AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): THUNRAZ — “BORDERLINE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 282023
 

The Estonian band Thunraz, the solo project of Madis Jalakas, has been in a creative surge from its inception, releasing a pair of EPs and a pair of albums since 2018. If anything the surge has strengthened, because Thunraz is following its latest album Revelation (released about five months ago) with yet another album that comes out today, on CD and digital formats.

The new album is entitled Borderline, and it includes nine songs, one of which — “You and Me” — we premiered a few weeks ago, along with a head-spinning red-shifted video. Today, of course, we’ve got all of it for you. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN, LITOSTH, CHALLENGER DEEP, DROWNED, TVINNA

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 272023
 

If you include yesterday’s Shades of Black column, this makes four days in a row that I’ve been able to pull together a round-up of new songs and videos. That’s a rarity, explained by a confluence of events I won’t bore you by describing.

I’m not sure it’s a welcome rarity, because it may just add to a feeling of being overwhelmed by the volume of music that each week (hell, each day) brings. But that’s not my problem, is it?

Is it? Well it is, because I also feel overwhelmed. Join the club. This pleasant misery needs company.

UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN (Chile)

You don’t really need any preparation, just a listening device, working ears, and a finger putting pressure on a digital arrow. But I have to further justify my existence, so… Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ETT DÖDENS MASKINERI — “KULTURKRIGET”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 272023
 

Kulturkriget is the name of the forthcoming second album by the Swedish hardcore punk band Ett Dödens Maskineri, whose name seems to translate to “a machine of death“. As the album’s title forecasts, its lyrical themes explore “the tumultuous battleground of the culture war that saturates every facet of modern existence,” dissecting issues that range from “identity politics and media manipulation to ideological clashes.”

Anyone with eyes to see and ears to here knows that society in almost all of the world is fractured more severely than it has been in generations, and there seems no imminent way out of it, the fractures so deep and jagged that repairing them would seem to require some kind of wizardry beyond the capacity of mere mortals.

The music on Kulturkriget is undeniably in line with such thoughts — bringing forward intensely evocative melodies that are bleak and furious, heart-broken and seeking escape, desperate but defiant. The piercing and haunting power of the melodies and the relentless dynamism of the music is part of what makes the album stand well out from the pack, but it’s still a punk album at its core, and so it’s also raw and raging, confrontational and caustic, and a damn good antidote for anyone whose adrenaline is at low ebb. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MISERY SPELL, FLUKT, REVA, SATANIC WITCH

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Nov 262023
 

This is one of those Sundays when I didn’t have any inkling of what I might choose before beginning to choose. I had so little inkling that I spent some time searching out where the word inkling came from since I didn’t know. (The answer is at the end of this post. Hint: it has not a drop to do with ink.)

Lacking any preconceived ideas I just started wandering through very recent releases, to see what might take hold. Hopefully what I chose will take hold of some of you too.

MISERY SPELL (Russia)

It took all of about two minutes for me to feel completely drenched by the music on this Saint Petersburg band’s new album Абсолютная тьма (“Absolute Darkness”), which was released just yesterday. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON SATURDAY: MORBID SACRIFICE, MOTOROWL, KRASSEVILLE, TORPE, TRIUMPH OF DEATH

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 252023
 

I woke up before the sun rose today because it’s harvest season and I have crops to gather.

Ha Ha, no that’s horseshit. I have no idea why I woke up before the sun on this Saturday morning, especially given the number of adult libations I consumed (as usual) on Friday night.

The only good that came of the early rising was my ability to experience the coldest morning of the year so far, at least where I live near Puget Sound. As I slurped my coffee and inhaled the first cigarettes of the day in the blackness outside, my phone reported 35°.

On further reflection, my opening line wasn’t entirely horseshit. I do have crops to gather in, musical crops… the time of reaping is ever upon us here. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A BLACK FRIDAY: VREDEHAMMER, BLOOD RED THRONE, NECROWRETCH, DVVAD, AKKAMOTH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 242023
 

Here in the U.S., where I am, it’s been a holiday week. For the rest of the world, it was just another Thursday. The holiday continues today, but even elsewhere in the world it’s not just another Friday.

For decades here, the day after Thanksgiving has marked the beginning of shopping season for the upcoming Christmas holidays, but it seems to have spread its infection elsewhere, even in the world of metal, based on the volume of e-mails I’ve received offering discounts on records and merch from locations in Europe as well as North America.

Well, why fight against the tide? Today, for one day only, we’re offering a 50% discount on the price of subscriptions to NCS, which is normally zero. Get ’em while they last.

I resisted the obvious temptation to limit today’s collection of new music to black metal, but it’s all still pretty black. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CLOVEN — “ASTONISHMENT OF HEART”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 242023
 

Sometimes we know an encyclopedia’s worth of information about a metal band, especially those who’ve been around for decades and play to packed arenas. Other times we have almost nothing other than the music. This is one of those times.

All we know about Cloven is that they’re from somewhere in Canada and that sometime in the future, most likely next year, they will release an album named Chance Encounter of Flesh and Nail. We’ve also been told that the song from the album we’re premiering today was a decade in the making. But that’s all we know.

Nosy people that we are, we’re left curious, but even when we know a lot about who is in a band, where they’re located, what inspired them, etc., etc., it’s still the music that must carry the day, and “Astonishment of Heart” does that. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OLDEST SEA — “THE MACHINES THAT MADE US OLD”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 242023
 

Our site’s name states a rule, but it has always been more preferential than fanatical, more tongue-in-cheek than belligerently adamant. And so we make exceptions, but still, they must be earned.

And now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can begin presenting one of those well-earned exceptions — not just well-earned, but too astonishing to brush away.

The centerpiece of the long song you’re about to hear, and the key feature that makes it both spellbinding and emotionally crushing, is the voice of Samantha Marandola, who with her husband Andrew are the duo behind the band Oldest Sea from rural New Jersey, and whose new album A Birdsong, A Ghost will be released on December 1st by Darkest Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BIZARREKULT

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 242023
 

(Today we present a discussion by Comrade Aleks with the always-interesting Roman from the unconventional Norway-based black metal band Bizarrekult, whose sophomore full-length was released last January by Season of Mist.)

There are too many bands nowadays, and it’s difficult to keep in mind all the new releases which deserve your attention. We already interviewed Roman “Bizarre”, the leader of Bizarrekult, about a two years ago discussing the band’s long story, his relocation from Siberia to Norway, and his first Bizarrekult album Vi overlevde. The band was heavily rooted in black metal, but back then it already demonstrated a lean towards progression in other directions.

Their second album Den tapte krigen, released by Season of Mist Underground Activists in January 2023, and the sense of artistic freedom which fills it, is exciting. There was no way but to get in touch with Roman again. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THE SECOND FOVEA — “VIBORA”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 232023
 

Today marks the fifth time we’ve written about and/or premiered singles by The Second Fovea (a band who began in India and are now based in the San Francisco Bay area) — and thus we’ve covered all of them to date. Thematically, each one has been different from the ones before, but all of them driven by a socio-political consciousness:

“Headshot” was a condemnation of hate crimes and racism across the globe. “Manta” was devoted to the majesty and mystery of the creatures for whom the song was named and tried to help spread the word about their conservation (we featured two different videos for that song). “The Echoing Habitat” called attention to our relentless pollution of the oceans with plastics. And today we have a fourth single, “Vibora“, which takes as its subject a metaphor for the lethal consequences of greed.

Just as the band’s lyrical themes have differed, the music has differed too, from song to song, and it changes again here, in part due to the appearance of the band’s new permanent vocalist, “Lalit Mehta“, who lives in Dublin, Ireland. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries