BEST OF BRITISH: AGRONA / LEECHED / NOMAD

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Sep 072018
 

(Andy Synn brings us another of his periodic columns devoted to metal from his homeland.)

Today’s edition of “The Best of British” features a nice amount of musical variety, from a bunch of different bands at different levels of fame/exposure (although, coincidentally, two of them hail from the same place – my original home town of Manchester), all of whom released their debut full-length album at some time in the last six months.

As a result, even if you’ve heard of one of these three acts before (and with the recent press furore over one in particular there’s a very good chance that will be the case) you should still be able to find some fresh new metallic morsels here to sink your teeth into. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): GOAT SPERM — “VOICE IN THE WOMB”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Sep 052018
 

 

Let’s first deal with the elephant in the room: this band’s name. To some of you it might signify primitive, ear-raping, bestial black metal. For others it might lead to scoffing — derisive presumptions that there will be nothing to take seriously here. Both guesses might be understandable, but both would be wrong.

Having heard, and thoroughly enjoyed, Goat Sperm‘s persistently surprising debut EP, Voice In the Womb, it does occur to me (without any inside knowledge) that there was a streak of perversity at work in this Ukrainian band’s choice of name, and not just for the most obvious reason. I can imagine them chuckling behind their hands, or maybe cackling with devilish glee, over that decision, because of the head-fake that it represents. And part of the reason I make that guess is because the music itself is such a twisted but ingenious experience. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MORNE — “TO THE NIGHT UNKNOWN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 052018
 

 

There’s a lyrical passage in one of the songs on Morne’s new album that comes across like a challenge:

Show your fear
Show the way you bleed inside
Wear your wounds like I wear mine

When you listen to the music on this shattering album, those words seem to be more than a possible challenge to listeners. They could just as easily be understood as an expression of the challenge that these Boston doom insurgents set for themselves when they made this record, one they threw themselves into meeting, body and soul. Continue reading »

DGR REVIEW COLLECTION: SECTIONED, BORN TO MURDER THE WORLD, PSYCHOTIC PULSE, CLANDESTINE REVELATION, THE BREATHING PROCESS, DEPTHS OF HATRED

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 052018
 


Sectioned

 

(DGR prepared this large collection of reviews and streams, addressing some older and some newer music, and some things that haven’t yet arrived in full.)

This poor review collection saw more permutations than I’d be willing to admit, with so many different groups being added and removed for fear that I hadn’t spent enough time with a disc and so wouldn’t be able to speak about it properly, that the body count has to be in the double digits by this point. What this thing did move into was something of a themed archive of releases — bookended by earlier albums but with two that are much more recent, and with preview songs from two upcoming releases in the middle to help transition over the two.

What I found I was listening to recently was the real heavy and destructive forces of powerviolence, death metal, and grind, and on the other side of the spectrum, some real caveman level prefix-core styled music as well, just ones with a taste for the symphonic and speed on top of it. It was fortuitous then that on top of that I had a small collection of singles for upcoming (maybe? in one case) releases that I wanted to talk about that felt like suitable bridges between the two, so that our esteemed editor would’ve have to cleave this poor baby in twain; it kind of felt like a perfect thematic walk along the admittedly arbitrary spectrum brought before you.

Much like my much larger review nightmare collections, this one includes four albums but with somewhat shortened reviews, and all come highly recommended. Fingers crossed, maybe you’ll find something to enjoy as well, once you’re able to scrape your face off of the wall behind you. Continue reading »

THREE FACES OF DARKNESS: MARE / NACHTLIEDER / OUTRÉ

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Sep 042018
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn presents reviews of three of the best black metal albums released so far in 2018.)

You could perhaps consider this article something of a rebuttal to my “Three Faces of Death” piece which was published last week, wherein I stated that 2018 seems to have been a very Death Metal heavy year so far, and that the Black Metal scene has (arguably) been lagging a little bit behind so far.

After all, while this statement is still generally true, some of this year’s blackest highlights – Funeral Mist, Ordinul Negru, Slidhr, Gaerea, Aklash, Ascension– have been more than capable of going toe-to-toe with whatever their deathly brethren have brought to the table.

It’s really just a numbers game at this point, and while I don’t see this torrent of dominating Death Metal ebbing any time soon, I’m pleased to be able to redress the balance somewhat by featuring the following three albums of blackened brilliance. Continue reading »

A FEW IMPRESSIONS FROM BEYOND THE GATES 2018

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 042018
 

 

(Norway-based NCS contributor Karina Noctum was in Bergen, Norway last week for part of the latest edition of the Beyond the Gates festival. This isn’t a complete review of the fest, but rather some reflections about the location, some musical recommendations prompted by the line-ups, and impressions of some of the performances that made a particular impact. Credit for all the wonderful photos in this post goes to Jarle H. Moe.)

