TOADEATER: “BIT TO EWIGEN DAOGEN”

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Oct 022020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Germany’s Toadeater, which is being released today.)

When it comes to the ongoing discussion about how/whether to separate the art from the artist I tend to err towards the idea that, ultimately, it really comes down to a matter of personal choice.

Sure, we can do our best to engage, discuss, and inform one another on the (not so rare) occasion it turns out that one of our favourite bands or artists turns out to have some… let’s say “questionable” views (or is just a reprehensible, irredeemable piece of shit), but ultimately it’s up to each of us, individually, where we draw the line.

Your circumstances will also affect how you act/react in response when an artist/band crosses that line – for myself there are bands I’ll still listen to but whom I choose not to use my platform here to promote, for example – but the one argument that doesn’t hold any water, not with me anyway, is that you can’t/won’t stop supporting a band “because there’s no-one else as good out there”.

The truth is there’s never been more great music out there. Sure, there’s a lot of dross. But there’s more opportunities now than ever to discover someone/something new when one of your old bands betrays you.

So if you’ve been struggling for a new Black Metal fix to replace your old one, Toadeater have you covered. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VENTR — “NUMINOUS NEGATIVITY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 022020
 

 

The title of Ventr’s debut EP — Numinous Negativity — is nearly perfect for the music. Numinous, Luminous Negativity might be slightly better. But the title has meaning beyond the sensations of the music and the visions they spawn in the mind. We’ll come to that momentarily.

The EP may be a debut recording, but it certainly doesn’t sound like a first effort. The band are Portuguese, and the EP will be released by Signal Rex (on October 9th), but the music doesn’t fit neatly into the kind of raw black metal aesthetic that you might expect from those facts.

As for the conceptual underpinning, we’re told that the title refers to “a spiritual and/or religious form of negative perception – the mysteries in the works within the omnipresence of the Devil.” Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): YOVEL — “FORTHCOMING HUMANITY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  6 Responses »
Oct 012020
 

 

In the midst of a time when it is all too easy to feel desperate and demoralized by forces both human and viral that seem bent on crushing both life and hope, it is worth remembering that humanity has been here before. Remembering such times, and the efforts of valiant people who survived and transcended them, can itself furnish hope. And maybe we can learn something about how this is to be done, as well.

In their new album Forthcoming Humanity, the Greek black metal band Yovel have devoted themselves to such remembrances, and others. A concept album, it is based upon the poems of Tasos Leivaditis, a brilliant poet and a revolutionary, who himself lived through harrowing times, including the second World War. Born in 1922, he died in 1988. Yovel themselves explain:

“Tasos Leivaditis lived and wrote for the hopes, struggles and losses of the Greek people and Greek left movement. We found in his writing mourning; but also radiant hope, rooted in our own history but also in touch with the history of the peoples of this world and their struggles up to date. Hιs work stands as a tribute to that history, but also as a statement for our present and our future.” They quote these words of Leivaditis himself (from Confession, The Manuscripts of Autumn):

“One day I want them to write on my grave: He lived on the border of an indefinite age and died for things far away that he once saw in an un-certain dream.” Continue reading »

ONCOLOGY: “OMNIVERSAL ANTIGENESIS”

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Oct 012020
 

 

(In this review Vonlughlio provides a strong recommendation for the new second album from the UK brutal death metal band Oncology.)

Today’s subject is an amazing band from the UK named Oncology, who on July 17th released their sophomore album Omniversal Antigenesis via Rising Nemesis Records.

This is a project that started in 2014 and released a single called “Prelude to Oblivion”. The following year they released their demo The Metastasis consisting ofthree songs.  But I discovered them in 2016 with their first album Infinite Regress and right away became a fan. Really enjoyed the riffs in each of the songs, very quality writing, and vocals that fit the music perfectly.  The drums on this release were programmed, but well done I might add. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HUMANITY IS CANCER — “HARLOT” (AND A REVIEW OF THE SELF-TITLED EP)

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Sep 302020
 

 

This is an example of “better late than never”, to put it mildly. Humanity Is Cancer wrote the songs on their forthcoming self-titled debut EP back in 2014/2015, as guitarist Thomas Haywood was just about to launch his two labels, Redefining Darkness Records and Seeing Red Records, whose releases have received considerable acclaim in the ensuing years. As a result of the effort devoted to the labels, the EP was put on hold — but it will now finally see the horrid light of a November day in a truly terrible year that has abundantly proven the truth of the band’s name.

And it is definitely better late than never. The four songs on the EP are all terrific, delivering with considerable mastery a style of death metal that draws upon the influence of Aeon, post-Barnes Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, early Decapitated, and Bloodbath. The music’s immediately addictive rhythms are pulverizing, its morbid, preternatural melodies are memorable and haunting, and it achieves heights of ferocity that are spine-tingling. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 125): FERAL LIGHT

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  4 Responses »
Sep 302020
 

 

(For the September 2020 edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy Synn focuses on the discography of Minnesota-based Feral Light, including a review of their 2020 album Life Vapor.)

Recommended for fans of: Tombs, Cobalt, Wolvhammer

So while these guys weren’t my original choice for this month’s Synn Report, the truth is I’ve been itching for a chance to write more about them for a while now, particularly since we didn’t manage to publish a review of the band’s third album, Life Vapor, (although we did host a premiere for it) when it was released back in May, so I’m more than happy that things worked out this way.

