DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT: “STELLAR”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 272015
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Der Weg Einer Freiheit.)

From Dark Fortress and Secrets of The Moon, to Infestus and Agrypnie, via Ascension and Odem Arcarum, Germany seems to have produced an inordinately high number of my favourite Black Metal artists. And yet, despite all dealing firmly in the blackened arts, each band produces such a distinct strain of metallic darkness that, in many ways, this shared nationality seems to be the only common thread linking them in any sort of “scene”.

Well, to this amorphous grouping you can now add Bavarian sensations Der Weg Einer Freiheit, as their new album, Stellar, firmly and unequivocally establishes them as stars in the ascendant, and is already one of my top contenders for 2015’s inevitable End of Year list(s). Continue reading »

BANDS YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO: FELL RUIN

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 242015
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli introduces us to a band from the Detroit area named Fell Ruin.)

I found out about Fell Ruin through the vocalist from a Michigan band we’ve covered here, Scorned Deity. Brian Sheehan hit me up, wanting me to check out another project of his who’ve finally gotten to release their first bit of music after some time. I love Scorned Deity, so I thought I’d see what he was doing with Fell Ruin.

Fell Ruin are definitely worth your time. I can’t quite describe what they do, but in an attempt to give you an idea, I’ll say it’s basically blackened death grind doom sludge? I don’t even know. It’s riveting stuff though, and savage like a pack of feral hyenas. Continue reading »

THEORIES: “REGRESSION”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Mar 222015
 

 

(Austin Weber reviews the debut album by Seattle’s Theories, which will soon be released by Metal Blade Records.)

Of all metal, grind is often the style where one can really do no wrong as long as things are fast, ear-shatteringly loud, and brief in run-time. But naturally, those rare grind bands who write more interesting songs or who choose to reach outside their genre stylings and bring in other dimensions to their music are going to be the most interesting — which is exactly what Seattle-based Theories accomplish so brilliantly on their new full-length album, Regression. I love all grind, but what Theories have done so well on Regression is to produce a record that has a lot more intensity and replay value than most of their peers.

There isn’t a single song under two minutes on Regression, which is certainly a rarity for a grind band. Theories have a more intricate and densely composed sound than the average quick blasts of fury that populate their genre. Theories could be called deathgrind, but I would say their sound is along lines that are similar to Misery Index. Continue reading »

DØDHEIMSGARD: “A UMBRA OMEGA”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 202015
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the long-awaited new album by Norway’s Dødheimsgard.)

It seems I’ve picked up a taste for the strange recently. Whether it’s Porta Nigra’s latest foray into exotic metallic melodrama, or the burgeoning anticipation of Sigh’s newest musical menagerie, it seems there’s any number of acts ready and willing to delve into the uncharted waters of the weird.

Resurgent Black Metal mariners Dødheimsgard are certainly more than familiar with the pull of stranger tides, as over the years these currents have carried them from their origin point as part of the genre’s eminent “second wave” out to the very edge of its ever-expanding event horizon, dwelling right on the fringe of what might be considered as Black Metal.

A Umbra Omege, their first release in eight years, is undoubtedly a challenging, provocative piece of work, and – true to form – is definitely not an easy listen. It constantly confounds expectations, tacking off on unexpected tangents and swerving unpredictably away from where you think it might be heading in a manner that will surely prove as divisive as it is curiously compelling. Continue reading »

FELIX MARTIN: “THE HUMAN TRANSCRIPTION”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 202015
 

 

(Austin Weber reviews a new release by guitar wizard Felix Martin.)

Recently when I wrote a review for a Felix Martin concert here at NCS, I didn’t get to talk about one of the most important things that happened that night. After Felix Martin and his band finished their set I went to inquire about merch and talk with them. When I asked Kilian Duarte, their bass player, just what was in this new CD called The Human Transcription that I hadn’t heard yet, he told me it was inspired by the last Blotted Science EP. I knew then that I had to buy it. Little did I know just how amazing it would be.

To introduce the concept, here is an important explanation of it that I am quoting from Felix Martin’s website: Continue reading »

BYZANTINE: “TO RELEASE IS TO RESOLVE”

 Album Reviews  13 Responses »
Mar 182015
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by West Virginia’s Byzantine.)

