SHADES OF BLACK: MISOTHEIST, DEATHLIKE DAWN, GLYPH, DARK PLAGUE, BLESTEMAT, BEHOLDER, VALRAVNE, PÂLEFROID

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Mar 032024
 

Here’s the way today’s collection of music goes: The first four choices include two albums and two singles that I thought fit well together. The music by all four bands is unmistakably harsh and hostile, but it’s also adventurously inventive and head-twisting, laced with the kind of unpredictable and unexpected elaborations that might invoke in some people’s minds the amorphous label “avant-garde”, or at least the term “unorthodox”.

After that I’ve included four other individual songs as bonuses. Later I’ll explain why I used that word to explain their presence here, if you make it that far (and you damn well should). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: INTER ARMA, CIVEROUS, LHAÄD, ENGULFED, SYLVAINE, KVADRAT, AORTES, OSSILEGIUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Mar 022024
 


Inter Arma

I did a better than average job of making lists of new songs and videos that surfaced over the past week. As I knew from experience but had to re-learn, that was a double-edged sword. It made it less likely I’d miss something that would interest me, and more likely I’d be left with a big and difficult chore of deciding what to pick for today’s roundup. The choosing was somewhat (but only somewhat) less agonizing, since I moved a lot of possibilities into a virtual box for tomorrow’s black metal column.

I’ll forewarn you that, with one dramatic exception, all the music I picked for today is intense, often disturbingly intense, and sometimes pitched toward sonic and emotional ruination, though some of the songs get there more gradually than others.

Or, to put it another way, if you came here hoping to headbang, you might be disappointed. However, if you want to get wrung out, have your head spun, and find some bone splinters poking through your flesh by the end, your wishes will be granted. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: PELICAN — “ADRIFT / TENDING THE EMBERS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 012024
 

It’s another Bandcamp Friday today, and the electronic ether is flooded with new possibilities. I have dozens of recommendations I could make, in addition to the dozens my colleagues and I have been making every day since the last one of these Fridays. But the one I decided to pick out from the virtual deluge is here because… it takes me back….

In looking through our many past writings about Pelican, I found the first appearance in a list posted by one of the two other people who started NCS with me more than 14 years ago, a list posted just two weeks after we began (with no idea where we would go or for how long). And of course that wasn’t the last time we highlighted Pelican‘s music — many more features followed.

Even 14+ years ago, Pelican weren’t newcomers. Just a few weeks before that list I mentioned, they had released their fourth album, What We All Come to Need. Since then, two more albums have followed, and a few EPs, but the pace of the releases hasn’t been as intense as it once was.

That’s not shocking, given that the life of the band is now about 23 years, and the slower pace of output just makes the appearance of something new even more welcome. The new thing we have now, as of today, is a two-song EP named Adrift/Tending the Embers, and although nostalgia has admittedly played a role in why I decided to help spread the word about it, that’s not the only reason. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): OPPRESSIVE DESCENT — “SULFURIC WRATH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 012024
 

As you may know, Oppressive Descent is a black metal band from Portland, Oregon whose sole member Grond Nefarious has been a member of many other notable bands, as a quick glance at Metal Archives demonstrates. But Oppressive Descent is obviously far more than a side project, with a plethora of releases to its name beginning in 2016. That extensive discography includes five albums, the most recent of which is set for release on March 4th by Inferna Profundus Records.

The name of the new album, Sulfuric Wrath, stands as a big banner proclaiming the nature of the music within. But as you’ll learn through our premiere stream of the entire record on this Bandcamp Friday, it offers much more than corrosive burning rage — though it definitely does offer that as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VLTIMAS (RUNE ERIKSEN)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Mar 012024
 


photo ©Jolanda Siemonsa

(Our old friend Ben Manzella returns to NCS with the following interview of Rune Eriksen. The focus is on Vltimas, whose new album EPIC is set for release on March 15th by Season of Mist.)

While there are still a few weeks until Vltimas’ fittingly titled next LP, EPIC, is released, I’m grateful to present this brief conversation with Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen. After editing it for clarity and reading over his answers from our email exchange, I only wish we could have met in person for this conversation. He offered plenty of info, I think, for the few questions presented here.

If you have yet to pre-order EPIC through Season of Mist, the time is now. This rollercoaster of personality in recorded form hit me like a train from the first listen. The creative trio of David Vincent, Flo Mounier, and Rune is hard to match and even describe. They have crafted an extreme metal record that will stand out not only in the year 2024 but in general, and I would not be surprised to see it on many year-end favorite lists. EPIC is due for release on the 15th of March. Continue reading »

TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES OF ’23 — PART 3

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2023  No Responses »
Feb 292024
 

(Our editor wasn’t able to compile a list of Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs from 2023, but our supporter Vizzah Harri, a resident of Hanoi, Vietnam, has stepped in to fill the void. We published Parts 1 and 2 of his list here and here, and now we’re proceeding with Part 3. The remaining three parts will follow in fairly short order.)

