Album Reviews Archives - Page 57 of 557

CANIS DIRUS: “BY THE GRACE OF DEATH”

Nov 082024

(Here is Todd Manning‘s review of the latest album by Minnesota-based Canis Dirus, which will be unleashed December 21st on LP by Bindrune Recordings and on CD by Alte Seelen.)

Bindrune Recordings have long been one of the most trusted yet still thoroughly underground labels of the 21st century, specializing in all things atmospheric metal. Their latest release from Canis Dirus, By the Grace of Death, keeps the label’s excellent standard of quality alive with their folk-infused take on black metal.

Album opener, “Once Cursed Path Glistens in the Sun”, is an epic black metal piece constructed from a minimal number of parts. The primary riff is mid-paced and heavy, yet also meditative and melancholy. They eventually find a blast beat and display their ability to conjure violence as well. Yet a synth line underneath the maelstrom keeps the atmosphere intact. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AURIFEROUS FLAME — “THE INSURRECTIONISTS AND THE CARETAKERS”

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Nov 072024

(written by Islander)

The last time I attempted to find words for the music of Auriferous Flame I deployed adjectives such as “dire and deleterious,” “hypnotic” and “mystifying,” “deranged and dervish-like,” “molten” and “exotic.” The occasion then was an album named The Great Mist Within, released by True Cult Records in the summer of 2022. Now we have a new occasion because of a new album by this Greek black metal entity, which is one of the several guises assumed by the masterful Ayloss (with Spectral Lore being the best-known of those).

The new album, The Insurrectionists And The Caretakers, will be released tomorrow by the same True Cult Records. It is three songs long, and its overarching subject is revolution. Continue reading »

BLACKER THAN THE BLACKEST BLACK: AETHYRVOROUS / DEADSPACE / SUN WORSHIP

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Nov 072024

(Andy Synn highlights three recently-released examples of the blackened arts)

A couple of nights ago I went to see the documentary film “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story“.

It’s a movie about heartbreak, and about hope. About the toll which a loss like that takes on a man, and upon his family, yet also about resilience and how the simple act of perseverance – in the face of despair – can represent the greatest heroism.

Quite honestly, it moved me to the verge of tears several times – not just because of the power of the story being told by all those involved, but because in those people up on the screen, often captured in moments of candid openness and raw vulnerability, I also saw myself and a reflection of my own humanity.

But, then, that’s what art does – it allows us to communicate something ineffable about what it is to be human.

After all, we may all share this planet together, but each of us, in a very real sense, is an island unto themselves… and it’s through our art that we try to bridge those gaps between us.

Ultimately this has very little to do with the subject(s) of today’s article – which covers three recently-released Black Metal albums which I believe more people need, and deserve, to hear – beyond the fact that each of them, in their own way, is art.

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME X: THE SEQUEL WE DIDN’T ASK FOR

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Nov 072024

(We welcome the return of Dan Barkasi with another one of his monthly collections of reviews, this time focusing on eight albums released in September of this year.)

Sequels – the often lame, half-baked follow-up to a film that sullies and dilutes what made the original great. Or worse – a next chapter to something which wasn’t anything you wanted to see in the first place. The latter aptly describes our time since our last rendezvous on this fine site.

I mentioned the devastation of hurricane Helene, which grazed past our specific location with minimal issues, other than a day without power (we were incredibly lucky). Then, the dreaded sequel named Milton showed up. Seemingly seeking vengeance for being given such a name – apologies to the fine folks who have been bestowed said moniker – Milton was the most destructive storm to hit west central Florida in over 100 years.

We ended up having to evacuate along with our large army of fuzzy family members to Ft. Pierce and the wife’s cousin’s place, who were incredibly accommodating in hosting us for a few days. The wild part is that an EF3 tornado struck a few miles from their house. This showcases the wide and frightening impacts that this storm brought. Continue reading »

A TRIP ON THE WAYBACK MACHINE: SIX MORE ALBUMS FROM EARLIER THIS YEAR YOU PROBABLY MISSED

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Nov 062024

(After a bit of a break our Vietnam-based writer Vizzah Harri returns to our miserable halls with reviews of six albums that struck some chords in his head, and may have damaged them.)

On the 9th of October ominous news surfaced that a group of hackers decided to lay siege to an internet institution that can generally be considered as a universal good. It was universally seen as a dick move. The Internet Archive is a library of audio, visual and textual resources as well as old website archiving with the mission of providing a library with omniversal access to all knowledge.

Flummoxed at the stupidity, because 99.9% of hackers love this site, and unable to use the Wayback Machine (it is back up now so this link is not compromised as of this writing), I simply had to take a hard stare at my ‘Catching Up’ list. October has been another stacked month for releases and November still has some serious offerings before the end-of-year bonanza. The list of what we weren’t able to get to is not always a question about quality or subjective – or even objective – partiality, it’s the sheer volume of content out there.

