Album Reviews Archives - Page 355 of 557

BUSHWHACKER: “THE FALSE DILEMMA”

Oct 062016

(Andy Synn presents this review of the new album by the Canadian band Bushwhacker. Full music stream included.)

Up next in my attempt to focus in more on the smaller, more unappreciated members of the international metal community, we’re off to the wild wastelands of Canada to check in with the inveterate proglodytes of Bushwhacker, whose wide palette of seamlessly integrated influences helps make their second album, The False Dilemma, an extremely rewarding listening experience.

Don’t get the wrong impression though. Despite describing this album as “rewarding”, this is no self-indulgent exercise in beard-stroking pretentiousness — this is an album that hits hard and makes no apologies for doing so, an album with riffs and balls and attitude up the yinyang… or wherever people keep their balls these days. Continue reading »

SOLUTION .45: “NIGHTMARES IN THE WAKING STATE – PART II”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Oct 062016

(DGR reviews the new album by Sweden’s Solution .45, which is out now via AFM Records.)

Five years after their debut, Solution .45 returned to the musical stage with Nightmares In The Waking State last year. The band had intended for Nightmares to be a multiple-part release, and in that sense the group were not fucking around.

Often, when a band announces multiple-part albums some sort of wrench will get thrown into the works that results in delays, or extended waits between the discs — so if you enjoyed the themes present on said hypothetical first disc, you often had to just sit and twiddle your thumbs for a few years whilst waiting for a followup.

Nightmares In The Waking State doesn’t have that issue, as earlier this month saw the release of the second part of that album — with a color-muted and sepia-toned version of the first part’s Pär Olofsson drawn artwork. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: CONSTRUCT OF LETHE — “THE GRAND MACHINATION”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Oct 052016

On October 7, the death metal band Construct of Lethe will release a new concept EP named The Grand Machination. Not long ago we premiered one of the six tracks on the EP, and today we have for you a full stream (along with a review).

For those who may only now be discovering the band, Construct of Lethe was started as a project of Tony Petrocelly (ex-Bethledeign, Dead Syndicate, Deranged Theory, Xaoc) and now includes a full line-up of Petrocelly (guitars, bass), David Schmidt (vocals), and Swiss lead guitarist Patrick Bonvin (Near Death Condition). Session drums on the EP were provided by the veteran Kevin Talley. Continue reading »

OCTOPUS KRAFT: “THROUGH A THOUSAND WOODS”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Oct 052016

(Andy Synn wrote this review of the second album by the Ukrainian band Octopus Kraft.)

With so many highly-anticipated, big-name albums scheduled for release in the last quarter of 2016 it would be all too easy to fall into the trap of spending all our time focussing on the big releases by the big bands, to the exclusion of the smaller and lesser-known ones. After all, content drives traffic, and more traffic means more clicks and more massaging of the old ego, right?

The thing is, as much as we do love writing about the bigger bands when the mood takes us (and no-one’s going to tell us we’re not allowed to write about whatever/whoever we damn well want), we understand that writing about a big band or a big new release won’t always be the best use of our time.

Obviously, if we think we have a particularly interesting take on things we’ll probably put pen to paper/digit to keyboard and rattle something off which will (hopefully) be worth reading, but there’s always the danger – especially if we’re just one more voice of praise amongst a wider chorus– that whatever we write will just get lost in the general cacophony.

So as much as we enjoy writing about the big names… it’s often more worthwhile for us to focus our energies on covering the smaller, less well-exposed bands. Which is precisely what I’m doing this week, beginning with yesterday’s review of the fantabulous We Had It Coming, by Dormant Ordeal, and continuing today with the second album from Ukranian Post Metal prodigies Octopus Kraft. Continue reading »

DORMANT ORDEAL: “WE HAD IT COMING”

Album Reviews 9 Responses »

Oct 042016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Poland’s Dormant Ordeal.)

Don’t you just hate it when someone steals your thunder? Case in point, I’ve been jamming We Had It Coming, the second album by Polish brutalisers Dormant Ordeal, for a good while now, waiting for the right time and the right opportunity to write about it, only for the ne’er do wells at Invisible Oranges to sneak in and feature the album at the top of their most recent From The Bandcamp Vaults column. The blaggards.

