AUTARKH: “EMERGENT”

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Oct 272023
 

(In the following review our writer DGR takes a deep dive — a very deep dive — into the strange musical worlds created by the Dutch band Autarkh on their new album Emergent, which is set for release on November 10th by Season of Mist.)

One would suspect that a band like Autarkh are going to feature on heavy metal websites more due to their ethos of being as experimental and unapproachable as possible than their particular chosen instrument configuration. The wildly artistic group were founded on blurring multiple genre lines, and that includes the world of heavy metal, with large handfuls of other things – difficult to describe as they may be.

The group’s sophomore album Emergent walks further down that pathway, metal not just because the band like themselves a distorted guitar, or their history as being a branch budded off the tree that was Dodecahedron, or the fact that they’ve done a drone/doom set at the more high-minded world of Roadburn under the name Autarkh III – as far as I know, there is no Autarkh II: Autarkh Takes Manhattan out there just yet – but the band will also likely grab ears among metal’s crowd due to their usage of it as a style to further accomplish whatever strange and haunted otherworldly goals they may have had in mind. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE: GREAT FALLS AND RADIATION BLACKBODY

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Oct 262023
 

On October 27th — tomorrow! — Ancient Temple Recordings and 7 Degrees Records will jointly release a new 7″ split by Seattle’s Great Falls and Brooklyn’s Radiation Blackbody, and today we’re presenting a stream of both bands’ contributions to the split.

The news of this release seized our attention mainly because of the presence of Great Falls. Even though Metal Archives hasn’t yet seen fit to include them, the band’s 2023 album Objects Without Pain is one of the most emotionally intense and stupefyingly heavy records you’ll find this year, and a worthy candidate as we get closer to year-end listmania.

At least for those of us around the NCS hovel, Radiation Blackbody was a new discovery — and, it turns out, a very good one. Continue reading »

TIDES OF KHARON: “ANCIENT SLEEPER”

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Oct 262023
 

(DGR has finally completed a review of the latest EP, released last June, by Tides of Kharon from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.)

Believe it or not we actually do have a history with Canadian group Tides Of Kharon. Up to this point we’ve covered every EP the band have released – no full-length albums as of yet – most recently the 2021 release of Titanomachy alongside British group Ghosts of Atlantis in a two-fer review collective. June saw the Greek-mythology inspired melodeath group unleash a new one in the form of Ancient Sleeper, closing out a two-year gap of silence from the band in exchange for another five songs and near half-hour of music.

Tides Of Kharon‘s chosen release method feels a bit like checking in with the band as they forge and hammer new material, working on their sound and experimenting with the wide vareity of approaches that the genre has available to them. Both expert and continual student, Tides Of Kharon absorb into their sound as much as they issue forth, all in service of the particular tales they have chosen to craft a song around this time. Ancient Sleeper then, could be considered the newest check-in with the band. Continue reading »

PANOPTICON – THE RIME OF MEMORY

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Oct 252023
 

(Andy Synn offers some early insight into The Rime of Memory, set for release on 29 November)

It could be argued that I am, perhaps, the wrong person to be reviewing the new album from Panopticon (aka multi-instrumental marvel Austin Lunn), as my history with the band is somewhat mixed.

Like many of you, I fell in love with the seminal Kentucky the moment I first heard it but, unfortunately, I was far less taken with both Roads to the North and Autumn Eternal which – while both good albums in their own right (the latter especially) – just didn’t seem to speak to me in quite the same way.

However, just as I was beginning to accept that our connection was perhaps only a fleeting one, they released the ambitious and expansive double-album, The Scars of Man…, which swiftly rekindled my love for their forlon, folk-inspired sound, and then followed this up with the absolutely masterful …And Again Into the Light, which may well be the best album of their career.

Then again, perhaps this means that I might actually be the best choice to review The Rime of Memory, as I’m less likely than most to descend into unwarranted hyperbole and hero-worship and more willing to offer a mix of both praise and criticism, to whatever extent is warranted?

I suppose there’s only one way to find out.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PEINE KAPITAL — “PEINE KAPITAL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 252023
 

“It’s hard to be optimistic in such a fucked up world. Because we witness violence and ugliness on a daily basis, we can’t help but make music that is aggressive and filthy.”

With those words, the French doom-sludge trio Peine Kapital have announced their self-titled debut album, which will be released on October 27th by the respected Sludgelord Records. And those aren’t empty words. As you’ll learn for yourselves today through our complete streaming premiere of the album, Peine Kapital is a truly harsh, harrowing, and immensely heavy experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GLACIER EATER — “TEMPEST”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 242023
 

We read the lyrics for Glacier Eater‘s new album Tempest before listening to any of the music. They are well worth reading, both because they were crafted with literary flair and also because they tell a story that builds anticipation for the music.

