NO CLEAN SINGING

DGR’s… HELL I DON’T KNOW, HERE’S SOME MUSIC FROM 2023: 10-01

LISTMANIA 2023 7 Responses »

Jan 122024

(It’s the final countdown… of DGR‘s top ten records of 2023)

I feel like I’ve lit a fuse leading to a powder keg with this one because as of this writing I’ve finally sent in the other four chunks of this year end list, meaning I can no longer hide behind lethargy and malaise and actually have something of a deadline to answer to.

I am a fucking idiot.

The final block of albums is going to have a lot of familiar names from years past. As much as I picked on groups for playing it a little too close ot home earlier on in this tome, there were just as many familiar names that did manage to either add something new or excel in a style that they’d been honing for some time.

I don’t think there will be too many shocking choices here or ones out of left field. There’s a solid Grind block, a small chunk of Black Metal – both venom dripping, melodic, and hybridized into something meaner – a wall of Death Metal that you’re likely used to by now and one oddball that I think is basically right in line with my personal aesthetic.

So let’s kick this last bit downhill and see what sort of rubble it picks up along the way.

DGR’s… HELL I DON’T KNOW, HERE’S SOME MUSIC FROM 2023: 20-11

LISTMANIA 2023 2 Responses »

Jan 112024

(Here we are with DGR‘s penultimate post of the week)

Every year these take a lot out of me. I’ve always said that it gets easier as you get closer to the end but this year that hasn’t been the case.

I’ve been terrified to repeat myself and so I comb over this stuff again and again to make sure that you’re not seeing the same turn of phrase to often. I know I’m slowly turning into a sentient jar of mustard as I get older but at the very least I don’t want it super obvious that I don’t language no good more these days.

This block is where a lot of the heavy hitters lay, not in terms of critic-bait or the ones that are shared on a lot of people’s lists – though I’d hazard about half of the bunch here are popping up elsewhere since I am a simpleton – but because the music may be some of the punchier stuff I’ve included thus far.

We’ve also got the much vaunted “watch DGR describe a bunch of music that he lacks the vocabulary to do so!” bit, which is always fun as those have often felt like I’m attempting to ride downhill with a plastic trash can lid as a sled and the amount of control suggested therein.

The party – and the cheap shots at my fellow writers [someone’s forgotten that I have editorial control – Andy] – continues tomorrow and I’ll finally send this damned thing off with coins over its eyes to pay the ferryman.

I’ll see you then. Hopefully.

DGR’s… HELL I DON’T KNOW, HERE’S SOME MUSIC FROM 2023: 30-21

LISTMANIA 2023 No Responses »

Jan 102024

(We’re half-way through the week and half-way through DGR‘s round-up of his favourites from 2023)

Part three is where this list starts to journey up its own ass a little bit [Starts? – Andy].

In between my penchant for Death and Grind truly starting to show itself here, you’ll notice a lot of the critical favorites that’ve been going around maybe poking their heads up.

I don’t consider myself truly in touch with “the scene” as a whole – I’ve happily ensconced myself in a comfortably corner here – yet occasionally one or two do land on these far shores and get noticed.

This one has a couple of odd blocks to it – you’ll see them right about the time I call them out – there’s multiple forms of insanely dumb on here as well as insanely smart, and if you like some high peaks and some low, guttural valleys, I think I’ve got a pretty even spread on this part of the list.

Thirty or so is where things start to harden a little more when it comes to exact number placement so now you can start your arguing as if what’s written here is written in stone. Just remember that stone can be blown up too.

DGR’s… HELL I DON’T KNOW, HERE’S SOME MUSIC FROM 2023: 40-31

LISTMANIA 2023 5 Responses »

Jan 092024

(DGR continues his run-down of his favourite releases of 2023)

This segment is an intriguing one for me because you start to see a few of the EPs I enjoyed throughout the year popping up.

I’ll go deeper into why I didn’t split them out as I come across them but alongside all of that noise there’s a bunch of the weirder and more challenging works of my year.

There’s hooks and power-choruses to be found for sure but some these groups are going to make you work to get there.

This is also where a lot of my old favorites find themselves – its like how I have a fondness for Mountain Dew, I know what one tastes like and I know that I still whole heartedly enjoy a particularly good one – since they’re known factors and did very good versions of their sound.

They deserve to be highlighted and rewarded for that even as I explored elsewhere for much of 2023 as I think I did hit a bit of a breaking point when it came to having simply good additions to a group’s overall discography.

The next edition should be equally exciting if I ever get up to fighting my way through it as I think there’ll be a lot of interesting names there – though I assure you its none of your favorites, so stop asking.

DGR’s… HELL I DON’T KNOW, HERE’S SOME MUSIC FROM 2023: 50-41

LISTMANIA 2023 1 Response »

Jan 082024

(DGR is doing his own mini-takeover of the site this week, counting down his top 50 albums of 2023)

To put things exceptionally bluntly I didn’t know if I was going to do a year end roundup this time.

Things have been exceptionally tough at home in regards to personal family matters and it’s been difficult to try to build up the will to do much of anything.

It’s an ongoing process that will likely be that way for a long fucking time.

However, I think that my reason for doing these remains the same because it does allow me to send the year off in a funeral pyre – though it’s not the only one I’m lighting this time.

