THE SYNN REPORT, PART 86: MERRIMACK

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  3 Responses »
Jun 302017
 


Photo by Alizee Adamek

 

(The subject of Andy Synn’s 86th SYNN REPORT is the discography of the French black metal band Merrimack.)

 

Recommended for fans of: Marduk, Enthroned, Watain

 

Black Metal has gone in a lot of different directions since its inception, expanding its horizons and stretching its boundaries in so many different ways that it’s almost impossible to count them all.

But sometimes you just need a dose of pure sonic sadism. Sometimes you need Merrimack.

Over the course of five albums (the most recent of which came out at the start of this month), guitarist Perversifier (the last remaining original member of the group) and his merry merciless men have unleashed their own particular brand of auditory hell upon the world with little to no regard for those innocents who might end up caught in the crossfire, as well as delivering a live show which often teeters on the edge of “unhinged”.

So if you’re looking for something black as pitch, and just as incendiary, then please… read on. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE: LJOSAZABOJSTWA — “SYCHODŽAŃNIE”

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Jun 292017
 

 

Last June, late to the party, I discovered Staražytnaje licha, the debut demo of a Belarusian black/death band named Ljosazabojstwa (which means something like “murder of fate”). The demo was originally released by the band in digital form in December 2015 and was then reissued the following year on CD by Hellthrasher Productions (with a bonus track, the 9-minute opener “Struk u horła chrysta”). I concluded my review in this way: “This is a very, very strong debut with high re-play value that ought to get your head moving (along with the rest of your body).”

Now, Ljosazabojstwa have returned with a new EP (though it’s substantial for an EP, with a 32-minute run-time). This one is named Sychodžańnie, and it will be released tomorrow by the same Hellthrasher Productions that reissued the first one. Today we’re very happy to let you listen to all of it through our premiere of a full stream. Continue reading »

ORIGIN: “UNPARALLELED UNIVERSE”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Jun 292017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Origin, which will be released on June 30.)

Origin are one of death metal’s most unique standouts from the 2000s-era of death metal. Their brand of chaotically fast, noisy, cosmic, techy deathgrind has never been done better, nor even really emulated properly, and that’s because this band has always had a consistent vision. Or rather, Paul Ryan and John Longstreth have had consistent vision. The Origin sound is unmistakable and it has remained so, to their benefit and at their peril.

Unparalleled Universe is Origin’s best record since new vocalist Jason Keyser joined back in 2011, especially compared to 2014‘s Omnipresent, which was received… not as well as the rest of Origin’s discography. I suspect the Origin guys felt this, and maybe even felt that way about Omnipresent themselves after the dust had settled, because Unparalleled Universe is a step up. It has some of the best songwriting, riff-craft, and consistently belligerent sonic matter obliteration they’ve ever created. Continue reading »

HARDCORE COMES CLAWING BACK (THOUGHTS OF IONESCO, LESS ART, ILLUSTRATIONS, MIRACLE DRUG, COUCH SLUT)

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Jun 292017
 


Thoughts of Ionesco, 1999, in Pontiac, Michigan (photo by CJ Benninger)

 

(Todd Manning is back, and brings with him a group of recommended releases from a collection of killer bands whose names you see in the title of this post.)

Roughly a year ago, I wrote an article here discussing several hardcore releases and I mentioned how if Black Metal held sway in the winter, I felt Hardcore lay claim to the sweltering summer. But now I am also willing to consider that there are cycles within cycles, and am reflecting a bit on the genre in its longer trajectory.

While nothing really ever goes completely out of style in these postmodern times, I can say with some conviction that Metal in all its forms kind of steamrolled over Hardcore in the first decade of the new century, at least in terms of overall popularity. Sure, D-Beat has certainly thrived in recent times, but those bands are pretty much settled into the same aesthetic as their Metal brethren, and Death Metal and Black Metal bands alike borrow quite liberally from the genre.

But now, I’m starting to feel that other forms of Hardcore are beginning to claw their way back into the conversation, and I wanted to touch on some recent releases that those who care should definitely make an effort to seek out. Continue reading »

WINDS OF LENG: “HORRID DOMINION”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jun 282017
 

 

(This is Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Arizona’s Winds of Leng.)

Riddle me this, riddle me that… what do you get if you combine the gruesome riffosity of classic Dismember with the merciless melodic menace of The Black Dahlia Murder?