That gripping narrative unfolds across the songs, each of which is like a chapter in a tragic saga. Through two contentious narrators, they relate the attempt of a warrior captain to lead his forces away from the life of killing they knew and to sail toward a foreign shore “at the edge of the world” where they might find peace, “a chance to make it right”.

Some in the company don’t share the captain’s optimism, and sure enough, it turns out they have sailed “into a hole of death”. Against the backdrop of a volcanic eruption they are assaulted by other warriors on the shore, whom they slaughter until forced to retreat and set sail again, only to be assaulted in a different way by the tempest for which the album is named, as if the gods themselves are exacting “a righteous vengeance” for all the killing they have done.

But even then, after the storm and the drowning of many, the protagonists’ turmoil hasn’t ended, because another ship, a hostile one, is rapidly gaining on them and cannons blaze, “another fight on our hands”. Continue reading »

STOMACH: “PARASITE”

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Oct 242023
 

(The debut album of Chicago-based Stomach was released last Friday by Hibernation Release, and today we’re helping spread the word through the following review by Christopher Luedtke.)

As the world grows uglier so does perspective. Whatever we have gleamed or counted as a civilized society is long slipping through frail fingers. One, if so inclined, could likely trace the cracks in the collective consciousness through music alone. Things keep getting uglier, like a brain fever that never subsides. Maybe for our times things have just gotten more honest, raw, and ugly from an art perspective. It’s something to consider when listening to Stomach’s debut full-length Parasite.

The Chicago, IL duo consists of drummer/vocalist John Hoffman (Weekend Nachos, Ledge) and guitarist Adam Tomlinson (Sea of Shit, Sick/Tired), two players who are no strangers to composing raw-nerve music. Stomach, originally started by Hoffman, began as a loose version of Earth or Grief worship. Since its inception in 2020, the project has released two killer demos. However, now the project is ready to reign down holy hell with their debut full-length Parasite. Continue reading »

INSOMNIUM: “SONGS OF THE DUSK”

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Oct 242023
 

(Our writer DGR tends to wait until after records have been released before reviewing them, even when he’s had them in his clutches long in advance of the release date. Today, however, he’s gotten the jump on Insomnium‘s new EP, which won’t be out (on Century Media) until November 3rd.)

Earlier this year, Insomnium unleashed a great full-length album in the form of Anno 1696. We dove very deep into the album around the time of its release, exploring its concept, guest musicians, and overall execution. We had a pretty good time with it and found that the band do well when they have a concept to dedicate themselves to, after initially seeming a little adrift musically, content to do a standard Insomnium act that didn’t push the band.

Regular, straight-shooting Insomnium is still pretty good but there’s always the worry of diminishing returns. In some ways it seems like the band themselves are aware of the times when they do settle into a groove for too long. They’ve gotten pretty good at evolving in one form or another, and Anno 1696 did well lifting the band back up and recharging them.

If there was one feeling that hung in the air a bit with Anno, it was that the album was surprisingly concise – from a group that just prior had multiple songs stretching into the seven-minute range – and wrapped up rather neatly. If, however, you were able to wrap your grubby mitts around one of the limited editions of Anno 1696 then you had access to the three songs being presented here in an addendum EP, Songs Of The Dusk. Continue reading »

WORMHOLE: “ALMOST HUMAN”

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Oct 232023
 

(This is DGR‘s review of the newest album by Baltimore-based Wormhole, which came out late last month on Season of Mist.)

With a new home on a new label, a new genre-approach, and a sizeable shift in the lineup, the Wormhole that is present on their late-September release Almost Human is an entirely different beast than the Wormhole that existed three years prior.

The guitar and drum positions haven’t changed, remaining solid since the days of 2020’s The Weakest Among Us, but the band are now joined by journeyman death growler Julian Kersey (Aegeaon, a few stints live for The Faceless) and bassist Basil Chiasson for a surprisingly different take on the group’s previous head-spinning hybrid of brutal death and slam. Continue reading »

WITCHING – INCENDIUM

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 232023
 

(Andy Synn hopes to ignite your interest in the new album from Philadelphia’s Witching, set for release this Friday)

It was just over three years ago that we hosted the premiere of Witching‘s first album, Vernal, describing it as:

“…a subtly proggy, occasionally doomy, but above all emotionally intense, form of Sludge reminiscent of both latter-day Ludicra and early Mastodon.”

And while that description still holds true for their debut, there’s no question that album #2 is an altogether more aggressive and incendiary piece of work.

Continue reading »

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