SHADES OF BLACK: HORN, HAXXAN, HERMÓÐR

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Nov 082016
 

horn-turm-am-hang

 

One day I will learn not to forecast when I’m going to post things, because experience proves I’ve only got about a 50-50 chance of hitting the mark. This post, for example, I said I planned to post on Sunday notwithstanding the amount of time I spent on the revival of our “THAT’S METAL!” series that day. That didn’t work out, and yesterday we had too many other things scheduled for the day, and time ran out.

And so, two days late, here’s a small alliteratively named collection of diverse black metal that I’ve been enjoying recently, with all the songs drawn from forthcoming albums. I have more new music in this vein I’d like to share, and maybe I’ll get another small Shades of Black installment finished and posted before next Sunday’s large collection.

HORN

I finally discovered this German one-man band’s music through last year’s wonderful Feldpost album — even though five other albums preceded it. And now (because Horn has never allowed much grass to grow between releases), a new album is already on the way. This one is named Turm am Hang, and while Northern Silence has released the last two albums, Iron Bonehead will be releasing this one. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 17): SACRILEGIOUS IMPALEMENT, BELENOS, WORMREICH, DIABOLUS AMATOR, GRAVESPAWN, VESTERIAN, VAHRZAW

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 072016
 

collage

 

( Norwegian blogger Gorger is back, highlighting still more releases that we have overlooked.  To find more of his discoveries, type “Gorger” in our search bar or visit Gorger’s Metal.)

Three months have flown by since my last installment. Sorry to keep you waiting. Not that you’ve been waiting, but you know you’ve been missing out on something in the meanwhile. I’ve grown a long list of candidates, but I’d rather not overheat your brain, so we’ll be focusing on a quadruple set as usual, with a further installment coming very soon. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: DEFECRATOR, ANYTHING YOU WANT, BROWN SABBATH, CROSTA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 052016
 

defecrator-satanic-martyrdom

 

I thought about taking today off and not posting anything. I’m more than usually worn out after three days on the east coast working, and then dragging my weary ass through the door of my home at midnight last night. I also have plans to resurrect my “THAT’S METAL!” column tomorrow after a year hiatus, and those take some time to put together.

But rather than just bail on the site altogether, I decided to try to spread the word about some good new discoveries and just not write quite as much about them as I usually do. For that, I apologize to the bands and to those of you who find something worthwhile about the words in addition to the music streams in these round-ups. For those who just routinely jump straight to the players, you’re missing nothing.

I made these particular picks in the way I often do, i.e., pretty randomly but with an eye toward creating musical diversity in the playlist; as you’ll discover, there’s ever greater-than-usual diversity today. I also wanted to focus mainly on relatively DIY bands who I suspect aren’t yet very well known even in underground circles.

DEFECRATOR

On another Saturday one month ago I included in one of these round-ups the 2015 debut demo by a Sacramento-area band named Defecrator, along with a review that made comparisons to such groups as Mitochondrion and Auroch. On October 31, Defecrator released a new 7″ EP (via Our Ancient Future) named Satanic Martyrdom, and it expands on the promise of that first demo. Continue reading »

HORRORS! NEW (OR NEWLY DISCOVERED) MUSIC FROM THE GREAT OLD ONES, THRALLDOM, AND TANGORODRIM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 042016
 

the-great-old-ones-eod-a-tale-of-dark-legacy

 

I’m still in our nation’s capital on a business trip, doing the best I can to ignore the last frightening days of the presidential campaign in an effort to avoid an aneurysm. I had some time to kill before my flight home today, so I quickly sifted through some of the new music I discovered in recent days and compiled this selection.

My disturbed mind decided the following songs would make a nice grouping. In different ways, they summon a skin-crawling sensation of horror, which is how I’ve been feeling in light of tightening poll results in that torturous presidential campaign I mentioned.

THE GREAT OLD ONES

The new album by The Great Old Ones falls into my “highly anticipated” category. Two days ago Season of Mist announced details about the release and DECIBEL premiered a song. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CULTES DES GHOULES, ELLENDE, THE INFERNAL SEA, WELLS VALLEY, FRONTIERER, CEMETERIUM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Nov 022016
 

cultes-des-ghoules-coven

 

Getting kind of  a late start on today’s post — yes, “post”, in the singular. I got slammed at my day job yesterday afternoon, and today will be no better. I’m now sitting on an airplane after leaving my house at 5 a.m. to start a cross-country trip, and as soon as I finish writing this thing, I’ll have to put my nose to the grindstone again.

Last night I did make my way through a bunch of new music and videos that have appeared since the weekend, and culled from them this collection of goodies.