We were awaiting that infectious list with keening anticipation, and it being Islander’s baby, for a while there we were genuinely a bit worried whether he was okay. But as of this writing on the last day of the year of the rabbit (albeit the cat in ‘Nam, and yes it is already deep into lunar January, but Gregorian January and now Feb have been an unequivocal cornucopia of quality releases, so whether anyone is even interested anymore in the year just past is anyone’s guess) we are still blessed with the presence of NCS’ inimitable editor.

I told myself I need to get the second part out before the 1st day in the lunar calendar, today was that day but – like that saying when people imbibe early in the morning – it is certainly noon somewhere in the world (again, it’s almost March as I edit this again so just assume that I work on Africa time, a loose concept in my motherland). Time and the perception thereof, just like any other palpable or imperceptible agent, can inform cultures and so I implore you to disengage from the now and harken back. I ended up cutting up one follow-up into 5 parts… Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TRIJUMF — “TRIJUMF ILI SMRT – TRIJUMF”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 292024
 

This makes the third time this week that we’ve premiered an album set for release on March 1st (a Bandcamp Friday) by the UK label Death Prayer Records (the others being from Ilat Mahru and Celestial Sword). The subject today, very different from the preceding two, is the debut album by the Bosnian black metal band TRIJUMF. Its title is TRIJUMF ILI SMRT – TRIJUMF (“Triumph or Death – Triumph”).

We don’t know much about the band, including who is in it, but we can infer from the group’s name, the album’s title, and the song names that their motivation derives from the atrocities that wrecked their country during the so-called Bosnian War between 1992 and 1995, and perhaps from even older conflicts. To triumph is the order of the day, and “NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET” is the epilogue.

In giving voice to their inspirations TRIJUMF‘s album provides four very long songs, ranging in length from 9 1/2 minutes to nearly 12, and in a word, they’re all remarkable. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 168): BLACK KNIFE

 THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Feb 292024
 

Recommended for fans of: Midnight, Hellripper, Goatwhore

Let me tell you a story about why it’s important to strike while the iron (or knife) is hot.

Having first discovered self-described “Heavy Metal Punx from Hell” Black Knife back at the end of 2021, and then enjoying their third (and, sadly, final) album, Baby Eater Witch, last year, I decided that I’d pick up the band’s entire back-catalogue on cd for #BandcampFriday at the start of February

But no, it was not to be, since – due to their decision to break-up (which I hadn’t even heard about) – they’d recently sold out of every single copy of both their debut album, Spell Caster and it’s fantastic follow-up, Murder Season, so I ended up missing out on the chance to add both to my collection.

So, with that in mind, I hereby encourage you all to check out what brimstone snortin’, bullet-belt wearin’, d-beat lovin’ devil-worshippers Black Knife have to offer in this latest edition of The Synn Report, because while the band may now have been laid to rest, their music is still very much alive and kicking.

Continue reading »

THE SORROW OF BEING IMMACULATE: “CHURCH MUSIC FOR SATANISTS”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 292024
 

(DGR has left his usual comfort zones far behind, lured away by the Welsh band whose new EP is the subject of his review below.)

Sometimes in the process of wandering the decrepit halls and ancient ruins of metal, detector, pick-axe, and trowel in hand in the hopes of coming across something interesting that you can help spread out to a wider audience, you’ll come across something that you know isn’t directly for you, but boy howdy, do you know a whole lot of people who will absolutely be into it.

Those adventures are fun in part because you have the job now of trying to find someone on the site who may be interested in covering it or, the more likely option, you yourself get to go on an adventure of trying out something and seeing if it lands with you. Something may resonate with you, who knows?

That’s how we have landed at the doorstep of The Sorrow Of Being Immaculate, a name which floated across the proverbial – if not perpetually on fire – writer’s desk here approximately one time but somehow managed to grab attention based off of the album title alone. Because, even after fourteen-plus years of existence, how could we not be tempted to look into something entitled Church Music For Satanists? Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SVART LOTUS — “SOM ET VONDT ÅR”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 282024
 

This makes the third time in almost four years that we’ve had the privilege of premiering music by the distinctive Norwegian band Svart Lotus. It’s been a privilege because every time has given us the occasion to be surprised, and each surprise has created further intrigue about what will come next.

Now what comes next is the band’s second album, Som et Vondt År. It will be released on March 1st by Hellstain Productions, but you’ll have the chance to hear all of it today. Continue reading »

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