provide a post in which our readers can share their lists of the 2025 albums and shorter releases they enjoyed the most (we’ll be asking for those on December 1st, so get ready). Third, we will post the year-end lists of our own staff and assorted guest writers, and that will begin whenever Andy Synn gets his week-long series of lists ready, since that’s how we always begin.
And fourth, I’ll again roll out my list of the year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. That list is the subject of this request for help. Continue reading »