Reviews Archives - Page 196 of 601

LASCAILLE’S SHROUD – OTHERCOSMIC DIVINATIONS II

Apr 152021

(Andy Synn ventures once more towards the outer limits with Prog-Death powerhouse Lascaille’s Shroud)

As I mentioned earlier this week, when we like a band here at NCS we try our best to stick with them, through thick and thin, and keep tabs on what they’re doing.

Sometimes, however, we’re more successful at this than others, as the case of sci-fi solo artist Lascaille’s Shroud so clearly demonstrates.

While we wrote at length about each of the project’s first three albums, we somehow lost touch with them soon after that, and although my bonus edition of The Synn Report last November went some way towards making up for this (by covering the entirety of their back-catalogue, including the three albums they’d released since we last checked in with them) I still felt bad that we’d allowed ourselves to lose touch with a band we’d once been so enthusiastic about.

With that in mind, there was no way I was going to make the same mistake with Othercosmic Divinations II (which was released just last week), and it’s a good thing too, as it’s yet another impressive addition to the legacy of Lascaille’s Shroud.

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): INCARCERATION — “EMPIRICISM”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Apr 142021

The part-Brazilian, part-German death metal band Incarceration have compiled a discography that includes a pair of splits, an EP, and a 2016 debut album named Catharsis. To that collection of releases they are now adding a new EP entitled Empiricism that’s set for release on Friday of this week (April 16th) by Dawnbreed Records.

On this newest effort the band’s core duo of Daniel Silva (who performs vocals and bass on this release) and Michael Koch (drums) are joined for the first time by guitarists Pedro Capaça (Violator) and Alex Obscured (Speedwhore, Obscured by Evil). Whether for that reason or others, the band seem to have thrown themselves without reservation into the most furious and unhinged side of their sound.

And thus, as you’ll discover through our full streaming premiere today, the new EP generates adrenaline-fueled mayhem with explosive, savage power, although that ruthless, visceral intensity is accompanied by spectral leads and coruscating solos that generate a frightening aura of the occult. Continue reading »

ÆTHĔRĬA CONSCĬENTĬA – CORRUPTED PILLARS OF VANITY

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Apr 132021

(Andy Synn returns to the spatial city of Hydhradh to heap praise upon the new album from Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa)

If there’s one thing I can say about NCS, it’s that we are loyal to the bands we choose to cover (sometimes to a fault).

Chances are that if we like what you do then we’ll do our best to stick by you, no matter how long it takes, and try to keep one eye (or ear) open for whatever you do next.

Oh, sure, we still love seeking out strange new bands from strange new places, boldly going where other sites fear to tread (ok, that last part might be a bit of an exaggeration), but we also like to stay in touch with the various different artists we’ve (dis)covered over the years too, as it’s always interesting to see and hear how they’re developing and evolving.

Case in point, we first wrote about Prog-Black cosmonauts Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa when they released their debut, the four-track sci-fi concept album Tales from Hydhradh, back in 2018, and now, a little over three years later, we’re back again with a much more in-depth look at their new record, Corrupted Pillars of Vanity, which is both bigger, bolder, and – most importantly – better than its predecessor in pretty much every way.

CATHARTIC DEMISE: “IN ABSENCE”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Apr 092021

(We present Nathan Ferreira‘s review of a new album by Canadian melo/prog/death thrashers Cathartic Demise, which is being released today.)

It takes a special thrash album to capture my ears. Quite frankly, it’s the genre of metal I tend to lean towards the least, as much as I do appreciate a few select albums and the overall importance of thrash’s contributions to the greater pantheon. If I had to boil it down to one reason, it would be because of how restrictive the genre is – the formula for the riffs and songwriting set in stone, trapped to the confines of its rock base, despite pushing it to the absolute limit.

The thrash groups I do find myself coming back to are the ones that are heavy and punishing enough to verge on my comfort zone of death metal (early Sepultura, Demolition Hammer, Sadus) or fringe bands that incorporate weird outside influences (Voivod, Skeletonwitch and Atheist). And now, it seems that right up the road from me in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, a new band of up-and-coming youngsters can be added to that short list. Continue reading »

MORAL COLLAPSE – MORAL COLLAPSE

Album Reviews No Responses »

Apr 082021

(Andy Synn closes out the week a little early by throwing on the new record from India’s Moral Collapse)

Let’s be honest about something – music writers, especially Metal music writers, are often an inherently insular, introverted, slightly egotistical, group. We’d have to be, after all, to think that anyone wants to read our rambling opinions in the first place!

On the positive side, these little cliques, cults, and covens that we form are often extremely supportive places, characterised by a certain level of mutual respect and empathy fuelled by our shared experiences.

On the other hand, they do occasionally engender a certain amount of “group think”, where one writer (or group of writers) publishes an opinion or analysis which, for whatever reason (often simply because people don’t want to be seen attacking or undermining their cohorts) sets the tone for everyone else going forwards.

It doesn’t mean they’re necessarily wrong, but it does often result in certain ideas and assumptions being codified as “fact” and makes it difficult for alternative viewpoints to get a word in edgewise.

