SHORT BUT SWEET Archives - Page 80 of 114

SHADES OF BLACK: LUCTUS, PUTREFIED REMAINS, BLACK SUN RITUAL, FLESH SS

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 6 Responses »

Aug 162015

I spent a couple of hours yesterday listening to new songs and a few recent short releases. As usual, I found a lot to like, and the music I’ve collected here comes from various widely dispersed corners of the black metal soundscape.

LUCTUS

I discovered this Lithuania-based band only a few weeks ago and wrote enthusiastically about some of the songs from their last release (2013’s Stotis) in a previous edition of Shades of Black (here). As I mentioned in that previous post, Luctus have now finished recording a new concept album entitled Ryšys (which means “connection”), and finally a song from the album has just become available for streaming. Continue reading »

THEORY IN PRACTICE: “EVOLVING TRANSHUMANISM”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Aug 142015

(Austin Weber reviews the comeback EP by Sweden’s Theory In Practice.)

Theory In Practice are in many people’s estimations one of the finest progressive-minded technical death metal acts ever to exist. Between the late ’90s and 2002 they put out three highly influential, ahead-of-their-time records. Then the band sort of went poof sometime shortly after releasing 2002’s Colonizing The Sun and have been listed as “on hold” ever since.

Only a mere two days ago a friend and I were dorking out about our desire for Theory In Practice to return and grace us with something new. Well, the wait is finally fucking over, as yesterday the band dropped a new two-song, nine-minute EP called Evolving Transhumanism. I was lucky enough to see a band I follow post about it, otherwise I wouldn’t even have known myself! Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: GAROTTING DEEP / FŌR — “VOID ASCETICISM”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Aug 112015

(Andy Synn wrote this review of the new split by Garotting Deep (Canada) and FŌR (Sweden).)

So I recently stumbled upon Garotting Deep, a band whose name is a reference to the poisonous, polluted swamp-lands that play a pivotal role in Stephen Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

Colour me intrigued.

Even more interestingly, the band’s newest release is a split with Swedish grim lords FŌR, a band that Islander has actually drawn the site’s attention to several times before (HERE).

So colour me doubly intrigued… as long as that colour is a suitably fuliginous shade of Black. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: LUX FERRE, GOAT TORMENT, MEFISTO, BORGNE, JOTNARR

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 5 Responses »

Aug 092015

Off and on over the last couple of days I browsed the web and links we received via e-mail, hunting for new music that I thought would be worth recommending. I’ve collected some of those here. The songs display different styles, though they are all connected to the traditions of black metal — and I think they are all very good.

LUX FERRE

Lux Ferre are a Portuguese band who somehow eluded my attention until this weekend, despite the fact that they’ve released two full-lengths and have a third one coming out this fall. The new album is entitled Excaecatio Lux Veritatis.

Lux Ferre obviously don’t crank out their albums in a hurry — this new one comes six years after the band’s last record, Atrae Materiae Monumentum, and that one followed their debut album (Antichristian War Propaganda) by five years. Though I can’t comment on the band’s previous releases, the first advance track that has appeared from the new album is tremendous. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SVARTELDER — “ASKEBUNDET”

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Aug 072015

In early May I discovered and wrote about (here) a new song by a multinational band named Svartelder. I was originally drawn to the song because of an e-mail which explained that the current line-up of the band includes members of Carpathian Forest, In the Woods, Den Saakaldte, Pantheon I, and Old Forest, in addition to founder and frontman Doedsadmiral. The e-mail didn’t disclose which particular individuals from those bands are now part of Svartelder — they’ve taken new names for this purpose: Maletoth (bass, guitars), AK-47 (drums), Kobold (keyboards) — but if you snoop around on Metal-Archives, you can now figure it out.

That first song I heard was so good that I downloaded the EP that included it — Askebundet — as soon as it was released on July 10. All three songs on the EP turned out to be excellent, and I vowed to myself that I would review it promptly. Alas, like so many of my impulsive promises to myself, I failed to follow through. Now I’m finally making good — a month late. The only silver lining to the cloud of my ineptitude is that the EP is still available as a “name your own price” download on Bandcamp, so if you like it as much as I do, you can grab it without delay. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: KRIEGSZITTERN — “DEMO”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 6 Responses »

Aug 062015

In June of this year a band from Mülheim, Germany, named Kriegszittern released their first demo via Bandcamp, but I discovered it only after learning more recently that Caligari Records would be releasing it on tape. I now try to check out everything Caligari puts out, because I’ve had such good luck with their selections in the past — and this demo proved to be another winner.

