If you’re born broken, what do you do? Do you succumb to the idea that you’re fated to failure and become motionless or manipulative, or do you put away excuses and find out how strong you really are?
The Montreal band BornBroken have their own clear answer to that question, and provide it in the song we’re premiering today — “How Strong You Are” — from their forthcoming album (which seems to ask its own related question), Am I Invisible. Continue reading »
Let’s dive right into this one — but be forewarned: This “Undertow” will powerfully pull you under and crash you against the rocks.
As the words to this song reveal, the waters here aren’t earthly in origin. Rich in references to ancient mythology, the lyrics shown in the video (and growled monstrously but intelligibly in the song) portray a boat-less journey down the Styx and the harrowing underworld curses it brings.
Like the vocals, the music is also monstrous — monstrously heavy, ruthlessly bone-smashing, irresistibly neck-wrecking, and shrouded in an insidious atmosphere of evil and death. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn closes the circle with his review of part 2 of Amiensus‘s new double-album, out Friday)
There is, of course, no way to talk about Reclamation, Part 2 without considering it in the context of its already-released predecessor – the two of them forming both sides of a singular (in both senses of the word) coin.
That doesn’t mean, however, that Part 2 is incapable of standing on its own – far from it – it’s just that the group’s decision to release Reclamation in two parts, almost a full four months apart, offers us an opportunity to reassess the latter while analysing the former at the same time.
So, let us begin, shall we?
(With the month of August nearly over, our Denver-based writer Gonzo has brought us reviews of four albums released this month — by Summoning the Lich, Yanos, Generation of Vipers, and Zeal & Ardor.)
As we trudge through the final days of August into summer’s last inexorable gasp, there’s still a veritable battalion of quality new releases on the horizon. Hell, even by the time you read this, new albums from Amiensus, Anciients, Leprous, Nails, and Wintersun might even be out – all are set to hit streaming services this Friday.
Unfortunately, my upcoming travel schedule won’t be conducive to getting this Friday’s (August 30) releases included in this month’s roundup, but at least Andy Synn already offered a top-shelf review of the new Leprous last week.
All that being said, August had more than enough quality to kick up a circle pit or two. Dust yourself off and give these releases a spin. Continue reading »
Let’s be honest: When some of you metalheads (or at least those who are a bit jaded), see a band advertised as one whose Philadelphia-based members combine more than a collective century of experience, you might think, “Oh, a bunch of old dudes, probably playing tired old music.”
But when you see that their resumes include names like Krieg, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Polterchrist, and Mortal Decay (among others), maybe you’ll start reconsidering your assumptions.
And then when you hear what these people have done in their band Distant Dominion, you’ll really feel foolish — as you scramble for fire extinguishers and wonder where your teeth went after the music punched them out. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
I spilled a lot of words about the “devastating magnificence” of Isolert’s last album, 2020’s World In Ruins — words such as “soaring”, “sweeping”, “near-celestial”, “blazing”, and “tumultuous”, but also “crushing”, “stately”, “dolorous”, and “sublime”. It created ruinous maelstroms but also reached epic heights of glory.
It has therefore been quite exciting news to see that Isolert have a new album on the way, the work of a lineup that now includes new guitarist George S. (Kosmovorous, Herald) in addition to Panagiotis T. (vocals), Nick S. (drums, vocals), and Apostolos K. (guitars, bass). The name of their new album is Wounds of Desolation, and it’s set for release on September 13th by the band’s new label Non Serviam Records.
One song from the album has premiered so far, and today we’re fortunate to host the debut of a second one, a song called “Herald of Demise“. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn says the new self-titled album from Black Birch is one you need to hear)
Just recently I was chatting online with a bunch of Metal musicians – all far more famous and prominent in the scene than me – about how difficult it’s become, in an age of constant information overload and what seems like an ever-decreasing attention span, to make your band stand out.
Sure, I’ve seen and read all the well-meaning advice about jumping on the latest social media trends, optimising your “content” for platforms like TikTok and Instagram, and so on, but all of it seems so forced and performative and, let’s face it, has less to do with the actual music and is more about turning your band into a “brand”.
Still, there are ways to grab your audience’s attention that don’t involve doing silly dances or otherwise acting like a validation-hungry jackass… and getting yourself some eye-catching artwork is one guaranteed way of getting me to check out your album, at the very least.
And when said artwork (created by Black Birch vocalist/guitarist Gina Wiklund, in this particular case) is accompanied by some absolutely electrifying Black Metal?
Well, then you’ve really got my attention. Continue reading »
(About 10 days ago the multi-national extreme metal band Absence of the Sacred released their fourth album, IV: The Hand That Wounds, and below we present NCS writer Vizzah Harri‘s enthusiastic and evocative review of this new achievement.)
There is a saying that we die every second we breathe, for each breath that we release back into the air is a small death. In French that translates to petit mort, which in no uncertain terms is slang for sexual release. The immensity of molecules exuded from just the collective sigh necessary to deliver a qualifiable work of art into the world… uncountable. It’s important to put in perspective sometimes where we are at, and how good we have it right at this minute.
In death there is life, yet we consume the art that can un-alive a packed venue for the amount of carbon dioxide released from the breaths it took to create. We consume without sometimes even thinking about that part, and we can masticate on that hard-won elegance made manifest in waves of sound as if it were nothing, but a thing it is. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
I’m as infected by laziness as everyone else, but I do have my limits. For example, I almost always steadfastly refuse to quote what PR agents write in promoting the music of bands and labels, because copy/pasting that stuff is just… LAZY… even though lots of other metal sites do that routinely.
But today, I can’t resist quoting from the press materials for Ancient Malignity‘s new album Dehumanization Dawn, even though I’m going to eventually follow it with my own garbled verbiage:
Like a lost relic from the mid-to-late ’90s, Ancient Malignity‘s second album surges and slices with both palpitating precision and gangrenous gnarliness.
Those maniacs out there who hold high the torch of such old gods as Order From Chaos, Imprecation, Sacramentary Abolishment, America’s Crucifier, old Vital Remains, and earliest Kataklysm should find red-eyed solace in the blitzed & bleary decibels on display across Dehumanization Dawn.
Even the production itself sounds era-authentic — dank, dingy, and dungeoned, but no less muscular…. Continue reading »
(The Swedish band Stillborn trace their roots to 1984, and in June of this year, 40 years later, the original lineup brought forth a new album named Netherworlds. That was cause enough for Comrade Aleks to organize the following interview with the band’s vocalist and bassist Kari Hokkanen. Credit for all the accompanying photos goes to Bosse Melin.)
The Swedish gothic doom band Stillborn turns forty this year, and no matter what anyone says about “gothic doom”, classifying every other album of Paradise Lost, Theatre of Tragedy, or My Dying Bride as part of this genre, it was these Swedes who technically discovered it.
It was Stillborn who, in their debut album Necrospirituals (1989), mixed Black Sabbath riffs, without bringing them to the scale of Candlemass, with horror aesthetics and a deep low voice in the style of Fields of the Nephilim and Sisters of Mercy.
Having recorded three notable full-lengths, Stillborn broke up in 1996, and then they were remembered only in connection with Messiah Marcolin’s attempt to return to the scene under the name Colossus, and also thanks to Paradise Lost, who recorded a cover of Stillborn’s hit “Albino Flogged in Black” as a bonus to One Second. Entombed did the same in 2004, and they didn’t hesitate to make a video for the song.
The song turned out to be so influential that Stillborn themselves have now recorded its sequel, “Albino Flogged in Blue.” Continue reading »