Reviews Archives - Page 362 of 601

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: INSULTERS — “METAL STILL MEANS DANGER”

Jan 022017

The Spanish band Insulters named their new album Metal Still Means Danger. It includes songs named “Bang Your Fucking Skull”, “Here Falls the Hammer”, and of course “Metal Still Means Danger”. When you openly brandish so many over-the-top heavy metal tropes, you run some risks — and you’d better be able to back it up with something more than bullet belts, pentagrams, and even the right kind of spirit. Insulters definitely back it up, as you’re about to find out.

Metal Still Means Danger was officially released on January 1, 2017, by Unholy Prophecies and Equinox Discos, and we’re helping spread the word through the premiere of a full album stream. It’s a nasty nine-track hellride that will punch a lot of primal metalhead buttons, and yes, it is likely to cause an orgy of headbanging. Continue reading »

BANDS YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO: STONE HEALER

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Jan 022017

(TheMadIsraeli wrote this feature about Connecticut-based Stone Healer.)

About a week ago I spent some time digging for older releases by bands people should know about. Stone Healer is such a band and seemed a good choice for this post-holiday feature.

Dave Kaminsky, the mastermind behind Stone Healer, is an interesting character in the super-underground black metal scene just because of his style and overall production aesthetic. We’re talking the real garage tier; you’d have to be looking in the right places to find his obscure projects.

I had stumbled upon his previous band Autolatry, a progressive black metal band that also incorporated elements of post-hardcore into their sound, resulting in music that was abrasive, caustic, yet forlorn and melancholy. Continue reading »

PHANTOM WINTER: “SUNDOWN PLEASURES”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Jan 022017

(The first week of 2017 has begun, but we still have a few 2016 releases we want to write about, including the second album by Phantom Winter, which is the subject of this review by Andy Synn.)

You’re probably already aware of this, but the fact is there’s simply too much music released each year for any one man, even one as handsome and debonair as myself, to cover it all. There’s always a gem or two (or ten) that slip through the cracks.

As a result I’m going to be spending the next week or so covering some of the releases which DIDN’T make my end of year lists, simply because I:

a) didn’t have chance to give them a full and proper listen, or
b) fell so hard for them that I wasn’t sure I could trust my initial reactions.

Either way, it’s a good opportunity for me to make up for lost ground, before getting fully into the swing of 2017. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LA TORTURE DES TÉNÈBRES — “CIVILIZATION IS THE TOMB OF OUR NOBLE GODS”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Dec 312016

This last day of an unusual and unsettling year marks the release of an unusual and unsettling album that it’s our pleasure to premiere for you. The album’s name is Civilization Is the Tomb of Our Noble Gods, and it was created by La Torture Des Ténèbres from Ottawa, Canada.

I’ve tried, but I haven’t succeeded, in stitching together my thoughts about the album in a coherent, organized form. The music defeats such efforts, or at least my own. More likely, I just haven’t yet reassembled the parts of my mind that were fragmented but also left spellbound by what I’ve heard. So I’ll just scatter my impressions before you like leaves that are still swirling in the wind. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FLESHMEADOW — “UMBRA”

Premieres, Reviews 10 Responses »

Dec 292016

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album by Norway’s Fleshmeadow and brings us a premiere of a full album stream.)

Ok. This is my REAL last 2016 review. I promise. And it comes with a stream premiere.

Fleshmeadow are in the vein of progressive AND technical black metal that I’ve fallen in love with. When I think of black metal I enjoy, I think of bands like Khonsu, Keep of Kalessin, Dark Fortress, Old Man’s Child. These bands are always doing interesting things, writing superbly crafted riff-storms of frigid ice comprised of foreign alien matter and scathing nihilism toward existence itself — and so is Fleshmeadow.

Fleshmeadow’s Umbra came out on December 16th, so it’s another one of those releases that has come too late in the month to get its proper year-end recognition. That’s really sad, because if you like more deliberate, progressive, and machine-cold black metal, this might be the best black metal album released in 2016 that wasn’t Khonsu’s The Xun Protectorate. Continue reading »

REVIEWED: NEW ALBUMS BY ENDORPHINS LOST AND THE DRIP

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Dec 292016

(Todd Manning prepared the following two reviews.)

Sometimes you hear a couple of releases and you can’t help but pair them together, and that is certainly the case with the new albums by The Drip and Endorphins Lost. Both of these bands hail from the Pacific Northwest and lash out at the world with Grindcore-soaked fury, and both have new albums coming out less than two months apart. Endorphins Lost even mention The Drip in a press release as one of their influences. There’s probably more connections, but you get the point.

