SHADES OF BLACK: MANTAR, GERM, GRAVDAL, NOX FORMULAE, KASSAD, DISSVARTH

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
Feb 152016
 

Mantar-Ode To the Flame

 

I had originally planned to post this yesterday, to make the Sabbath blacker, but didn’t quite get it finished. I’ve collected five new songs from forthcoming albums and a brief review of an EP released last month. The songs are stylistically diverse — in fact, this is one of those installments of this column where not all of the music is even going to fit the broadest definitions of black metal — yet there is a shared “depressive” quality among many of the songs (and I use the term in a genre sense). And of course I found everything very good and very memorable and hope you’ll enjoy it, too.

MANTAR

As I’ve previously written, Mantar’s new album Ode To the Flame is one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of 2016, both because I thoroughly enjoyed their debut album Death By Burning and because I was so blown away by their live performance at last year’s Maryland Deathfest. A few days ago we got our first full glimpse of the new album via the premiere of a song called “Era Borealis“. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DEATH FETISHIST, PTAHIL, WALDGEFLÜSTER, CANTIQUE LÉPREUX, GOATPSALM

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  8 Responses »
Feb 122016
 

Death fetishist-Lucifer Descending

 

I usually post collections such as this one on Sundays, to make the Sabbath blacker. But I’m sitting on so much good new metal in a blackened vein that I decided to share this collection now. I’m hoping to put together another one for Sunday.

DEATH FETISHIST

Just a couple of days ago, the eminent Debemur Morti Productions announced the signing of a new band from Portland, Oregon, named Death Fetishist, whose debut album will be released by the label later this year. To commemorate the blessed event, Death Fetishist released a single-song EP entitled Lucifer Descending yesterday — which follows a two-song EP (Whorifice) released on the first day of this month. Both EPs are available on Bandcamp.

The person behind Death Fetishist is the prolific Matron Thorn, who is also the principal driving force in Ævangelist as well as the protagonist in a large number of solo projects, including Benighted In Sodom. He is the vocalist in Death Fetishist and performs all the instruments other than drums and percussion, which are handled by Grond Nefarious. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NORDJEVEL, SORROW PLAGUES, LEBENSNACHT, VIRVEL AV MORKERHATET, MALOKARPATAN, INTEGRITY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  10 Responses »
Feb 072016
 

Nordjevel-ST

 

Once again I’ve collected newly discovered music that could be considered shades and phases of black metal. Unfortunately, on this Sunday I’m pressed for time, and so, with apologies to the bands (who are probably the only people who might actually read my drivel instead of skipping right to the streams), I’m going to have to truncate my review commentary. Somehow, you’ll have to take in the music without me detailing for you what you’re hearing.

NORDJEVEL

I’m not sure how Nordjevel eluded my hawklike gaze. Their self-titled debut album has already been released by Osmose Productions, with several song streams preceding it, yet I only found out about the band and the album a few days ago. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: LVTHN, DRAMA, PERDITION WINDS, IMPERCEPTUM, MERV’, VIOLET COLD, TRAUTONIST

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  8 Responses »
Jan 312016
 

LVTHN-Eradication of Nescience

 

This is a rather super-sized edition of Shades of Black, collecting new and recently discovered music in a blackened vein. But believe me, this could have been much bigger still, because I’m sitting on a ton of other releases I’d like to include. I’ll put them in the fridge so they don’t spoil and defrost them later (though of course they’ll never completely de-frost).

LVTHN

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of this Belgian band’s previous releases, and have managed to write about most of them (collected behind this link). And before I get to a brand new LVTHN song, I’ll mention that the band have recently made their 2014 compilation release The Grand Uncreation available for “name your price” download on Bandcamp (here). Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ROTTING CHRIST, ORANSSI PAZUZU, SERPENT SPELLS

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Jan 182016
 

Rotting Christ-Rituals

 

Earlier today when I posted Part One of this Shades of Black feature (here) I mentioned that I would have Part Two ready to go later today or tomorrow. Despite the title of this post, it actually isn’t the Part Two that I had planned. What you’ll find here instead are three very good new songs that I didn’t encounter until today, and I thought I’d help spread the word about them right away. And so the original Part Two will become Part Three, hopefully by tomorrow.

ROTTING CHRIST

Today another new track from Rotting Christ’s forthcoming album Rituals premiered at 11 music sites around the world (though none are based in North America). The name of the song is “זה נגמר (Ze Nigmar)” (an Aramaic phrase meaning “it’s done”), and because the premiere took the form of a YouTube stream, I’ve taken the liberty of embedding it below. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): DIVINE BLASPHEMY, NAÐRA, NOCTURNE

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  11 Responses »
Jan 182016
 

Divine Blasphemy-Beyond the Portal

 

Some weekends are a whirlwind, a flurry of unexpected events hitting from all points of the compass. Others are a soporific quagmire of sloth and malaise. Somehow, for me this weekend was an odd combination of the two. I rejoice that I’m still alive.

