REMISSION: “THE TETHER’S END”

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Mar 022020
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s enthusiastic review of the debut album of Australia’s Remission, which was released late last year.)

While I’ve enjoyed the stylistic turn to a degree, melodic death metal in recent years has become too fucking slow and has increasingly lost its sense of technicality.  Everyone who knows me after years on this site is aware that I’m as much of a fan of the melodic death-doom formula as anyone, but I must confess I miss what got me captivated by the style in the first place.  It was the ability of the music to hit a threshold of being fast and technical, yet remaining emotive all the same.

The olden-days bands wrote riffs that were basically 20-second hooks, where the entire passage stuck into your head while skank beats and the like pounded away at high speed.  If it wasn’t that, it was an extremely modern translation of British Heavy Metal into an even heavier context.  I really miss this about melodic death metal of the ’90s and early 2000s, and it’s a bit dismaying that the style has mostly seemed to die off in interest.

Until now. Continue reading »

DEMONS & WIZARDS: “III”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  2 Responses »
Feb 282020
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of the new album by Demons & Wizards, which unites the talents of Jon Schaffer (Iced Earth) and Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) and was released by Century Media on February 21st.)

Fifteen years later and this project has returned.

Before we get into the meat of the metal here it should be said that I am pretty picky when it comes to power metal. This might surprise some since I grew up listening to the bands that influenced power metal. Even when Helloween came out with Keeper of the Seven Keys pt 2, I was still on board. The only problem was the bands who took inspiration from that album were too happy for me. Continue reading »

TURIA: “DEGEN VAN LICHT”

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Feb 272020
 

 

(This is Mike Johnson‘s review of the new album by the Dutch black metal band Turia, which was released by Eisenwald on February 14th.)

Feel the chill gnaw at the marrow of your bones, as you trudge through the frozen snow. Shards of ice feel sharper than obsidian as they tear away beneath your cloak. Each step a masochistic delight as the lure of the great grey summit beckons you forth.

It stands amongst its peers with a crown of haze masking its highest peaks. As time disappears the ascension up an unforgiving pass becomes a torrent of lunacy as the shadow of a giant looming over you blocks the sky. A sliver of hope emerges as the pass opens to reveal the sun, its soothing warmth brings a spark of euphoria before disappearing in the shadow of the natural obelisk towering above piercing the sky.

An atmosphere such as this, sonically, should be dissonant, unforgiving, and a relentless fury of pure despair. Turia, a Dutch black metal trio, portray a scene of majestic desolation weaving lush landscapes soaked in reverb into a serrated hail composed of vicious tremolo riffs. Continue reading »

BLACK ROYAL: “FIREBRIDE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Feb 262020
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Finland’s Black Royal, which was released by Suicide Records on February 14th.)

Maybe it’s just me (I don’t think it is, but you never know) but it seems like the last several years have seen quite a lot of bands, both old and new, turning back to the “old school” for inspiration.

And while there are lots of speculative, pseudo-psychological reasons for why this might be so (there’s certainly something to be said for the idea that during unsettling or uncertain times we’re more likely to cling to what’s familiar), I honestly think that the best explanation for this recent “old school” resurgence is that quite a lot of bands have simply grown dissatisfied with what more modern trends have to offer them (and, in turn, demand from them).

Of course, this isn’t necessarily anything all that new. Metal has, after all, often been quite an insular scene, with a large fixation on its own history, and practically every year sees the emergence of yet another wave of “retro” groups trying to recapture the spirit and the sound of Metal’s “golden age”… mostly without really adding anything to it.

But, of late, I’ve really taken note of how many bands have been trying to do more than just imitate the classics by taking and twisting them into fresh new shapes, repurposing clichéd ideas for new purposes, and by mixing and matching “timeless” elements in ways which would once have been unthinkable.

I’m sure we can all think of lots of current/recent examples of this (Chapel of Disease immediately spring to mind). But the one I want to bring your attention to today is the brilliant second album from Finnish riffmongers Black Royal. Continue reading »

LYCHGATE: “ALSO SPRACH FUTURA”

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Feb 252020
 

 

(This is Todd Manning‘s review of the new EP by the UK-based progressive black/doom band Lychgate, which will soon be released by Debemur Morti Productions.)

It’s getting hard to ignore Lychgate, not that anyone should be trying. This UK based Extreme Metal band continue to push their awe-inspiring blend of Black Metal, Death, and Doom into more progressive and experimental realms with each release, and their latest EP is a case in point. Also sprach Futura is due out on Debemur Morti Productions on March 13th and illustrates beyond any doubt that Lychgate is one of the most exciting bands going right now. Continue reading »

PSYCHOTIC WALTZ: “THE GOD-SHAPED VOID”

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Feb 252020
 

 

(Seattle-based NCS contributor Gonzo brings us this review of the the fifth studio album by U.S. progressive metal pioneers Psychotic Waltz, and their first music in 23 years, released on February 14th by InsideOutMusic.)

