SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: TESTAMENT, EVOKEN, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT, MASTIFF, WEREWOLVES, TERZIJ DE HORDE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 222025
 

(written by Islander)

The year is almost two-thirds finished, 63.84% done and dusted as of today, to be precise. (I didn’t do the math, but relied instead on this extremely helpful website, which shows that the year will be 66.03% complete on August 29th.) We know from experience that the remainder of the year is going to rush by like a flood, even with a bunch of holidays bobbing along in the froth. We’ll be in year-end season before we know it.

Speaking of a churning froth, this past week included a big surge of worthy new songs and videos, and fortunately I had enough time to get a head-start on the usual Saturday roundup. I seem to be renewing a habit of leading off with some large names most of you will know and then falling down a crevasse into lesser-known territory, comparatively speaking. If you know all these names already, congratulations, you have excellent (though possibly deranged) taste! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CORONER, PARADISE LOST, WODE, KANONENFIEBER, SILENT TOMBS, ANTI RITUAL, DEFIGUREMENT, IN SHAME

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Aug 162025
 

(written by Islander)

Before we launch into this Saturday’s roundup all of us here want to express the great sadness we felt after seeing the tragic statements yesterday from Tomas Lindberg and At the Gates, reporting on Lindberg‘s affliction with Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (a cancer in the mouth and pallet) and the failure of invasive surgery to eliminate it. Based on the statements, it appears that chemo treatment has become the last hope for arresting the disease. According to the band, he “has been receiving dedicated care in a specialized ward where he is being closely monitored around the clock.”

Those same statements reported that Lindberg had recorded the vocals for a new At the Gates album on the day before the surgery last spring. Of course, he has left an indelible mark on the history of metal already, but it will be great to hear him again when the album is finished.

We wish him strength and convey our heartfelt hopes for ultimate success in the hard battle he has been waging. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AMORPHIS, PROGENY OF THE SUN, TEMPEST, LAANG, DARK WATCHER, ZLOBNIK, CRUSTY OLD TOAD, DISTRESS

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 092025
 

(written by Islander)

It’s unlikely I will be able to write a SHADES OF BLACK column for tomorrow, due to conflicting weekend plans with my wife. So I’ve made this Saturday roundup a big one, and I’ve included a greater-than-usual number of black metal bands.

I decided to put a shiny bauble at the top of the group, hoping that it might lure some people to dig deeper into the pile before realizing they’ll get cut up by all the sharp objects underneath. Which is to say, there’s really nothing like Amorphis waiting for you later on. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: OMNEUM GATHERUM, BELPHEGOR, WRETCHED, AUTHOR AND PUNISHER, GORLEBEN, ORBSTRUCT

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Aug 082025
 

(written by Islander)

For the second time this week I found myself with enough spare time to pull together a week-day roundup of recommended new music and videos, getting a head-start on the usual Saturday collection.

Like the one I sorted out for Wednesday, today’s collection includes some very well-known names but also foists upon you a couple of comparative obscurities to help even things out (and by my lights the most interesting song — and the strangest one — in today’s group comes from one of those lesser lights). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A WEDNESDAY: HOODED MENACE, MORS PRINCIPIUM EST, GORYCZ, ORBIT CULTURE, LOWBAU, ASHEN

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Aug 062025
 


Hooded Menace photo by Pasi Nevalaita

(written by Islander)

Today is another rare day when we have no premieres on our daily calendar, and we only had one on Monday and one on Tuesday. This seems to be just a brief ebb. Next week we have either two track premieres or an album premiere slated for every day. Other premieres are already scattered across the calendar through the rest of August and into September.

But in light of this week’s ebb, I used the free time to pull together the following mid-week roundup of recommended new songs and videos. This one might lean into a greater share of bigger names than usual, but I have also sling-shot a few into the mix that will even out the notoriety scale. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PESTILENGTH, HYPERDONTIA, RIBSPREADER, MALEVICH, SARNATH ETERNAL

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 022025
 

(written by Islander)

I’m going to get right to the music today and dispense with the usual personal anecdotes that no one really wants to read, like whether I had to clean up cat vomit this morning (I did), if I’ve learned to make washing dishes by hand a Zen-like experience since the dishwasher broke (nope), the best thing I’ve seen and heard outside the house this week (the pair of hawks that have re-located into the forest and apparently scared all the other fowl into silence), how much I’ve enjoyed beautiful mild PNW days while reading about much of the country getting brutally microwaved (a lot), the only new item I read this morning that didn’t make me furious and/or nauseated (about an anti-poaching campaign in South Africa that involves injecting the horns of rhinos with radioactive isotopes), and my opinion on the rendition of “Paranoid” by the Kings’ Guards at Buckingham Palace (meh).

So yeah, none of that irrelevant personal stuff, getting right to the music, right away, no delays: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: RUNEMAGICK, NEW WORLD DEPRESSION, INNUMERABLE FORMS, TITHE, CANCER VOID, SUM OF R

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 012025
 

(written by Islander)

Today is another Bandcamp Friday, a good time to buy or pre-order music because a greater percentage of the proceeds will reach bands and labels. I had a few hours to myself yesterday afternoon and this morning that I spent surveying new music that’s come out over the last week or so. From that, I picked music from six bands to recommend today.

With one exception, all these songs are advance tracks from albums that will be released either later this month or in September or October. The one exception is the first single from an album that’s being released in full today. There’s a hell of a lot of great cover art in today’s collection too.

If things go as planned, I’ll have more recommendations in the usual space for these roundups tomorrow. Continue reading »

THE ABCs OF REPRESSION — TWO SINGLES AND AN EP BY ZNOUS AND TRANSGRESSIVE

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 312025
 

(The following essay and its Appendix were written by our South Africa-born and Vietnam-located contributor Vizzah Harri.)

This is not going to be an easy read. If you are triggered by words that end in -isms, especially abstract concepts that have real-world consequences on the life and liquidation of innocents, you know, the ignorant kind, then you won’t get further than the next paragraph.

Abusive, brainwashed, callous.

Archaic bellicose construct.

Avaricious bloodsucking cowards.

Abhorrently bootlicking chauvinists.

The ABCs of Repression Fascism

“كانت يديه تضفر أحشاء الكاهن

، إذا لم يكن لديه حبل ، لخنق الملوك”

“וידיו היו קולעות את מעי הכהן,

בהיעדר חבל, לחנוק מלכים”

“And his hands would plait the priest’s entrails,

For want of a rope, to strangle kings.”

 – alternative translations of the infamous Denis Diderot quote. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ESOCTRILIHUM, KAMRA, HUYA GENUS, YOTUMA, VICTIM OF FIRE, ESSES

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 262025
 

(written by Islander)

I got a late start on this Saturday’s roundup of recommended new music, and I feel the need to rush in order to keep it from appearing too late in the day. So my review-ish commentary will be somewhat briefer than usual (please hold your applause) and I’ll cut the rest of the introduction to just this:

I would suggest that this collection is a mix of brain-scramblers, bone-smashing punishers, muscle-twitching groovers, headlong racers, and seductive clean-sung sorcery, more or less in that order. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: TOMBS, HORNWOOD FELL, ACEPHALIC VOID, DEF/LIGHT

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 252025
 

(written by Islander)

With only one premiere to handle today and nothing else waiting in the queue for our site, I had a combination of opportunity and need, anxiety about us not posting the usual amount of stuff in recent days and the time (barely enough time) to do something about it. So, as a head-start on Saturday’s roundup, I got this four-band collection done, focusing on two old favorites and two brand new discoveries. The cover art for all four was part of the initial attraction.

TOMBS (U.S.)

The first of the old favorites is Tombs. Earlier this week we got the news that they have a new album named Feral Darkness now set for release on October 17th by their new label Redefining Darkness Records. The “FFO” references for Tombs have changed over time. As a clue about this new full-length, which follows 2020’s Under Sullen Skies, it includes Fields of the Nephilim, Samhain, Mayhem, and Goatwhore. The lineup also includes new guitarist Dan Higgins. Sera Timms also provides guest vocals on one song.

And then there’s this from the press release: Continue reading »

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