CRAFT: “WHITE NOISE AND BLACK METAL”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 252018
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer’s review of the new album by the Swedish black metal band Craft, which was released on June 22nd by Season of Mist.)

Either bands change or they become stagnant. Going into this album I hoped the venom this Swedish band would unleash might make black metal hate again. It stands to reason, however, that after 20 years in existence the band’s fifth album might find them tiring of the punk-tinged aggression that drove the first four. I loved how Void (2011) was a big middle finger, and that is the soundtrack I think the world needs, but these guys have other ideas.

This is obvious right from the smoother guitar tone of the first song (“The Cosmic Sphere Falls”). Normally I would tell you how I have grown weary of blast beats and want black metal bands to not depend on them. Blast beats prove not to be the problem, as the band creates enough of a sonic sprawl that they don’t sound like they are just playing color-by-numbers with only marginally different shades of black, Instead we are getting a dark coat of gray dripping from these songs. Continue reading »

MIRE: “SHED”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Jun 222018
 

 

(This is Andy Synn’s review of the debut album by Denver-based Mire.)

As you may (or may not) have noticed, over the last several days I’ve covered quite a few “major” (or, at least, relatively major) albums/artists here at NCS, and left the more underground stuff to my colleagues, co-writers, and contributors.

However, in an attempt to redress that balance somewhat (as well as to salve my stinging conscience) I’ve decided that my final review of the week should be dedicated to something new, but much less well-known, which is what brings us to this perfect little piece of prodigious Prog-Death wizardry courtesy of Denver duo Mire. Continue reading »

MARDUK / FUNERAL MIST: A TALE OF TWO ALBUMS

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Jun 212018
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn combines reviews of the new albums by the Swedish black metal bands Funeral Mist and Marduk.)

One of the commenters on one of my recent columns made mention of our avoidance of the tabloid-esque, clickbait culture which seems predominant among so many blogs/sites these days. And while I generally agree with (and appreciate) that sentiment, I would like to clarify one thing.

Because while we do our best to avoid sensationalising or proselytising, that doesn’t mean we’re ignorant of, or afraid to address, the various issues, questions, and controversies, which frequently permeate and surround our beloved scene.

My own approach, which is still being refined with every review and every article I write, is to inform, rather than dictate, so that our readers are given the right context in which to make their own decisions. I, for one, don’t believe that listening to a band is necessarily the same as endorsing their worldview, but I also don’t believe that there’s anything wrong with making a personal choice not to support a band either.

Whatever your decision, though, I can say that both these albums offer some extremely  good Black Metal, although both are successful for different reasons. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISROTTED AND GUILTY C — “LIVE IN OSAKA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 202018
 

 

(Grant Skelton provides this review of a collaborative live recording by the Chicago doom band Disrotted and the Japanese harsh noise artist Guilty C, and introduces our premiere of a full stream of the sounds.)

In 2015, Disrotted contributed a gargantuan grotesquerie of a track for a split with Japanese powerviolence veterans Su19b. The track, entitled “Infernal Torment,” is nearly half an hour of droning, staggering madness. The song is a stroke of subversive genius, further compounded by the fact that Disrotted enlisted the help of Japanese noise artist Guilty C to collaborate on it. Continue reading »

KHEMMIS: “DESOLATION”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  2 Responses »
Jun 192018
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Colorado’s Khemmis, which will be released on June 22nd by 20 Buck Spin in North America and by Nuclear Blast everywhere else.)

I’m more than happy to admit that I’m a very late joiner to the Khemmis train.

Oh, sure, I’d heard the name around, I knew they were pretty well liked and that there was a fair bit of hype building behind them, and had even caught a glimpse of their eye-catching artwork here and there, but – for whatever reason – I’d just never found the time to actually listen to one of the band’s songs/albums.