Case in point, some of the hype that’s been built up around the recently-released debut album from Indian duo Moral Collapse might have you believing that this is the most mind-bending, head-spinning record since… name a band/album/date… but the truth is it’s not quite as complex or crazy as its been made out to be.

It is, however, very, very good.

RAMPANCY: “COMING INSURRECTION”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Apr 082021

(Nathan Ferreira brings us this review of the new album by the black metal band Rampancy from London, Ontario, Canada — out now via Mutual Aid Records.)

It’s not often I get the chance to write about music from my neck of the woods, much less black metal – London, Ontario’s got a passionate but small metal scene for a city with a population of almost 400,000, and generally the inhabitants are more partial to thrash, groove and melodic death metal, as is evidenced by most of the bands that come out of here. Some examples of the more widely known ones: Kittie, Baptized in Blood and Thine Eyes Bleed. It’s not known as a well of growth for the more extreme tendrils of the music I crave constantly.

Amidst this nebulous and fragmented landscape, there’s been one constant consistently cranking out noisy, despondent extreme music for almost a decade now: Preston Lobzun, a.k.a. Oculus Tod, the sole curator and musician behind all of the instruments you hear on Rampancy’s third full-length album, Coming Insurrection.

Oculus has a handful of different projects he contributes to, most notably Saudade and Odol, and has piled up dozens of releases to his name, in addition to recording and mixing credits for countless other bands – but Rampancy is his only solo venture, and you could make the case it’s what he saves his most groundbreaking ideas for. Continue reading »

CRUST – STOIC

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Apr 062021

(Andy Synn keeps the ball rolling with a review of the recently-released third album from Russia’s Crust)

Sometimes, if you’re really lucky, an artist will produce an album which seems like it was tailor-made just for you.

Every song strikes a chord, every track touches a nerve, and every piece of the puzzle just fits so perfectly that you’d think the band was actively capable of peering directly into your brain.

It’s always exciting, especially when the band in question has a deeper discography for you to dig into too, as was the case when I stumbled across the new album from Russia’s own Blackened Sludgelords Crust recently, as not only did I instantly fall head over heels in love with the group’s hypnotically grim and humongously groove-laden sound, I was also compelled to go and pick up their entire physical back-catalogue (along with their entire digital discography) as part of last week’s #BandcampFriday.

And while I originally intended to save writing about these guys until the end of the month (as part of the next edition of The Synn Report) I quickly realised I couldn’t wait that long to lay out just why Stoic has become one of my favourite albums of the year so far.

MORE NEW MUSIC FROM VEGAS (PREVIEWS FROM A FORTHCOMING ALBUM)

Album Reviews No Responses »

Apr 062021

Ever since discovering VEGAS (aka VVEGAS and V.E.G.A.S.) through their four-song EP Sagevisule in 2014, I’ve been repeatedly transfixed by their music. In their own words, their shifting amalgams of metal and hardcore embrace the “confrontational nature of Japanese punks G.I.S.M. via early-80’s ferocity of LIFE’S BLOOD & apocalyptic tenets of bands like INTEGRITY“, but passing time has seen them draw in other ingredients as well. The inability to predict exactly what they will do from release to release is part of the attraction — along with the persistently visceral intensity that burns at the core of every recording.

They also don’t let much grass grow beneath their feet. Their most recent album …not ever appeared last summer, but they’ve already been hard at work on a new one. Hints of it surfaced through singles that were scattered through the remaining months of last year, and most recently in a track named “Recovery” that was released last month. But we’ve been privy to even more of what the new album holds in store, with an advance peak at 10 pre-mastered tracks (four more are also in various other stages of completion). Continue reading »

ZAO – THE CRIMSON CORRIDOR

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Apr 052021

(Andy Synn couldn’t wait any longer to share his thoughts on the new Zao album, set for release this Friday)

For those unfamiliar with the “Ship of Theseus” paradox, this two thousand year old thought experiment asks the following question:

If an object (in this case, the infamous ship) has all its parts and pieces (first its oars, then its planks, its mast, its keel, so on and so forth) replaced as time passes, at what point does it cease to be itself?

Or is it still, fundamentally, the same object? Is there some essential soul or essence which maintains continuity, even as all the individual components wear out and are replaced?

So it’s more than a little appropriate that Zao’s new album, the second since their fantastic 2016 comeback The Well-Intentioned Virus, features a song named “Ship of Theseus” right at the start, because The Crimson Corridor showcases a strikingly different – fundamentally darker, denser, and borderline doomier – version of the band than the one you might be familiar with…

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NIVATAKAVACHAS — “ASCRAEDUNUM”

Album Reviews, Premieres 1 Response »

Apr 052021

The creative energies of Swiss artist Bornyhake Ormenos seem boundless, and so multifarious that each impulsive surge of them may give rise to some new project, which seems to be the case in the spawning of his solo project Nivatakavachas.

Undoubtedly, this new menace has been gestating for some unknown period of time, building up its stockpile of evil power, but it is now ready to be revealed through a debut album named Ascraedunum, set for release by Satanath Records and Azif Records tomorrow (April 6th). One day early, we have a full stream of it for you. Continue reading »

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