I also rejoice in the music I heard. And I heard so much good metal that I’m going to share it in two posts, the first of which is this one, which combines three album reviews. The music collected in this two-parter is mainly, but not entirely, black metal, so I’m taking slight liberties to anoint the two posts with the Shades of Black banner. Part Two will appear today or tomorrow.

DIVINE BLASPHEMY

Divine Blasphemy carry on the rich tradition of Greek black metal with their debut album Beyond the Portal. I heard the first song, and I felt elevated. “Where did these people come from?”, I wondered. And then I heard the rest of the album and realized that the first song was not a fluke. This is a wonderful ride on a red-eyed black steed — it tries to buck you off, but you hang on because the chaos is so exhilarating. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ENTROPIA, END OF PROCESS, IFRINN, MORBOSIDAD, DEATH FORTRESS, 1914, NEVERENDING WINTER, AND MYSTIC MYSTERIES

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  12 Responses »
Dec 312015
 

Entropia-Ufonaut

 

I had intended to post most of the new music in this collection on Sunday, hot on the heels of Saturday’s Shades of Black post. However, I was distracted by the sound of a passing car, chased it for a few blocks, and then forgot what I had been thinking by the time I found my way home (I also blame those squirrels for not stopping so I could lick them). Other distractions have materialized since then, including the death of Lemmy Kilmister.

On the bright side, I discovered more excellent new songs as the days have passed since Sunday; in fact, I heard the first three in this collection only after the weekend. The result is a rather humongous assembly of music, but please don’t let the quantity deter you from wading hip-deep into it, because there are a lot of gems to follow. And besides, it’s my last round-up of new music for 2015!

I really do hope you’ll like everything here as much as I have, and I hope you have a great New Year’s Eve too. As is often the case with these Shades of Black posts, I want to thank my Serbian friend “M” for linking me to much of what you’re about to hear. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ALTARAGE, SELBST, ANCESTORS BLOOD, OCERCO, NABAATH

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  11 Responses »
Dec 262015
 

Satanic statue

 

I had no Christmas rant this year. Truthfully, I said about all I have to say on the subject five years ago. And if I were even more honest with myself, I’d admit that I’m not quite as big a humbug about the day as that post might suggest. It has its good points, to the extent that it provides an occasion for people who actually do like or love one another to get together and enjoy themselves (and I hope that happened for you).

Now that the day has been interred for another year, it’s time to return to the unearthing of new underground metal. In this collection, and in another one I have planned for tomorrow, I’ve got music to recommend in a blackened vein — not all of it black metal, but all of it pleasingly dark nonetheless.

ALTARAGE

In July I reviewed a two-song demo by a Spanish death metal band named Altarage, concluding as follows: “This is primitive, poisonous, electrifying music from a band that’s now squarely on my radar screen for the future.” They’ve now made a new appearance on the screen. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: TEITANFYRE, INVIDUS, INVULTATION, NIÐAFJÖLL, SHIBALBA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
Dec 202015
 

Teitenfyre MCD

 

Although rolling out our year-end LISTMANIA extravaganza has been a nearly all-consuming endeavor, I’ve stolen fragments of time here and there over the last week to explore new music. Especially because time has been short, I’ve resorted (with some guilt feelings) to the harried person’s old stand-by: Listen to the first track of an album stream; if it grabs you, listen to more; if it doesn’t, move along. The first tracks of the albums and EPs featured here all grabbed me. The first and last songs in this collection are single advance tracks from albums that aren’t out yet. They grabbed me, too.

As the post title signifies, all of the music is connected in some way to black metal (though perhaps more tenuously than is usually the case in these posts). Despite that loose connection, no two bands sound alike.

TEITANFYRE

The first song in this collection is by a Russian band named Teitanfyre and it comes from an EP labeled Anno MMXV that’s projected for release by Inferna Profundus Records in February or March of next year. Metal Archives lists five Teitanfyre releases since 2008, including a 2011 debut album (Morbid Death’s Scepter), but this song has been my first exposure to their music. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): BLOT, DENIGRATA, LUSTRATION, NOCTURNAL DEGRADE

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
Dec 082015
 

Blot-Ilddyrking

 

Here’s the second part of a post I began earlier today reviewing and recommending a selection of albums, EPs, and individual songs I’ve been enjoying recently that are (mostly) in the vein of black metal. Once again, no two bands sound alike, though their music is fueled in part by elements of black metal.

BLOT

Long-time NCS reader and musician CarlSk sent me a very strong recommendation for this next band — so strong that I bought their new album before listening to it. The band is Blot, they come from southern Norway, and in mid-October they released their debut full-length Ilddyrking, which follows a self-titled EP from 2009. Continue reading »

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