Album Reviews Archives - Page 407 of 576

AN NCS PREMIERE: AWE — “PROVIDENTIA”

Nov 062015

One of the best split releases of 2015 is an album entitled Moerae (reviewed here) that was released last spring by three Greek black metal bands — Vacantfield, End, and AWE. It’s a concept album taking as its inspiration the three Fates of Greek mythology (the Moerae), with each band contributing a song about one of the Fates. Apart from a short song on the compilation album Mono Maniac vol.4 released by Blast Beat Mail Murder in 2014, Moerae marked AWE’s recording debut.

AWE have now recorded a debut album, Providentia, that’s set for release on November 13 by Pulverised Records. It’s a hugely ambitious, visionary album, and a brilliantly successful one. And we’re giving you the chance to hear all of it today. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): THE OSEDAX AND “SWEET LEAF (A STONER ROCK TRIBUTE TO BLACK SABBATH)”

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 9 Responses »

Nov 052015

(Grant Skelton steps in for round-up duty with this feature on two new albums. We’ll have a second round-up later today.)

THE OSEDAX

The Osedax (Latin for “bone devourer”) take their name from sea-dwelling worms who feast on the bones of dead whales. Yes. Enjoy that with your meal. Get more info here if you’re curious.

Islander reviewed the band’s first album Delayed Response way back in 2011. At the beginning of this month, the band released a follow-up called Titans Lament. For those who’ve been underwhelmed by doom this year, I submit this album for your consideration. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 14 Responses »

Nov 052015

(We welcome back Norwegian guest contributor Gorger, who has provided us with another feature on bands we seem to have overlooked at NCS. For readers of Norwegian, please check out Gorger’s Metal.)

Thirteen months ago I did a short series of reviews (here and here) under the moniker “Metal Not Previously Featured On NCS”. Now that Islander is busy gazing into the sky I thought I’d chip in a contribution once again. (What? He’s working? Well, that’s what you get for only looking at the pictures).

There are more creative serpentine forces lurking and dwelling in the underground than ever. With all new creeping and crawling releases that are spewed forth, no one can keep track of everything. Thus, good stuff flies under the radar, undetected or forgotten and lost in the pandemonium (along with you-know-who). Continue reading »

KAMPFAR: “PROFAN”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Nov 042015

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Norway’s Kampfar.)

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to witness a show-stealing, career-defining performance by Norwegian legends-in-waiting Kampfar, when they stepped out onto the main stage at Inferno Festival and proceeded to deliver a masterclass in true Black Metal power and spirit, ultimately describing their set as one which “will be spoken of for years to come”. And I still stand by that.

Calling the band “legends-in-waiting” is meant as no disservice to them, however. It’s rather an acknowledgement that although the quartet have long since achieved legendary status in certain circles, their wider acclaim has yet to reach the level which should be theirs by right.

Yet, by the same token, it’s startling to realise that now, 20 years into their career, Kampfar are in the midst of an ongoing (and seemingly unstoppable) creative and critical renaissance, which began with 2011’s riveting Mare, continuing through last year’s ravenous Djevelmakt, and leading us, in turn, to Profan, their latest slab of sharp-toothed metallic menace. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: SERPENTS LAIR — “CIRCUMAMBULATING THE STILLBORN”

Album Reviews, Premieres 6 Responses »

Nov 032015

Last year I reviewed an impressive first demo by a mysterious hooded group from Sjælland, Denmark, named Serpents Lair. Now the band have completed their debut full-length, a seven-track, 43-minute album entitled Circumambulating the Stillborn that becomes available for download and physical pre-order today. In this post you’ll have a chance to stream the entire album for the first time. And if you’d like a preview of what you’re getting yourselves into, read on.

Following an introductory track consisting of beautiful choral voices and the slow, muffled pounding of timpani, Serpents Lair deliver five mostly long songs and an instrumental interlude. The songs are richly textured, dynamic in their pacing, and wholly unsettling. Continue reading »

HOODED MENACE: “DARKNESS DRIPS FORTH”

Album Reviews 9 Responses »

Nov 032015

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Finland’s Hooded Menace.)

By my lights, 2015 hasn’t been a big year for doom. Doom releases have been sparse, and when I say doom I am not talking retro stoner crap, but something that crushes your spirit in a mournful manner. I am pleased to say that the Finnish Doom merchants of Hooded Menace continue to bring it.

They come from the more deathly school of doom but their riffs still weep blood, so the death metal influence doesn’t bother me here. Speaking of weep, most bands would bore you to tears with a twelve-minute opener, but these guys suspend time and keep you in the moment. They are not afraid of picking up the pace without losing their grasp of darkness by going into a stoner rock boogie. Even when indulging in weird breakdowns they maintain their momentum. Continue reading »

BEVAR SEA: “INVOKE THE BIZARRE”

Album Reviews 8 Responses »

Nov 032015

(In this post Grant Skelton reviews the new album by India’s Bevar Sea.)

Bevar Sea are from Bangalore, Karnataka, in India. They formed in 2010 and the following year released two demos (Trendslaughter Sessions and Sessions Of Chaos). Those demos, which included covers of Kyuss, Sleep, and Black Sabbath, saw the band gain a following among doom fans worldwide. In 2012 the band recorded an album with Billy Anderson, whose more recent work includes Pallbearer’s Foundations Of Burden and Agalloch’s The Serpent & The Sphere.

Bevar Sea’s self-titled 2012 release led their popularity to spread even further as they played shows with Anathema and Kreator. In 2013 Rolling Stone India awarded Bevar Sea the title of “Best Emerging Band.” Continue reading »

KRODA: “Навій Схрон (NAVIJ SKHRON)”

Album Reviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

Oct 312015

We wish all of you a glorious Samhain. It is the most metal of festival nights, the ancient day marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, a day for the remembrance of the dead, a day when the veil between this world and the realm of death is as thin as tissue, and for many the first day of a spiritual new year.

In our den of thieves there was some loose talk about compiling a Halloween play list for the site, but this talk came to naught. It matters not, because we have something better. We have a stream of the new album by HelCarpathian Kroda, just released via Bandcamp on this blessed day — and like nothing you’ve heard from Kroda before.

I’m only human. When I have intensely strong feelings for the past creations of an artist, I tend to be predisposed to admire whatever comes next, to the point of overlooking flaws and focusing on the gifts when necessary. But most of the music on this new Kroda album, Navij Skhron, turned my expectations upside down, as if someone erased almost everything familiar on the chalkboard and began writing a new verse. Continue reading »

THROES OF DEATH: BONE GNAWER, GRAVE, CRYPT INFECTION

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Oct 282015

(In this post TheMadIsraeli does some catching up, with three reviews of 2015 death metal albums.)

About my absence from NCS: I promise you all, it’s not that I haven’t been listening to music; life has just been rather chaotic. I’ve got a triple review here — one established band you already know are going to be good, and two under-the-surface death metal records I’ve been listening to on and off for a couple of months that I think are definitely worth your time. All three of these albums also have distinctly different sounds.

Bone Gnawer – Cannibal Crematorium

Bone Gnawer has some weight behind its name. With only two full-lengths since 2009, one back then and the one I’m going to talk about now, and mostly EPs to their name, I think these guys deserve to be looked at. I’ve not visited any of the band’s previous material (which included Rogga Johansson in the lineup), I’m only familiar with Cannibal Crematorium, but it’s pretty fucking good. Continue reading »

OTARGOS: “XENO KAOS”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Oct 272015

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by the French band Otargos.)

Full disclosure: I’ve been a big fan of this band for a long time now (although, curiously, I don’t think I’d seen them live until this year’s edition of Incineration Festival), and have loyally followed them as they’ve transitioned, slowly but surely, from the more overt blackness of their early years, to the denser, more Death-tinged sound which they now wield.

Yet whilst their new album, Xeno Kaos, most definitely (even defiantly) continues this progression away from the realms of Black Metal, it also simultaneously takes both a step forwards and a step backwards from its predecessor, dropping the thrashier edge found on Apex Terror whilst making more room for a grimly oppressive Industrial undercurrent reminiscent of 2010’s No God, No Satan.

This clanking, industrialised soundscaping is nothing new to the band, obviously, but the way it’s deployed here alongside the steadily more Death Metal-leaning metallicisms that the band have made their stock-in-trade puts me strongly in mind of Norwegian extremists Zyklon (or perhaps their cousins in Myrkskog).

So, if you’re a fan of either of those bands (or simply a long-time Otargos fan curious as to where the band’s more deathly ambitions have taken them) then read on! Continue reading »

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