You get Horrid Dominion, the stunning debut by Winds of Leng, that’s what. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: CONTRA — “DENY EVERYTHING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 282017
 

 

July 1st is the date set for the release of the debut album by Cleveland-based Contra. Entitled Deny Everything, it will come at you via Robustfellow Productions/Shifty Records. Today we’ve got a full stream of the album for you.

The very first half-minute of the album’s first track, “Human Buzzsaw”, tells you that the Contra crew know how to cook up thick, swampy, bluesy, physically compulsive riffs, and as the song proceeds you find that the band are equally adept at lacing their music with trippy soloing and draping it in a cloak of gloom. You’ll also experience the scraped-raw tirades of vocalist Larry Brent, which help to give the music a hard edge of incipient violence (and mental instability). Continue reading »

LIVERUM: “DISCOVER YOUR LAND”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 282017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli wrote this review of the debut album by the Norwegian/Polish band Liverum.)

Gojira has disappointed me as of late. Sure, I reviewed L’Enfant Sauvage with enthusiasm at the time, but there were a few conditions my enthusiasm was contingent upon. A: the assumption that the album was a one-off that was not a sign of things to come; B: the hope that the blatantly more commercial elements and attempts to be softer that they’d been teasing at since The Way Of All Flesh were just a phase; and C: the wish that the next album wouldn’t dial back the very essence of this band even further.

While co-writers of mine enjoyed Magma I thought it was nothing short of blasphemy to the Gojira name. Since then, I’ve looked for bands that channeled Gojira, not in precisely literal musical terms but at least in spirit, for sure. Continue reading »

STEED: “SURROUNDED BY COWARDS”

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Jun 272017
 

 

(Todd Manning rejoins us with a review of the debut album by Indiana’s Steed.)

In the age of all things old become new again, we often see modern day Metal musicians looking to the genre’s forefathers for guidance, and Indianapolis-based quartet Steed have certainly learned their lessons well. Their debut full-length, Surrounded by Cowards, was issued near the end of April courtesy of Small Hand Factory Records, who successfully tapped a similar vein recently with Kulthammer’s Oath.

The key here is Steed’s ability to meld the songwriting chops of the genre masters with the grit of today’s underground. Album opener, “Speed Weed Steed” sets the stage with its venomous mix of underground Thrash and Motörhead. There is an undeniable Punk edge to the proceedings as well, the kind of swagger that is sure to keep their audiences drinking and fist-pumping, engaging in all things lawless and belligerent. Continue reading »

ULVER LIVE AT ROADBURN 2017: A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY BY LEVAN TK

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 272017
 

 

On the final night of the Roadburn Festival in Tilburg this year, Norway’s Ulver used the main stage as the setting for an album release show, performing all the songs from their latest album The Assassination of Julius Caesar, though not necessarily in the order of the album presentation. Segmented by instrumental interludes and enhanced by a spectacular light show, it was a performance that by all accounts was a great success, even if it might have caught some onlookers by surprise if they hadn’t yet heard anything from this new record (which we reviewed here). On the other hand, for those familiar with Ulver’s musical odyssey, the experience of being surprised is no longer a surprise — it is to be expected.

Many other bands performed on Day Four of Roadburn, but the formidable concert photographer Levan TK — whose photo essays from the first three days we’ve posted previously (collected here) — concentrated on Ulver, talking with Kristoffer Rygg before the show and shooting a multitude of photos during the performance. For this final installment in his pictorial memorial to Roadburn 2017, we present Levan’s selection from those photos. If only we could have been there, too…. Continue reading »

DYING FETUS: “WRONG ONE TO FUCK WITH”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jun 272017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli review the new album by Dying Fetus, which is out now on Relapse Records.)

I’m just going to say it. If you don’t like Dying Fetus, nay, LOVE Dying Fetus, you don’t like death metal. I can think of no other band that has better personified the sonic violence, technical excess, genuine anger, uncompromising legacy, and lack of pretension that death metal is all about than Dying Fetus.

John Gallagher has been at this shit now for TWENTY-FOUR YEARS. He’s the godfather of the messy, grimy, seizure-inducing style of tech death, and his sound and approach to songwriting have never been successfully emulated, although no one really even dares to try. Who else is mixing technical death metal, grindcore, NYHC, and slam so well right now? Nobody that I’m aware of, and especially nobody who does it so organically, honestly, and with such passion and dedication. Continue reading »

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