SEEN AND HEARD: BÖLZER, INSULTERS, PANZERGOD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Oct 272016
 

bolzer-i-am-iii

 

I’ve been racking up the airline miles lately. I got back to Seattle late last night after a whirlwind trip to New York for my day job, one in which I probably spent as much time in airport security lines and on airplanes as I did in New York. Beautiful time of year to be there, though.

You may also have noticed that we’ve had a flood of premieres this week. Four more are coming today. Between traveling and writing all those premieres, I haven’t had time to pull together round-ups, and man, this has been a week when multiple round-ups would have been justified. With so much to choose from, I’ve impulsively picked these three bands. The plan is to put together more round-ups for tomorrow and Saturday in an effort to catch up.

BÖLZER

A few days ago the mighty Swiss juggernaut Bölzer released another song from their new album Hero, which will be released on November 25 through Iron Bonehead Productions. The first song that appeared, “I Am III”, was more than 10 minutes long — a dramatic, majestic, dark, brooding, esoteric, and triumphant piece in which the band moved in some dynamic new directions. The latest track, “Spiritual Athleticism“, is a more compact affair and perhaps more in line with what we were expecting based on Bölzer‘s previous releases. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SCHAMMASCH, NORDJEVEL, ADAESTUO, ABDUCTION, OVNEV, SADOKIST, ILDRA, TITAN X

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  8 Responses »
Oct 232016
 

Schammasch

 

This Sunday’s edition of Shades of Black is quite large, but I nevertheless decided not to divide it into two parts for fear that I’d get diverted by something and never finish Part 2.

The first two items are new videos for songs from previously released albums. The next three are new songs from forthcoming albums. And the last three items are all songs from releases that have been out for a while but that I only discovered recently.

SCHAMMASCH

Andy Synn wrote a special three-part review (collected here) for Triangle, the new album by Schammasch, calling it “a true triumph of ambition and creativity”: “[A]ny listener who embraces the experience of Triangle on its own terms, with their eyes, their ears, and their mind open to the spiritual signals it transmits, will find their decision rewarded ten-fold.” Continue reading »

THORNIUM, THRONEUM, THOREN, THORNSPAWN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 232016
 

thornium-dominions-of-the-eclipse

 

Thornium was a band I was considering for our usual Sunday installment of The Rearview Mirror. Throneum was a band I was considering for this Sunday’s installment of Shades of Black. And then in rapid succession last night I came across songs by Thoren and Thornspawn that Facebook friends had posted on their pages. How could I resist?

Well, obviously, I couldn’t. And so rather than isolate Thornium in a Rearview Mirror post, I’ve compiled this selection of songs instead.

THORNIUM

Sweden’s Thornium recorded a demo in 1994, and their debut album Dominions of the Eclipse was released in 1995 by a label named Necromantic Gallery Productions. Two other albums followed that one (after a few stints in prison for the band’s founder Daniel “Thypheuz” Munoz), Mushroom Clouds and Dusk in 2009 and Fides Luciferius in 2010. The band’s Facebook page includes a note from May of 2015 indicating that they were set to record a new album that summer, with the title of Deathcatharsis, but I’ve seen no further news about that. When it is complete, it appears that Soulseller Records will release it. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CLOUDS, WITCHERY, GRAVEBOMB, POHJOISEN SOTURIT, DO SKONU, DAVID BOWIE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 222016
 

clouds-departe

 

Greetings brethren and sistren on this beautiful Saturday. At least it’s beautiful where I am, deep in the heart of Texas, where I’ve been visiting family members the last couple of days. In fact, it’s such a beautiful morning that I felt compelled to ugly it up with new metal. I found some good ways to do that, which you will hear below, and I found one other surprise, too.

But before we get to music that will bruise the day, I’m beginning this collection with something that’s as beautiful in its own way as this morning. And before I get to THAT song, I’ll leave you with YouTube links to some new music and videos that appeared just yesterday from the following bands, though I’m not writing about them here: Hail Spirit Noir; Madder Mortem; and Dark Tranquillity. I’ll also embed the videos at the end of this post if you’d rather not leave our humble site to hear and see them.

CLOUDS

I thank Grant Skelton for alerting me to this first song, which appeared about five days ago. Its name is “How Can I Be There” and it’s from Departe, the second album by the band Clouds. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WĘDRUJĄCY WIATR, EMPTINESS, GAEREA, MOHICANS, TRUE WIDOW, JASSA, REVEAL, ANGELA MARTYR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Oct 202016
 

wedrujacy-wiatr-band

 

Well, here we are on a Thursday and this is our first new music round-up of the week. I suppose it goes without saying that, four days into the week, I now have a very long list of songs and videos I’ve found that I like enough to recommend — but don’t have time or room to mention all of them.

I’ve made some choices that range far and wide in their musical styles, but because I have a hard time making choices, this is still a big post despite the fact that I haven’t been able to include everything. Stay with me though, because there’s a lot of good music below.

