SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): SCÁTH NA DÉITHE, ERGHOLAE SOMPTATOR, KANGEHEET, PAGANLAND

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Feb 092020
 

 

Well, I did manage to complete Part 2 of this column in time to get it on the site before my NCS time ran out today. However, I did have to make a few compromises because of the shortness of time. For one thing, I had planned to present four full releases, but replaced one of those with a couple of tracks from a record that isn’t yet released. For another, I wrote much less about the first release below than I had wanted to. So it’s another case where the music will mainly have to speak for itself, with my role limited to (hopefully) inducing you to listen.

SCÁTH NA DÉITHE

I reviewed this Irish band’s debut EP in 2015, acclaiming it with words such as these:

“Structured with plenty of twists and turns into new regions of a phantasmic soundscape, this EP is never dull despite the length of the two longest songs. The time passes before you know it, you blink yourself out of a doomed reverie, and you wonder where you are.”

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): …AND OCEANS, LIVING GATE, ARS VENEFICIUM, ENEPSIGOS, ARCADA

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Feb 092020
 

 

I have significant ambitions for this Sunday’s column, but it’s only half-written, and you know how ill-advised it is for me to announce a two-part thing when the second part is just swimming in my head instead of securely captured on a hard-drive. But I never learn, no matter how hard-taught the past lessons, and not just when it comes to blogging (yesterday’s day-long hangover proves that).

Anyway, I can confidently state that Part 1 of this post includes advance tracks from five forthcoming records. Less confidently, I can say that Part 2 will include four complete new releases.

…AND OCEANS

“Well I have to admit to never having heard of …and Oceans before, and also admit to mainly being drawn to listen to this track based on the click-worthy cover art. But I’ll just say this is infectious like the plague.”

That was the message I received from our old pal Booker last week concerning “The Dissolution of Mind and Matter“, an advance track from this Finnish band’s new album, Cosmic World Mother. Somewhere up above that message in our nightmare of an in-box I found the link for our promo of the album, which I will soon explore. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ROTTEN MONARCH, ÌSINKÚ, ZWIESPALT, VOLLMOND MYSTIKER

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Feb 022020
 

 

Back on January 19th I bit off more than I could chew. I promised a second Part to the SHADES OF BLACK column I started that day, and wasn’t able to deliver, either that day or the day after or the day after that. And now here we are two weeks later. A lot more black metal has surfaced in that time, but I’ve decided to stay with what I had planned for that phantom Part 2 on January 19th.

ROTTEN MONARCH

This is another album in a long list of favorites that I wouldn’t have discovered but for the recommendation of Rennie (starkweather), who continues to enrich my listening and that of everyone else who follows him.

Winds Over Ash is the third release and second album by the American duo Rotten Monarch. When I checked Metal-Archives after listening to an early song from the album, that treasured encyclopedia classified their music as “Metalcore/Death Metal”. I thought to myself, even if that’s accurate as applied to previous releases, it doesn’t work for this new one. I checked M-A again yesterday, and now it says “Metalcore/Death Metal (early); Atmospheric Black Metal (later)”, which was obviously a reaction to Winds Over Ash.

But the newer description still doesn’t completely work. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): DARK FORTRESS, TULUS, YOTH IRIA, CULT BURIAL, KALT ‖ WEISS

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Jan 192020
 

 

Five individual tracks. That’s what I’ve combined into this first installment of our usual Sunday expedition into the black realms. The second Part includes a few complete records, recently released, that I’d like to recommend. I haven’t written it yet, and may not finish it in time to post it today. Astonishingly, I have some other activities planned, and they may push Part 2 into Monday.

DARK FORTRESS

Last week brought another advance track from Spectres Of The Old World, the eighth album by Germany’s Dark Fortress. I’ve already provided some background details about the album when writing about a previous single, “Pulling At Threads” (here), and won’t repeat it. That previous song, although quite welcome, was a very short one for Dark Fortress, ending abruptly and without offering much in the way of unorthodox, progressive, or challenging permutations, which is what we’ve come to expect from the band as they’ve evolved. So, what of the new one, “Isa“? Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MEDICO PESTE, TOD HUETET UEBEL, OSSAERT, BEAST OF REVELATION, STARVING FOR DEATH, FUNESTUS

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Jan 142020
 

 

Apologies for not posting a SHADES OF BLACK on Sunday, where it belongs. For reasons related to my day job I had to go to Texas for a long weekend, and spent a big part Sunday getting back to Seattle. While in Texas I had time to pick what I wanted to write about, but not enough time to do the writing. And then Sunday night my home lost power and internet access due to a snowfall, with the problems lasting well into mid-day on Monday, so that trashed my plans to post this yesterday.

