AN NCS PREMIERE: VACIVUS — “RITE OF ASCENSION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  9 Responses »
Jun 052015
 

 

Vacivus are a UK band that rose from the ashes of an earlier group known as Dawn of Chaos. With a different line-up and a change in musical direction, Vacivus have recorded a five-track EP named Rite of Ascension that reflects their new focus. Today we bring you a full stream of the EP in advance of its official release.

The music on Rite of Ascension is in the vein of what today might be called “blackened death metal”, but might also be thought of simply as one of the vicious descendants of death metal progenitors such as Incantation. The five songs flow from one to another in an electrifying storm that ebbs and flows but is never less than heartless and scathing. It marks the stunning appearance of a band whose name we expect to see praised throughout the dark places in the underground where ancient death worship is the order of the day. Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: WYATT H. (HELLEBORUS AND AKHENATEN)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jun 052015
 

 

(KevinP brings us another short-but-sweet interview, this time with Wyatt H. of the Colorado bands Akhenaten and Helleborus — whose new song “Coils” we premiered earlier this year (here) with a free download.)

K:   So how does one go from brutal death metal [Execration] to Mesopotamian and psychedelic black metal?

W:  Helleborus and Akhenaten were in development during our time spent with Execration. Jerred  had already started developing sounds for what would be Akhenaten in 2010. Around the time I was asked to join Execration, we were already experimenting with the elements of Black Metal before we had formed a solid project. Execration already had two releases when I started rehearsing with them. The nature of the music never fit with me but I enjoyed the chaos and energy behind it. Jerred and I tried our best to put our soul into the project with the last release The Acceptance of Zero Existence. Even though we had great success with the album, it brought light to me, that my brother and I were putting too much energy into something that wasn’t ours and of our true nature. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 74: PALINOPSIA, TEMPLE OF GNOSIS, FORGOTTEN HORROR, VIOLET COLD

 MISCELLANY  14 Responses »
Jun 052015
 

 

The last of these MISCELLANY posts was more than three months ago. I’ve obviously done a piss-poor job getting the series on anything like a regular schedule. Of course, I would be foolish at this point to predict when No. 75 will happen. Let’s just get on with it, shall we?

I think we probably need a reminder about how the MISCELLANY experiment works:  I randomly pick bands whose music I’ve never heard before (usually bands whose names I’ve only discovered recently) and I listen to only one or two songs, usually from their most recent releases. I write my immediate impressions of what I’ve heard, and then I stream the music so you can make up your own minds. Unlike everything else we post at this site, I don’t know what the music will sound like in advance, or whether I’ll like it.

PALINOPSIA

My first selection comes from a four-man band named Palinopsia from Poultney, Vermont. They wrote yesterday to call our attention to their first EP, entitled Murmurs From the Well Nothing More, which was released on June 3. The EP is on Bandcamp, and the song that’s set to begin streaming there is the EP’s second track, “Silt”. Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST 2016: LET THE WISHLISTS BEGIN!

 Mosh Pit  73 Responses »
Jun 042015
 

 

(Maryland Deathfest 2015 is in the history books, but the organizers already lining up bands for next year’s edition of MDF. Here’s KevinP’s wishlist of bands for next year — and we want your ideas in the Comment section, too.)

 2015 is in the books and we have a date for next year already (May 26th-29th).  Bands usually start being announced in a month (or so), so let’s get the discussion going!  Who do you want to see and why?   For the sake of reasonableness, I’m keeping my list to 10, even though like many of you I could easily do 20+.  Also, a few rules I applied:  if a band played in 2014/2015, they won’t be playing next year, just accept that as near fact.  Even bands who played in 2013 seem far-fetched.  So no Bolt Thrower, Dark Angel, or Bloodbath.  The most recent year I’m pulling from is 2012.  So here we go with my list (in order of importance) along with my infallible logic.

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1. Hail Of Bullets – their last appearance was 2011.  I think a five-year gap is more than enough time.  Who doesn’t like this band?  If you don’t you should get your head examined (or you may be a Finnish guy named Markku).  I would like an Edison Lot show, though.  Since I would bring my 12-year-old daughter, who loves HOB, the shows end earlier and there’s more breathing room at the lot.  Would be awesome for her to finally meet Ed Warby and Martin van Drunen. Continue reading »

YOUR FILTH FOR THE DAY: PISSGRAVE, UNDERGANG, RUINOUS, FORNICATION, SATANIC RIPPER — AND SOME NEWS ABOUT CRAFT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jun 042015
 

 

Some days you wake up and you want some soothing, pretty music. I’m talking about soothing, pretty METAL music, because obviously I’m not a completely tasteless moron who left his nuts at the checkout counter of Abercrombie & Fitch. But some days you wake up in the mood for filth. You just want to bathe yourself in a slurry of warm fecal matter, pus, and fresh afterbirth. You know what I’m talking about, so don’t deny it.

Well, that’s how I felt this morning. And while I was waiting for the bathtub to fill and lighting the scented corpse-flower candles, I went looking for some appropriate musical accompaniment. Here’s what I found.

PISSGRAVE

This morning Profound Lore posted that cover art up there, the one with a photo that looks very much like what’s filling up in my bathtub, except with bones. I don’t like bones in my bath because sometimes they get stuck in my hidey-hole as I’m lowering myself into the broth. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DELIRIUM SILENCE (ANDREY LEMARK)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Jun 042015
 

 

(Our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks bring us this interview of his countryman Andrey Lemark, vocalist of Delirium Silence.)

It’s not a geography lesson, but take a look at a map of Russia and find Yakutsk city. It’s located just 280 miles south of the Arctic Circle. You may ask me what did I forget there? Delirium Silence. A newborn aggressive death doom band that released a self-titled EP in December 2014.

This record consists of six songs, including a cover of the Septic Flesh song “Anubis”, and it’s really worth a listen. So I asked a few questions of Andrey Lemark, the band’s vocalist.

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Hello Andrey! The first EP of Delirium Silence was pretty well-made, well-recorded, straightforward, and heavy. How long did you work over this release?

Greetings! To my mind the cover art is pretty awesome, thanks to Alex from Mayhem Project design.

You said it was heavy? I wouldn’t say so. The thing is that when we were recording the EP we weren’t sure what we wanted and in which genre we wanted to make it, but I like it loud and hard. Speaking of preparations, we weren’t actually preparing anything, it just happened. But each of us was waiting for this time to come. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HATE ETERNAL, MYRKUR, KHEMMIS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Jun 032015
 

 

Once again I find myself awash in new music discovered over the last 24 hours that I want to share with you. I’ve picked three new songs to feature in this collection, and you know I must really like them since I have to send you to other sites to hear two of them.

HATE ETERNAL

Every death metal fan worth his or her salt has to be salivating over the prospect of a new Hate Eternal album — and that’s what we’re about to get. The new record is named Infernus and it’s set for North American release by Season of Mist on August 21. In addition to the fact that it will contain Hate Eternal music, it’s also adorned with painted cover art by the masterful Eliran Kantor. And now we also have a new song to hear. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RÉGIMENT — “MORT D’UN NÈGRE”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Jun 032015
 

 

The French band Régiment have recorded a debut album entitled On les Aura! that will be released by Antiq Records, and today we bring you the premiere of one of the album’s new songs, “Mort d’un Nègre“.

Although Régiment are a new band, the four members have performed in an array of other groups —Wormfood, Mind Asylum, Öxxö Xööx, Lugnasad, Anus Mundi, Vintergeist, Borgia, Aorlhac, Peste Noire, Hanternoz, Ê, and Grylle. The new album is a concept record, and it’s important to understand that concept as well as the meaning of the song we’re premiering, lest you get the wrong idea from the title.

The album (whose title in English means “We’ll Get Them!”) is a musical exploration of life and death on the French lines during World War I. As the band’s frontman H has explained, it was inspired by the thoughts and feelings of the songwriters in seeing such family artifacts as a helmet, letters, military gear, and photographs dating back to the so-called “War To End All Wars”, which devastated an entire generation of men in Europe and had vast ripple effects on future generations as well. It’s not a typical subject for an extreme metal album, but there’s no doubt it’s an interesting one. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CRUSHER — “NO PROGRESS WITHOUT REGRESSION”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Jun 032015
 

 

Later this month the French label Deadlight Entertainment will release a special split record entitled Blast From the Past that features songs by two cornerstone bands in the evolution of the French death metal scene — Crusher and Mercyless. We came across the premiere of one of the Mercyless songs in mid-May and praised it here — and now it’s our pleasure to bring you the premiere of one of Crusher’s tracks: “No Progress Without Regression“.

Crusher trace their roots deep into the realm of French extreme metal. They released their debut album Corporal Punishment in 1992, and that was followed by a 1993 EP (Act II: Undermine!). At some point after that it appears that Crusher disbanded — but they have recently reunited and will be staging a comeback performance at the 2015 edition of Hellfest, scheduled to take place on June 19-21 in Clisson.

The song we’re premiering was originally released on the Brutale Génération compilation by Semetery Records in 1995. Despite the passage of 20 years since then, the song hasn’t lost its appeal. Continue reading »

SÓLSTAFIR’S FORMER DRUMMER AIRS HIS GRIEVANCES

 Metal News  10 Responses »
Jun 032015
 

 

Those of you who have been fortunate enough to see Sólstafir on tour recently will have noticed the absence of the band’s founding drummer Guðmundur (“Gummi”) Óli Pálmason. Today he released a long personal statement about the reasons for his absence. In a nutshell, the other band members “fired” him from the band before the beginning of the recently completed North American tour, both sides have retained lawyers, and there are obviously some very hard feelings in the aftermath of this split. Most of Gummi’s grievances are directed against the band’s vocalist/guitarist Aðalbjörn “Addi” Tryggvason.

I almost decided not to write this post. I have met both Gummi and Addi. I had fairly regular communications via the internet with Gummi over several years as we have covered what is one of our favorite bands on the planet, and I had some long conversations with Addi during Sólstafir’s two recent visits to Seattle. I certainly can’t say that I know either of them very well, but based on the time I spent with them, I liked them both a great deal — and of course I greatly admire what they have accomplished in Sólstafir. So, this controversy is for me a sad occurrence, more so than when things like this happen within other beloved bands whose members I don’t personally know.

Addi told me about what had happened between the band and Gummi after Sólstafir’s show in Seattle in early May, explaining that because of the legal entanglement, the band could not make any public statement. He was very respectful of Gummi when he spoke of him, and seemed very sad about what had happened, rather than angry. It didn’t seem my place to say anything about these events on our site, so I kept it to myself. Continue reading »

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