BEST OF BRITISH: ANDRACCA / DEVASTATOR / VERMINTHRONE

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Feb 272024
 

(Andy Synn brings us three more examples of The Best of British from the year so far)

As some of you may know, a couple of weeks back I attended an excellent all-dayer featuring some of the very best of the UK Black Metal scene, two of whom – Andracca and Devastator – I subsequently decided I wanted to write some more about here, in the hopes of introducing them to at least a few new listeners.

And for the third artist/album – because all good things come in threes, right? – I’ve selected the debut album from a bunch of up-and-coming Souther sludge-slingers by the name of Verminthrone, who I predict you’re going to be hearing quite a bit more from over the next few years.

So, without further ado, let’s dig into another edition of “The Best of British”, shall we?

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HANNES GROSSMANN: “ECHOES OF ETERNITY”

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Feb 272024
 

(Below you’ll find DGR‘s review of the newest solo release by the standout German musician Hannes Grossmann, which was released on February 9th.)

Hannes Grossmann‘s solo career has been one of the more interesting things to pop out of the many tech-death groups and scenes over the decade. You never realize just how foundational a musician is to a particular style until they’ve done five or so releases that feel like continual statements of ‘I can do this in my sleep’ quite the way like Hannes does with some of his solo stuff.

Not only that but it’s long since been proven that as a musician he’s an absolute machine, and while Gene Hoglan has long earned the nickname ‘Atomic Clock’ when it comes to drumming, Hannes is equally precise and reliable. You could hand him anything and it seems within about an hour or so he’d have a grasp on the whole setlist. There’s a certain guaranteed reliability to the guy that pretty much assures quality; any band he joins is in good hands and any recording where he sits behind the kit is probably going to be just as solid.

His solo career has afforded him affable room to explore as well, and while his first two releases felt a little like finding their footing, Apophenia and onward are adventures in their own right. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ILAT MAHRU — “INCIPIT AKKADIAN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 262024
 

Ilat Mahru is a black metal entity shrouded in mystery.

In the Encyclopaedia Metallum and on the Bandcamp page for the entity’s debut album Incipit Akkadian, the band’s location is identified as Egypt, a rare spawning ground for black metal, though the reference also could have been “Ancient Egypt” (a less geographically specific and more spiritually attuned location).

Whether the band in its recordigs is a single person or more than one is a question un-answered. The source of the band’s name is also a conundrum. Trying to find its meaning or derivation through googling proved fruitless for this searcher.

Perhaps some of these mysteries were answered for metal-lovers who attended Estonia’s Howls of Winter XI underground black metal gathering which took place in Tallinn earlier this month, because Ilat Mahru performed there. Or maybe questions were still left unanswered.

Well, we should probably allow the band to preserve its mysteries as long as they care to, and just be content with the music — though it has mysteries of its own, as you’re about to discover for yourselves through our premiere stream of Incipit Akkadian in advance of its March 1st release by Death Prayer Records. Continue reading »

DARKEST HOUR – PERPETUAL | TERMINAL

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Feb 262024
 

(Andy Synn gets his teeth into the new album from Darkest Hour, out now on MNRK Heavy)

Darkest Hour have been one of my favourite bands for… well, if you want a clue as to just how long, the shop where I bought my first copy of So Sedated, So Secure as a kid has been closed for about twenty years.

Which either makes me the worst possible person to review their new album due to my obvious bias… or the best, since I know exactly what they’re capable of and am therefore best prepared to judge them accordingly.

Let’s hope it’s the latter, shall we?

Continue reading »

SOLBRUD: “IIII”

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Feb 262024
 

(Below you’ll find Daniel Barkasi‘s review of a new album by the Danish band Solbrud, which is out now on Vendetta Records.)

