Jan 182016
 

Divine Blasphemy-Beyond the Portal

 

Some weekends are a whirlwind, a flurry of unexpected events hitting from all points of the compass. Others are a soporific quagmire of sloth and malaise. Somehow, for me this weekend was an odd combination of the two. I rejoice that I’m still alive.

I also rejoice in the music I heard. And I heard so much good metal that I’m going to share it in two posts, the first of which is this one, which combines three album reviews. The music collected in this two-parter is mainly, but not entirely, black metal, so I’m taking slight liberties to anoint the two posts with the Shades of Black banner. Part Two will appear today or tomorrow.

DIVINE BLASPHEMY

Divine Blasphemy carry on the rich tradition of Greek black metal with their debut album Beyond the Portal. I heard the first song, and I felt elevated. “Where did these people come from?”, I wondered. And then I heard the rest of the album and realized that the first song was not a fluke. This is a wonderful ride on a red-eyed black steed — it tries to buck you off, but you hang on because the chaos is so exhilarating. Continue reading »

Jan 142016
 

Plateau Sigma-Rituals

 

It’s been one of those weeks when I haven’t had as much time as I would like to write about newly discovered music. As a result, I find myself with an enormous backlog of new and not-so-new songs, EPs, and albums that I’d really like to mention. In such circumstances, I generally just throw mental darts at my mental to-do lists, and that’s what I’ve done here. However, despite the largely random nature of this selection, the music I’ve chosen to recommend presents some nice genre diversity. Hopefully, you’ll find something below that rings your chimes.

PLATEAU SIGMA

I must thank KevinP for urging me to listen to this first song. The name is “Palladion” and it comes from Rituals, the forthcoming second album by Italy’s Plateau Sigma. Like all the bands whose music I’ve collected in this post, I was unfamiliar with Plateau Sigma before listening to the song, and therefore didn’t know what to expect.

The massive, groaning riffs and beguiling melody grabbed me almost instantly — and then the vocals began. At first I was downcast; I was hoping for some cavernous growls. And then something strange and wondrous happened. Continue reading »

Jan 122016
 

collage500

 

(This is Part 6 of our Norwegian friend Gorger’s continuing feature on bands we seem to have overlooked at NCS. And be sure to check out Gorger’s Metal.)

Cheers anew, and a headbanging new year. The past has been revisited a bit lately on NSC, a site that typically holds a firm stare into the crystal ball. I have, after hours arguing with myself, decided not to spend days arranging a 2015-favorites list. Thus, at least I can spend some time presenting some infectious releases from the year that kicked the bucket on its own birthday. I hope you’ll find something you’ll pursue and enjoy. Continue reading »

Jan 112016
 

David Bowie-1

 

How very depressing. Two of rock’s biggest and most singular icons have now left this world within two weeks of each other.

When I posted about Lemmy’s passing, one of my friends made a half-joking jab (at least I think it was only half-joking) about jumping on the death bandwagon. I guess that might have been true for some people who were lamenting Lemmy’s passing, as it will be about Bowie’s. But not in my case. Continue reading »

Jan 102016
 

Aegaeon-The Integral Path

 

For the second day in a row, I’m afraid I’m going to have to throw some new music your way without the enormous benefit of me telling you what it sounds like. I really do like all of these new songs and I wish I had time to explain why, but it’s an NFL playoff weekend and the Seattle oceanic raptors are playing today and I’ll be biting my nails in front of the TV instead of blogging.

Anyway, here’s a big collection of recently released songs from different genres of metal that I heard over the last 24 hours that I hope you’ll like, presented in alphabetical order. (Go Hawks.)

AEGAEON

It’s been two and a half years since we last wrote about this Indiana band, but they finally have some new music. It’s a single called “The Integral Path”, available on Bandcamp. (Thanks to Booker for the tip on this one.) Continue reading »

Jan 092016
 

Agoraphobic Nosebleed-Arc

 

Happy Saturday and infernal hails to one and all. Yesterday, those who care about such things will have noticed that I didn’t post any year-end lists nor did I post a new installment of our 2015 Most Infectious Song list. This doesn’t mean that those year-end series have reached an end. I just got diverted by my fucking day job before I could get them done. I’m shocked, simply shocked, that some people expect me to work for what I’m paid.