WĘDRUJĄCY WIATR

I first heard of Wędrujący Wiatr through an enthusiastic recommendation by Austin Lunn, the man behind Panopticon. When he first told me about the band, word had surfaced that a new album would be coming out this fall, but no music was yet available;  Austin‘s enthusiasm was based on the band’s debut album, 2013’s Tam, gdzie miesiąc opłakuje świt, and after I listened to it, I understood his passion for the music.

Well, now we have a song from the new album, and it’s pretty magnificent. Continue reading »

UNDERDOGS IN THE UNDERGROUND: RETURN TO THE TALENTED DEPTHS OV OBSCURE MADNESS (PART 2)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 142016
 

decathexis-art

(This is the second 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: VIII, Shioya, and Cyprus. To check out Part 1, go here.)

VIII – DECATHEXIS



For all the things in modern society we blame on social media, the flip side is how much good comes from using it as a tool to spread and share new music and other art forms. Without it, I would never have heard of VIII, a strangely named Italian black metal group whose new album Decathexis continues to blow my fucking mind. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HIEROPHANT, SACRIFICIO, BLACK VUL DESTRUKTOR, SITHTER, BLACK THERAPY, MOTH GATHERER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 142016
 

hierophant-mass-grave

 

I nearly decided to call this round-up “Overpowering Audio Carnage” or “Your End Is Near”, but decided those headlines wouldn’t quite suit everything I’ve collected here — though they would suit most of it.

I guess I’m in a bloody frame of mind, and these songs struck the right chord, some of them because they’re fucking bloody and cathartic and some of them because they turned my fevered mind in other appealing directions. I’m going to start with the especially nasty and destructive stuff.

HIEROPHANT

I’ve been meaning to check out the music from Hierophant’s new album Mass Grave and finally took the plunge when CVLT Nation premiered a track from it yesterday (thanks to Utmu for pointing me to it). I’m glad I was sitting down or it would have knocked me flat. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HOUR OF PENANCE, DEVOURING STAR, HENRY KANE, CVINGER, HANGING GARDEN, DISILLUSION, MYLINGAR, EMPTINESS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Oct 122016
 

hour-of-penance-cast-the-first-stone

 

Yes, there are quite a lot of names in the headline of this post, but what follows isn’t quite as daunting as you might think. The first two items consist of news and art for forthcoming releases, but no music yet, and the last two items are just brief teasers of new music. In between I’ve sandwiched four full songs and videos, and I’m quite happy with what I’ve chosen, not only because the music is very good considered in isolation but also because collectively they make for a nice, varied playlist (and the two videos and album covers are quite eye-catching, too). At least it should be nice for people who have eclectic tastes. Here we go….

HOUR OF PENANCE

That’s a hell of a metal album cover up there, isn’t it? It was disclosed yesterday by Italy’s Hour of Penance and Prosthetic Records, who will release the band’s new album Cast the First Stone on January 27, 2017. The cover was created by Gyula Havancsak, whose work we’ve praised before in these pages.

The announcement was accompanied not only by a quote from our site (yay!) but also by the following statement from the band’s vocalist Paolo Pieri concerning the concept of the album, which revolves around the idea that “the injustices suffered during the Crusades and Colonialism do not justify the chain of hate that propagandizes the destruction of the West”: Continue reading »

UNDERDOGS IN THE UNDERGROUND: RETURN TO THE TALENTED DEPTHS OV OBSCURE MADNESS (PART 1)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 122016
 

buckshot-facelift-art

 

(Austin Weber prepared this multi-part unearthing of new music, and today he focused on releases from three bands — Buckshot Facelift, Omnea, and The Conjuration — while also urging you to go spend your time at another site!)

While I’m not quite egotistical enough to think anyone who reads this site has missed my multi-part underground music articles, I can at least speak for myself and say that I’ve missed doing them! With that in mind, there will be at least three or four more editions of this article to come. So prepare thyself for both weirdness and madness, because a heaping shitload of both will be covered by the time this article wraps up.

For the sake of brevity, I’m going to refrain from covering any obscure stuff I’ve covered or helped stream early through my other gig at Metal-Injection. But in spite of that, I urge you to peruse what I’ve covered there in 2016 so far through the following link here. You might be surprised at the stuff you uncover that hasn’t been covered here at NCS to date! Now onto the first installment of some new gems you absolutely must give a listen to. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): KYY, HORN IMPALER, SURTR, ETERNAL SAMHAIN, TRISTE TERRE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
Oct 092016
 

kyy-beyond-flesh-beyond-matter-beyond-death

 

This is the second installment in a big collection of mostly new black metal that I listened to yesterday, making my way through a list of music I had compiled during the last week as I saw things in our e-mail and my Facebook feed. The following collection includes further tracks from some releases I’ve written about before in this column, plus two new discoveries — one for a forthcoming release and one that appeared earlier this year. To listen to the music collected in Part I of this post, click this link.

KYY

Two Sundays ago I wrote about a 2015 EP named Travesty of Light by the Finnish band Kyy, plus excerpts from a couple of tracks that will appear on their forthcoming debut album Beyond Flesh – Beyond Matter – Beyond Death, which is due for release on November 4 through Saturnal Records. Now we’ve finally got a full track stream to share with you from the album. Continue reading »

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