Still, I suppose it actually might save me some time and effort in the long run, as their write-up – particularly the phrase “influenced by fellow Polish legends Decapitated with a touch of Ulcerate” – is pretty much entirely on point, and I’m not sure exactly what else I can add.

But, then again, there’s every chance that many of our readers won’t also be IO readers, and I do so love to pontificate about albums that I love… Continue reading »

INSOMNIUM: “WINTER’S GATE”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Oct 032016

(DGR reviews the new album by Finland’s Insomnium, which is out now.)

A few times over the course of my time here I’ve been able to function as an NCSstrodamus of sorts, and when it came to Insomnium’s recently released album Winter’s Gate, that time came once again. Winter’s Gate is Insomnium’s seventh full-length release and one of those albums where we could not possibly have been more prepared for it, almost like a couple of the reviews we’ve done this year were prescient glimpses into the future, so that when the band announced that Winter’s Gate would function as one strict over-forty-minute-long song, we were ready for it. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): SORDIDE, ENDLESS LOSS, CULTO NEGRO, 9 BEDS

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Oct 022016

This is Part 2 of a collection of metal in a black vein that I began earlier today. In this second half of the round-up I’ve chosen a couple of advance tracks from forthcoming albums and two recent EPs. I’ve again made these choices in part to provide variety and in part (of course) because the music is all very good.

SORDIDE

Sordide are from Rouen, France, with one album to their credit so far (2014’s La France a peur) and a 2015 single (Crève salope, a Renaud cover song). Their second album, Fuir la lumière (escape the light), is now set for release through Avantgarde Music on October 5th. A double-LP version will follow from Avantgarde Music, Immortal Frost Productions, Lost Pilgrims Records, and Saka Cost, and the tape version will be released by Breathe Plastic Records.

As best I can recall, I haven’t encountered Sordide’s music before, but I sure as hell am loving the first advance track from their new album. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): EASTERN FRONT, FLUISTERAARS, INSONUS, SURTR

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 15 Responses »

Oct 022016

We didn’t have an actual music post yesterday, so I’ve doubled up on this Sunday’s Shades of Black installment. In Part 1 I’ve selected three new songs, the first of which comes with a video, plus a full stream of a new demo. I’ll post Part 2 later today after I’ve finished writing it, barring a meteor strike on my house or an armed insurrection in the loris compound.

EASTERN FRONT

The British black metal band Eastern Front released their third album Empire (via Cacophonous Records) two days ago. Since their last album, 2014’s Descent Into Genocide, they’ve had a change of vocalists, with frontwoman Marder replacing frontman Nagant. On the official release date, the band also debuted a video for the third track on Empire, “The Fire Consumes“. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (CRYPTOPHOBISM)

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET, THE REARVIEW MIRROR 7 Responses »

Oct 022016

Yesterday I provided a teaser about the subject of today’s look back into metal’s past. I discovered this band and their two demos from the ’90s through a YouTube link to the song I streamed in yesterday’s post, which popped up in a Facebook conversation between a well-known underground label owner and an even more well-known musician, both of whom have enough gray hair that they may actually have heard these demos around the time of their release.

The band in question is Cryptophobism, and they were from Varna, Bulgaria. Their two demos were released in 1993 and 1998; the first one was a recording of a rehearsal. The one I’m focusing on here is the 1998 demo, which contains four tracks totaling about 15 minutes, one of which also appeared on the rehearsal demo. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: VPAAHSALBROX — “14 SOVEREIGN”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 1 Response »

Sep 272016

More than a decade ago a Texas band named Vpaahsalbrox came together long enough to record a three-song demo labeled 14 Sovereign, and then disappeared into whatever hellish dimensions gave them birth, with its members later reborn in other obscure black metal incarnations such as Erraunt, Nivathe, Triphane, and Khimaat. Only 50 copies of the tape that captured the music were produced, yet it made a lasting impression in certain quarters — one strong enough that on the first of next month Pale Horse Recordings is going to re-issue 14 Sovereign on limited-edition vinyl as well as digitally.

The band’s confounding name is an expression in Enochian, a language recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his colleague Edward Kelley in late 16th-century England — the language of angels, given to Dee and Kelley by angels, or so they claimed. In Enochian, Vpaahsalbrox seems to mean “Lucifer’s Wings”. Continue reading »

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