We actually are nearing the end of our 2015 LISTMANIA series. I have in hand three lists from current or former members of our staff. I will post those on Monday and Tuesday. I might receive a couple more between now or then from people who told me they planned to send them in. Either way, we’ll finally finish the year-end list extravaganza by the middle of next week. As for the Most Infectious Song roll-out, I’ll catch up on Friday’s omission later today today and then resume the roll-out on Monday.

I’ve also got a lot of new music and videos I plan to throw at you this weekend, beginning with this post and continuing with one tomorrow. This post includes one new song and three new videos, all of which appeared yesterday — and thanks to DGR for alerting me to them. Because my fucking day job is compelling me to work even today, I don’t have time to introduce these with my usual garbled verbiage (please hold your applause). Somehow, you’ll have to figure out what these sound and look like on your own. Continue reading »

Jan 082016
 

Joseph Mallord William Turner-Death On A Pale Horse-c1825-30

 

(TheMadIsraeli prepared this round-up of music from yesteryear that’s been keeping him company lately.)

The scarcity of my writing last year stemmed partially from a desire to go back and listen to shit I liked or loved from past years, whatever it was, and fuck being musically relevant. This is something I hadn’t done in a long time, and I have to admit that doing this just about saved me from burning out on music altogether. This music blogging thing, it can become genuinely tiresome in the race to try and keep up with what’s worth noting. Listening to albums that may or may not be worth the time you just spent listening to them, to find out whether they are or not, can take a lot out of you sometimes.

I decided it’d be cool to write a piece here and there where I give some commentary on those older albums I’ve listening to, hence the title “Irrelevant Listening”. Maybe this could be a monthly thing, but as much as I intend to get back on the horse in regards to everything else, I’d hate to try and schedule this in any way. However, I have been noticing a pattern where I tend to change my “irrelevant listening” playlist every month or so.

So here are the records that had my attention this past December. Continue reading »

Jan 082016
 

Deströyer 666-Wildfire

 

You may have already guessed from the title of the post that it includes a shitload of new music — and I still haven’t exhausted the new discoveries that I want to write about, not by a long shot.

The last few days have indeed brought a typhoon of new metal that’s intensely good. In this post I’ve collected recommended new songs that are especially dire and destructive, which is why I’ve chosen a different title than the usual “Seen and Heard”. At some point this weekend I’ll bring another post that gathers together the rest of what’s been kicking me in the teeth.

DESTRÖYER 666

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the new album (Wildfire) by these Australian marauders, and at last we now have a song to stream, fittingly titled “Live and Burn”. Continue reading »

Jan 042016
 

Sacrocurse-Destroying ChapelsNorthless-Cold Migration
 

Lambs-Betrayed From BirthCold Colours-The Pale Heart
 

Before we get to the new music, now that the holidays are over I thought I’d check in and give you a forecast of what lies ahead at our site in the first full week of the new year.

As you may have noticed already today, we’re still in LISTMANIA 2015 mode. I haven’t counted how many year-end lists we’ve posted already, but it’s a big number. However, we have more coming, and since I’ve seen them, I can tell you that we still haven’t exhausted all the great releases that 2015 brought our way. My plan is to post two new lists every day this week, and here are some of the authors whose lists will be in that group, including musicians, members of our own staff, and other invited guests:

Amiensus (the band)
Semjaza Shade (Thy Darkened Shade)
Spectral Lore (the band)
Professor D. Grover the XIIIth
Grant Skelton
DGR
TheMadIsraeli Continue reading »

Jan 012016
 

Bonfire on Hanalei bay

 

I don’t know how many actual mothers actually stop here, but we welcome them.  At the same time, what I really wanted to say in the title of this post was…

… “Happy New Year, All You Motherfuckers”, because that’s what Frank the Tank would say. (Hail Suffocation.)

But some small percentage of our visitors will find this post via a status I’ll post on Facebook, and our Facebook overlords get their buttholes in a pucker when you use a word like “motherfucker”, at least if you have even one douchebag follower whose life is so bereft of meaning that they report people who use words that would cause the children they will never have to turn cross-eyed, at least until those fictional children get older and realize the true meaning of the word “motherfuckers” when contemplating their parents. Continue reading »