With the year almost over, I took it upon myself to go on the ‘way back machine of metal’ and jump back 282 days to January 26th. On its own an insane day for metal releases, two of the releases below fell on that same day. Continue reading »

SWALLOW THE SUN: “SHINING”

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Nov 062024

(Here’s DGR‘s review of Swallow the Sun‘s new album, which was released a couple weeks ago by Century Media.)

Listening to Swallow The Sun‘s newest album Shining, you get the sense that this is the sort of album every doom band has in them and one that they’d slowly been building toward for some time. In that sense, Shining is a fascinating release because after hesitantly testing waters more and more with each record, much of the material on Shining sounds like the band themselves were finally ready to make the jump.

Of course, with Swallow the Sun it is always going to feel like there is an overarching narrative because – credit to the band for being as brave as they are – they haven’t really been shy about personal struggles and tragedies over the years. Maybe, Shining is an album that Swallow The Sun needed to make, as a chance to escape and set themselves free of the artistic frost that they’ve long called home. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PLOUGHSHARE — “SECOND WOUND”

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Nov 052024

(written by Islander)

Think of things you’ve witnessed that have astounded you, things that have shocked and surprised you but also popped your eyes and dropped your jaw in wonder. And not just sudden experiences that end after moments, but continuing cavalcades that catch you quickly, swallow you up, and allow no quick release.

Maybe a circus (when such things still existed)? Maybe a riot? Maybe a brazen symphony? Maybe blizzards and floods that weren’t forecast?

Asking you to recall such events is the best and briefest way I can think of to prepare you for Ploughshare‘s new album, Second Wound. Listening to their previous releases would be another kind of preparation, but not entirely adequate because on the new album these Australian experimental extremists have looped together both newer and older phases of their output to create an even more elaborate and more mind-lacerating (but wondrous!) experience.

Here’s how they briefly describe what they’ve done: Continue reading »

ONLY DEATH IS REAL: BLACK CURSE / LIFESICK / LIVING GATE

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Nov 052024

(Andy Synn dives back into the Death Metal scene)

I’ve been accused, not entirely unreasonably, of being a little jaded and cynical when it comes to Death Metal these days.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Death Metal, in all its different forms – ok, maybe not all its different forms – but… you’ve got to admit… it can get a little tiresome being told that [X] band is “the next big thing” or “the saviour of the genre” when all its doing is rehashing the same old HM-2/Swe-Death/OSDM revivalist tropes as the last band to get the exact same sort of hype just a few months previously.

Thankfully there are lots of bands out there who – while not necessarily breaking the mould or reinventing the wheel – are still more than capable of reminding us all, me included, just why we like what we like, hype be damned, and I wanted to highlight three bands, with three distinctly different flavours, for you today.

PS – while I couldn’t find time/space for them you should also check out the extremely promising debut albums from Weeping and Recidivist (though, at just over fourteen minutes, calling the former an album seems like a little bit of a stretch) as well as the riff-tastic new one from Ripped to Shreds (which contains one of my favourite Death Metal songs of the year in the form of the irresistibly hooky “冥婚 (Corpse Betrothal)”)

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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Nov 042024

(Andy Synn presents four of October’s most outstanding releases you may not have checked out)

Time’s arrow marches ever forwards my friends, and soon enough – sooner than you think – it will be “List Season” all over again, where we look back and take stock of the year gone by before we turn our attentions to 2025.

As a result I’m having to be incredibly selective about where and how I spend my precious time in regards to reviews, which means that I’ve had to make some fairly lamentable omissions this past month, including the new album from Cosmic Putrefaction (though hopefully I’ll get to that one in more detail in one of my end of year retrospectives), plus both the new Doedsmaghird and Iotunn releases (though you can find excellent write-ups of both over at AngryMetalGuy), and many more besides.

But let’s not focus on what we may have missed and instead focus on what we shouldn’t, shall we?

SHADES OF BLACK: 夢遊病者 (SLEEPWALKER), CAGED BASTARD, VYR MUK

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Nov 032024

(written by Islander)

I included a fair share of black metal in Part I of yesterday’s large cross-genre roundup despite having this column looming in the near distance. I did that on purpose because the bulk of the verbiage below (and it is bulky) is devoted to an album that doesn’t really fit the usual bill on Sundays, or any other bill, though I have my reasons for including it here.

Yet fear not, ye black metal zealots, because I’m following the opening act with some music that will be more in line with this column’s typical focus, though some of it gets out of line too. Continue reading »

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