TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES OF ’23 — PART II

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2023  No Responses »
Feb 282024
 

(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 Part I of his list here, and now we’re proceeding with Part II. The remaining four parts will follow in fairly short order.)

‘We live in uncertain times’ is both clichéd and antiquated. Fear has been a massive driving-force towards change and, just like anything else, conceivable change is not always good. We understand change as a constant, almost a law as such, yet we fear it and our fear of it more often than not is what drives us towards horrid acts against our fellow human beings.

And so in order to inoculate against fear (of the other), of change, of that which we do not understand, we can take cues from why some of us are so compelled to find that new riff, to experience something for the first time, for our minds not just to open, but to bend around that axis of perdition into a fused vessel. Transported into worlds hitherto unknown. Always keeping a keen ear to the ground and another filled with that which challenges and provokes, that is what keeps us, and therefore also our art, closer to our initial true intentions. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, FEBRUARY 2024

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Feb 282024
 

(February ends today — oh wait! there’s a leap day tomorrow! — but we’re close enough that Gonzo has returned with another end-of-month collection of recommended albums, six of them, with streams and his reviews below.)

Maybe it’s just me being overly cynical, but does anything good ever happen in February? Why does it occasionally have an extra day every few years? Why is it always shorter? Who comes up with this shit?

Perhaps I’m once again shouting into my void of choice, but that might be because I’m recovering from five days of being on my ass thanks to some kind of plague I contracted last week. It feels good to be functional enough to write coherently (well, somewhat) and I’m relishing every moment in which I no longer feel like a vat of nuclear waste.

Musically speaking, there was an overwhelming amount of quality releases that saw the light of day in January, and by the time you’re reading this, long-awaited new albums from both Job for a Cowboy and Darkest Hour will be out and reviewed by our own Andy Synn. What year is it?!

There’s also no shortage of heavy hitters in this column; some of which have graced us with a new album after several years of dormancy. Some names you’ll recognize, some you won’t. Who doesn’t love a good comeback, though? Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CELESTIAL SWORD — “NOCTURNAL DIVINITY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 272024
 

Following Celestial Sword‘s release of its second album Dawn of the Crimson Moon in 2021, this enigmatic U.S. black metal solo project released a flurry of splits in what remained of that year, and one more in 2022, but then nothing in 2023. The pause suggested that some new evil was in the works, and sure enough, it has taken shape in the form of a new album named Nocturnal Divinity that’s now set for release by Death Prayer Records on March 1st.

For those who might only now be learning about Celestial Sword, Nocturnal Divinity provides a fine jumping-on point, as well as an enticement to go back and experience the music that preceded it. As for jumping on, you can do that right now because today we present a full stream of the new record.

Of course, if you want to pause mid-jump, suspended in air, you can peruse our thoughts about where you’ll be landing on the far side. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: ANDRACCA / DEVASTATOR / VERMINTHRONE

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
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?

Continue reading »

HANNES GROSSMANN: “ECHOES OF ETERNITY”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
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

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
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”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
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 »

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