(Andy Synn shares some words of wisdom, and warning, about the duplicitous, dichotomous, and devastating new album from Defacement)
Everyone knows that the common trajectory for bands is for them to get mellower and more melodic – maybe a little proggier, here and there, but still more accessible overall – as their career goes on.
But what the hell would such a transition even sound like in the context of a band like Defacement?
Rogga, photo by Jacob Johansson
(We present the following interview of Rogga Johansson by our Comrade Aleks. The initial focus is on the latest album from House by the Cemetary, released by Pulverised Records in May, but of course the discussion branches off into many other topics too.)
Rogga Johansson is a paranormally hyperactive Swedish guitarist and vocalist who started to conquer the metal underground with the death metal band Terminal Grip in 1994. I could fill the entire foreword just counting the bands and projects where he took part or which he keeps on running. But it seems that his most crucial band is Paganizer, the successor of Terminal Grip which has provided death metal since 1998 and produced twelve full-length albums and a good bunch of smaller releases.
However tonight we focus on the international death metal (of course!) project House by the Cemetary which he runs together with American vocalist Mike Hrubovcak (ex-Monstrosity, Azure Emote, ex-Vile, etc).
Their third album The Mortuary Hauntings was released in May 2024 by Pulverised Records, and if you missed it somehow, this interview with Rogga will close that gap. If you dig stuff with titles such as “Cadavers Emerge”, “The Realm of the Cursed” and “Opening the Gates of Hell”, this will please your tastes. Continue reading »
Today we’re fiendishly pleased to premiere Under the Blacklight of Divine, the debut EP from the Indonesian band Demon Sacrifice, which will officially be released tomorrow by the Indonesian label Ironbound Records.
We are “fiendishly pleased” because Demon Sacrifice‘s music is indeed fiendish, and fiendishly clever. They bring to the table a mixture of visceral punk beats, howling vocal terrors, and the kind of black metal that gets its hooks in the head but also sounds thoroughly supernatural.
They claim “indirect” influence from the likes of Bathory, Darkthrone, Devil Master, Spectral Wound, and Tribulation, and you’ll understand the use of the word “indirect” when you hear the music, because it’s not a blatant copy any of those bands. Continue reading »
(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ extensive recent interview with Philippe Courtois of Misanthrope fame, with a special focus on the Misanthrope spinoff Argile and the completion this year of Argile‘s trilogy of albums.)
Argile is the doomy branch of French intellectual extremes Misanthrope and it rarely emerges from the underground. While Misanthrope have been steadily recording albums and performing for over 35 years, Argile have been moving modestly and heavily from album to album.
Spleen Angel is the band’s third full-length work, and it is separated from the previous full-length by a huge break, counting 14 years. The album was recorded with a full Misanthrope line-up: Philippe Courtois (vocals), Jean-Jacques Moréac (bass, keyboards), Gaël Féret (drums) and Anthony Skemama (guitars).
Argile sound absolutely doomy, but unbridledly artistic, and do not restrain their impulses by genre conventions. Continue reading »
Here at NCS we like to think that in deciding what music to write about we avoid getting stuck in any ruts. Variety, after all, is a powerful antidote to the poison of boredom. And besides, we don’t want people to get too confident in thinking they know in advance what they’re going to experience whenever they land here. If our choices don’t at least occasionally pull people out of their “comfort zones”, then we’re failing by our own lights.
Having said that, the album we’re premiering below is in almost all ways vastly different from the music that populates our own ever-expanding spectrum of musical coverage. Because it is so different, there may be a risk that some of our visitors will shy away from it. However, I fervently hope that won’t happen, because Daimon, Devil, Dawn is a most skilled form of sonic sorcery that should not be missed. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn finds himself inspired once more – in more ways than one – by the music of Uprising)
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of musical escapism, that’s for sure, and I love songs about gods and monsters, mysterious mountain kingdoms and crazy cosmic phenomena as much as anyone.
But there’s also a time and a place for music with a message as well, and since 2016 – wow, has it really been that long? – Uprising (AKA the solo project of Waldgeflüster‘s Jan van Berlekom) have been spreading their anarchic, anti-fascist and anti-authoritarian message of resistance and revolt through the medium of some absolutely killer, riff-driven and punk-propelled Black Metal.
And, for better or worse, that message still rings true on their new album, which was released just last week.
Photo Credit: Francesco Esposito
For those of you who don’t treat our posts as among your daily essentials of life, or at least like a free oxygen mask in the vicinity of a chemical train derailment, I’ll mention again that I won’t have much time for metal this weekend.
Today is the start of an annual two-day outdoor gathering of toilers at my day job and their families. For some of us it began last night, something akin to an alcohol-fueled pre-fest for concert-goers. It was jolly, and left me somewhat jumbled this morning.
That relatively mild mental affliction, coupled with the fact that the real festivities will begin soon, have left me constrained in what I can do in this Saturday roundup. If you don’t see a Shades of Black collection tomorrow, you’ll know that my Sunday-morning affliction was more severe and my sleeping-in more prolonged. Continue reading »
We find ourselves in an unusual but not unheard-of situation at our site: featuring the music of a band we know almost nothing about other than the music we can hear.
In this instance the band’s name is Woe Bearer. It is a duo consisting of H., who performed guitars and bass, programmed the drums, wrote the lyrics, and mixed and mastered the recording, and T., the vocalist. We don’t know where they’re from or anything about their backgrounds.
They’ve recorded a debut album named Thriving Within the Absurdity of the Human Plight, which will be released on digital and tape formats by Onism Productions on August 23rd.
And that’s what we know… apart from the startling music you’re also about to hear now. Continue reading »
(With the month of June now behind us, Daniel Barkasi returns to NCS with a collection of eight albums released in that month which have drawn his favor.)
No, we’re not about to break out into the chorus of “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Though to be completely transparent, I do enjoy the cheesiness of Bon Jovi. But we’re not talking about New Jersey hair rockers today, beyond this brief mention.
June has been a strange month that we mostly would like to forget. We endured a family tragedy that still has me rattled – things are settling, but loss hurts deeply and tends to linger. Always keep love at the forefront of everything you do, because nobody knows what awaits tomorrow. Words to live by from this rando. I know, I know – we’re about to go over a bunch of extreme metal and we’re talkin’ ‘bout love. Sorry, Van Halen – who also rules. Continue reading »
(Comrade Aleks has brought us the following interview with Woe J. Reaper, the maniac behind the Norwegian “Black Psych Metal” band Furze, whose latest album Caw Entrance is out now.)
Trondheim-based black psych metal project Furze has a proper discography, and their eighth album Caw Entrance was released on 5 April 2024 by Devoted Art Propaganda from Polytriad Fingertips. Once again Woe J. Reaper supplies his followers with quite eccentric black metal filled with old school vibes and macabre delivery.
And yes, yes, Furze’s founder keeps the same approach to recording and delivery of his material — it’s better to quote him directly:
“You don’t like the production? Oh, luck gently off! Coherently we advise all listeners to grab a nice pair of headphones and listen to this album that way. No background listening sessions will work and not even your stereo for that sake. It’s strange but true: special details were impossible to secure into both ways of listening. Don’t worry: lots of work was laid down with mastering too, and what’s closer to a simple level adjustment from the mix worked like a superhorse so the result is clear: Headphone listening sessions are the only way to enter one’s Caw Entrance.”
I welcome you to learn more about Woe’s motivation and what BLACK PSYCH FUCKIN’ METAL is. Continue reading »