NO CLEAN SINGING

SHORT BUT SWEET: ITHAQUA / BØG — A SPLIT

Jan 282016

I’d like to recommend a new split release by a Japanese band named Ithaqua and an Australian band named BØG. I don’t know much about either band, and I’ve already now forgotten how I came across this split, but this thing has cleaved my head right in two.

ITHAQUA

The Ithaqua tracks feature truly mountainous bass-level riffs paired with creepy guitar excretions and banshee-shreiked vocals that contrast with the stupefying low-end weight. I’ll warn you that when the first track “Ghost” really starts to move, it hits a bulldozing groove capable of producing serious neck sprain.

The last couple of minutes in particular are just fucking ridiculous — a mix of unstoppable riff magic and deranged guitar psychedelia. Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: NADER JONAS RESLAN (FIFTH TO INFINITY)

Interviews 5 Responses »

Jan 272016

(Earlier this week KevinP named the debut album by Sweden’s Fifth To Infinity, Omnipotent Transdimensional Soulfire, the top album released this month, and that followed on the heels of Andy Synn’s laudatory review of the album last week. Now Kevin brings us a new installment in his short-interview series, in which he quizzes the band’s vocalist/guitarist Nader Jonas Reslan.)

******

K: After starting the band back in 1997 you finally released your debut album (19 years later). I’m sure there is a sense of relief and excitement about that.

N: Indeed there is and very much so. It’s been a really long and messed up journey, so far.. and now after all these tough years, we’ve finally succeeded in manifesting our music beyond the realms of the underground. So, yes, the feeling is great. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HEMELBESTORMER — “AFTER US, THE FLOOD”

Premieres 7 Responses »

Jan 272016

We’re told that Hemelbestormer is a Dutch word that in its literal translation means “sky stormer” or “stormer of heaven” in English, but is also a name for someone with revolutionary views — an idealist, a maker of wild plans. It’s the name chosen by a collective of Belgian musicians whose debut album Aether will be released by Debemur Morti Productions, who of course have a long, proven history of embracing dark music that’s not cut from the common cloth. Hemelbestormer is yet another fascinating discovery.

Aether consists of four long songs, all of them falling in the range of 12 – 19 minutes, and we’re fortunate to bring you the album’s opening track, “After Us, The Flood”, accompanied by the imagery of a video that beautifully captures the song’s staggering and mesmerizing power. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GEHENNAH — “ALL OF THE DECADENCE, NONE OF THE SUCCESS”

Premieres 2 Responses »

Jan 272016

If reports from the early ’90s are accurate, Sweden’s Gehennah stuck out like like a sore thumb in the metal scene (more like a mangled and bleeding thumb) when they first started churning out their raw, raucous, and alcohol-fueled concoction of speed metal and blackened thrash — or at least that’s what we might call it today, because did anyone use the term “blackened” in 1992? The fearless Primitive Art Records discharged their first album Hardrocker in 1995, and that was followed by King of the Sidewalk and Decibel Rebel on the Osmose label.

The party faltered for a stretch of years until the band came out with an anniversary EP in 2003 (appropriately titled 10 Years of Fucked Up Behavior), and then the well seemed to run dry again for another decade — until Gehennah surfaced from a sea of beer cans and whiskey bottles to release the Metal Police EP in 2014. That’s when I discovered them for the first time — for me, it was an immediate grabber, a jet-fueled black/thrash romp with killer riffs, killer soloing, and killer caustic vocals. The alcohol content of my blood went up just from listening to it.

I guess I wasn’t the only one, because that EP led Metal Blade to embrace the band, and on February 12 the label will release the first Gehennah full-length in almost 20 years — Too Loud to Live, Too Drunk to Die. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW WITH CSR OF SCHAMMASCH

Interviews 3 Responses »

Jan 272016

photo by Ester Segarra

(Andy Synn presents this new interview with CSR of the Swiss band Sammasch, whose new album will be upon us in 2016.)

Swiss spiritual occultists Schammasch have been a firm favourite of several members of the NCS team ever since we stumbled across the band’s masterful double-album Contradiction a few years back.

Since then we’ve run features on the band several times, covering everything from new videos, to live show reviews, to the re-release of their debut album Sic Lvceat Lvx, and tried to stay abreast of any and all developments within their camp.

Over the past 5/6 months we’ve tried to stay tuned in to all the updates the band have been putting out regarding the writing and recording of their as-yet-untitled (to everyone outside the band at least) third album, from photo shoots in London to mixing/mastering at Woodshed Studios in Germany.

As the album sessions have now all been wrapped up, and the album is, essentially, “in the can” and primed for release by Prosthetic Records, it seemed like the perfect time to get in touch with the band’s mainman CSR and pick his brains about what 2016 has in store for Schammasch! Continue reading »

FESTIVITIES: MIGRATION FEST 2016

Metal News 16 Responses »

Jan 262016

Today brought an official announcement I’ve been waiting on for months, ever since hearing early hints that it would be happening: Two of America’s best underground labels — Gilead Media and 20 Buck Spin — are collaborating to present a metal festival on August 12-14, 2016, in Olympia, Washington — the first (and we hope not the last) Migration Fest.

