(In a continuation of this occasional series, Andy Synn reviews three recent albums by bands from his homeland.)
Normally I’d write something amusing/annoying to provide a “fun” lead in to the following three albums.
However, a combination of work/band/life pressures means that, right at this moment, I don’t have any time to mess around like that.
So, without further ado, here’s a mix of Death, Black, and Post/Sludge from the UK for you all to enjoy. Continue reading »
Before finding an interview that confirmed my suspicions about the meaning of this band’s name, I engaged in some internet research. The results of much of my searching directed me to “the black maria“, despite the difference in spelling. “The black maria” was the colloquial name for horse-drawn police wagons, with the term’s origins dating back to the mid-1800s in New York City. It was pronounced in the same way as “the black moriah”. Other searches pointed me to Moriah, the Hebrew name for the mountain where, according to the Book of Genesis, God told Abraham to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him. But none of those references is correct.
Searching more thoroughly would lead you to tales of Tombstone, Arizona, a silver-mining boomtown that became emblematic of the lawlessness and violence of the Old West in the 1800s, most famously the site of The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and of the Boothill Graveyard, so named because most of the men buried there had “died with their boots on”. “The Black Moriah” was the name of the horse-drawn hearse that took many of those men to their final resting place on Boothill. The actual hearse is now housed in Tombstone’s Bird Cage Theater Museum, which was itself the site of an infamous brothel in those old lawless days.
And that horse-drawn hearse from Tombstone is in fact the source of the moniker for this North Texas band, who have embraced what old Tombstone came to stand for. Portraying themselves as a “horde of highwaymen”, they create “blackened thrash for a desert funeral”. The title of their latest album, Road Agents of the Blast Furnace, could serve as an alternate name for the band, because they do indeed sound like outlaws riding the wild roads of a sun-blistered land on horses from hell. Continue reading »
(In this post Andy Synn reviews the new album by the Vancouver-based metal band Bushwhacker, which was released on July 19th.)
To a certain extent this business – the business of being a music writer/critic/blogger – is built on relationships. Relationships with bands, PR people, labels… and so on… which, if cultivated correctly, help to create a sustainable and mutually-beneficial ecosystem for everyone involved.
There are, of course, potential dark sides to these relationships.
Certain labels have been known to lean on smaller sites/zines by using the threat of removing their access to bump up the review scores or the amount of coverage given to their artists. Certain PR companies have been known to effectively “blacklist” certain writers or publications if they aren’t nice enough to the bands they’re representing. And certain critics have had their reputations questioned when it’s come to light that they’re perhaps a little more friendly with certain musicians than they originally let on.
It’s this last one which vexes me the most these days, and there are a few bands who I simply won’t review any more purely because, even if I trust myself to be as objective and impartial as possible, I don’t want there to be even a hint of impropriety or preferential treatment attached to my work.
But when Bushwhacker contacted us recently asking if we’d be willing to give their new record a listen, I simply couldn’t refuse. Not just because of the way in which they went about it – not directly asking for, or demanding, a review, but simply letting us know the music was out there if we were interested – but because it really is a damn fine album! Continue reading »
Conceivably, I am not the best person to present this split release. I am largely unfamiliar with the two German projects who participated in the split — Scatmother and Chaos Cascade. I also have only a passing acquaintance with harsh power electronics, which is their principal stock in trade. These impediments hinder my ability to introduce our premiere stream of the split in a way that places it within the context of what these people have done before, or the field in general.
On the other hand, maybe there’s something to be said for barging into an unfamiliar din of iniquity (see what I did there?) and simply reacting to the experience. And, to be fair, it’s not as if this is my first encounter with abrasive and unsettling sounds (as most of you well know), even though my own tastes run more to the assaults of extreme metal rather than power electronics or harsh noise. Besides, many of you may be virgins in this territory yourselves (though unlikely virgins in any other way).
But whether it be for better or for worse, here we are, and here we go… with impressions and a full stream of Sacrificial Rites of Devotion, which has just been released by Dunkelheit Produktionen. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn gets filthy with the new album from seminal Metal/Hardcore band All Out War)
As some of you may know, All Out War easily rank among my favourite bands of all time.
