LORN: “ARRAYED CLAWS”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Feb 072017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by the Italian band Lorn, which has just been released by I, Voidhanger Records.)

Black metal has rarely achieved that truly evil, blasphemous, horror sound that many bands have aspired to. It wasn’t until the style took a more melodic, progressive, and esoterically melodic approach that I started to care about it in the early 2000s or so. I don’t like Burzum, Bathory, or Darkthrone. Emperor was where my taste for the music started, and in following suit, all of my favorite black metal comes from that Emperor school of thought… until recently.

I suppose I couldn’t help but feel that first-wave and some second-wave black metal was just rather cartoony or something. I couldn’t take it seriously. I always wanted to hear an album or EP from this genre that truly succeeded in capturing the sound of a pit of hell opening up, or being trapped inside a dank chamber with a bunch of banshees torturing you with non-stop blood-curdling shrieks until you were incapable of knowing peace, sanity, or anything but the endless wail.

Lorn has done that. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DIGIR GIDIM — “I THOUGHT THERE WAS THE SUN AWAITING MY AWAKENING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Feb 072017
 

 

As I’ve mentioned before, we don’t agree to host premieres of music at our site until we have first listened to the music and concluded that it’s worth recommending to you, according to our own twisted tastes. When I began listening to what you’re about to hear, the band’s name was new to me and I had no clear idea what to expect. What I heard left me gasping and unnerved, emotionally stretched taut, and wide-eyed in wonder at what this mysterious duo had achieved. I felt myself enthralled by the unsettling sorcery of masters practicing a very dark but transportive art.

The band is Diĝir Gidim (whose location is unknown), and the title of the album is I Thought There Was the Sun Awaiting My Awakening. It will be released by ATMF on March 31, 2017. Continue reading »

WARCRAB: “SCARS OF AEONS”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Feb 062017
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn’s review of the latest album by the British band WarCrab.)

Over the course of 2016 I managed to successfully cover a host of fantastic bands from the UK (often, but not always, under the “Best of British” banner) spanning a wide variety of metallic sub-genres, from the pitch-black perfection of Wode and the doomy proggery of King Goat, to the unfathomable brutality of Unfathomable Ruination, the knee-cap shattering aggression of Venom Prison, and the grandstanding gallop of Wretched Soul… and beyond.

But even with all these, there were still several bands whose works went uncelebrated, and chief amongst them were the mighty WarCrab and their titanic second album Scars of Aeons. Continue reading »

MECHINA: “AS EMBERS TURN TO DUST”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Feb 062017
 

 

(Chicago’s Mechina released a new album on January 1 and, continuing a long tradition, DGR reviews it.)

The idea of a band creating their own lore occupies a special place in my heart, a place where admiration and hilarity co-exist in the case of Mechina. The ambitiousness of trying to set up a universe and tell a multiple-release-spanning story is incredible, in an age of music that is quickly devoured and disposed of, reserved exclusively for streaming and set up to run in the background. Going beyond the usual goal of “let’s make a really good disc” and into one that seeks to create a musical space opera that pulls from equal parts miltiary sci-fi and exploration segments, that is where my admiration comes to fruition.

That the Mechina crew have doggedly sought to create this saga on a yearly release schedule, with the occasional single release ahead of time, has felt like an exercise in insanity. The hilarity, for me at least, has been in the part where year afer year I have to describe this to what may be a new audience not feel like I’ve fallen into a feedback loop of repeating myself. Continue reading »

KRYSTHLA: “PEACE IN OUR TIME”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 032017
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Krysthla from the UK.)

So let’s address the big Polish elephant in the room straight away, shall we?

If, after listening to Peace In Our Time, the second album from British bruisers Krysthla, I were to tell you that these guys really like Decapitated, have been on tour with Vogg and co., and probably own several Decapitated shirts between them, I doubt you’d be surprised, as the presence of the Polish groovemongers looms large over pretty much every track on this album.

It would be wrong to write the band off as simple copycats, however, as, although their major influences (primarily, though not exclusively, latter-day Decapitated and late-2000s period Meshuggah) are certainly very prominent, the songs which make up Peace In Our Time are delivered with a level of energy and belligerent intensity which makes them impossible to dismiss. Continue reading »

DIABLERIE: “THE CATALYST VOL. I: CONTROL”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 032017
 

 

(Our long-time supporter and occasional contributor Booker returns to NCS with this review of the new album by Finland’s Diablerie.)

Music goes through phases, some of them short-lived trends. And let’s face it, metal is no different. But there’s always some stallion musos that keep true to their hearts and let fly with the rhythms and sounds that light their own fire, regardless of the changing moods around them. Like those stalwart bands that kept cranking out solid thrash throughout the ’90s and 2000s, while grunge and nu-metal captured hearts and minds, only to see the hunger for riffs and blazing solos come back full circle into fashion again.

