“THAT’S METAL!” — BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 100)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  4 Responses »
Nov 292015
 

Ruins of Detroiit-Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre
Photo by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

Last weekend we celebrated the glorious sixth anniversary of our site, and today we present the glorious 100th edition of THAT’S METAL! We’re really covered in glory this month. I didn’t realize the stuff was so sticky. I feel like I need a shower even though a whole week hasn’t passed since the last one.

In celebration of this sticky event I thought about searching back through the previous 99 editions of the series, beginning with the first one back in January 2010, to compile a “best of” collection of items featured over the last six years. I then realized how much work that would be, so that ain’t happening. Instead I’ve got ten new items for you — all of them things I think are metal even though they’re not (metal) music. [I had to insert “(metal)” before “music” because a couple of today’s items do include music.]

However, I must give credit where credit is due: The first edition of this series was inspired by New Zealand blogger Steff Metal — and the image at the top of this post from a series of photos of abandoned buildings in Detroit was lifted from her blog in that first edition. When I wrote it, I didn’t call it “No. 1”, because I had no plan to make it a continuing series. Steff, of course, is innocent of all crimes committed in the next 99 installments. I’ll also repeat the preamble I wrote for that first installment: Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR (AXAMENTA, RAGNAROK)

 THE REARVIEW MIRROR  8 Responses »
Nov 292015
 

Axamenta-Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture

 

It’s Sunday morning here at the NCS compound, and that must mean it’s time for another installment of The Rearview Mirror, in which we take a rare backward look at the metal of yesteryear. It’s also time for me to feed the loris horde before they start sharpening their knives again. But I think I’ve got enough time to put up these tunes before they launch an assault; they’re very deliberative.

Today I decided to include music from two bands, Axamenta from Belgium and Ragnarok from Norway. It’s quite a contrast.

AXAMENTA

Over a span of roughly 10 years, Axamenta put out a handful of demos and EPs and two albums, the last of which was 2006’s Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture — and then split up before releasing anything else. Metal-Archives classifies them as “melodic death/black metal”, but there’s certainly a symphonic component to their sound as well. In fact, there are times on Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture when they really go over the top with the keyboards. But the album also includes some powerful, memorable, and at times unconventional melodic death metal, with potent riffs and majestic melodies draped in a shroud of thorns. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ENDLESS RECOVERY, VALROGH, FUCK-USHIMA, ONE TAIL, ONE HEAD, OLD SKIN

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Nov 282015
 

Endless Recovery-Revel In Demise

 

This is kind of an odd Saturday. Here in the U.S., it’s the middle of a long holiday weekend, two days after Thanksgiving, a day after Black Friday, and two days before what snake oil peddlers have annointed “Cyber Monday”, when people get back to their high-speed internet connections at work and are encouraged to buy shit online that they don’t need, with money they don’t have. Hail Satan!

Anyway, I’m not sure if anyone will be visiting us today, but I’ve stitched together some (mostly) new music anyway, because instead of leaving my house to spend money yesterday I hunkered down and doused myself with a few hours of new metal. Much more satisfying and much less costly.

ENDLESS RECOVERY

I decided to start this round-up with a healthy heaping serving of high energy, beginning with a blast of speed metal from the Greek band Endless Recovery. The band’s new album (their second full-length) is named Revel In Demise, and it’s set for release by Witches Brew on December 24. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ABYSMAL GRIEF (REGEN GRAVES)

 Interviews  6 Responses »
Nov 272015
 

Abysmal Grief - Strange Rites of Evil WEB

 

(On this black Friday, we present Comrade Aleks’ interview with Regen Graves of Abysmal Grief.)

Probably someone could have missed the appearance of Abysmal Grief in one of NCS’s latest Seen and Heard themes, so here’s a chance to take a look closely into their crypt.

It’s naturally one of darkest and most ominous bands of Italy; for eleven years they have written hymns in the name of Death and have done it well. Strange Rites of Evil, the fourth full-length album of Abysmal Grief, is heavy as a coffin lid, it’s filled with chilling breeze from the crypt and pervaded with night fog. Need to resurrect the dead? Play it loud.

Meanwhile we had a talk with Regen Graves, one of Abysmal Grief’s undertakers. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GOMORRAH — “SITRA ACHRA”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 272015
 

CDDIGI-2.1B

 

Many metal bands have chosen the name Gomorrah, but only one is based in the Okanagan Valley town of Kelowna, British Columbia. Since originally coming together in 2006, the band have altered their style of music, and their new second album reveals the current state of their malicious and malformed development. Entitled The Haruspex, it will be released in January by Canadian label Test Your Metal Records, and today we bring you the premiere of a track from the album named “Sitra Achra“.

