SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): A FOREST OF STARS, ÖVER, THE ORDER OF APOLLYON, TEZCATLIPOCA, BLACK MOLD

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Sep 022018
 

 

This Sunday’s collection of music validates the title of the series: No two of the songs are very much alike, and they display quite different degrees of “blackening”. If you’re like me, you’ll like all of it; even if you’re not, there’s enough diversity in the music that you’re bound to discover something of interest.

As you can see, there will be a second Part of what I’ve pulled together this week. But the odds are I won’t finish it in time to post it today, and you’ll see it tomorrow instead.

A FOREST OF STARS

The first single from A Forest of Stars‘ new album (“Precipice Pirouette”) was a glorious extravagance, a 10 1/2-minute pageant capable of carrying the listener away like a leaf in a gale. I said so, and so it must be true. And now we have a second single, with the delightfully loony yet carefully calculated title “Decomposing Deity Dance Hall“. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MEPHORASH, DALKHU, DYSYLUMN, NIGHT CROWNED, DARVAZA

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Aug 262018
 

 

The thick blanket of smoke that’s fallen over the part of Wyoming where I’m currently vacationing has diminished the attractiveness of outdoor activity, and that in turn led me to do what I usually do on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings — listen to recent offerings of music from the darkest realms.

Strong winds seem to be creating some clearing in the noxious fog from burning forests, so I probably won’t be writing a second part for this column, though I have more than enough new songs and full releases to justify it. I’ll have to content myself with the following five selections.

MEPHORASH

Last week brought us the second single from the fourth album, Shem Ha Mephorash, by the Swedish band Mephorash. The first single, “777: Third Woe“, was released way back in November of 2017, and it prompted me to marvel at its pitch-black devotion — music that was reverential, grandiose, and fearsome in its conjuring of majestic and sinister power (and also quite memorable). Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ULTHA, ERIPHION, MALEPESTE, DYSYLUMN, LOPUTON SUO

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Aug 192018
 

 

This weekend I had the time to double the size of the usual Sunday SHADES OF BLACK column. And while I recognize the risks of recommending more music than you’ll have time to check out, I do hope you’ll explore the excellent selections I included in Part 1, as well as what I’ve picked for Part 2. As in the earlier installment, I’ve again included two full recent releases and advance samples of music from two others that are set for release this fall.

ULTHA

I somehow missed the original 2015 release of the debut album (Pain Cleanses Every Doubt) by this enormously talented German band, but rectified the oversight when the album was reissued by Translation Loss in April 2016, helping to spread the word through an interview of the band and a stream of one of the songs from that fine debut. And since then I’ve been following their activities closely, writing about their 2016 EP, Dismal Ruins; their 2016 split with Morast (a tribute to Bathory); their 2017 live recording, Woe Over Roadburn; their 2017 split with Paramnesia; and their 2018 EP Dismal Ruins Pt II. Meanwhile, Andy Synn reviewed their 2016 album Converging Sins.

In other words, as prolific as Ultha have been, we’ve devoted attention to everything they’ve done so far. Why stop now? Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): VOLKOLUN, PESTE UMBRARUM, ADVERSO

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Aug 192018
 

 

You nay have noticed that we had no WAXING LYRICAL post yesterday, given that Mr. Synn was otherwise occupied. Rather than attempt to cobble together a Saturday post myself, I decided instead to get a head start on what will become a two-part SHADES OF BLACK for today, with new music from four bands in this part and four more in Part 2. In this one, I’ve picked two recent full releases and advance tracks from two other albums.

VOLKOLUN

Path Through The Mist is a new EP by Volkolun (Волколунь) from Belgorod, Russia, who released a debut album (Only Trees Remember Centuries) five years ago. Though I haven’t heard the album, and therefore had no inkling what might be coming, the EP knocked me over from the first time I heard it. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE, AETERNUS, ESSENZ, TEHOA, BLEEDER

 SHADES OF BLACK  8 Responses »
Aug 122018
 

 

There’s a reason why I chose SHADES OF BLACK as the title of this series many years ago, instead of something like BLACK METAL. It avoids debates about whether the music I choose to highlight is or isn’t that thing, and allows me to roam a bit more widely than I would even if I were just applying my own definition of what belongs in the genre, which in itself would still take us well beyond whirring guitars, blasting drums, and scalding shrieks. It allows me to choose the following collection of excellent new music without thinking too hard about it.

TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE

In 2013 the vaunted Australian band Temple Nightside released their debut album, Condemnation. They’ve released one other album since then (along with a couple of splits), in the shape of 2016’s The Hecatomb. Now, rather than releasing a full-length of entirely new material, they’ve re-recorded their debut album — although “re-imagined” is a better word for what they seem to have done. It makes sense that they would also commission new cover art, and they enlisted the abundant talents of Elijah Tamu for that. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (MID-WEEK EDITION): ONE TAIL ONE HEAD, SLAVEHOUSE, LURING, SAINTE MARIE DES LOUPS

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Aug 082018
 

 

(Today we have a rare weekday edition of SHADES OF BLACK for you, and once again we’re turning the column over to NCS supporter HGD, who has selected some black gems for your listening pleasure.)

While there’s not necessarily any real stylistic theme to these releases (as they all cover different aspects of black metal), there is an thread of finality that runs through all of them.

ONE TAIL ONE HEAD

The first item in this list is a new song from Nidarosian black metallers One Tail One Head. They announced recently that they would be relasing a debut album, Worlds Open, Worlds Collide, through Terratur Possessions on October 5. More importantly, this will also be the only full-length released by the band, as they have decided to go their separate ways after their upcoming European tour, with a performance in their hometown of Trondheim in December being their last. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HELRUNAR , A FOREST OF STARS, LUCIFERICON, SARKRISTA

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Aug 052018
 

 

My whirlwind trip to New Mexico is about to end, with a pair of long flights that will get me back to Seattle looming ahead today. I found a little time last night and this morning to sample some of the new black and blackened metal that has surfaced in recent days, and picked three new tracks to recommend. All of them are from forthcoming albums I’ve been eagerly awaiting. And at the last minute, I added an EP originally released in May, but more recently made available on Bandcamp.

HELRUNAR

Vanitas Vanitatvm is the name of the new album by the German band Helrunar. September 28th is the date selected by Prophecy Productions for its release, roughly three and a half years following the  excellent Niederkunfft.

Stylistically, frontman M.D. places it between Niederkunfft and that album’s predecessor,  the massive Sól. He says: “The songs are more compact and mature, also mostly faster, and again, more black metal. Apart from that, there have been influences you might call nostalgic.” Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (OVERFLOWING STREAMS EDITION): COMMUNION, FEVER, HIMELVARUWE, KOMMANDANT, SANGUINARY TRANCE, SKELETAL SERPENT, THE SPIRIT OF IUVENIUM, TAUR-IM-DUINATH, TETH-NAHASH

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Jul 292018
 

 

I have a lot of black (and “blackened”) metal I’d like to recommend this Sunday. But because of a two-day picnic that Ms. Islander and I are hosting this weekend at the NCS compound for co-workers and other friends, I don’t have time to write much about each song or album that I’ve chosen. So I’m resorting to a thing I’ve done in the context of the SEEN AND HEARD posts during the work week when I’ve been in a similar metal-flooded, time-short situation, which I’ve called OVERFLOWING STREAMS, for obvious reasons.

Here’s a big torrent of music, with fewer words of review than usual, and I hope it’s not so much metal that you’re deterred from investigating for yourselves. I’ve arranged the music in alphabetical order by band name,

COMMUNION

In December of last year I posted about a stream of a song called “Witching Thrust” by the Chilean black/death band Communion. It came from their second album, The Communion, which was then set for release by Hells Headbangers on January 26th. The whole album popped up in a Bandcamp alert I received late last week, which might mean that it only recently became available as a digital download. Or maybe it was just a reminder. Either way, I got all fired up again listening to the song “Witching Thrust”. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): BAUME, NIGHTGRAVE, UTEN HÅP, ULVEN

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Jul 222018
 

 

Our friend HGD handled Part 1 of today’s SHADES OF BLACK installment, and he made some excellent picks that coincidentally were on my list, too, but his efforts gave me the time to focus on a few more.

BAUME

The French one-man band Baume released a debut album named Les Années Décapitées in March, which I would have missed but for a recent recommendation from a trusted source. You can guess from the album’s cover art that this isn’t going to be the kind of black metal that brings Les Légions Noires to mind, and in fact black metal is only one of the ingredients that flow through the music that Juif Gaetan has created. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1) (HGD EDITION): ARCHEMORON, SVARTMÁLM, ULTHA

 SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Jul 222018
 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Roughly one week ago NCS patron HGD, who has been kind enough to send us recommendations of new music from time to time in the past, prepared a SEEN AND HEARD round-up of new music that we happily presented along with his own introductory comments. And today we’re doing it again, but this time HGD’s recommendations fall within the focus of our Sunday SHADES OF BLACK posts. Once again, the words of introduction are his. We’ll have a second SHADES OF BLACK post a bit later today.

ARCHEMORON

Archemoron (translated as “beginning of death” from Ancient Greek) are a black metal band from Athens, Greece. They formed in 1999 as a thrash/heavy metal band under the name Ancestor before changing their style and eventually their name in 2008. Their third album, Year of the Harvester, was released on June 20 through Bowels of Noise. Continue reading »

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