Album Reviews Archives - Page 74 of 545

SHADES OF BLACK: VIRCOLAC, IARMHAIRT, TORTURERS’ LOBBY, JZOVCE, PORONIEC

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Mar 172024

Yesterday I read that in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parades in the Irish Channel of New Orleans, float riders toss cabbages and potatoes to the people on the street, a unique twist on the Mardi Gras practice of throwing strings of beads to revelers.

Although a flurry of cabbages would be entertaining, I’ll have to aim some other things at your head on this Paddy’s Day — spiky obsidian things dipped in poison or hallucinogens, some red with heat and some freezing.

Of course, I felt compelled to lead with music from a couple of Irish bands before crossing the waters east and west.

P.S. This column is late-appearing because I can’t hold my Saturday night Jameson shots and Guinness back like I used to. and my spouse and friends kept me up way past my bedtime. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BACKSTABBER — “PATTERNS OF DOMINATION”

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Mar 142024

On March 15th — tomorrow! — the Quebec band Backstabber, now featuring a revised lineup since their last album, will release their new EP, a four-song assault called Patterns of Domination, but today we’re giving you a chance to hear all of it without delay.

Before we get into some detailed thoughts about the music, here’s the band’s description of what the EP represents:

“Loosely based on James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy, Patterns of Domination delves into the 4 patterns that serve as means to canalize someone else’s attention and energy. Together, they form an endless cycle of consumption that completely breaks down the victim from the inside out. Like fresh air. These are the first songs with the new members of the band and they contributed a lot to this album.” Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: MASTIFF / MIDAS FALL / SLIMELORD

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Mar 132024

(Andy Synn highlights three more home-grown heroes)

Some of you may have noticed (or maybe you haven’t, I don’t know how much attention you all pay to what we do around here) that my “Best of British” articles rarely feature any of the “bigger” names (relatively speaking) from the UK scene.

Partially that’s because, obviously, the site’s general ethos is to dedicate more of our time and energy to the less-exposed, less “mainstream-friendly” bands out there, but it’s also because, to be honest, a lot of the bigger names and famous faces just… don’t really do it for me.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s lots of bands whose “mainstream-friendly” sound still appeals to me – bands who play and perform with just as much conviction and creativity as any of their more self-consciously “underground” cousins – but there’s a certain formula for success, carefully curated and algorithmically adjusted for maximum appeal, that some groups follow which simply sounds hollow to my ears.

But I think it’s safe to say that none of these three bands – one we’ve covered here before, one we’ve clearly overlooked for far too long, and one making their highly anticipated (and already highly praised) full-length debut this year – are what you would call “formulaic”.

JUDAS PRIEST – INVINCIBLE SHIELD

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Mar 122024

(Andy Synn has a lot of love for the new album from a little band called Judas Priest)

It’s been well-documented by now, I’m sure, but it’s worth reiterating that – despite our slowly growing profile (and, as an aside, let me say thank you to all of you for continuing to read, and recommend, our various well-intentioned witterings) – our focus here at NCS is more on covering and critiquing (positively, for the most part) less well-known and more underground/under-exposed acts, rather than the big names and famous faces.

So when a little bird told me about a new album from a bunch of up-and-coming young whippersnappers by the name of Judas Priest – great name by the way guys, I’m surprised it wasn’t already taken – I decided to take a chance and give Invincible Shield a listen, since it’s always cool to be able to say you were into a band right before they blew up, right?

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ORNAMENTOS DEL MIEDO — “ESCAPANDO A TRAVÉS DE LA TIERRA”

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Mar 122024

We are very pleased today to premiere a complete stream of the newest album by the Spanish death/doom metal project Ornamentos del Miedo. Entitled Escapando a Través de la Tierra, it will be released by Tragedy Productions and Meuse Music Records on March 15th.

This stunning new opus is again the solo work of Angel Chicote from Burgos, who was responsible not only for all the vocals and instrumentation but also the mixing, mastering, and artwork.

Lyrically, the songs address “interest disguised as friendship, mental illness, forgotten memories”. “Here there are no more demons, monsters or fantastic beings than those that life gives us”. But while the lyrics may express recognizable vagaries of human life, the intensely atmospheric and emotionally moving music transports the listener to realms far, far away from the mundane. Continue reading »

ECCLESIA – ECCLESIA MILITANS

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Mar 112024

(Andy Synn steps up to take communion with the new album from Ecclesia, out now)

While our site’s name may be a little tongue-in-cheek (even if some people seem to take it way too seriously) it’s true that we don’t write about the clean-sung variants of Metal – Trad, Power, “classic” Doom, etc – very often.

But there are certainly exceptions to this “rule”, and today’s exception goes by the name Ecclesia Militans.

SHADES OF BLACK: AUSTERE, DARKESTRAH, DØDSFERD, GIVRE, HORN, NIGHT SHALL DRAPE US, MERRIMACK

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Mar 102024

What the hell happened? This collection of new black metal is appearing an hour later than it should have. I finished it at 10:00 and then I looked at an electronic clock and suddenly it was 11:00, without anything happening during that hour.

My first thought was that the music I picked had skewed space-time. The music, as you will see (or rather, hear), is certainly epic enough to cause such an upheaval. But then I discovered the reason was much more stupidly mundane. I gather that on a Sunday next November this column will appear an hour earlier than when I finish it. I look forward to being surprised again. Incipient dementia has its rewards.

AUSTERE (Australia)

Yes, “epic” is an overused and often poorly used word, but even worn-out words still mean something and sometimes are still better than the less-abused alternatives. And yes, “Cold Cerecloth” is epic. It’s also epically infectious. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ACOD, ISCHEMIC, LOCKTENDER, LOKA, NECROT, NEVER THE DEAD, PAIN, POPIOŁY, SHADOHM

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Mar 092024

Like yesterday, I had enough time to compile a very big roundup of new music for this Saturday. It includes two full EPs and seven individual songs, most of them from forthcoming releases, presented in alphabetical order by band name.

Like yesterday, there’s so much to hear here that I’ve attempted to cut back on the usual volume of impressionistic words so I can finish this before I turn into a pumpkin. Also like yesterday, I think there’s a lot of variety in the music I picked.

Unlike yesterday, I decided to focus on more obscure names from different corners of the metalverse.(P.S. For newcomers here, there will be yet another roundup tomorrow, focusing on black metal and its kindred.) Continue reading »

GOST: “PROPHECY”

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Mar 082024

(Yesterday we presented Daniel Barkasi‘s interview of Texas-based Gost, and today we deliver his review of Gost‘s new album Prophecy on the day of its release by Metal Blade Records.)

The connection between metal and electronic music is an alluring one; both have existed side-by-side for decades. There’s always been some similarities in the aesthetic and structure of specific forms of each. One of the latest phenomena is the synthwave genre, and more specifically for this review, it’s where a sub-genre known as darksynth emerged. A caustic and menacing method of synth music, many have been gripped by its extremely heavy sounds and dark themes.

One of the most heralded innovators of that style is Gost, who has carved a large following through the last 11 years, never producing the same album twice. Early works centered around more Satanic subjects and vigorous sounds, while more recent albums such as Rights of Love and Reverence portray more on the personal side with gothic/industrial conventions. New album Prophecy is a merging of both subjects and nearly all sonic inclinations of Gost’s career, resulting in a familiar-yet-fresh album that continues to position the project further into its own air. Continue reading »

HECATONCHEIR – NIGHTMARE UTOPIA

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Mar 072024

(Nightmare Utopia, the debut album from Hecatoncheir, is out now on Total Dissonance Worship)

As we’ve said several times, one of the reasons we keep doing this is because we love discovering new music, and we love sharing our discoveries with people.

Hell, if we didn’t have this blog we’d probably just be running up to people in the streets and screaming at them about how good the latest Blackened Post-Progressive Doom-core release is… and, according to the authorities, we’re not supposed to do that any more.

So when I first stumbled across Nightmare Utopia, the debut album from talented Slovakian Dissonant Death Metal trio Hecatoncheir, last week I knew immediately that I wanted to write about it and spread the word.

And while it took me a little longer than I’d hoped to find space in my schedule, I’m hoping you’ll agree that the wait was more than worth it, as this is one of the most promising debuts I’ve heard so far this year.

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