The band’s line-up consists of vocalist Jeff Bryan and guitarist Bowen Matheson, and on this new album they’re joined by drummer Casey Long-Read. Bryan and Matheson had this to say about the song you’re about to hear: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DEGIAL, KRATER, NACHTZEIT, NEKRASOV, FRONT

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  9 Responses »
Nov 272015
 

Degial-Savage Mutiny

 

I guess it has become a cliche to feature black metal on Black Friday, even though the two have absolutely nothing to do with each other beyond a shared word. But we have no discounts to offer on the subscription to our site, no merch to sell at half off, and I’m overdue posting a Shades of Black feature anyway. So, black metal it shall be (mostly).

I’ve collected in this post streams of three new songs from forthcoming albums and two new EPs, plus my own garbled words.

DEGIAL

Okay, so Sweden’s Degial aren’t exactly a black metal band, but they’re necro to the core. The name of their new, second album is Savage Mutiny and it’s coming out via Sepulchral Voice Records on December 25 (in order to foul the holiday with their blasphemous stench, of course). The title track from the album was delivered unto our greedy ears yesterday, and you shall hear it next. Continue reading »

SECRETS OF THE MOON: “SUN”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Nov 272015
 

Secrets of the Moon-Sun

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Germany’s Secrets of the Moon.)

Change is a funny thing. Particularly in a genre both as Progressive and as Conservative as Metal can be. We so often crave the thrill of the new, whilst clinging to the comfort and security of the familiar. Sometimes simultaneously. And this isn’t just confined to Metal either. It’s something you can see across listeners of all different genres.

I am painting with something of a wide brush there, though, as Metal fans are a diverse lot, when all is said and done. Some of them love to watch bands grow and develop and change. Others prefer them to stay the same (as long as they keep the quality high). Some even prefer bands to practically regress back to what they consider the “Golden Age” of the genre. But I’d conjecture that most of us (at least here at NCS) tend to take things on a band-by-band basis. After all, some bands can get away with hitting that same sweet spot over and over again, when others quickly fall victim to the law of diminishing returns. And, similarly, some bands can change and transform into monsters (in a good way), while others simply grow too big for their boots.

So the important question here is… how do you handle change?… since the issue of whether you’re open, or averse, to change is going to have a big influence on how you receive this album.

Because, make no mistake about it, Sun showcases a wholly different Secrets of the Moon than the one you’re used to. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: VORNA — “EI VALO MINUA SEURAA”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Nov 272015
 

Vorna-Ei Valo Minua Seuraa

 

Earlier this month we had the pleasure of premiering an amazing video for a song called “Yksin” by a six-person band from Tampere, Finland, named Vorna. The song — which is equally amazing — will appear on the band’s second album Ei valo minus seuraa (No Light Follows Me), which will be released on December 4 by Inverse Records. And now today we bring you the U.S. streaming premiere of the entire album, along with track-by-track comments by Vorna’s vocalist Vesa Salovaara.

The track-by-track comments are useful because Vorna’s lyrics are in Finnish, and also because they provide insights into the inspiration for the music. You can read them following our album stream below. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: OBSCENE ENTITY — “LAMENTIA”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Nov 262015
 

Obscene Entity-Lamentia

 

The East Anglian region of the UK is home to Obscene Entity. Tomorrow (November 27) is the day appointed for the release of their debut album Lamentia by Tridoid Records, and today we bring you the premiere of a full stream of the album.

Lamentia follows the band’s 2012 self-titled EP, and it’s described as “a loosely-based concept album of the fragility of the human mind and states of psychosis experienced through both subjection and self-infliction”.

There is indeed a psychotic quality to the music, which combines elements of death metal, black metal, and grind to produce a harrowing flood of ferocity. The band ratchet the tension through an array of needling riffs, punishing drums, and wild, bestial shrieks and howls. When the tension breaks (and it doesn’t break often), it often happens in a catharsis of violence. Continue reading »

THANKS GIVING (AND MUSIC FROM EGO DEPTHS)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Nov 262015
 

Ego Depths art
artwork by Monakh

I don’t know whether this is true in other countries, but here in the U.S. our holidays have become ritualized celebrations (each with their own distinctive personalities) that have very little to do with what they were originally intended to commemorate. And so it is with Thanksgiving. As for the holiday’s historical antecedents, The Font of All Human Knowledge tell us these things:

In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is commonly, but not universally, traced to a sparsely documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest….

Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations…. As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God”…. Continue reading »

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