Anyone who could get to sit down and have a real, lengthy chat with Chris “OJ” Ojeda would quickly learn that the dude is one of the coolest cats you could have the pleasure of talking to. He’s still got a youthful passion for metal, as if he hadn’t aged from his teenage years at all. I remember back in the early/mid-2000s a marketing term being thrown around, the meaning of which I was never sure of: “working man’s metal”. If you take the words literally, Byzantine are certainly that. For OJ, music really has been the thing he gets to indulge once the rest of life is taken care of. Yet Byzantine’s music is one of the most compelling cases for the argument that some of the best metal is written when it’s not created with careerist intentions.

Normally, I would have been afraid that To Release Is To Resolve wouldn’t stack up to the band’s previous work. They lost two members who contributed a lot of touches that made the band: Michael “Skip” Cromer’s bass playing and back up vocals were gone, as was Tony Rohrbough, one of my favorite guitarists of all time and a hard-to-replace identity in the lead guitar slot. However, I didn’t have that hesitation, because since my introduction to Chris when I reached out to him concerning my retrospective of their discography, I learned that Ojeda is, in many respects, Byzantine incarnate. This is his baby, and he wouldn’t allow it to stagnate or put out material that wouldn’t be up to par. Continue reading »

DELIVERED AT THE SPEED OF PRINT: BLACK AND WHITE DISCOVERIES — SIBERIAN HELL SOUNDS, A BAND OF ORCS, AETHER REALM

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 162015
 

 

(DGR hath delivered the following round-up of two new EPs and one new single.)

It’s been a little while since I’ve had time to really trawl around the internet and pen up one of these humongous roundups — mostly because smaller descriptions have been mutating into full album reviews. Often, I’ve used this kind of feature to help folks catch up with stuff they might have missed (or that we missed) and discover things that may have happened weeks ago, but flew under our collective radars. This time we’re having a little fun and attempting to bring a theme with this one — the theme of desaturated artwork, because what is more METAL than black-and-white artwork?

The answer is “nothing”, for it is bereft of all color, like our hardened and blackened souls. So I present unto you the most recent collection of things I have found, which actually share not one, but two things connected to the printed format: They are in black-and-white, and I was really fucking slow in writing about them and getting them out to you. Continue reading »

MELECHESH: “ENKI”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Mar 132015
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Melechesh.)

I realise I may be in the minority about this, but as much as I enjoyed The Epigenesis I still felt like there was something missing in the final package. Though it certainly broke new ground in terms of adding an even more progressive, expressive edge to the band’s sound, to my mind it lacked a certain fire, a certain ferocity, when compared with their previous releases.

However it’s now been five long years since the release of The Epigenesis, five years which the band have spent (metaphorically) wandering in the wilderness, losing long-serving members and regaining old allies, perfecting and purifying themselves once more, engaged in a penitent pilgrimage which has led, ultimately, to the creation of perhaps their finest album yet. Continue reading »

AETHERIAN: “TALES OF OUR TIMES”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 122015
 

 

(DGR reviews the debut EP by Aetherian from Athens, Greece.)

Oftentimes, when a writer disappears for an extended length of time, the writer will usually return to the fold — because really, the muse is always calling, siren song being strangled from her (because really, we have to METAL around here) — with tail tucked between the legs, bevy of excuses in hand (most pretty valid), ‘aw shucks’ look on the face, and full of apologies, ready to be welcomed back with grand plans and a ton of material to work with.

I can’t do that this time. I disappeared because work kicked my ass. It’s been a well-known fact that NCS is a labor of love and it is our passion (and that of many others) that keeps the site running. We happen to be in a very blessed position where we don’t have to worry about ad-buys and traffic, and therefore we can sort of freely write about what strikes us. But our amateur status also opens up the scenario in which actual real life takes over, and for about a month and a half I was the aforementioned single digit that was being smashed into dust on Napalm Death’s Apex Predator. Continue reading »

WATCHTOWER: “RADIANT MOON”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Mar 102015
 

 

(Grant Skelton reviews the new EP by Watchtower.)

I don’t know what’s gotten into the water in Melbourne, Australia. But it must be some kind of alchemical elixir because that city is producing some exceptional doom metal of late. Watchtower, along with labelmates Horsehunter and the psyche-doom-ic blues of Child, are just a few patrons of the Melbourne doom scene. (Side note: both of those other bands are definitely worth your time).

According to this interview with Doomed & Stoned, Watchtower’s name comes from an experience that frontman Nico Guijt had with a few Jehovah’s Witnesses. Nico was introduced to the Witnesses’ magazine, called Watchtower. In the interview, Nico christens the band with that name. Continue reading »

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