SHADES OF BLACK: MISERY SPELL, FLUKT, REVA, SATANIC WITCH

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Nov 262023
 

This is one of those Sundays when I didn’t have any inkling of what I might choose before beginning to choose. I had so little inkling that I spent some time searching out where the word inkling came from since I didn’t know. (The answer is at the end of this post. Hint: it has not a drop to do with ink.)

Lacking any preconceived ideas I just started wandering through very recent releases, to see what might take hold. Hopefully what I chose will take hold of some of you too.

MISERY SPELL (Russia)

It took all of about two minutes for me to feel completely drenched by the music on this Saint Petersburg band’s new album Абсолютная тьма (“Absolute Darkness”), which was released just yesterday. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON SATURDAY: MORBID SACRIFICE, MOTOROWL, KRASSEVILLE, TORPE, TRIUMPH OF DEATH

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 252023
 

I woke up before the sun rose today because it’s harvest season and I have crops to gather.

Ha Ha, no that’s horseshit. I have no idea why I woke up before the sun on this Saturday morning, especially given the number of adult libations I consumed (as usual) on Friday night.

The only good that came of the early rising was my ability to experience the coldest morning of the year so far, at least where I live near Puget Sound. As I slurped my coffee and inhaled the first cigarettes of the day in the blackness outside, my phone reported 35°.

On further reflection, my opening line wasn’t entirely horseshit. I do have crops to gather in, musical crops… the time of reaping is ever upon us here. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FRAUGHT — “TRANSFIXED ON DYING LIGHT”

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Nov 232023
 

Here in the U.S. many people are celebrating Thanksgiving Day today, a national holiday first officially announced by Abraham Lincoln during our Civil War but modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (“Pilgrims”) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag indigenous people (who had previously occupied the Plymouth site but had been decimated by smallpox).

We have many things to be thankful for here at our humble site today, and one of those is Transfixed on Dying Light, the debut album by the Irish band Fraught. Founded in 2018, they survived a change of name (from Drought to Fraught), the rude interferences of the covid pandemic, and the kinds of other difficulties that beset any band trying to make underground music they believe in rather than following whatever way the prevailing winds are blowing.

Fraught are one of those bands who are given to experimentation, inspired by their many influences but driven to interweave them in ways that don’t neatly get circled by genre boundaries. That was already becoming evident in their MMXIX demo (released in 2020) and their first EP, 2021’s Splitting Tongues, but more evident still in this new album, which we’re giving you the chance to hear in advance of its release tomorrow by Argonauta Records. Continue reading »

SYLOSIS: “A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME”

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Nov 232023
 

(In September Nuclear Blast released a new album by the UK’s Sylosis. Our writer DGR, who never rushes into anything, finally got around to setting down thoughts about it, which is what you’ll find below.)

If you’ll forgive the slightly more personal approach to this one, Sylosis are a band that I’ve followed for a long time now, spanning almost a decade plus of their career – starting when they first signed with Roadrunner (they popped up on their news page and believe it or not, it was one of the ways I would find bands) and then across multiple record labels, lineup changes, and even a hiatus while its members spread out to other projects.

I’ve espoused the theory before on this site but I’ve always felt that Sylosis are one of those groups that are a fantastic gateway band, mostly credited to their three-part combination of thrash, metalcore, and melodeath that has them resting somewhere in the center. It’s the VIT, INT, DEX triangle that you’ll see in some roleplaying games of their musical career. They may never fully dive into the full depths of being one particular type, but their combination of them has held enough power to draw people in from multiple directions, and just as possibly, to send people off into exploring other parts of the metal world once they make the same connection of what Sylosis are constructed out of. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PESSIMYSTIC — “BURNT OFFERING”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Nov 222023
 

Pessimystic is a clever name for a band, one that amalgamates two concepts or themes that will be familiar to adherents of extreme metal. It was chosen by a trio of musicians from Ottawa who first came together only this year, though the writing process and general concept originated in 2022. They played their first show only in September, opening for Sunless and Thantifaxath, a couple of very good groups to share a stage with.

What we have for you today is a premiere stream of the first public recording of Pessimystic, an EP named Burnt Offering that will be released on November 24th. It’s described as “an apotropaic oblation of self-surrender through self-destruction and unity through detachment”, and conceptually it “contemplates divine retribution and conjures the apocalyptic imagery enshrined in the human psyche.” Pessimystic indeed. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TODOMAL — “A GREATER GOOD”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 212023
 

The odds are high that once you’ve seen the painting above by Paloma Pájaro that adorns the cover of TodoMal‘s new album The Greater Good, you won’t forget it. The odds are also high that it may perplex you. The choosing of the art was obviously unconventional, but then again, so is the music.

