NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: IMPERIUM DEKADENZ — “DIS MANIBVS”

Aug 172016

After the elapse of three years since their last album, Meadows of Nostalgia, the German duo Imperium Dekadenz have returned with a powerful new one, Dis Manibvs. We are told that the Latin title, which means “To the Spirits of the Dead”, is a phrase originally found on antique Roman grave markers, signifying the remembrance of lives lost. It seems also to be a form of dedication for this new album, and a fitting one for the music it contains. Today we invite you to immerse yourself in this new record in advance of its August 26 release by Season of Mist. — and to read a track-by-track commentary by vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Horaz.

This is the band’s fifth album since the group’s founding in 2004, and it achieves certain challenging objectives unusually well. Chief among them is this: The music is saturated with the powerful emotional resonance of loss, grief, and even wrenching abandonment, and yet at the same time the band have conveyed those deeply dark and dramatic emotional sensations with music of sweeping grandeur and majesty. Continue reading »

CITY: “ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Aug 172016

(Andy Synn reviews the debut album of City from Portland, Oregon.)

You either stand on the shoulders of giants, or else you languish in their shadow… is a phrase I’ve just made up and trademarked. So don’t try and steal it. Particularly because I need it to help give this review a sense of purpose and direction.

You see, when it comes to music it does often seem like your choices are reduced to a binary “yes/no”. You either innovate or you imitate. You follow or you lead. You simply copy your influences, or you create something new out of them.

But life, as always, isn’t really that black and white. Everything’s a spectrum, everything’s a scale, and very little in this world is really quite as absolute as it seems.

Case in point, while Portland-based Prog-Metal types City are undeniably still living in the shadows of their forefathers on their debut album On The Edge of Forever, it’s still a solidly rewarding listen in its own right, and displays more than enough promise and potential to suggest that this isn’t a state of affairs that’s going to last forever. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: EXCUSE

Premieres 2 Responses »

Aug 162016

Exactly two months ago I came across the first advance track from a four-song EP entitled Goddess Injustice by some Finnish newcomers named Excuse, and it made such an immediately favorable impression that I frothed at the mouth about it in one of our new-music round-ups. Since then I’ve had the chance to listen to the other three tracks on the EP, and I’m still frothing, especially because I now get to bring you the premiere of another song. The name of this one is “Baphomet“.

Goddess Injustice is the band’s second release overall, following a 2013 demo, and the EP will be released jointly on 12″ vinyl by Hells Headbangers and Shadow Kingdom Records. The first song released for streaming from the EP — “Obsessed… With the Collapse of Civilization” — was a ripping burst of speed metal with a very unexpected and very cool two-part intro that proved Excuse have more tricks up their sleeves than the ability to make your brain mosh with your skull. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: BEWITCHER — “BEWITCHER”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Aug 162016

After releasing three really good demos starting in 2013, Portland, Oregon’s Bewitcher are now poised to release their self-titled debut album on August 18. It will be made available digitally via Bewitcher’s Bandcamp page and on LP through Diabolic Might Records, with a CD edition coming on September 9th from Divebomb Records — and today we give you the first chance to hear the entire album.

Bewitcher have been outspoken about their disdain for a lot of modern metal trends, and the fanatical zeal with which they embrace the hard-rocking, flame-throwing blasphemy of early ’80s devil music is on full display in this new album. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KHONSU, NOCTEM, CULT OF FIRE, BLOODSTRIKE, KINGDOM

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 9 Responses »

Aug 162016

I’ve returned from Olympia where I spent three days and four nights immersed in the wonders of Migration Fest. While I still need to write a recap of the festival’s final day to accompany two previously posted recaps, I’ve also started exploring developments in the world of metal that I missed while I was out and about in Olympia. Unsurprisingly, I missed a lot. I’ve selected a mere quintet of items to recommend in this round-up — four of them from old favorites of our site and one by a very striking newcomer.