The initial line-up of confirmed bands announced today is, in a word, fantastic. It primarily showcases bands from each label’s roster, but also includes “other affiliated and respected artists, highlighting the distinct and contrasting styles that makes each label stand out”. Check this out:

Auroch
The Body & Krieg collaborative performance
Christian Mistress
Dead To A Dying World
False
Fórn
Full Of Hell
Khemmis Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR (PART 7)

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Jan 262016

(Our Norwegian friend Gorger is back with another installment in his series recommending releases that we’ve managed to overlook. And be sure to check out Gorger’s Metal.)

I was rather surprised to learn that neither Diavolos nor Saligia has surfaced on the Nautical Crest Sea, but hey, that’s my cue to drag them out of the waters and bring them in from the cold. By coincidence, another Norwegian act will also be brought ashore.

They might brake this site’s moniker (thumb’ish) rule at times, but they absolutely deserve more attention and a larger audience, and considering the diversity in taste amongst NCS readers, I feel certain someone will embrace them. Finally, a few beached frozen Italian birds tag along.

With Death, Thrash, and Black metal, elements of Doom and Pagan, a few time travelers going off to the ’80s for inspiration, and something remotely resembling uniqueness^* here and there, this is another assorted four-course meal. I hope you enjoy at least a few of them.

^*Considering Islander’s comment on misuse of the word uniqueness, I better choose my words carefully. But on the other hand, every single snowflake is unique! Then again, they all look like fucking snow to me! (Also, one can never be sure that an album is really unique, as long as one hasn’t heard every single album released, that is, but no worries, folks, I’m working on it!) Continue reading »

BRUTALITY: “SEA OF IGNORANCE”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Jan 262016

(Grant Skelton reviews the new album by the resurrected Brutality.)

Is it just me, or do you ever feel like you enjoy your metal in absentia? The best tours never pass through your city (and perhaps not even your state). Or you discover a new band only to find out they play just 30 shows a year and you’d have to cross an ocean to catch them live. Indeed, the worst possibility is hearing an album, buying said album, then heading over to Encyclopaedia Metallum to get more information on the band. Then, your eyes widen. Your mouth is agape with terror as you behold the 2 most foreboding words in all of metaldom…”split up.”

This was me when I discovered Brutality in recent years. Along with my zeal for the Bay Area thrash scene of the early ’80s, I’ve made no attempt to hide my similar interest in ’90s Florida death. The digital age affords us the capability to hear music from previous aeons of metal history. We can watch interviews and concerts (in all their archaic VHS glory). For some obscene amount of money, we might even find a so-rare-it’s-still-throbbing copy of a band’s demo cassette on eBay. But none of that can replace being part of a scene. Buying CDs and tapes, handing out show flyers. Actually witnessing local bands play for dirt cheap (or nothing at all) just so that they can get their music heard. Continue reading »

MORE NEW MUSIC: ROTTING CHRIST, HIGH PRIEST OF SATURN, KOZELJNIK, HANDS OF DESPAIR

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 9 Responses »

Jan 262016

Sometimes I worry that we bombard you so heavily with new music that it might become exhausting, or just unrealistic to follow what we’re throwing at you. I’m kind of feeling that way today, which is why I changed the title of this post from the usual “Seen and Heard” headline — since this would be the fourth of those in four days. But despite the different title, that’s still what this is — a round-up of recently released music we want to recommend.

ROTTING CHRIST

It seems like only a week ago that Season of Mist released the last advance track from Rotting Christ’s new album (featured here). Actually, it was only one week ago. But yesterday another track premiered. And of course I’m writing about it because I think it’s just as strong as the ones that have preceded it. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): VILLAINY, STRUGGLE WITH GOD, SLABDRAGGER, MUSSORGSKI, SECTIONED, THE MOSCOW DISTRICT PIPE BAND

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Jan 252016

This is the second part of a large Monday round-up of new music that I discovered at various times over the last week, and this two-parter follows yet another round-up I put together on Saturday. Because this is Robert Burns’ birthday, I thought I’d throw in some Scottish music (both metal and not-metal) as the last two entries in this collection.

VILLAINY

The new album by the Dutch band Villainy — entitled Villainy II: Dim — was released last Friday via Bandcamp by Listenable Records. It includes cover art by Manuel Tinnemans (Comaworx).

I’ve been sitting on our advance copy of the album since mid-December and am embarrassed to say that I still haven’t heard all of it. But since I’m this far behind already, I thought I should use the proximity of the Bandcamp release at least to mention the album here — because what I’ve heard of it so far is excellent. Continue reading »

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