Beyond the Gates is a festival that takes place every year in the mythical Black Metal city of Bergen (at least, it certainly seems mythical). It’s a paradise for blackpackers (a name for the hopeful souls who make the journey to the land of Black Metal and if they do their research well may end up in Abbath’s garden), a good city if you are into grey, doleful weather and dark surroundings. You’ve got the beautiful and dark mountains of might surrounding the city; it rains pretty much every day; and as a consequence the shadowy forests will be under a shroud of fog. All in all, pretty Black Metal.

If you are considering traveling in spite of everything I’ve mentioned above then go here and you will find a comprehensive list of metal stuff to do in Bergen. I find Bergen a nice place since I like grey skies, dark forests, mountains, and rain, so being there is a happy experience for me, especially when combined with music. Continue reading »

BYONOISEGENERATOR: “NEUROMECHANICA”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 042018
 

 

(Vonlughlio reviews the new album by the Russian death metal band ByoNoiseGenerator, who combine brutal death metal, grind… and jazz. The album will be released on September 20 by Reality Fade Records.)

ByoNoiseGenerator from Perm, Russia, are one of the most forward-thinking brutal death metal bands at the moment, because of their unusual willingness to incorporate new elements into their sound.

They broke out back in 2015 with the release of their debut, Turbulent Biogenesis (available here), to which my immediate reaction was the following: “Really??? What the fuck????”. Of course I listened to that release five times in a row, which was not an imposing challenge because it’s only about 14 minutes long. Listening to a saxophone in this kind of music was just mindblowing, because to be honest I had bought the CD and did not know what to expect.

In fact, one thing that I regret was not including this release in my top albums from that year. To be able to mix BDM, grind, and jazz elements in elaborate yet short songs, and make it work, is not an easy task. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WINDFAERER — “ALMA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Aug 312018
 

 

Those of you who’ve been visiting our site regularly for more than a year or two will be familiar with the name Windfaerer, because we’ve been following their steady ascent since early days. This New Jersey-based, folk-influenced black metal band was launched by guitarist and frontman M. Gonçalves as (we are told) “an epic black metal paean to his ancestral homeland of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal)”. From its earliest days, Windfaerer has now evolved into a full band in which Gonçalves is joined by electric violinist B. Karas (aka Valček), guitarist I. Keren, bassist M. Muñoz, and drummer J. Applegate, some of whom contribute vocals in addition to their prodigious instrumental talents.

Since 2009 Windfaerer have released two albums, in addition to a few shorter releases, and their third full-length, Alma, is now rapidly approaching a September release by Fólkvangr Records and Avantgarde Music. It’s their most impressive work to date, as you’re about to discover through our stream of all eight tracks. Continue reading »

THREE FACES OF DEATH: BÆST, INNUMERABLE FORMS, NAILS OF IMPOSITION

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Aug 312018
 

 

(We present a collection of three death metal reviews by Andy Synn.)

If you’ve been paying even a modicum of attention to the digital metalsphere over the last several months then it’s highly likely you’ll have noticed quite a lot of people talking/writing about how this has been a real banner year for Death Metal, to the point where it’s starting to feel like its corpse-painted cousin, Black Metal, is really struggling to keep up.

And while there has been a solid number of truly great Black Metal albums released this year so far (with more still to come), there’s definitely some truth to this assertion. 2018 really is a great time to be alive if you’re a fan of massive riffs and guttural vocals.

So, in that spirit, here are three more ravenous recommendations, straight from my brain/fingers to your eyes/ears. Continue reading »

RAW: “THE PERSECUTE HEINOUS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 302018
 

 

(Vonlughlio reviews the debut album by the one-man brutal death metal band RAW from Surabaya, Indonesia.)

Today’s write-up is about the debut of the Indonesian Brutal Death Metal band Raw entitled The Persecute Heinous, set to be released via Brutal Mind on August 31st. But before we get into that gem of BDM, I want to talk about the label.

Brutal Mind is an Indonesian label established in 2009 and their main chief, Mr. Deni Lisain, is well-respected in the scene, due to his hard work and dedication to the genre. How he has been able through the years to amass fans from around the world is something amazing. Continue reading »

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