SHORT BUT SWEET: UNBEHELD — “UNBEHELD”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
Jan 082015
 

 

(DGR reviews the debut EP by a Canadian band named Unbeheld.)

And so, a new year dawns. We’re already close to a week into it and honestly things don’t seem that much different, other than the fact that we are still releasing a massive spate of lists as well as beginning to hammer our way through the seemingly never-ending and always growing list of infectious songs, eventually creating a huge playlist that will hopefully help people discover a huge batch of new bands when all is said and done.

Normally, around this time, you find all sorts of garbage floating around about resolutions, promises to be better people, “new year, new you”, like the fact that accidentally writing ’14 on all your dates for the next half month is going to somehow change you at the sub-atomic level and some brand new, fresh being is going to be borne of it.

I can’t make too many promises on that front, and given that I already got my scientifically accurate horoscope this year, I can consider that crossed off the list. What I can promise you is a grand NCS tradition of always poring over underground pages, trying to find new bands, writing reviews that are way too long for their own good, occasionally posting utter blasphemy in the form of clean-sung music on this site because it’s so good that people should be able to look past that, and discovering groups and discs far too late to be relevant to the initial burst that comes from a just-released new EP/album. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: THORR-AXE — “GATES OF WINTER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  17 Responses »
Jan 082015
 

 

MetalSucks and American Aftermath have premiered individual tracks from Gates of Winter — the second album by Indiana’s Thorr-Axe — and those were tasty appetizers, but now we serve you the main course: a full-album stream.

When I first saw the cover of Gates of Winter, and coupled that with the band’s name, I’m afraid I got the wrong impression. I was expecting tongue-in-cheek, Viking-themed folk metal, with extra cheese. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

There is indeed a narrative concept that gives the album its structure — a tale loosely based on Norse mythology, with some high fantasy thrown in. As the band’s vocalist/guitarist Tucker Thomasson has said (here), “It’s full of frost giants, shit talking, a magic sword forged by a smith producing an incessant stream of f-bombs, and a metric fuckload of ice and snow.”

But the music, the music is something else again. It is no joke. Continue reading »

DUSKMOURN: “LEGENDS”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Jan 022015
 

 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album released in December by a two-man band from NJ/PA named Duskmourn.)

Do you like the idea of Omnium Gatherum with folk elements instead of more modern futuristic textures and sounds?  Duskmourn is for you.  Combining sounds of Omnium, Dark Tranquility, Hypocrisy, and something of a Be’lakor vibe, Duskmourn’s debut Legends is a satisfying melodic death metal morsel.

Duskmourn is an American duo.  There is Bill Sharpe in charge of drums, guitars, and keyboards, and Walter Deyo in charge of vocals, bass, and also guitars.  The music is feral and forlorn and has that marching-into-battle feel.  I hate saying that, because when you say that most people seem to bounce right to Amon Amarth.  There is a bit of that vibe on here, too, but it’s by no means an accurate or fair comparison. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SLUG SALT LAVA — “RADIATED SOUNDSCAPES”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Dec 312014
 

SLUG SALT LAVA

I first encountered Slug Salt Lava (from Istanbul, Turkey) in the early fall of this year, when their First-Promo rumbled my innards and captivated my mind (I reviewed it here). They’ve now released a new EP entitled Radiated Soundscapes, and these five new songs have only strengthened my affection for what they’re doing.

The music is entirely instrumental in a style that straddles sludge, stoner, and doom. Consistent with the band’s post-apocalyptic thematic concept for the music, the melodies have a dismal atmosphere and the pacing never accelerates past a mid-paced rumble, but guitarist Ersin Taş again shows a talent for concocting fat, fuzzy riffs that have a way of taking up residence in your mind — while getting your head bobbing to their beat. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SVARTSYN — “NIGHTMARISH SLEEP”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  7 Responses »
Dec 312014
 

 

As another year gasps its last breath I’m once again feeling forlorn about my inability to review more of the fine metal I heard over the last 12 months. There’s no way to catch up now, of course, but I still feel compelled to make one last gasp of my own. With so much to choose from, I’ve chosen somewhat randomly,focusing on two excellent short releases that display just a fraction of metal’s phenomenal diversity. This is the first of these two reviews; the second will follow shortly.

SVARTSYN

I vividly remember the first time I listened to black metal. It was about 9 years ago, and it was something from one of Rotting Christ’s earlier albums recommended by a friend who felt I needed to broaden my horizons. I remember having a visceral negative reaction. It was so much more harsh than the metal I’d been listening to, and my mind just wasn’t ready for it. Continue reading »

STEALING AXION: “AEONS”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  No Responses »
Dec 312014
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli returns to our pages with this review of the new second album by Stealing Axion of Tacoma, Washington.)

Holiday break from academic slavery has arrived, so I suppose it’s time to get some writing done.

I praised Stealing Axion’s debut Moments to the high fucking heavens — it’s still an album I listen to often to this day.  The perfect intersection between death metal brutality, progressive ambition, and syncopated grooves that defined the best aspects of the djent movement has had me hooked since I first heard it.  I’ve been eagerly anticipating Aeons, and I’ve been watering at the mouth for a long time, considering that I knew from being in contact with the band that a lot of this music was already written at the time Moments came out.  I even got to hear a clip or two (ones that didn’t make it onto the album) and couldn’t have been more excited.  Aeons is a very different record from Moments in its approach.  The music this time is slower, and much of it drags and pulls you under with the weight of the grooves.  A lot of this album borders on being doomy, but with syncopation as a heavy component of the grooving.

The central elements are still there, though, and what the album sacrifices in driving energy compared to its predecessor it makes up for by bringing forth spine-crushing slow-mo beatdowns and lush atmosphere that drenches you like glowing plasma rain. Continue reading »

DEATH FORTRESS: “AMONG THE RANKS OF THE UNCONQUERABLE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Dec 302014
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the debut album by New Jersey’s Death Fortress, released in November 2014 by Fallen Empire Records and featuring amazing cover art by Ola Larson.)

Despite our best efforts – and through no fault of our own – we still missed out on covering a lot of albums this year. There’s simply so much music, and so little time, that stuff always slips through the cracks. And, often, that means some real gems get missed.

Case in point, here we have Among the Ranks of the Unconquerable, a visceral slab of pitch-black perfection, with its foundations firmly rooted in the old school, but with a vision fixed firmly on new horizons.

Raw and ravenous, dark and droning… atmospheric, oppressive, and morbidly melodic… it’s six songs of writhing riffs and hypnotic, swirling murk that rattle your bones and scrape your nerves raw with shameless, sadistic pleasure. Continue reading »

TYRANNY ENTHRONED: “OUR GREAT UNDOING”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 232014
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new second album by Tyranny Enthroned from St. Louis, Missouri.)

Tyranny Enthroned are one of America’s best death metal newcomers.

That could be viewed as a bit of a hyperbolic statement, but to me it’s absolutely true. I was already in love with the band’s debut Born of Hate, which I have reviewed here, but their sophomore opus Our Great Undoing cements them as a death-dealing titan worth watching.

It would be odd for me to quantify how this album functions as a sophomore release, especially considering just how important the second album is in any band’s career to either showing their stuff or getting dismissed. A lot has changed, and at the same time nothing has. The Polish influences of Behemoth and Hate are still a core of their sound, and they do maintain that layer of American militarism, but their riffing and songwriting is much less derivative and is now molding and establishing more of a definitive identity for them. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: LEVIATHAN, HUMAN BODIES, DEAD IN THE MANGER, HIC IACET

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  7 Responses »
Dec 202014
 

 

Here is a collection of recommended items from the blacker end of the metal spectrum that I spotted and heard yesterday; I have some others that I’ll feature tomorrow. I wrote most of this last night, just before the alcohol-soaked holiday party hosted by the place where I work. The parts that don’t make any sense were written this morning as I began the long road to recovery.

LEVIATHAN

Yesterday brought additional details from Profound Lore about the next album by Leviathan: As previously disclosed, the album’s title is Scar Sighted; it will be released March 3 digitally and on CD; it was produced, engineered, and mixed by Billy Anderson; and it includes nine tracks. There was also this info about the album’s packaging, with a reference to the artwork I’ve included at the top of this post:

“Scar Sighted” will be packaged as a boxed CD edition (the only version of the CD this will be available as) which will come with eleven two-sided inserts featuring exclusive paintings by Jef Whitehead himself (one of them being the one pictured, LEVIATHAN logo watermarked specifically for online purposes, there is no actual front cover for “Scar Sighted”). The vinyl edition, to be released a month or so after the CD/digital version will also be specially packaged and will be released via the artists’ own Devout Records imprint (in which we will directly update you on its progress in due time).

This is an album I’m eager to hear, in part because I have a feeling it will include some surprises (see this interview of Wrest for reasons why I think that). This is the track list: Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BLOODMOON — “VOIDBOUND”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Dec 172014
 

 

Bloodmoon released their debut album Voidbound near the end of last year on CD and tape, but it has now been remastered by James Plotkin for re-release on vinyl via Black Voodoo Records. I missed the album when it first came out, but have now had the chance to hear the vinyl remaster. The music is really unusual and really impressive, so much so that we’re happy to provide a platform for everyone else to hear the album as well.

The record is only three songs long, but the first two of those are monsters — with “Voidbound” coming in at nearly 18 minutes and “Back World” at more than 13. Even the shorter closing track “The Singing Flame” tips the scales at more than 7 minutes.

Unusual song lengths of this kind are often a sign of great ambitions. Unless your specialty is droning loops, filling such extravagant spaces with music that captures and holds the listeners’ attention is no mean feat. As an artist, you have to have something to say — something that merits all that time — and you have to say it well. There’s no question Bloodmoon are musically ambitious, and there’s also also no question they’ve got talent to match their aims. Continue reading »

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