AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HURONIAN — “BEYOND FROZEN HEIGHTS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Sep 132023
 

The birth of the Italian band Huronian in 2020 was one of the silver linings to the lethal black clouds with which the covid pandemic was then shrouding the world.

Word of their existence spread through a self-titled EP released that year, and then spread further through a very impressive 2021 debut album, As Cold as a Stranger Sunset.

Now Huronian are returning with a new five-track EP. Entitled Beyond Frozen Heights, it’s set for release on September 15th by Gruesome Records, and today we’re bringing you an advance listen to the whole record. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TRIVAX –“ALPHA PREDATOR”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Sep 132023
 

On September 29th the UK label Cult Never Dies will release Eloah Burns Out, the second album by the black/death band Trivax. The group have already made a notable name for themselves since their recording debut in 2012 with a scattering of demos and EPs and an impressive first album, 2016’s SIN (which we praised here as “a rip-roaring assault of burly (yet melodic) riffs, slithering tremolo runs, and punchy drum work topped off with Shayan’s surprisingly comprehensible mid-range snarl”).

The Shayan referred to there is the band’s Iranian-born founder and guitarist as well as vocalist. The founding occurred under challenging circumstances, as Shayan planted the seeds of Trivax‘s fruition in Iran, whose theocratic government has been hostile (to put it mildly) to the music and lyrical themes of extreme metal bands like Trivax.

Shayan managed to exit Iran and put down new roots in the UK, where he established the band with bassist Sully (himself an immigrant from Syria, where we’re told he faced imprisonment for his metal associations) and drummer Matthew Croton. Continue reading »

LIMBS – EVERYTHING UNDER HEAVEN

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 132023
 

(Andy Synn sets out once more to explore the post-genre hybrid of Limbs)

The bitter truth is that, no matter how dedicated and conscientious you are about trying to keep up with new releases, you’re always going to miss stuff.

Heck, there are albums which have gone on to become all-time favourites of mine that I didn’t get around to hearing until months, sometimes years, after their original release, and bands I’ve been fans of ever since they started who I didn’t realise had something new out until they announced they were working on their next record.

Thankfully, however, I’m only a little late to the party when it comes to Everything Under Heaven, the recently-released third album from Manila-based trio Limbs.

Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AABODE — “MOIST”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Sep 122023
 

In this article we present a full stream of the debut EP by the two-person band Aabode from the French town of Nancy. The EP’s name is Moist, and it’s set for release on September 15th by Godz Ov War Productions. The label introduces it, at a high level, with these words:

Aabode is a dissonant, haunting twisted mixture of industrial beats and death metal riffing. Low-tuned, blackened, oppressive death metal riffing provided by Aabstracter is combined with ambient noise and glitched 808’s drum patterns. Assymetric track composition is overhanged by Abyssal‘s harsh vocals.

But like most views from a high level, that summary, while useful, omits the details. So let’s move into the EP at ground level, where the riotous dangers it poses to sanity are more apparent. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THE CIRCLE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Sep 122023
 

(We gave a very favorable review here to the second album by the German band The Circle, which was released last month by AOP Records. Comrade Aleks enjoyed the album too, and that led to the following interview with the band’s composer and guitarist Stanley Robertson.)

Stanley Robertson (guitars) and Alex Wirt (bass) played together in the epic melodic death metal band Vagrant from 2016 to 2020. They both decided to change its name to The Circle and change the style as well, to symphonic black metal.

When Alex left The Circle, Stanley recorded the project’s first album Metamorphosis on his own with guest vocalist Asim Searah in 2021, and then Stanley, Asim and Philipp Wende (drums) recorded the sophomore album Of Awakening as a trio.

The album was released by AOP Records on August 18th, and it was interesting enough to make me want learn more about this band. Hameln’s guitarist Stanley Robertson is here with us tonight.

(We thank Nathan Birk (Suspicious Activities PR) for organizing the interview.) Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SUFFOCATION, TOMB MOLD, CERULEAN, GHOROT, MĀNBRYNE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 112023
 

Happy Monday to one and all. It can’t hurt to wish for that, even if the odds aren’t high, especially on this particular Monday. But rather than stop at empty wishes, I also have some news and new music that might improve the day.

SUFFOCATION (U.S.)

I detest clickbait, but well, this first item is very close to that. I’ve not yet seen an official announcement of a new Suffocation album, only the surfacing of the cover art at the top of this page and a notice on Metal-Archives that a new Suffo full-length named Hymns from the Apocrypha will be released by Nuclear Blast on November 3rd. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AS THE SUN FALLS — “THE WANDERER”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Sep 112023
 

Founded in Switzerland in 2020 as a solo project and now ensconced in Finland as a full band with a new lineup following its founder’s move, the melodic death metal group As the Sun Falls have firmly planted their flag in the audio territory of “Northern Melancholy”.

It’s a soundscape where giants stride and cast long shadows. Such better-known bands as Before the Dawn, Wolfheart, and In Mourning readily come to mind.

As the Sun Falls proudly follow in those footsteps, immersing listeners in earthshaking yet evocative experiences that are steeped in sorrow and are best heard in winter. And if you don’t live in a Nordic land of forest and snow, no matter, because the music will quite powerfully transport you there in a state of solitude, where the distressing contemplation of mortality becomes inescapable. Continue reading »

MOROKH – INSOMNIA

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 112023
 

(Andy Synn continues his ongoing love-affair with Morokh, whose new album was released just last week)

Having written about Morokh several times before, I probably don’t need to spend much time introducing them (if you’re looking for a primer then check out what I wrote about their two most recent releases here and here).

And the fact that I’m not wasting any time with some sort of long-winded intro is even more appropriate when you consider how quickly the band themselves cut to the chase on their new album, Insomnia.

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NIGHT CROWNED, ASET, ANTANIA, CIRKELN, FASTER THAN THE DEVIL 2, HEADSTONE BRIGADE

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Sep 102023
 

I hope this Sunday finds all of you well, and ready to have your heads bounced around like tennis balls in a spinning dryer. Which is a way of saying that the music I picked for today’s collection careens around, not staying in one musical place for very long and ending with a curveball that swerves outside the black(ish) metal strike zone.

NIGHT CROWNED (Sweden)

We latched on pretty hard to the music of Night Crowned, beginning with our premiere of a song from their 2018 debut EP, Humanity Will Echo Out, continuing through our premiere of a song from their 2019 debut album Impius Viam, and moving on from there with a lot of enthusiastic commentary about their second album Hädanfärd in 2021.

And so we’re already relishing the release of their third album Tales, now set for release by the Noble Demon label on November 10th. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CELESTE, FUMING MOUTH, URANIUM, TUMANDUUMBAND, MECHINA

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 092023
 


Celeste

A lot of new music came out over the last week. All I can do today is lightly scratch the surface, like a friendly cat who touches their human companion’s skin with claws that let you know they’re there but without drawing blood — though some of the music here might feel like blood is being shed.

I got a very late start this morning, and so depended on late-breaking alerts from some of my NCS compatriots and a couple of other acquaintances rather than methodically clawing through my immense list of links and letting my own impulses determine the choices.I’ll probably be more self-directed in assembling tomorrow’s blackish column. Continue reading »

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