SHADES OF BLACK: FYRNASK, HOLLOWS, MARTRE, CALLOUS FAULTER

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Jun 072026
 

(written by Islander)

I fear that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, and am putting before you more than you might be able to chew as well: four complete albums that have recently been released.

It’s rare for me to do this. It’s much more within my capacity in these columns to write about individual songs, with maybe one complete release in the mix. But I know myself. I spend most of my time at NCS scurrying on a daily basis to fulfill premiere commitments while trying to coordinate what other writers are doing and constantly attempting to keep up with new things that burst open elsewhere.

It’s my own choice, of course, but it means I rarely have time to patiently sit with a complete album, much less to write something approaching a thoughtful review unless the album is one we’re premiering. And to be honest, I don’t feel I’ve fully digested any of the four records I’m recommending today. Yet all four of them made such striking impacts on me that I felt the urgent need to say something about them before the coming week’s whirlwind starts spinning me around again. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: FYRNASK, MAERUND, CON, ARS MORIENDI, NIVEOUS, SNORLAX

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May 312026
 

(written by Islander)

This is the final edition of SHADES OF BLACK.

The final edition of May 2026! (Sorry if I made you gasp – but I hope I did.)

The last day of May marks the end of Spring in the northern hemisphere, at least if you use the common meteorological definition of the season. In astronomical terms, it won’t until June 20th this year, the day before the summer solstice.

Today is also the 151st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, which means that 41.37% of this year is over. Not exactly a memorable percentage, and not really far enough along for us to be taking stock of anything. We won’t reach the halfway point until noon on July 2nd.

And that’s nearly all I have to say by way of introducing this column today, other than this: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DAUÞUZ, VYR MUK, GOD SHELL, EMBER VALE

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May 172026
 

(written by Islander)

I’m getting a very late start this morning. I wrote an explanation and then deleted it because my late start is the result of a level of stupidity that’s kind of embarrassing even for me. Better to just dive in.

What you’ll find below is a truncated version of what I originally planned. The collection begins with a single and then continues with three EPs, the last of which is a rehearsal demo that’s the band’s first release. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: FAUSTIAN, VERZAUBER, ISHIMURA, VERTEBRAE, NECROBEAST, SVRM

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May 032026
 

(written by Islander)

As you can see, I have selected the music of six bands today, all of them coincidentally brandishing one-word names. I’m leading off with a group of singles from forthcoming records and concluding with a recently released EP that I think qualifies as “saving the best for last”.

In the case of those singles, I arranged them in a way that creates some musical connections (at least in my own head) between the opening pair and then a different kind of connection in another pair, with a ruinous barrage standing between the two groupings.

I’ll also take this opportunity to inform visitors that the coming week at NCS will create a bit of a break. Beginning on Wednesday I and my old friends Andy Synn and DGR will be in Seattle working on Northwest Terror Fest (they will be doing a lot of heavy lifting while I provide essential supervision and autographs). Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SHAMORGA, MERESIN

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Apr 262026
 

(written by Islander)

Yesterday I riffed on how my plans for Saturday-morning NCS roundups can fall apart as a result of Friday-night adventures, even when those adventures don’t include self-immolation. Much the same could be said of Saturday nights and their occasional wreckage of Sunday mornings. This has happened again. I’ll spare you the details.

I also forgot that my spouse planned an outing by the two of us this morning. I tried to beg off, but she’s not having it, and I don’t have the strength to resist (it takes a lot of strength even in the best of circumstances). Coupled with my extensive over-sleeping, I just don’t have time to do very much with today’s column. The only reason I’ve done anything is because nature (even mine) abhors a vacuum (horror vacui!). Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DUIR, LORN, TYRANNUS, HAJDUK, BANSHEE MOON, LIVIDUS

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Apr 192026
 

(written by Islander)

I mentioned yesterday that I had collected 69 new songs or complete releases as a starting point for deciding what to recommend in this weekend’s usual columns. After yesterday’s selections that magic number had diminished, but not enough to make today’s choices any easier. Still, choices must be made.

I can’t identify any musical or thematic throughline for these six recommendations, so you’re in for a fair amount of bouncing around. I do have reasons for why I arranged them in the order I did, but I doubt those are very interesting so we should just get to the music.

P.S. I want to recommend something else today besides music. After a long time of anxiously waiting for the movie Sirāt to hit streaming services, I was finally able to watch it last night (it never played at any theaters anywhere close to where I live). I thought it was a stunning as the many stunned reviewers said it was. Be forewarned: it’s a desolate and devastating story, one that creates a shroud of near-ever-present tension. But it’s also a near-perfect piece of filmmaking, and if you see it I don’t think you’ll forget it. I’ll leave this link to a more comprehensive review.

P.P.S. These lines appear on the screen when the movie begins, and explain the meaning of its Arabic title: “There is a bridge called SIRĀT that links hell and paradise. Whoever crosses it is warned that it is narrower than a strand of hair, sharper than a sword.” Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SZNUR, ACOLYTHUS, SCYTHE OF MEPHISTO, NON SERVIAM

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Apr 122026
 

(written by Islander)

You could make a nearly endless list of traumas experienced by human beings that are more severe than having a sick pet. But having a sick pet can still be traumatic. I speak from experience — uncomfortably recent experience.

My wife and I live with two brother cats to whom we’re intensely attached. They have the run of our house but they’re never more than a few feet away from us. They’re very affectionate, very smart (for cats), very beautiful. We’re careful not to let them outside because they’re small, they’ve never been in the wild since birth, and we live in a forest full of predators of different species.

Last night after my wife and I had returned home from dinner and watching a ballgame, one of the cats began foaming at the mouth and manically racing around the room. We keep anything that might be an ingestive danger to them out of their reach, so it was perplexing. We scurried around trying to help him and trying to discover what might have caused this.

After about 15 minutes passed with no change, we managed to catch him and put him in a cat carrier, got in the car, and started driving to a 24-hour emergency animal-care clinic. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: PANOPTICON, PURE WRATH, ETHEREAL DARKNESS, LIGHTLORN, RAAT, UNTO THEE, DANDELION, MÉLANCOLIE DU DHAMPIR, CŒUR DE RONCES

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Apr 052026
 

(written by Islander)

I had planned to post most of this SHADES OF BLACK column last Sunday. I obviously failed to get it finished in time for posting then, the result of being out very late on Saturday night and having to leave home very soon after waking up the next morning. I thought about finishing and posting it during a weekday last week, but never had enough time, so here it is at last on this resurrection day.

For the original version of the column I picked new music from six bands, which included four singles, two albums, and one EP — obviously a hell of a lot of music. But for today I’ve made the collection even bigger by including individual songs from three more bands at the end.

I found all the opening selections (the first five) to be emotionally very powerful — authentically powerful — and much of it apparently reflects its creators’ own sometimes difficult inner journeys (and some geographical ones as well). The results are sometimes haunting and sometimes harrowing, sometimes solemn and sometimes shattering or wondrous. They move moods as well as channel them; they’re often inspired by memories, and they’re likely to inspire a listener’s own memories too, as passionate music often does.

I don’t mean to suggest that the final four songs are lacking in emotional power — far from it — but they’re more what I’m prone to call mind-benders.

I haven’t written as much about the albums and EP as I think I should. Time still hasn’t been generous with periods of solitude over the last few days. But of course my own thoughts about the music are surplus to requirements — all you really need are working ears and freedom from distractions. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: EVEALE

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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

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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 »

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