Maybe it’s just me, but I love it when a criminally underrated band emerges from the ether after years of radio silence and releases some of their best work. Since that seems to be the trend lately for metal bands, reformed prog metal gurus Psychotic Waltz have decided to follow suit, surprising the world with the release of their newest album, The God-Shaped Void. Continue reading »

REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER: “ASCENSION”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Feb 242020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the French band Regarde Les Hommes Tomber, which is set for release by Season of Mist on February 28th.)

One thing which struck me, in a way that it didn’t first time around, when listening back to the first two albums from underrated Black Metal coterie Regarde Les Hommes Tomber, was just how much their sound, their style, and their whole approach, reminds me of Abigail Williams.

Seriously, just take a listen to the slow-burning menace and spiteful savagery of songs like “They Came… To Take Us” and “The Incandescent March” (from 2015’s Exile) and try to tell me you don’t see/hear the resemblance to Ken Sorceron and co. circa In The Absence of Light/Becoming.

Of course the fearsome French five-piece are far more than just a European derivative of their American cousins, and others have also pointed out some of the band’s sonic similarities to artists like Altar of Plagues, Amenra, and their countrymen in Celeste too, but now that I’ve made this connection in my mind it’s impossible for me to un-hear it.

It also makes me wonder whether the reason for the band’s relatively low profile, at least when compared to some of the French scene, might be because – much like Abigail Williams – they don’t neatly fit into some people’s perceptions of what a Black Metal band should sound like or how they’re supposed to present themselves.

But, just one listen to Ascension makes me think that not only are Regarde Les Hommes Tomber fully aware of all this, they also don’t give a damn about fitting neatly into anyone’s preconceptions. Continue reading »

CULT OF FIRE: “MOKSHA / NIRVANA”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Feb 212020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new double-album by the one-of-a-kind Czech band Cult of Fire, which has been released today.)

Czech Black Metal collective Cult of Fire have never been ones to follow the stereotypical path.

Whereas much, if not most, Black Metal styles itself as adversarial – not surprising considering the genre’s rebellious roots – Cult of Fire have always seem less concerned with pushing back against the outside world and more focussed on exploring their own inner world, taking instead their inspiration from Buddhist teachings and Vedic mysticism.

In their own way, of course, this makes them just as iconoclastic as the most rabidly anti-Christian of tremolo-abusers, except that instead of seeking to define themselves by what they’re against, Cult of Fire seek only to define (or redefine) who they are, their true spiritual selves.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising then that the band’s latest musical exploration (released digitally today, with a physical release following next month) comprises a double-disc duology of scorching sounds and meditative moodscapes, as we all know that the search for wisdom is both endless and eternal, and knows no bounds. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NECROBODE — “SOB O FEITIÇO DO NECROBODE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 192020
 

 

The music of Necrobode is as infernally bestial, as merciless, and as death-crowned as all their outward trappings would suggest, from the cadaverous horned lord on the cover of their new album to their own savage, inverted-cross-wearing, spiked-gauntlet-brandishing visages. Their brand of corrosive black/death is sadistically brutalizing, mind-mauling, and vicious. But as you’re about to discover, there’s a lot more to their debut album besides naked hostility and a fiendish disregard for your mental and physical welfare.

That album, Sob o Feitiço do Necrobode, will be released on February 21st by Iron Bonehead Productions, a label that clearly knows how to separate the wheat from the chaff in sifting through the vast harvests of extreme metal. And today we’re bringing you a complete stream of the record — preceded by the following introductory review. Continue reading »

UNSUNG HEROES OF 2019: BULL ELEPHANT / DIMAEON / TRIANGLE FACE

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Feb 192020
 

 

(In this article Andy Synn combines reviews of three fine, stylistically divergent albums released in 2019 — by Bull Elephant (UK), Dimaeon (Netherlands), and Triangle Face (UK).)

Ok, Ok… I promise this will (probably) be the last time I go on about albums from last year that you and I may have otherwise skipped over or missed out on.

After all, it’s getting towards the end of February now, and the deluge of new releases and upcoming albums is really starting to ramp up, so if I don’t want to fall behind (any more than I already have done) then I really need to start focussing on 2020.

But I couldn’t let these three artists/albums pass by without making a bit of fuss over them, as while I didn’t get around to covering them when they were first released, I’ve spent quite a lot of time listening to them all recently, and needed to share my enthusiasm with you! Continue reading »

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