The Greater Good is the second full-length by the TodoMal duo of Christopher B. Wildman and Javier Fernández, following the release of Ultracrepidarian in 2021. As they conceive it, the new album follows dark paths, “where doubts about what is right or wrong, what we do in this world to earn redemption, or why we have a nefarious tendency to destroy what we love are depicted against a smoldering forest”. “The journey continues,” as they say, “despite the obstacles”.

And so we have a Spanish band whose name means something like “all is evil” or “all is wrong” ambitiously seeking “The Greater Good”. They put a lot of thought and work into making it a continuation from their first album that would both expand their ambitions and manifest them more precisely, and today you’ll be able to hear every minute of what they achieved in advance of its release on November 24th by Ardua Music. Continue reading »

CRUCIAMENTUM – OBSIDIAN REFRACTIONS

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Nov 212023
 

(Some things in life are worth waiting for, and Andy Synn says that includes the new Cruciamentum)

Common consensus would tell you that 2023 has been a great year for Death Metal, and I… disagree.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not been a “bad” year, by any means, but I’ve found – and I know this will be controversial – that a lot of the so-called “great” albums of the year have been hugely overhyped, and I’m honestly worried that we’re right on the edge (if not already over it) of total oversaturation.

And while that might sound appealing to some, it seems to me that with more and more bands churning out these largely interchangeable slabs of slavishly retro-riffs and second-hand songwriting there’s becoming less and less that actually distinguishes them from one another with each passing month.

But, even so, there have still been some major bright spots here and there – albums have burned that little bit brighter, stood that little bit taller, and been that little bit bolder – and one of them, as you’re about to discover, is the new record from Cruciamentum.

Continue reading »

RACETRAITOR – CREATION AND THE TIMELESS ORDER OF THINGS

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Nov 202023
 

(Andy Synn offers his thoughts on the new album from Racetraitor, which was released last week)

As I may have mentioned before, my original introduction into the “alternative” music scene came via Punk and Hardcore, with the latter in particular playing a fundamental and formative role in my early musical development.

And while my tastes eventually expanded and evolved, Hardcore has always retained a special place in my heart, with last year in particular doing a lot to renew my faith in the genre with its bumper crop of artists and albums representing the wide variety – from the melodic to the metallic, the punkiest to the proggiest – and resurgent vitality of the modern scene.

Unfortunately, by and large, 2023 hasn’t been anywhere near as good, with too many of the biggest and most hyped-up releases, in my opinion at least, making a lot of noise without really saying anything.

But that’s not an accusation that could ever be levelled at Racetraitor, and their new album is no exception.

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: IHSAHN, DÉLÉTÈRE, NIPHREDIL, ANGEL OF THE ABYSS, RAAT, DISCIPLINE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Nov 192023
 

I hurt all over, thanks for asking. The result of a week spent trying to exercise muscles that turned into limp noodles after months of sedentary living. If I could get all the lactic acid out of my body it would probably fill a barrel.

Well, maybe hurting all over wasn’t the worst thing as a basis for picking the music in this Sunday column today. It led to selections that will make you hurt in different ways too.

IHSAHN (Norway)

The hurting begins with “Pilgrimage To Oblivion“, a new song from Ihsahn that surfaced three days ago in two different versions. The main version combines orchestral bombast and terrorizing screams, frenzied strings and plundering percussion, to create a thoroughly harrowing experience in keeping with the song’s title and the video’s tale of personal ruin. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SAVAGE LANDS, LORD DYING, DEATH SCYTHE, MÊLÉE DES AURORES, VOLTUMNA, STUVEMARK, COMPRESSION, SLIIMO, VOODUS

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Nov 182023
 

LOTS of new metal to get to today, so this sentence is all the introduction I’ll provide.

SAVAGE LANDS (Int’l)

A charity project whose goal is to help preserve the forests of Costa Rica and the creatures that live there. Founded by drummer Dirk Verbeuren and musician-turned-activist Sylvain Demercastel (a current resident of Costa Rica). First song is about howler monkeys and features appearances by guitarist Andres Kisser (Sepultura) and vocalist John Tardy (Obituary). OK, I’ll bite. Continue reading »

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