CULTES DES GHOULES

The mysterious cult of ghouls from Kielce, Poland, are returning with a new album named Coven, or Evil Ways Instead of Love, which is set for a double-CD release by Hells Headbangers on November 25, 2017, with a triple-LP vinyl version coming later. All that extra physical room is needed because this new immensity is nearly 100 minutes long. Continue reading »

UNDERDOGS IN THE UNDERGROUND: RETURN TO THE TALENTED DEPTHS OV OBSCURE MADNESS (PART 5)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 012016
 

vaulting

 

(This is the fifth and final part of continuing series prepared by Austin Weber putting the spotlight on recent releases, and today he focuses on music from these three bands: Vaulting, Octexosis, and Pyrrhic Salvation. To check out Part 1, go here; Part 2 is at this location; Part 3 can be found here, and this link leads to Part 4.)

 

Vaulting – Vanitas

German technical death/grind weirdos Vaulting have been active since 2006, but like a lot of groups, I’m late to the party, having only gotten into them recently through their 2016 release, Vanitas. I suppose a comparison to the strange sound of See You Next Tuesday might give you a small ballpark with which to think of the music here, but there’s so much more of progressive and eloquent side to Vanitas beyond its mathy miniature death-crushing songs. Continue reading »

LISTEN TO “THE SYNARCHY OF MOLTEN BONES”: NEW DEATHSPELL OMEGA NOW STREAMING IN FULL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Oct 312016
 

deathspell-omega-the-synarchy-of-molten-bones

 

Some of you have been rick-rolled in recent days by YouTube streams uploaded by assholes, advertised as tracks from the new Deathspell Omega album, when in fact it was a song by Outré or something else. But about thirty minutes ago on this Samhain evening (or afternoon here in the Pacific Northwest), Deathspell Omega made the full stream of The Synarchy of Molten Bones live on their Bandcamp page for the album, despite the November 8 release date. I learned of this through a Bandcamp alert because I had pre-ordered the album.

I’m anxious to listen, as many of you will be, but have delayed the experience just long enough to type these words… and to embed the stream after the jump. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ANTAEUS, AFAR, ENEPSIGOS, GRAVESPAWN, NEBRUS, STRODA, SURTR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
Oct 302016
 

antaeus-condemnation

 

As usual, I had trouble picking which songs to include in this Sunday’s edition of Shades of Black — just too damned much new music in a blackened vein that I wanted to recommend. But in the end, this collection felt right to me. It includes considerable variety as well as a mix of well-known names and obscure unknowns (who will perhaps become somewhat better known after today).

I’ve presented the music in alphabetical order by band name, except I bumped Antaeus up by one place to begin this playlist, because… duh… it’s fucking Antaeus.

ANTAEUS

Ten years after their last studio album Blood Libels, the French black metal band Antaeus have a new album set for release on November 18. Entitled Condemnation, it was recorded by guitarist Set and vocalist MkM as the two sole members of the band, with session drums by Menthor (Enthroned, Lucifyre, Nightbringer), who coincidentally was the drummer on the excellent debut album of the Dutch band Soulemission that we premiered just a few days ago. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BETHLEHEM, MARTYRDÖD, ANIMA DAMNATA, REVELATIONS OF RAIN, CONDENADOS, ETHEREAL RIFFIAN, FLOM, SOUTHERN DRINKSTRUCTION, NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Oct 292016
 

bethlehem-cover-art

 

Hey there, happy Saturday to one and all. I kept a list over the last week of (mostly) new music I enjoyed. With the aid of an abacus, I counted how many songs, EPs, and albums were on that list. They added up to 39 (!). I moved some of them into the list of candidates for tomorrow’s Shades of Black post. I then picked the following nine for this playlist. There’s not a lot of rhyme or reason to the selections, though I did aim to provide wide genre variety. I hope you find something to like — I liked all this stuff a lot.

BETHLEHEM

This year the influential German band Bethlehem are celebrating their 25th anniversary by releasing a self-titled album (their eighth overall) on December 2 via Prophecy Productions. The album features a new vocalist, i.e., Onielar, from the German black metal band Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, and a new Russian guitarist known as Karzov, who participated significantly in the songwriting.I think it’s worth including this quote from Marcus Losen, Bethlehem‘s drummer in the early years:

“Apparently somebody in this f*cking universe answered my longstanding wish at last. These 10 tracks have the spirit and the balls I missed in Bethlehem for more than 18 years!”

Continue reading »

UNDERDOGS IN THE UNDERGROUND: RETURN TO THE TALENTED DEPTHS OV OBSCURE MADNESS (PART 4)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 282016
 

mammoth

 

(This is the fourth part of a multi-part post prepared by Austin Weber putting the spotlight on recent releases, and today he focuses on music from these three bands: Mammoth, Nostril Caverns, and Vermine. To check out Part 1, go here; Part 2 is at this location; and Part 3 can be found here.)

 

MAMMOTH – DEVIATION

We’ll start today on a lighter note with the newly released instrumental progressive metal album from the Los Angeles-based group known as Mammoth. While the group has been active for several years now, and with several releases behind them already, I only recently became aware of them when their guitarist Wes pitched Deviation to me and I instantly fell in love. Similar to Mastodon, the band’s name fits so well, because their music really is a massive force similar in size and heft to a damn mammoth. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries