SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ERDVE, ADVERSVM, COFFIN MULCH, KORPVS, KILL DIVISION, THE NEANDERVERBS, MNAJDRA

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
May 062023
 

Less than a week into May and it’s already damned hot in many places around the world, even in some far northern latitudes. A news report yesterday said that at least 78 wildfires are burning across the Canadian province of Alberta, 19 of which are burning out of control, and that more than 13,000 people have already been evacuated from where they live.

Where I live, near the 47th meridian in the Pacific Northwest (and about 800 miles southwest of the Alberta fire zone), it’s now 47° F and the gray sky is drizzling rain, as it did all day yesterday. I love it. It might have influenced some of the picks in this large roundup of new songs and videos, though some sonic firestorms and a few vigorous beatings found their way into it too.

Actually, I’m very proud of how varied this collection turned out to be. Which means you probably won’t like all of it.

ERDVE (Lithuania)

Despite my opening commentary about the weather, the new single from Erdve sounds like a different natural phenomenon — like a mid-paced avalanche of stone, with giant boulders rumbling down. Along with all the jarring jolts, the sizzling riffage is also frightful, creating tension and fear, while the raw yells channel rage. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, APRIL 2023

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
May 052023
 


VoidCeremony

(Another month has passed into the moldy history books, and almost like clockwork Gonzo has arrived to spotlight three albums that made a better April for him, and might make a better May for you.)

April came and went, and here I am, sitting around at 5:39 p.m. on a Thursday, trying to figure out what the hell we’ve already covered during that month so I can avoid redundancy on these pages.

And holy shit – we’re just three weeks away from Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle, where I’ll be joining a significant percentage of the NCS staff for a weekend of work and revelry. If you haven’t scored tickets for that one yet, be sure that you do. The lineup this year looks positively ferocious. I’ll be the guy in the “FUCK THE D.E.A.” shirt periodically drunk on hazy IPAs. Come say hi.

Until then, here’s some new music to keep your eardrums occupied. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BOARGAZM — “ARMAGAMMON”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
May 042023
 

With their new album Armagammon, the South African band Boargazm have reached the end of their Aporkalypse trilogy. A twisted sci-fi narrative accompanied by comic books, it tells the story of a rebel band of time-travelling freedom fighters known as “The Pig Whisperers”, who warn the world of the impending Aporkalypse, through the Baconing, all the way to Armagammon.

And if that sounds like some weird fun, wait ’til you hear this new album. As the band’s founder Heine van der Walt has explained: “We wanted to shift our focus on doing something highly experimental and weird, yet true to our sound. So, lots of freneticism, while still retaining groove, and to see if we can balance that in a coherent method. It was a fun exercise and experience, figuring out how to do all that.” Continue reading »

CATTLE DECAPITATION – TERRASITE

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 042023
 

(Cattle Decapitation are about to serve up another platter of pain and Andy Synn is here with a gourmand’s take on what to expect)

Now, before we begin, I’m going to say something controversial.

You’re not going to want to hear it, but I think it’s important in order to establish a basis of trust and, hopefully, understanding between us.

Are you ready? Ok… Death Atlas was not as good as you think it was.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good album overall, and I understand why it was the band’s big “breakthrough” (sure, their star had been on the rise ever since The Harvest Floor, if not before), but in hindsight it’s obvious – to me at least – that the band themselves weren’t quite sure what to do with their newfound fame, which led to at least a handful of tracks feeling as though they were being written more to fit someone else’s formula of what the band “should” be doing now that they were on the road to success.

But we’re not here to talk about their last record, we’re here to learn all about their new one, and the only real reason I mention it is because Terrasite is the album which Death Atlas was trying to be… without even trying.

Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 032023
 

(Andy Synn catches you upon four meaty underground morsels from April)

Finally accepting that I/we would never cover most – let alone all – of the new releases each month/year was extremely liberating.

It meant that I could feel more comfortable just writing about whatever artists/albums caught my eye/ear, for whatever reason, with the hope that some of my compatriots would catch some of the stuff I missed, and the understanding that certain records are probably going to get enough coverage elsewhere that it won’t make a huge difference if none of us get around to covering them.

Sacrificing quantity for quality also means that you are – hopefully – going to get better, and more insightful, results from each review (something which, let’s be honest, those sites publishing 50+ reviews a week probably aren’t giving you) though I can’t necessarily guarantee that due to lack of time/sleep/mental capacity.

But, I promise, I’m going to try my best, which today means examining four very different albums from four very different bands.

Continue reading »

HEROD: “ICONOCLAST”

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May 032023
 

(On May 5th Pelagic Records will release a new album by the Swiss “progressive sludge” band Herod, and below we present DGR‘s review of this new record.)

Herod‘s Iconoclast is not an album you would normally prescribe for May weather, with the sun finally threatening to peak its head around a seemingly never-ending (though much appreciated) cloud season in this corner of the globe. The Swiss group’s third release is a dense block of oppressive heaviness that dresses itself in all things artificial and organic in order to become a monster attempting to fuse multiple different styles into one angular creature.

Given the amount of weapons at musician Pierre Carroz‘s disposal when it comes to Iconoclast, that monster has let its tendrils run wild to create something that is unfriendly on immediate approach, yet its sense of groove is undeniable, to the point of being near-hypnotic. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NADIR — “EXTINCTION RITUALS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
May 022023
 

All things rise and fall, both the animate and the inanimate. Mountains heave up from the Earth’s crust, and erode over time. Flora and fauna flourish much more briefly, but all of it is always doomed to perish. Human life in particular strives, grasping for meaning and some measure of “success”, but humanity’s most vaunted achievements are in fact evanescent, and self-destruction seems deeply rooted. In the arc of all things, there are zeniths, and at the bottom of the trajectory is where you’ll find Nadir.

Nadir is the name chosen by a Norwegian blackened hardcore band whose extravagant debut album we’re presenting today in advance of its May 5 release. Its conception is summed up in the title — Extinction Rituals — and becomes even more clear through the band’s elaboration of what that means:

Extinction Rituals is an exercise in the duality of futility and hope. It is a comment upon the ignorance of man and the inventive way we manage to prey upon each other. Musically, Extinction Rituals sets out to match the lyrical content through blending eclectic sources of inspiration and striving for a harsh and aggressive sound.”

Nadir succeeded in their striving. Paradoxically, they’ve made their dark descent into a zenith of their own. Continue reading »

THY CATAFALQUE: “ALFÖLD”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 022023
 

(Thy Catafalque‘s latest opus Alföld will be released by Season of Mist on June 16th, and today we present a review by our old friend and ardent Thy Catafalque student Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. It is once again my favorite time of year (well, my favorite time of every two or three years): Thy Catafalque season. That’s right, my favorite Hungarian multi-instrumentalist and musical genius, Tamás Kátai, has maintained his reliable release schedule and graces us once more with a new Thy Catafalque album. While the core principles of the musical project remain the same (Kátai is the sole member, supported by a sizable rotation of guest musicians lending their talents in various capacities), the Thy Catafalque sound continues to evolve, aided by a significant musical development.

If you’re a fan of the band, or happened to read my top album list from last year, then you’re likely aware that Kátai took a huge step on the past year or so by taking Thy Catafalque into a live setting for the first time. The band’s first live performance was recorded and released as a live album, and there have been a handful of other live performances since, with a shifting lineup appropriate to the band’s history. While Kátai‘s involvement in the first live show was surprisingly limited (only playing bass on a handful of songs), he has in subsequent shows taken up full bass duties, and it feels as though performing live has affected the tracks on this new Thy Catafalque album Alföld. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SHODAN — “NONE SHALL PREVAIL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
May 012023
 

On May 5th Time To Kill Records will release None Shall Prevail, the third LP by the Polish death metal band Shodan. In two words, it’s absolutely stunning.

Of course we have a lot my words to spill about it, but we’ll leap ahead through them to emphasize these: The album is a genuine rarity, in the sense that it has the potential to appeal to fans from across many genres of extreme metal, from brutal death metal to technical death metal, from prog metal to melodic death metal (and more).

Moreover, the band don’t reveal these different influences in separate songs, but beautifully integrate all of them in every track through songwriting that’s elaborate, dynamic, and executed with eye-popping skill. In addition, the record is exceptionally well-produced to emphasize these signal qualities, delivering both power and clarity.

Of course, it’s still way too early to be throwing around references to year-end lists, but None Shall Prevail is so spectacular that it seems like a very safe bet we’ll see it on many of those in the waning months of 2023. Continue reading »

ENCOUNTER TRUTH: “PANSPERMIA”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
May 012023
 

(Encounter Truth hail from Bogotá, Colombia, and what follows is DGR‘s enthusiastic review of their debut EP Panspermia.)

Truth be told: Colombia’s Encounter Truth and their new EP Panspermia – released at the tail end of March – are kind of at a perfect cross-section of where yours truly has been positioned musically at the moment. At a little over twenty-six minutes in length, five songs, full of tech-death noodling that could challenge a ramen shop in terms of production and plenty of blue/purple colorization about science fiction topics, Encounter Truth have laid their entire formula out on the table before you even hit play.

Across those five songs Encounter Truth are showing that they’re likely never going to let off the accelerator once, and the constant hammering is going to come from all ends – whether it be a surprisingly prominent bass guitar or a never-ending drum section wherein the double-bass rolling is the foundation upon which many of the songs are built.

If this is the “proof-of-concept” release for the current incarnation of Encounter Truth, then perhaps this is a band to keep an eye on in the future, because Panspermia makes it clear that they have the fundamental nature of the genre locked down by the time they’re rocketing well into the EPs second song “La Alianza”. Continue reading »

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