Thankfully, their brilliant performance at this year’s edition of Maryland Deathfest made me an immediate convert to their cause, and I’ve spent the time since then immersing myself in the band’s back-catalogue and catching up on everything which I’ve been missing, just in time for Desolation to drop into my inbox with a resounding (digital) boom. Continue reading »

QUICK HITS: THE SPIRIT, BORN TO MURDER THE WORLD, CHTHE’ILIST

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jun 162018
 

 

I’m still grateful to my friend Andy, whose Waxing Lyrical series continues to relieve my compulsion to come up with something new to post here on Saturdays. And as you can see, I’m still not completely free of the compulsion. I’ve also now abandoned the goal of this week-long series of Quick Hits as a vehicle for catching up on new music from the last two weeks. For the third day in a row, I’ve again been diverted by late-breaking releases: Everything collected here appeared yesterday or the day before.

THE SPIRIT

Last fall Germany’s The Spirit self-released an enormously impressive debut album entitled Sounds From the Vortex. In April, Nuclear Blast announced that they had signed the band, and yesterday revealed that they would be re-issuing Sounds From the Vortex on August 10th in CD, LP, and digital editions (with new cover art). To celebrate the occasion, Nuclear Blast released a lyric video for an album track named “The Clouds of Damnation“, which happens to be my favorite track from that record. And so, although many of you are no doubt familiar with the music through that previous self-release, I wanted to start today’s round-up with that new video. Continue reading »

QUICK HITS: PALE, FÓRN, DEFEATED SANITY

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 152018
 

 

Once again, my plan for this week-long series has failed. Rather than catching up on new music from the last two weeks, I’ve instead been diverted by late-breaking releases. Moreover, rather than two new songs by only two bands, this collection includes music from three groups, beginning with a complete EP.

PALE

I discovered this EP yesterday thanks to a recommendation from occasional NCS contributor Conchobar, about a half hour before seeing a Bandcamp alert for the EP from Pest Productions in our e-mail. Conchobar characterized it as “very ‘post-black’ but in a very non-cliched way”. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VERANO’S DOGS — “SUMMONING THE HOUNDS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 152018
 

 

What could be more heart-warming than an album devoted to dogs, made by a band named for dogs? After all, canines are man’s best and most devoted friends, aren’t they?

Well, you’d better fucking think again. The hounds summoned by these musical tales aren’t your loyal friends — they’re emblems of death. They range from Cerberus at the gates of Hades to the dog-headed Anubis, lord of the Egyptian underworld, from Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles to the baying creature in one of Lovecraft’s first stories in the Cthulhu mythos. If there’s a warm heart in this music, it’s the one these tracks want to tear from your chest, still beating. Continue reading »

QUICK HITS: FUNERAL MIST, BLACK HOWLING

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jun 142018
 

 

As promised earlier, I’m trying to make up for failing to post one of these Quick Hit features yesterday by posting two today. On the other hand, this second of today’s small round=ups isn’t really accomplishing the goal of catching up on music from the past couple of weeks that I wanted to recommend — because late-breaking developments have intervened.

FUNERAL MIST

In last Sunday’s SHADES OF BLACK column I trumpeted the news that Funeral Mist had sprung a surprise by announcing that a new album would be released on June 15th, more than nine years after the last one. I doubted that any music would become available for streaming until the album’s release, given the short time between the revelation of the news and the album’s release, and that proved to be true. But there was one further surprise: The album was released a day earlier than scheduled. In other words, it’s out now. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TYRANT — “THE EXISTENTIAL REVERSAL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 142018
 

 

In the space of only three songs the Canadian quintet Tyrant provide a skull-cracking, blood-rushing, brain-twisting experience on their new EP, The Existential Reversal. Amalgamating aspects of melodic death metal, thrash, and groove, the band have created tracks that are physically arresting and exotic, both brutish and technically nimble, loaded with juicy riffs and solos, and fueled with furious energy. And to make the results even more impressive, the EP is a DIY production — and one that succeeds in delivering explosive sonic power.

The EP will be released tomorrow (June 15th), but we have a full stream of all three songs from the EP for you to enjoy today. Continue reading »

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