SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: JUDAS PRIEST, AMPHISBAENA, FAUNA, SUNKEN MONOLITH, MALPHAS, ABRAHAM

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jul 052025
 


Black Sabbath, 1970, photo by Chris Walter

(written by Islander)

Post Fourth of July, I hope you all still have 10 fingers and are non-concussed. Way up here on the northern rim where the day takes its sweet time slipping away, I didn’t stay awake long enough for the sky to turn and finally become a black backdrop for fireworks. But I did do a modest amount of carousing with friends and family before punching out, so it’s another late start for this Saturday roundup.

I’m beginning with a big dose of nostalgia and then shifting into more current generational directions. In thinking about how I’m beginning and what follows that, the words of Isaac Newton come to mind: “If I have seen further [than others], it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” (Though in this context what the successors are seeing is in further darkness.) Continue reading »

UPON STONE: “END TIME LIGHTNING”

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Jul 042025
 

(Here we have DGR‘s review of a new EP by California’s Upon Stone, which saw release in June of this year via Century Media.)

Southern California’s Upon Stone continue to remain an interesting proposition in the world of melodeath. A newer upstart project in a world in which melodeath is starting to see acts of varying throwback styles – it seems right now we have groups specializing in particular ‘eras’ of the genre as a whole – Upon Stone could’ve easily gone the route of being a complete influence-worship act.

Considering that the band’s first full-length arrived early last year by way of Century Media after a single EP in 2021, you could’ve imagined the Upon Stone crew arriving with a gloss and sheen that might’ve blinded people from space. Instead, the band hewed pretty close to the late ’90s, early ’00s melodeath roots and combined it with a lot of gravel and grit that would’ve otherwise been associated with more thrash and trad-metal leaning counter parts. The result was a surprisingly fiery if not equally straight-shooting full-length in Dead Mother Moon and one whose bloody-knuckled scrappiness at least could not be denied.

Upon Stone still had some gas left in the tank though, as late June saw the arrival of a new three-song EP from the band entitled End Time Lightning. Armed with two new songs and a cover of the Manowar song “Outlaw”, it would seem as if Upon Stone felt they needed to resume right where they left off last time, just with a little bit more focus on the double-bass roll because you don’t get to entitle your new EP End Time Lightning without at least one of the songs sounding as if you were riding into a world-ending battle. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): I PROÉLEFSI — SELF-TITLED

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Jul 032025
 

(written by Islander)

The Scream!

Despite the fact that black metal has warped in ways that never would have been foreseen by its young first-wave and second-wave progenitors, certain tropes still tend to define the genre in the minds of many bands and listeners. One of those is the screaming — the harsh, high-pitched, rasp-edged vocal volatility that has contributed to both the raw aggression and the supernatural aura of the genre.

What happens when there are no screams? And not just no screams, but reputedly no vocals of any kind, not even the kind of deathly gutturals and possessed wails (among many other vociferous manifestations) that have found their way into the genre?

Well, the answers vary among the small range of black metal projects, usually one-person formations, whose music is entirely instrumental. In the case of the Chilean project I Proélefsi, what happens is a range of experiences that include both atmospheric and avant-garde elements, drawing inspiration from, the likes of Emperor, Setherial, Abigor, and Limbonic Art, as well as Dark Ambient music.

You’ll discover the initial results of I Proélefsi‘s creative visions (near wordless but not entirely so) in the band’s self-titled demo that we’re about to premiere. But before getting to the music, we’d like to share what the band’s solo creator M. has to say about it: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: CAGED BASTARD, OBŠAR, SANGUISUGABOGG, IGORRR

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Jun 292025
 

(written by Islander)

Between signing off on yesterday’s roundup and starting this one, various events conspired to prevent me from making this one as substantial as yesterday’s. One of them involved a surfeit of gin, another a forgetfulness about something I agreed to do today with my spouse; possibly the two are connected.

A rash of new musical discoveries over the last 24 hours was also a contributing factor. They complicated the making of choices at a time when time has become short.

Well, enough about all that, I’d better get started or this collection will turn out to be even briefer than brief. Be forewarned: Nothing in here today resembles conventional black metal, or even black metal at all in some cases. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CRYPT SERMON, CULT BURIAL, AMIENSUS, DEFACEMENT, TETRAGRAMMACIDE, BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS, BRUXIST

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 282025
 

(written by Islander)

As usual I had a lot to choose from for this Saturday’s roundup. I gravitated to six bands whose music I and/or others at NCS have showered with past praise, but chose to end it with one band’s first release.