Hailing from the grim, snowbound wastes of… Minneapolis, Minnesota… Feral Light (who comprise the dynamic duo of Andrew Reesen on drums and Andy Schoengrund on guitars/vocals) deal in a gritty, gruesomely groovesome brand of Black ‘n’ Roll which has, over the years, also developed an increasingly savage-yet-sombre (not to mention ever-so-slightly proggy) edge to it.

And with three full-length albums now under their belt, I felt it was high time that more of our readers got to know (and love) them as well as I do. Continue reading »

PIG DESTROYER: “THE OCTAGONAL STAIRWAY”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 302020
 


photo by Jay Dixon

 

(This is DGR’s review of the latest EP by Pig Destroyer, which is out now on Relapse Records.)

Honestly, before it was made clear what Pig Destroyer‘s latest EP The Octagonal Stairway was meant to be, there was the briefest of double-takes, as I could’ve sworn there was already an “Octagonal Stairway” single released way back in 2013. Eventual digging would prove that memory true, and it didn’t take much more to clarify what this EP was.

Pig Destroyer have made a name for themselves catching people off guard with some of their EP work, usually with grander aspirations than just a rocket-fueled grind assault. Their latest full-length Head Cage did the same thing but with giant mosh riffs and huge grooves instead of artistic exploration into other genres. That being the case, even with a name like Pig Destroyer it’s still fun to see what the band are going to hurl at you through your speakers.

In this case the EP is a newly approached version of its title song, a collection of two of their singles that came out in 2019 – one via Decibel flexi disc and another an Adult Swim singles release, much like the title track here – and then three electronic experiments that either resolve into sound or are otherwise meant to slowly crawl under the skin and unnerve you. If it feels to you as a listener like a release with multiple personalities fighting for some sense of identity, you wouldn’t be the only one in thinking so, but it is very convenient to finally have these songs under one roof if you weren’t able to find them otherwise. Continue reading »

INCINERATE: “SACRILEGIVM”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 292020
 

 

(We present Vonlughlio’s review of the new album by Incinerate, which will be released on October 9 by Comatose Music and features cover art by Jon Zig.)

This time around I have the opportunity to write about Incinerate, a project originally hailing from Minnesota in the United Stated, formed back in 1998. I have been a fan for over 20 years, while witnessing their changes and evolution.  Their debut album Dissecting the Angels in 2002 — that was in-your-face BDM with a raw production that worked rather well in their songwriting.

For their second album, Anatomize, it took them six more years to get it finished and released, and it was evident that the time brought about big changes in songwriting and sound, and the incorporation of a technical aspect in both. The song titles were simple and on-point, while the lyrics maintained their anti-religion sentiment. This was a great progression musically, it showcased guitarist/vocalist Jesse Watson‘s finest work to that date,  and the musicians on this release were spectacular.   This album gained a lot of attention and a lot of fans, and the release would become one of those that would pass the test of time. Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN’S BIG GAME HUNT (WITH DEFTONES, ENSLAVED, AND THE OCEAN)

 Album Reviews, Metal News  No Responses »
Sep 252020
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews three albums being released today or in the near future — by Deftones, Enslaved, and The Ocean.)

As anyone who’s been following this site for, ooh, more than five minutes, will know, we tend to aim our collective focus at the more underground and/or underappreciated albums and artists out there.

Not because we have to. Not because we think it makes us “cool” (trust me, we’re not cool). Not even because we’re trying to make some sort of point or big statement. It’s just because we want to, and because it’s generally more fun to write about these sorts of bands than it is to regurgitate the same generic platitudes you can see/read everywhere else about bands who already have more than enough exposure.

That being said, sometimes we like to turn our attention to some bigger game, and bigger names, because… well… because we feel like it, basically. Which is why you’re about to read my short, but sharp, take on three artists/albums who’ve already received a fair bit of praise elsewhere but whom I think deserve a slightly more critical (dare I even say, objective?) assessment.

Think of it as my attempt to restore some balance to the force, as it were. Continue reading »

WASTEWALKER: “LOWBORN”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 242020
 

 

(DGR finally got around to writing about the second album from fellow Sacramento denizens Wastewalker.)

There is a part of me that worried for a while that I was holding Wastewalker to a much higher standard than I would have for most groups, which may be why this review took so long to hammer out.

Wastewalker are something of a local Sacramento tech-death “supergroup” as far as the term could be stretched, comprising members who have been involved in some of the more interesting projects to come out of that region in the past few years. Born from of the ashes of the “too death metal for the core kids, too core for the death metal kids” Conducting From The Grave, guitarist John Abernathy found himself accompanied by a stellar roster of musicians.

Their drummer Justin has been in a small collective of projects – the highlight of which is the angular madness that is Journal – while bassist Joel Barrera has been holding down the rhythmic fort for a handful of promising death metal groups, the most recent of which (actually written about here) is the newly launched Katholik. Vocalist Cam Rogers comes shrieking in from an impressive first volley on Alterbeast’s first album, and guitarist Nate Graham was involved in a later lineup of that same group, while also recently joining the promising The Odious Construct.

It’s such a promising lineup that you couldn’t help but be excited for them, which is why it was so frustrating that even though it found a foothold here, only half of the group’s debut album Funeral Winds seemed to stick with me. The group’s sophomore disc Lowborn, released in May after a sizeable delay, is proving to be a far different story. Continue reading »

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