ENDORPHINS LOST: CHOOSE YOUR WAY

Endorphins Lost released their burner Choose Your Way via Six Weeks Records on November 25th. They draw heavily from Powerviolence with their penchant for abrupt tempo changes and blasting fury. They are simultaneously jarring and intoxicating, and manage to bust out no less than fourteen tracks in roughly twenty-eight minutes. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 80: FALL OF EFRAFA

Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT 3 Responses »

Dec 282016

(Andy Synn delivers the last monthly SYNN REPORT of 2016, and reviews the discography of the British band Fall of Efrafa.)

Recommended for fans of: Neurosis, Amenra, Downfall of Gaia

Taking in elements of Crust Punk, Post-Metal, Post-Rock, Drone, and Hardcore, and spitting out a captivating conglomeration of pulse-pounding riffs, cascading melodies, and harsh, gritty vocals, Fall of Efrafa were, for a time, one of the most vital and visceral acts in the UK.

The band’s three albums, Owsla, Elil, and Inlé together form a conceptual trilogy inspired by the 1972 literary classic Watership Down (whose author, Richard Adams, passed away peacefully at the grand old age of 96 just a few days ago), with the quintet channelling their political, religious, and social philosophy – particularly their opposition to theocracy and blind faith – through the themes of Adams’ seminal novel.

Following the release of their third album the group disbanded, having completed the work for which they originally came together. In this way, and in many others, Fall of Efrafa were just that little bit different from most bands out there. They had a goal, they had a vision, and chose to both begin and to end things entirely on their own terms, leaving behind an impressive (if still under-appreciated) legacy of passion, ambition, and uncompromising integrity.

Which is why I chose them for this, the eightieth edition of The Synn Report, which I’m also dedicating to my friend Charlie as a testament to her excellent musical taste. Continue reading »

WAR METAL: NEW RELEASES FROM TEITANBLOOD AND DEATH WORSHIP

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Dec 272016

The last gasps of this year have exhaled two poisonous releases that have caused vigorous buzzing within the savage circles of war metal — the first new release by Spain’s Teitanblood since the band’s last album in 2014, and the debut offering of a Canadian band called Death Worship, whose members come from the ranks of Blasphemy, Conqueror, and Revenge. Both releases are available for streaming on Bandcamp, but I’ll add a few words about them as introductions to those streams.

TEITANBLOOD: ACCURSED SKIN

On the 13th of December, with virtually no advance fanfare, the Spanish duo Teitanblood released a new 12″ vinyl EP named Accursed Skin, with the assistance of their usual allies Norma Evangelium Diaboli and The Ajna Offensive. The EP consists of two long songs — the title track and a second song called “Sanctified Dysecdysis”, which also appeared on the band’s 2012 EP Woven Black Arteries in a CD edition. Continue reading »

THUNDERWAR: “BLACK STORM”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Dec 262016

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the impressive, just-released debut album by the Polish band Thunderwar.)

Alright. One more review for 2016.

Thunderwar are a rookie melodic death metal quartet from Warsaw, Poland, who bring something of a blackened take to the style. It’s unfortunate that their album was released late this month, as it won’t have a fair chance of being recognized on year-end lists. Maybe sometime in Q1 2017 I’ll do a “Top 10 albums in 2016 left in the dust because they were released in December and therefore came in too late for top albums of 2016 lists because these lists need to be published ASAP for clicks instead of waiting ’til 2017 to give a 100% informed account of 2016’s musical landscape” list.

The timing is unfortunate because for me Black Storm is the most impressive debut of 2016 in this style, alongside Betrayal’s Infinite Circles. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TEMPLE OF DEMIGOD — “THE GREAT OLD ONES”

Premieres, Reviews 3 Responses »

Dec 232016

The Lovecraftian mythos of The Great Old Ones can be musically interpreted in different ways, and within the realm of metal it has been. But the overpowering horror and ancient, terrible power of Lovecraft’s creations seem to cry out for the grandeur of a symphonic treatment. Others have attempted such a thing; few have been as successful as Temple of Demigod in the new album we’re premiering today, which boldly takes The Great Old Ones as its name.

The great peril of all symphonic metal is its tendency in the hands of many bands to become cheesy, or simply too monochromatic and uninventive to add much of worth to the underlying metal elements of the music, or so incessantly bombastic that it tends to produce a mind-numbing effect over the length of an album. These are all pitfalls that Temple of Demigod masterfully avoids, and the success is all the more impressive because The Great Old Ones is the work of only one person. Continue reading »

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