In the meantime, of course, a lot more black metal has surfaced, and I decided to include just one of those new songs along with the ones I originally picked for Sunday.

MEDICO PESTE

“God Knows Why” is the one new song I decided to add. It debuted today along with a fascinating but NSFW video. The song is off the new album by the Polish black metal band Medico Peste, whose music is also fascinating and not safe for work, or for just about anyplace else. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: LURKER OF CHALICE, ORDINUL NEGRU, SLUAGH, DRAVE

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Jan 052020
 

 

Welcome to another edition of this column, the first of the roaring ’20s. I’m a bit late getting this one finished, so I’ll dispense with any further introductory words and just go right to the music.

LURKER OF CHALICE

When I see the phrase “cult album”, it often seems to refer to something only about five people ever heard, and isn’t all that good. But sometimes it means the kind of thing that made an out-sized impact by a band that then simply disappeared. Lurker of Chalice‘s self-titled album, released in 2005, is one of those. It was that project’s only full-length, and nothing more came after it, but it is vividly remembered by many listeners to this day, more than 15 years later.

Now, there will be another Lurker of Chalice album, though it may not be exactly what people were hoping for. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MALOKARPATAN, NADSVEST, SVRM, BANNWALD, QAYIN REGIS, UKLARHET

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Dec 292019
 

 

Just three days left, including this one, before time consigns 2019 to the history books. Although we’re spending more and more time looking ahead to the records that will be released in 2020, we’re not finished with our reflections about metal in 2019. We will have more year-end lists from NCS writers and guests to share with you throughout the coming week, as well as the launch of our Most Infectious Song list, and at least Mr. Synn and I still plan to review some 2019 releases we haven’t gotten around to yet.

I’m doing some of that in today’s column. I picked three advance tracks to recommend from forthcoming 2020 albums, but the other three items are albums or EPs released this year, one of them as far back as August, which already seems like an eon ago. Hope you like all of it.

MALOKARPATAN

I’m a bit late getting to this first track, which debuted 10 days ago. That surprised even me, because I’ve been a fascinated follower of Malokarpatan from the beginning. The song is the first one revealed from this Slovakian band’s third album, Krupinské ohne. Its conceptual nature has been described by guitarist Adam as follows: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ZIFIR, ASGRAUW, GRAVE CIRCLES, PLAGUE WEAVER

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Dec 252019
 

 

My time is running short, so I’ll dispense with any further introduction beyond what I included in Part 1 earlier today.

ZIFIR

The next song in this two-part collection is “Empire of Worms“, off a new album by the Istanbul-based black metal band Zifir. Entitled Demoniac Ethics, the new full-length is accompanied by the artwork of one of my favorite dark-art creators, Vergvoktre, and it will be released by Duplicate Records on January 24th. The track premiered about one week ago at Decibel. One other track from the album (“Chants for Execution“) surfaced around Thanksgiving, and I’ve included that stream as well. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): SARGEIST, SIVYJ YAR, SVARTGREN

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Dec 252019
 

 

“Confrontation is expected, it doesn’t matter if it’s Christmas”. That’s a quote from a 28-year-old restaurant worker in the midst of a crowd exchanging insults with police today in Hong Kong, where protests continue without regard to the holiday. But when I saw that line in an article this morning it seemed a fitting introduction to this column too. We’re not shutting down either, so get ready for a lot of confrontational metal to blacken this holiday (divided into two parts).

SARGEIST

This is a rare SHADES OF BLACK in which every band here, in both Parts, is one I’ve written about before. And they’re here again because they’re all damned good. Of them all, Sargeist is the most venerable and venerated. Now 20 years into their career, and still led with venom and vigor by Shatraug, Sargeist gave us a new album last year, but decided to drop a new EP just yesterday. It caught me by surprise, and what a good surprise it is. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): CULT OF ERINYES, GREVE, LJOSAZABOJSTWA

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Dec 222019
 

 

Welcome to the second Part of this week’s foray into black and blackened metal. I’m hurrying to get this done, so I’ll dispense with any further introduction — other than to encourage you to check out the music in Part 1 (here) if you haven’t already.

CULT OF ERINYES

I’ve been following and writing about this Belgian band since just before the release of their second album in 2013 (Blessed Extinction), but I’ve fallen down on the job since I failed to yell at you in advance about the impending release of their latest album Æstivation (which now features the prolific Déhà as a full band member, along with members of Wolvennest and LVTHN). But now the album is out — having been released just yesterday by Amor Fati Productions. The benefit of my foot-dragging is that (after a bit of yelling from me) you can dive right into the entire record on your own without delay. Continue reading »

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