Black metal has been brimming with flavors and textures to please even the stingiest of palates. Denmark’s Solbrud contains a venerable cornucopia of variety – from the morose, to the hypnotic, to the unrelenting, and many variations thereof. They also never make the same record twice. With their latest IIII, they’ve ventured into creative choices that are bold and alluring. It can be said that there are four slices to this loaded-up pie. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ABYSSLOOKER, ASPHALT GRIEVING, THEY CAME FROM VISIONS, TWILIGHT SUN

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Feb 252024
 

I have a lot to get to for this Sunday column as I continue to benefit from my day job at least temporarily leaving me alone. I hope it will be a benefit to you too. I’ll try to make this a bit easier to get through by calling out tracks to sample from the three full releases I’ve included.

ABYSSLOOKER (Russia)

I made a point of including music from a Ukrainian band in yesterday’s roundup, yesterday being the second anniversary of the egomaniacal thug Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. I wanted to make a point of including a Russian band today, the point being that sometimes blame can be painted with too broad a brush, and we ought not do that. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BORKNAGAR, DEATH SCYTHE, HERXHEIM, SADISTIC FORCE, WAIDELOTTE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 242024
 


Borknagar

It’s nice to begin a Saturday roundup of new songs and videos without bitching about my day job. Hard to bitch when I’ve had enough time to pull together roundups like this one for three days in a row. The cat’s away, so this mouse will play.

My spouse is away too. Has been since early last week, off visiting a sister in Nevada, so that’s another cat away. She’ll be back tonight, hopefully with her claws retracted, but the annoying state of air travel these days makes that unlikely.

Still, being annoyed by all the hassles is better than having part of the fuselage blow out at 16,000 feet. Fingers crossed that won’t happen on this trip, even though she’s flying the same airline, which will forever remember this video.

Anyway, my fellow mice, I hope you enjoy some or all of what follows. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COMPRESS — “FORMOSUS”

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Feb 232024
 

Born in Massachusetts in the year 2022, Compress released a debut demo that same year that got tagged most prominently with black metal, crust punk, and hardcore. It’s well worth tracking down (you’ll find it here), as long as you’re ready to be pounded into jelly and scared out of your mind.

That demo was and still is a ruinously intense experience, viscerally slaughtering and mentally combustive, accented by doses of apocalyptic harsh noise in case your brain hadn’t already been sufficiently sliced and seared.

Anyone who ran into that demo, and got run over by it, will experience fearful thrills from the news that Compress are now back, with a debut EP entitled The Final Level of Consciousness that’s set for a March 15th release by Eternal Death. And it’s that pulverizing and petrifying album that’s the source of the song named “Formosus” we’re now premiering. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MOON INCARNATE — “NEMESIS”

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Feb 232024
 

We have a pair of treats for you today, with our only regret being that we’re not offering them on Samhain Night, when they would more naturally aid in opening the portal between worlds of the living and the dead. On the other hand, as you’ll see, they’re capable of making every night feel like Samhain beneath a full moon.

Those two treats are the first songs revealed from Hymns to the Moon, the debut album from the German duo Moon Incarnate. These two, Christian Kolf (Valborg) and Matin Vasari (Beyondition), joined forces under the influence of the early works of the Peaceville Three – Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema – as well as early Amorphis, Tiamat, Katatonia, Samael, and Moonspell.

They may also have been under the influence of demonic possession, because this is blood-freezing and blood-pumping doom/death of a very high order. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ALKALOID (HANNES GROSSMANN)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Feb 232024
 


Photo Credit: Christian Martin Weiss

(Delays of various kinds make this interview of Hannes Grossmann by Comrade Aleks later in coming than we would have liked, but it’s better late than never, as we hope you will agree!)

This interview was started by email in October 2023 or so, and why do we publish it now? Because things happen not as planned, and it took too much time to finish it, though even that didn’t help much, so I feel it is incomplete. And I bet that you already heard Alkaloid’s third album Numen, which was released by Season of Mist last September, so what else to add?

However, it was good to get a response from Hannes Grossmann, Alkaloid’s drummer and a super-busy musician who’s involved in a few more bands and projects. You can listen to some of Numen’s songs while you read the text. I think that it won’t take much time. Continue reading »

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