ATROPHY: “ASYLUM”

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Mar 202024
 

(We present Wil Cifer‘s review of the first Atrophy album in 34 years, recently released by Massacre Records.)

Despite growing up on it in the ’80s I do not cover much thrash. Most of the new thrash bands just fetishize the sound of Combat Records bands circa 1985. While that was a pivotal time for metal, nostalgia only goes so far. Arizona thrashers Atrophy were never a household name when it came to thrash, but their 1988 album Socialized Hate was an overlooked classic. I gave the album an overdue revisiting, before diving into the band’s first album in 34 years.

The first thing that is evident here is that, at 59 years of age, sole founding member Brian Zimmerman’s voice has held up extremely well, for a vocalist who has not been all that active over the years. His delivery on this album carries the familiar narrative of their earlier work, though it seems he has spent some time thinking about what he did on those albums, as the phrasing is more nuanced.

The session players Zimmerman gathered to make this album might not be big names of thrash, but hungry players who took the opportunity and stepped up to show they were just as capable as any of the veteran thrash bands out there. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ENDLESS LOSS — “TRAVERSING THE MEPHITIC ARTERY”

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Mar 202024
 

Through their first two releases, Australia’s Endless Loss opened the floodgates of words here that attempted to capture the exhilaration of being sonically destroyed and chilled to the bone.

We referred to their 24-minute 2016 debut demo, Solitary Starless Beast, as “a catastrophic demolition job”, with “dire and desolate melody slithering along through the maelstrom”. We characterized their 14-minute 2022 EP Bloodletting Narcotic Divination as “brutally bludgeoning and psychotically violent stuff, but also hallucinatory and esoteric”.

We spilled out a lot more words, but you probably get the point. This Adelaide duo’s amalgam of black and death metal was violently ruinous enough to appeal increasingly to fans of bestial war metal, but also displayed a kind of fiendish intelligence and ingenuity that gave the music more dimensions than unmitigated bombardment and evisceration.

And so, while the prospect of an Endless Loss debut album created the thrills that come to some of us when anticipating a slaughter-fest, it also created curiosity. Would Endloss Loss continue opening other dimensions through their music, and how effectively would they do that?

We and you have our answer today, because we’re presenting a full stream of that album — entitled Traversing the Mephitic Artery — in advance of its March 25th release by Nuclear Winter Records. Continue reading »

HADIT – METAPHYSICAL ENGINES APPROACHING THE EVENT HORIZON

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Mar 192024
 

(Andy Synn can’t resist the pull of the new album from Hadit, out now on I, Voidhanger)

I recently stumbled across some online… let’s call it “discourse”, to be polite… about how the Metal scene is dying (it isn’t, obviously) because no-one values innovation any more.

Digging deeper, the gist of the argument appeared to be that Metal fans hate anything new and that only the originators of any particular style have anything worthwhile to offer.

Now, glossing over the inherent contradiction in this (as well as the fact that it ignores the iterative nature of musical evolution) what really saddened me about this attitude – in addition to its shamelessly self-righteous nature – was that, despite pretending to be more “enlightened”, it basically ignores the central idea that art is, primarily, a means of expression and communication, through melody, tone, and rhythm, in favour of a view that seems to see music as little more than an extension of the capitalist growth machine, one which must always be “innovating” to provide fresh “product”… regardless of whether it actually has anything meaningful to say.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that bands shouldn’t grow and evolve, it’s just that it should only be done on their own terms and in their own time – as Hadit so clearly demonstrate on their recently-released second album.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: INELEGANT MASS — “LOWER MYSELF”

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Mar 192024
 

Those of you who perused the daily news yesterday (though why would any sane person do that?) would have quickly halted in your tracks upon seeing this headline:

“500-pound mound of pythons found in Florida marsh”

Reading further, you would have found a photo and a description of a discovery made by a team of trackers (e.g., here) — a 7-foot wide mound of Burmese pythons in the midst of mating season.

Of course, it’s mere coincidence that this report surfaced just before our premiere of a song by a band named Inelegant Mass. Or is it? Continue reading »

NECROPHOBIC: “IN THE TWILIGHT GREY”

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Mar 192024
 

(Below you’ll find DGR‘s review of the new album by Sweden’s Necrophobic, released on March 15th by Century Media Records.)

Mark this as one of the most profound statements you’ll ever read on this site: As NCS has grown older and followed the careers of many a heavy metal band, we seem to be reviewing more and more albums that have hit double-digits in a band’s discography. Who would’ve thought the passage of time would be such a crazy thing?

It’s taken Sweden’s Necrophobic a while to get there – their first having been released in 1993 – but they’ve actually kept to a surprisingly consistent amount of time between albums over the years. They’ve never fully fallen into the ‘every two-to-three-years’ album schedule that many career bands do, and beginning with 2002’s Bloodhymns, the gaps between albums have remained steady, hovering at around three-and-a-half to four years. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOUBLE PREMIERE: HERXHEIM AND MANASSEH

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Mar 192024
 

Why do we have two song premieres from forthcoming albums paired together in this article? Here’s a multiple choice quiz for you:

a) the albums are being released on the same day
b) the albums are being released by the same label
c) both bands are the work of the same person
d) it makes it easier for us to melt your brains
e) all of the above
f) none of the above

Make your selection and find the answer after the jump. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRIMTONE — “GRAINS OF SAND”

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Mar 182024
 


In the context of the song premiere we’re about to bring you now, it’s a relevant coincidence that today is the birthday of Wilfred Owen, one of the first poets to depict the horrifying realities of war, instead of writing glorified, nationalistic verse. He served in the British army during World War I and was killed in battle at the age of 25. Here’s his poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth“:

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VENOMOUS ECHOES — “OCULAR MALTOSIS OV SCHIZOPHRENIA”

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Mar 182024
 

(As you can see, we have a song premiere, but first, an album review.)

After listening to parts of Venomous Echoes‘ 2023 debut album, Writhing Tomb Amongst the Stars, this writer immediately spewed forth words while my mind was still boggled, among them such adjectives as “maniacal”, “freakish”, “insane”, and “demented”, and referenced the conjunction of “full-tilt demolition in the low end and spell-like alien wailings that seem to reach our shores from deep space”.

I also quoted a friend’s impressions: “If Choir meets Portal and Impetuous Ritual in Strapping Young Lad’s City is in your wheelhouse you can’t go wrong with this onslaught brought to you by Benjamin Vanweelden.”

Upon learning that Mr. Vanweelden had had recorded a second Venomous Echoes album that I, Voidhanger Records would be releasing this spring, I already knew that I would have to hear it, and that I would have to make sure before listening that I wouldn’t need my brain to function in even its usually disjointed condition for several hours afterward. No great shock to see that the album’s name is Split Formations And Infinite Mania.

Well, now I’ve listened, and I find myself in shuddering but exhilarated agreement with the label’s summing up of the new album as “an intimate and personal experience into a universal cosmic horror apocalypse”. Continue reading »

DÖDSRIT – NOCTURNAL WILL

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Mar 182024
 

(Andy Synn kicks off his week with the new album from Dödsrit, out Friday)

There’s a certain type of person – trust me, I’ve encountered them a fair few times – who becomes inordinately angry if you try to talk about Dödsrit as being a “Black Metal” band.

But, of course, I highly doubt that Dödsrit themselves are all that fussed about the ongoing “he said, she said” of whether or not they’re “Black Metal enough” for the purists (surely that would be antithetical to the whole ethos of the genre anyway?) since they’ve been far too busy building an impressive career for themselves, on their own terms, to care about such petty concerns.

However – and here’s where things get interesting – the question of whether or not Dödsrit are still a Black Metal band, or how much of one they are, is actually very relevant when it comes to the release of their new album… though, perhaps, not quite in the way you might expect.

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: VIRCOLAC, IARMHAIRT, TORTURERS’ LOBBY, JZOVCE, PORONIEC

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 172024
 

Yesterday I read that in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parades in the Irish Channel of New Orleans, float riders toss cabbages and potatoes to the people on the street, a unique twist on the Mardi Gras practice of throwing strings of beads to revelers.

Although a flurry of cabbages would be entertaining, I’ll have to aim some other things at your head on this Paddy’s Day — spiky obsidian things dipped in poison or hallucinogens, some red with heat and some freezing.

Of course, I felt compelled to lead with music from a couple of Irish bands before crossing the waters east and west.

P.S. This column is late-appearing because I can’t hold my Saturday night Jameson shots and Guinness back like I used to. and my spouse and friends kept me up way past my bedtime. Continue reading »

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