And I know I say that a lot – look, when you listen to a lot of bands you have a lot of favourites – but in this case I really mean it, as it was bands like All Out War, Ringworm, and Earth Crisis (and many more) who played a seminal role in defining my taste in Metal/Hardcore in the early days.
Which is why it’s crazy to think that this is the first time I’m writing about them for the site.
I’ll grant you that by the time I actually started writing for NCS they were once again on hiatus, and in the years to follow would only release one EP (and you know how terrible I am at keeping tabs on those… though I’m trying to do better) and an album which, to be honest, I’m not a massive fan of.
But, still, it feels weird to think that this is my first time properly reviewing the band… so I’d better make it count, right?
(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Serpent of Gnosis, which was released by 1126 Records on June 14th.)
Let’s be honest, there’s considerably more stigma than stardust surrounding the concept of the “supergroup” these days, due to most bands of this sort suffering from such a painful lack of anything resembling chemistry or creativity that they inevitably end up producing something far less than the sum of their parts.
There are exceptions to this though, and while the various members of Serpent of Gnosis may not be quite famous (or infamous) enough to truly call themselves a “supergroup”, musically speaking they’re still miles ahead of most of those who do. Continue reading »
(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new EP by the Spanish technical death metal band Wormed, which was released on July 19th by Season of Mist.)
Wormed are, without a doubt, one of the more ridiculous acts in Metal.
And I mean that entirely as a compliment.
Despite conventional wisdom that “less is more” the Spanish quartet have made a career out of their seemingly endless pursuit of ludicrous excess, with practically every song (and album) attempting to be faster, heavier, and louder – more beats per minute, more notes per second, more babbling sci-fi nonsense – than the one before it.
It’s perhaps ironic, then, to find that the band’s latest EP strongly suggests that sometimes less IS more, as these four tracks prove to be just the right bite-sized portion to allow both new and old listeners to get their fill of brutal techstravagance without feeling like their overstuffed brains are going to explode at the end of it. Continue reading »
Before we move into the weekend I want to recommend two EPs. The first was released last night — I happened to notice the Bandcamp alert in my e-mail not long after it landed there, and bought it immediately. The second was released in May, but I overlooked it until a friend pointed me to it earlier this week — and it was love at first listen.
REBEL WIZARD: “HARK! HARK! HARK!”
To any regular visitors at NCS my admiration (okay, “adoration” is probably more accurate) of Rebel Wizard‘s music is well-known. Having been so consistently enthusiastic about B. Nekrasov‘s previous releases under this moniker, I was predisposed to like this one (I’ve already confessed that I bought it before listening to it). Conceivably, I could have been disappointed, in which case you would not be reading these words. Obviously, however, I’m very happy with my impulsive purchase. Continue reading »
(This is Vonlughlio’s review of a debut EP by the California technical death/grind band Marburg, which was released in a CD edition by Vargheist Records on July 5th.)
This time around I would like to talk about the band Marburg from Los Angeles, California. They are a Tech Death/Grind group that formed back in 2015 and digitally released their debut EP Polemicist in 2016. At some point they signed with the South Carolina label Vargheist Records, which has recently released the EP on CD.
Getting the chance to listen to their music, I did not have any idea how it would sound, and ohh boy, this turned out to be a pleasant surprise, to say the least. For me, the sound is natural, and all the instruments play a key role in delivering in-your-face grind with tech ingredients that make it even more enjoyable. The first song, “Fuck You”, is the perfect introduction, giving the listener a taste of the wild ride they are about to experience. Once I hit play, the energy in the music was unquestionable, and the talent showcased here is superb. Continue reading »
The new album by the Austrian alchemists The Negative Bias is so ambitious in its conception, so extravagant in its composition, and so tremendously powerful in its execution that it merits the often-overused term “visionary”. It becomes a form of breathtakingly dramatic musical theater that seems calculated to create shock and awe, to assault and bedazzle the senses, forcibly shattering commonplace perceptions in order to make the mind more receptive to new and unexpected visions.
The name of this monumental work is Narcissus Rising (A Metamorphosis In Three Acts). It follows the band’s debut album Lamentation of the Chaos Omega (2017) and a 2018 split with Golden Dawn. It will be released on July 26th by ATMF, and today we premiere a full stream, preceded by further thoughts about this stunning experience. Continue reading »