SHADES OF BLACK: EVEALE

 SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Mar 152026
 

(written by Islander)

I don’t have much to share with you in today’s column. I spent a lot of time yesterday unsuccessfully trying to solve a security glitch that disabled my administrative access to NCS, and then more time communicating with our web host and third-party security service and staring at the in-box waiting for them to figure out the problem and fix it. Listening to and writing about music got elbowed out of the way.

The web host did eventually fix the problem by disabling the CAPTCHA feature on the site, which I guess is now forcing some visitors to re-register here and/or re-set passwords. Sorry about that. To celebrate the fix, and to flush away the anxiety caused by the fear that we wouldn’t be able to post anything on Monday (including premieres I’d committed to do), I went out last night and drank too much.

That led to a very late start on this Sunday, which compounded the problem of not getting a head-start on the column yesterday. To further compound the problems, my spouse and I are leaving home very soon to visit a family member who’s recovering from an injury.

I thought about just abandoning the column for this one day, but as you probably know, I hate leaving any days without music at NCS. So here is just one thing I’d like to recommend. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: FINNR, EUCLIDEAN, DEMONOLOGISTS, VAINORAS, TRELLDOM, AKYROS EXPANSE, HUBRIS

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 082026
 

(written by Islander)

For reasons I explained yesterday in details verging on the tedious (if not tipping all the way over), I’ve again confined myself to music that I’ve been able to download and listen to on a music player rather than stream online. In one instance where a haunting video was available (for a Trelldom song) I came back to it often enough that I was able to see it during one of the few episodes of internet connectivity.

The first two choices were records I intended to include at the end of last week’s edition of this column, to complete a triptych of releases I was drawn to because of the cover art. I ran out of time last Sunday before I could get to them, so I’m starting with them today. And to complete a new triptych I followed them with a song where the cover art was also the first seduction.

After those first three you’ll find three others, one from a legendary name, another from a very new name, and a third from a band whose notoriety is in between.

And by the way, I forgot to set any clocks ahead last night, including the one at my bedside. Of course I did. My wife forgot too, but she’s married to me so her judgment is already suspect. Thus, this column is arriving later than I thought it would, and although there’s still a lot here, there’s not as much as I’d planned. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: PURE WRATH, BARBELITH, TRHÄ, HAIDUK, ÆDEL FETICH

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 012026
 

(written by Islander)

I hope I haven’t bitten off more than you can chew. Only four selections today, compared to eight yesterday, but two of them are albums and one of them is an EP.

I also hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew. As I begin writing this, I realize it will be tough for me to fully express how all this music has impacted me or how it might impact you, given the time constraints I’m under. But I’ll give it a shot.

If there’s a through-line in these recommendations, it’s that all the music is searing, in sound or mood or both, although the stylistic paths traveled by them often diverge. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: AIN SOPH AUR, LIGHTLORN, GALVANIST, PAINIST

 SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 222026
 

(written by Islander)

Yesterday’s column was shorter than usual. I explained then that I was leaving home early for a day-long outing with my spouse. That happened, and what we did together was a tremendous amount of fun. But we didn’t get back to our island home until nightfall, and I didn’t spend what was left of the evening messing with NCS stuff.

As it happens, I’m leaving home again with my spouse this morning to do something else she planned. So once again, I’m having to shorten the volume of music as compared to what this column usually includes. Luckily, I had already listened to everything I picked during the past week, so I wasn’t starting from scratch. But with more time I would have included more.

The first three selections came easily — I initially paid attention to them based on my past experience with the bands’ music, and their new stuff definitely doesn’t disappoint. The fourth one was just me getting a wild hair, and the impulse paid off. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HEIDEN, FARSON, MALAURIU, GALARE, LYSERGIC, LIGATION

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 152026
 

(written by Islander)

Getting a late start today. In yesterday’s roundup I mentioned that I had a cold. I took some over-the-counter stuff last night to help me sleep through it. I woke up 10 hours later, so I guess it worked, and hence the late start.

I picked all of today’s recommendations yesterday, and though my head is infected, these songs proved to be both more viral and more virile than the rhinovirus. I’m very happy with the choices and hope you will be too.

By way of preview, things begin in what we might call avant-garde territory, and then move in more punk-influenced directions, and then you’ll get blistered and beaten. At the end is an album that’s outside the usual boundaries of this column, but I didn’t want to wait any longer to give it a further push. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: PILORI, SAILLE, DOODSWENS, FOGHAZER, PETRICHOR, 3 T

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 082026
 

(written by Islander)

I was out with my spouse and two other couples last night. Didn’t get to bed until after midnight, didn’t wake up until the morning hours were well underway, didn’t feel very human at that point or at any other points leading up to the present.

Fortunately, I had already made my choices for this column yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn’t think I would be in the best position this morning to explain why I like them so much. But in listening to the songs again, they completely blew away the mental cobwebs. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: GOUR, BERGTAGEN, VAULDERIE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Feb 012026
 

(written by Islander)

January is a schizophrenic month for the release of new music. Labels and bands seem to recognize that people aren’t focusing as much as usual on new music, because they’re diverted by things happening during the “holiday season” and then by the turbulence of returning to work and school, and so the pace of new releases in the early part of January is slower than usual. But after a week or two, the dam bursts, and new stuff starts flooding out in a fury. At least that’s how I see it from where I sit.

I had SO MANY new songs and records I was interested in checking out for purposes of this column, too many for me to realistically investigate, especially since our terribly unreliable internet service has been down since mid-day on Saturday. My phone has worked reasonably well as a hot-spot for some things, like typing what you’re reading now, but it doesn’t provide a very good platform for streaming music.

The result is that I defaulted to music I had already acquired for myself before our net service collapsed. Which is not a bad way to proceed, because there’s a reason why I had acquired all this music for myself — it’s all very good! Each selection is also very different from the other two. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: BONG-RA, UDRĘKA, VERDUN, FERNDOM, SEAR, LUCERNA MUNDI

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jan 182026
 

(written by Islander)

Two days ago people in the tiny Spanish village of San Bartolomé de Pinares renewed a tradition that’s purportedly five centuries long — building bonfires in the central streets and riding horses through the flames. This is done on the eve of the festival of Saint Anthony the Abbott, the patron saint of domestic animals, because what honors domestic animals better than forcing some big ones to hurtle through an inferno?

I always look for photos of the event because they’re typically amazing and because they’re usually pretty good metaphors for people here and around the world trying to brave whatever fiery hells are burning around us. Lots of those to choose from these days.

Oddly, when I went looking for photos of this year’s ritual I had to wade through snowy photos of armed Greenlandic polar bears and sled dogs. What the hell was that about? (Well, I knew, and I guess it’s proof that AI is good for something besides kicking people out of work and threatening humanity with extinction.) Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: COSCRADH, ENDSPACE, MERCULISTARYA, CAGED BASTARD

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Jan 112026
 

(written by Islander)

This morning I read an unexpectedly engrossing essay written by a woman who unexpectedly became an obsessive fan of a Broadway musical named Operation Mincemeat. She makes very clear that fanatical fandom isn’t typically part of her personality — far from it. She spends the entire essay thinking out loud, trying to understand why she has seen the musical at least 12 times, interspersed with evidence of her obsession and stories about how the musical came to be and what it’s about.

Eventually the writer comes close to an answer, which is that the musical is an exception to the “desert drought of originality and ideas” that surrounds us. She writes: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: WOE, INNER CLOISTER, PILLAR AMONGST WILLOWS

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jan 042026
 

(written by Islander)

I had grand ambitions for this column but they were derailed when I spent more than five alcohol-assisted hours yesterday afternoon and evening watching an especially important football game with my spouse and friends, and then celebrating the outcome. When all was said and done I must have needed a really long period of sleep, because that’s what I got. As I write this, the day is well underway but my head hasn’t caught up yet.

Well, enough about me. I should turn to the music I’d like to recommend, even though the lateness of the hour and the slowness of my mind have conspired to make this column shorter than originally planned. Continue reading »

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