AXEL STORMBREAKER’S TOP 15+1 DARK-HORSE NOMINEES OF 2023: MIND-FUNK EDITION

LISTMANIA 2023 No Responses »

Jan 072024

(We’ve already presented a 2023 year-end list of “Dark Horse” records compiled by Axel Stormbreaker, but the ones he left out to make the list more digestible kept chewing on him to be observed, and so now we have this supplement.)

So, here’s what didn’t make the final cut of my 2023’s Dark-Horse list. As you may have guessed, any reasons vary in each and all circumstances. There’s some stuff I found out about after I compiled my final picks. And then there are some comps / EPs I had to exclude for the sake of homogeneity. And there’s also the issue about artists who either sound commercial, or end up too popular to be considered a current part of the underground.

Plus, shoving 30+1 albums from every possible genre down your sore throat in one go seems kinda unproductive. Being a labor worker who sleeps with Sharon Stone, while remaining clueless he’s an international spy whose not-so-Mexican girlfriend is waiting for him on Mars to overthrow an evil government makes more sense comparably… especially after watching the said movie. The latter is a brilliant work of exaggerated science fiction. The former, plain madness, simply put.

So, there you go. Another list of odd records that sound cooler than your band. This time I’ll have to adjust my style to the music described, or not. But since this article’s dedicated to Total Recall and its Mind-Bending Edition, you should expect to raise an eyebrow or two on more than one occasion. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THEOSOPHY

Interviews No Responses »

Jan 052024

(What follows is Comrade Aleks’ interview with one of the founding members of the Siberian black metal band Theosophy, whose latest album in a 20-year career was released last October.)

Theosophy is the black metal band from Barnaul, Siberia. Started back in 2004 this band released their first full-length album …Out of Decades only in 2010 and since then hasn’t stopped in developing their sound and concept.

Despite being located in that remote region, Theosophy play their stuff live whenever they have a proper chance, and so they performed not only in Siberia but also in the western part of Russia and in Europe.

Bleeding Wounds of the First and the Last is their sixth album, it was released by Epictural Production on the 27th of October, and this time they prepared something new. I’ll try to dig out more about the band’s music with the band’s founder Phantom (bass, vocals).

The interview with Theosophy was published in the Spanish magazine This Is Metal, and we are able to share it with you here. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA: A 2023 END OF YEAR LIST FROM DANIEL BARKASI

LISTMANIA 2023 12 Responses »

Jan 042024

(After a considerable absence, we welcome Daniel Barkasi back to NCS, with the following 2023 Top 20 list to start, and more to come.)

Well, well, well, it’s been a minute. Well, other than an interview that meant the world to me with Serge of Selfgod in 2022, it’s been seven years. Why so long? Well, as the cliche goes, life happens. Burnout, mental health, huge life changes, job stuff, and many other things can derail the time and drive to write about all things heavy. No, the earth’s gravitational pull is just fine (I hope), and yes, get used to dated references and bad puns. Get used to that, or don’t, and detest my Seinfeld-obsessed self. Your call! Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ABERRATION AND DIABOLIC OATH — “DIVINATIONS”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 1 Response »

Jan 042024

Last month we did doing something we almost never do — premiered brief excerpts from songs off a forthcoming release, just a teaser of the full thing to come. The release in question is a 7″ split called Divinations that will be released by Sentient Ruin Laboratories on January 5th.

The split includes one song each from the U.S. black/death metal bands Aberration and Diabolic Oath. It is a timely release, not only because it helps kick off 2024 in obliterating fashion but also because the spring of 2024 will bring us new full-length albums from both bands, Aberration’s Refracture and Diabolic Oath’s still secretive but completed second full-length, and so the split functions as a precursor and taste of horrific things to come.

If you heard the teaser, you’ll probably understand why we agreed to share it despite our usual reticence to premiere anything but complete songs or full releases. But if you caught that teaser premiere, you also know that we promised to stream this split in full when the time was right. And the time is right now. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: KAABOOS — “WRATH OF GODS”

Premieres 1 Response »

Jan 042024

Every day around the world vast numbers of people leave their home countries and migrate to another one, sometimes legally and sometimes illegally, sometimes easily and sometimes at the risk of their lives. There are thousands of reasons, but in every case emotional trauma undoubtedly accompanies such a fateful decision, with a sense of loss accompanying the desire to find something better.

That sense of loss probably accompanied the Iranian musician who calls himself Atash (a name that translates to “Fire“) when he left his homeland for Norway several years ago at age 16, but rage and rebellion were also in the emotional mix.

In his case, he sought a place where he could express himself musically in ways that were severely constricted by the oppressive religious totalitarianism imposed by the current regime in Iran. Where he found his own musical fires was black metal, and his solo project Kaaboos (کابوس), which stands for “Nightmare” in Farsi/Persian, has become the vehicle for that expression.

On Friday the 13th of October last year Atash performed black metal in front of the Iranian embassy in Oslo, as a public form of protest. One film of his performance, a cover of Taake‘s song “Nordbundet“, has already surfaced, and today we present another video from that protest performance — an electrifying original Kaaboos song called “Wrath of Gods“. Continue reading »

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