The five songs on the demo rush by in less than 17 minutes, but Kriegszittern make those minutes count. The opening track, which bears the same name as the band, begins slowly and dismally, eventually bolting forward in a gritty sandblast of distorted guitars and pneumatic drums, with a vocalist whose echoing roars and howls sounds like a cross between a deranged wildcat and a demonic executioner. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: GENOCIDE PACT AND CAVEMAN CULT

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 15 Responses »

Aug 062015

I got a tip about the two releases featured in this post by NCS contributor KevinP. In this instance, I think he paired these recommendations because the two bands happen to be playing together on August 22 in Orlando, Florida, where Kevin lives (details here about the show). Sometimes he links me to music because he thinks I’ll like it, without commenting whether he likes it or not. I’m okay with that, because after all, it’s my own opinion that counts. And here are my opinions:

GENOCIDE PACT

Genocide Pact are from Washington, D.C. They aren’t a new name for me, but they’re a welcome name — in June of last year I reviewed their 2013 debut demo, which I liked a lot. Thanks to Kevin, I discovered that just a few days ago Baltimore’s A389 Recordings released a Genocide Pact album — or maybe an EP, depending on the length you demand before calling something a full-length — named Forged Through Domination.

Genocide Pact generate a death metal sound that’s titanically heavy, with riffs, bass notes, and drum beats that you can feel from the soles of your feet straight up through your endangered skull. They prefer to stay in mid-paced or slow tempos, all the better to ensure that when they’re chugging or pounding, they can methodically flatten anything and everything in their way (including your cranium). When they do start ripping (and revealing their crust influences), it almost comes as a surprise, and the sheer contrast makes those up-tempo eruptions even more decimating. Continue reading »

RIFF POWER: APE CAVE, BLACK EARTH, BLOOD RED THRONE, CLANDESTINE BLAZE, MOTÖRHEAD, OBESE, VALDUR

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET 14 Responses »

Jul 312015

I have for you a big selection of new and newly discovered songs and videos that I’d like to recommend. As you can tell, I got tired of using the “Seen and Heard” title for these round-ups, at least for today. Also, the riffs really are the kings and queens of most of these songs (but not all). I’m presenting all this stuff in alphabetical order by band name. Genre-wise, the music is all over the place….

APE CAVE

Ape Cave are from Portland, Oregon. At the end of May they released what I think is their debut EP, named Primordium (with the eye-catching cover art above). I found out about it through a link posted by a Facebook friend.

When you press “play” on the Bandcamp stream below, you’ll hear the EP’s final track first. It hooked me hard, and the other two songs are just as good. Ape Cave blend thick, heavy riffs and gut-rumbling percussion with psychedelic lead guitar machinations and raw, wretched vocal vituperation, creating a bleak and often disorienting atmosphere while punching hard enough to rattle your bones. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: CARCINOMA — “CARCINOMA”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 1 Response »

Jul 212015

I’ve been devoting almost all of my posts today to a series of short releases that I discovered since the end of last week. This is the fifth and final one.

CARINOMA

Carcinoma are based in Plymouth, England. I found out about them through a Facebook recommendation by Pyrrhon, who played with Carcinoma on the last show of Pyrrhon’s recently completed European tour.

Last weekend the band released via Bandcamp a two-song, self-titled single. The two songs are named “Rectify” and “Inner Tyrants Become External Parasites”. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SENTIENCE — “SPLINTER THE CROSS”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 6 Responses »

Jul 212015

I’m devoting almost all of my posts today to five short releases that I discovered since last week, all of them very strong, and this is the fourth of those.

SENTIENCE

I discovered New Jersey’s Sentience in April of last year thanks to a tip from Patrick Bruss (Crypticus), who knows a thing or two about old school death metal, coupled with these words from the legendary Dan Swäno, who knows a thing or two about the subject himself:

“One of the best SweDeath projects I have come across in the last 20 years”.

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