Geographically you’ll bounce back and forth across the Atlantic, take a trip to the Indian subcontinent, and then go further west and south to Australia for the final two records. Your head will probably bounce around a lot as you go through the music too. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MALTHUSIAN, UPON STONE, BEFORE THE DAWN, CASTRATOR, ENTRAILS, A CAT IN THE BRAIN, LOMMI, BOMBUS, GLUED MOUTH

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 212025
 

(written by Islander)

This Saturday selection of new songs and videos provides a lot to take in, and lots of twists and turns in the musical path as you move from one to the next (which is what I hope you’ll do).

Fair warning: I’ve included a pair of songs that feature entirely clean singing, and another where singing trades off with harsher expressions. Today’s collection is also a mix of well-known bands (at least well-known to yours truly) and others that have scoured my ears for the first time this week. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VANISHING EARTH — “THE BOUNDLESS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 162025
 

(written by Islander)

Anyone who was even a semi-regular visitor to our site from 2011 through 2023 will recognize the name Oak Pantheon. Over that period we wrote 24 articles about this Minneapolis band’s music, dating back to their first single and continuing through our review of their last album, 2023’s The Absence.

And yes, it did turn out to be their last album, because this past February Oak Pantheon announced that they were amicably splitting up. They explained on social media: “Drifting motivations and musical interests have made it difficult to agree on a cohesive path forward. We will likely work together again, just in different forms.”

Throughout the entirety of their existence and their quite varied musical expressions Oak Pantheon was principally a collaboration between Sami Sati and Tanner Swenson. Since the dissolution of Oak Pantheon neither of them has abandoned music-making. In the case of Sami Sati, we are happily announcing today that he has a new project called Vanishing Earth that serves as a continuation of his efforts and ambitions in Oak Pantheon.

And today we are also very happily hosting the premiere of Vanishing Earth‘s musical debut, a two-song EP named The Boundless that will be released on June 17th. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: UKHU PACHA, VAITARANA, IANTHIN, SUMERIAN TOMBS, LYUAOIEN, JORDFÄST

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Jun 082025
 

(written by Islander)

Welcome to another Sunday column focused (mainly) on black metal. This one goes pretty deep underground, with music from four debut releases, leavened with songs from two bands whose discography is more extensive.

I’m going to start with reviews of an album and an EP, to make sure I have time to say what I want to say about them, and then turn to a group of individual songs and videos. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP AND VIDEO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): STORTREGN — “ONE ETERNAL”

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Jun 052025
 

(Today we help announce, and premiere a video playthrough, of a new EP by the Swiss metal band Stortregn, preceded by DGR‘s review of this very interesting and hair-raising new work on the eve of its release.)

Given the length of Stortregn‘s career it is impressive that they’ve been able to keep to such a consistent clip. Even while slowly metamorphosizing into a different genre from where they started, Stortregn have been a on a strong two-to-three-year cycle of quality releases. They even managed to land one well enough with 2023’s Finitude that it wound up ranking pretty highly at this here website’s year-end celebrations. If nothing else, we were certainly ready to throw down in defense of the one-two punch of “Xeno Chaos” and “Cold Void” in the early part of the album.

Stortregn specialize in a form of compositional chaos that is tightly controlled but still just off the map enough that they pleasantly surprise. Each song is a musical showpiece on its own without devolving into instrumental demo work, and that they do this at such a high speed for the majority of their last few releases has been stunning. Without ever letting their extremity become milquetoast, Stortregn have put in a valiant effort in the tech-death world. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SIGH, AMIENSUS, HELHEIM, THOMAS BEL, VARHARA, ÙNA

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Jun 012025
 

(written by Islander)

I’m no Cinderella but on days like this I do turn into a pumpkin (charred black).

After missing two Sundays due to festival-ing in May I had grand plans to partially make up for those absences in a larger-than-usual column today. But I forgot about plans my spouse had made for us this morning that will take me away from home and computer.

So the grand plan has been trashed. Rather than rack my brain trying to figure out what to save, I decided instead just to start and to keep going until time runs out (and I turn into a pumpkin). Continue reading »

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