Strangely, one branch of metal which the world seems to have shied away from in recent times is industrial. I say strange, because given it’s got solid, heavy rhythms, the fusing of “traditional” metal instruments with experimentation – in the form of electronica, synths, and samples – and often bleak and dystopian lyrics and themes, you’d think it would fit right into a cover of “these are just a few of my favourite things” sung by a true kvlt metal fan.

But for reasons beyond my comprehension, the world’s gaze has shifted elsewhere, and industrial has largely been left to fade into the background. Well, if you’re like me and have a penchant for riffs that slam like concrete sledgehammers and aren’t afraid of synths that would fit in an ’80s soundtrack, fear not: because Finland’s Diablerie are one of those bands who have been toiling away in the shadows and quietly following their own industrial compass. And now they bring us their second full-length album The Catalyst Vol. I: Control via Primitive Records. Continue reading »

PRIMAL ATTACK: “HEARTLESS OPPRESSOR”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 032017
 

 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the new second album by the Portuguese band Primal Attack.)

Primal Attack are an instance where the name absolutely tells you everything you need to know about the music. This is the first album this year that I can call an absolute balls-to-the-wall, no frills, uncompromisingly brutal metal album in its sheer intensity. Heartless Oppressor is exactly the sound of all the world’s major powers nuking the fuck out of each other. It’s a pretty fitting post-inauguration “I need to vent my rage at ignorance, white supremacy, and anti-intellectualism” album.

Primal Attack started out as a thrash band with their debut album, but Heartless Oppressor is a mean obsidian slab of thrash, death metal, and metallic hardcore. Think Marco Aro-era The Haunted, Gojira, Merauder/Hatebreed, and I’d say that’s a pretty fair encapsulation. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): I AM — “LIFE THROUGH TORMENT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 022017
 

 

“No games, no bullshit, just straight in your face heavy metal. We wanted this to show who we are and what’s next. A direct reflection on each of our personal lives and what we see. This is Life Through Torment. We hope you enjoy.”

That is the invitation presented to you on a blood-encrusted platter by the hard-knuckled hands of I AM from north Texas, offering their new album to your ears. We have a full stream of the album down below, in advance of its release on February 10, preceded by these mangled thoughts about the music. Continue reading »

CATCHING UP ON 2016: RIFTWALKER / GOD SYNDROME / WASTEWALKER

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Feb 022017
 

 

(Andy Synn catches up with three releases from 2016, by Riftwalker, God Syndrome, and Wastewalker.)

You may have noticed, if you’ve been paying sufficient attention that is, that I’ve spent the last month digging my way through a veritable heap of releases from last year – Phantom Winter, Zao, Wolves Carry My Name, Partholón, Deviant Process, The Drowned God – that were otherwise overlooked here at NCS.

And, even though I’ve finally been able to start covering new stuff in the last week or so, there’s still a bunch of albums from last year that I have yet to write about.

So to speed up the process a little bit, I’ve decided to amalgamate a few different entries together. And hopefully, by the end of the week (or, at the latest, by the start of next week) I’ll be pretty much done with 2016, and able to shift my focus fully to 2017. Continue reading »

INTO ORBIT: “UNEARTHING”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Feb 022017
 

 

(New Zealand-based writer Craig Hayes (Six Noises) returns to NCS with this review of the new album by New Zealand’s Into Orbit, which will be released on February 3 — and we have a just-released full stream of the album as well.)

Countless bands try to grab our attention with an enticing vocal hook. Hell, even in the world of extreme metal, where vocals are frequently an indecipherable blur, words and lyrics still play a crucial role in imparting meaning. At the other end of the spectrum though, instrumental bands seek to convey meaning without any lyrical or vocal cues, and that’s obviously a tougher task. When it all goes well, audiences can decipher meaning from moving songs, and that forges a connection between fans and bands. But when it all goes wrong, because a band is technically proficient but emotionally sterile, instrumental music is simply tedious background noise. Elevator music, at best.

It’s rare to find an instrumental band that manages to transmit its message evocatively. But the music of New Zealand instrumental duo Into Orbit has received rousing applause at home for doing just that. In some ways, Into Orbit are building on a legacy established by New Zealand bands such as Jakob or Kerretta –– both guitar-led instrumental groups with fan bases in Europe and the US. Jakob and Kerretta have gained international recognition because they make truly gripping music, and there’s no question that Into Orbit’s superb new album, Unearthing, is filled with captivating music too. Continue reading »

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