KHONSU

To say that we’ve been eagerly anticipating the new album from Norway’s Khonsu would be an understatement. Earlier this year, our man Andy Synn named it as one of his five most anticipated albums of this year, largely on the strength of the band’s 2012 debut album Anomalia, which he called “without doubt one of the strongest and most creative debut albums in living metal memory”. And now, finally, we have more details about the album along with a video trailer for it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DORMANT INFERNO — “EMBERS OF YOU”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Aug 162016

In March of last year we premiered a powerful song called “Deliverance” by the Mumbai-based doom/death band Dormant Inferno from their split with Pakistan’s Dionysus, and then followed that last August with Comrade Aleks’ interview of Dormant Inferno’s guitarist/bassist Sunny Bhambri. Today we bring you a stream of a new Dormant Inferno single named “Embers of You” — and it’s superb.

Two nights ago I fell into a trance-like state during the immense closing set by Australia’s Mournful Congregation at Migration Fest in Olympia, Washington. I was reminded of that set in listening to “Embers of You” again last night. It’s a long song that’s also completely entrancing — and crushingly heavy. But in addition to drawing from the deep underground reservoirs of grief to be found in the caverns of funeral doom, Dormant Inferno also ratchet the intensity levels with elements of earth-quaking death metal. Continue reading »

MORROW: “COVENANT OF TEETH”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Aug 152016

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by London’s Morrow.)

By not seeking to live off of post-apocalyptic distortion alone this London-based sludge band captures an atmosphere almost as mournful as a doom band.

Past affiliations have led to characterizations of Morrow as a crust super-group. Crust seems to be a hot buzzword when it comes to underground metal these days. The only time I hear this crusty side of the band is when they speed up with more punk energy toward the end of the first song, “Fathom”. They take their time getting started, as it’s 4 minutes in before the drums lay the ground-work to the melancholy. The cello on this song really adds more emotion. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SCOUR — “SCOUR”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 9 Responses »

Aug 152016

(DGR reviews the debut EP by Scour.)

There is no doubt that the reason the Scour EP and its mid-July release landed on most metal fans’ radar due to the presence of one Phil Anselmo trying his hand at extreme metal. Phil has proven himself to be a polarizing figure this year via one very particular scandal, and it is still not clear whether he thought he was being funny making a racist joke or if he is a fucking gigantic moron.

He seemed penitent enough when the inevitable backlash occurred, pretty much making it clear that if he was proving to be an obstacle to any of the bands he was in, he was willing to leave. But it makes you wonder if these events had any sort of effect on the lead-up to the Scour EP’s mid-July release. Continue reading »

MIGRATION FEST: DAY TWO

Concert Reviews 5 Responses »

Aug 142016

This is the second part of a three-part recap of the first Migration Fest in Olympia, Washington. For the first installment, covering the pre-fest show on August 11 and Day One on August 12, go here.

The first day of Migration Fest proved to be a very strong start to what I selfishly hope will become an annual tradition. If anything, Day Two topped it, in large part on the strength of a history-making performance by Saturday’s headliner — Panopticon — that was simply stunning.

At the end of this post I’ve embedded five videos from Panopticon’s 90-minute set, and I’ve got one video of Vastum in here, too. By tomorrow, I also plan to update this post (and yesterday’s recap of Day One) with videos of additional bands. For now, I’m including the best of my crappy cellphone photos, and some words of course. Continue reading »

MIGRATION FEST: PRE-FEST SHOW AND DAY ONE

Concert Reviews 10 Responses »

Aug 132016

Here I am on a gorgeous Saturday morning in Olympia, Washington, still pinching myself to make sure what I’ve been experiencing isn’t some kind of fantasy (or more likely, incipient dementia). Yesterday was the first day of Migration Fest, and the night before that was the unofficial start of the party with a three-band pre-fest show. In a nutshell, it’s been an absolute blast so far. More words (and amateurish photos) to follow.

This is, of course, the first edition of what by all rights should become a never-ending tradition, a labor of love jointly organized by Adam at Gilead Media and Dave at 20 Buck Spin, with support from a whole bunch of their tireless friends and family members. They assembled a stellar line-up of bands, and based on what I’ve seen so far (at least from a fan perspective), they’ve been executing on the plan like a well-oiled machine. Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries