GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, MAY 2023

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jun 012023
 

(With the month of May now behind us, Gonzo reflects on five albums released during the month that got him excited.)

As I type this, I’m sitting at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, haggard as hell after the three-day whirlwind of Northwest Terror Fest. I’m not on speaking terms with my liver just yet, and my ears are still ringing despite having fairly high-quality earplugs in every night.

I’ll have a separate write-up coming soon enough about all that, but here’s a spoiler: It was fucking glorious.

Before we get to all that, there were some seriously noteworthy releases that saw the light of day through this month, and I’d be remiss if I skipped over them in favor of getting right to recapping my 72 hours of complete batshit insanity. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DROTT

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Jun 012023
 

(Karina Noctum has brought us the following interview with two members of the Norwegian band Drott, whose fascinating new album was released not long ago on the label of By Norse Music.)

Drott’s latest album, Troll, left me with the impression of having listened to something unique, and that does not happen too often in the metal world, quite frankly. Drott have an eclectic blend of musical influences. Some of the songs are framed in what can be a pretty dark and cold Norwegian atmosphere, which is something I cherish as a black metal fan. You could not have expected otherwise from a band that features Ivar Thormodsæter (Ulver), Arve Isdal (Enslaved) and Matias Monsen.

In this interview we get interesting insights from Arve and Matias. At the time of this interview the album was set to be released on May 19th, and is out now.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SILVERN — “STILL HIGHER THAN SAVIOUR’S STAR”

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May 312023
 

Early last year we had the privilege (and pleasure) of premiering a single named “Lorn“, which was the debut release of the Ukrainian black metal band Silvern, and the first sign of their first album to come. The song was laden with sharp hooks, and Silvern propelled it with a visceral punch. It created an electrifying yet distressing experience. The song also had intriguing lyrical themes, and (for reasons you’ll soon learn) we’ll repeat part of what Silvern had to say about them:

The lyrics describe the controversial figure of a human as a biological species, which constantly creates a problem for itself and everything around. The possibilities of consciousness are endless, you need to develop yourself and live in harmony with the Universe, but instead, a human invents religions, kills, harms the environment, thinking that he is the crown of God’s creation. Everything is much more complicated. Sometimes you need to look a bit higher than the Saviour’s star.

That last line provides the connection to yet the second Silvern single, which we’re premiering today — “Still Higher Than Saviour’s Star“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LOATHER — “MORTUARY”

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May 312023
 

Eis is the name of the debut album by the Austrian band Loather that’s coming our way in June via Vendetta Records. After a roughly four-year gap in Loather‘s releases (which of course included the pandemic disruptions as well as lineup changes), it follows an initial demo and two EPs, the last one being 2019’s Haganvelt.

It has never been easy to craft a succinct genre description for Loather’s music, but the task is even more difficult in the case of Eis. We’ve seen the phrase “blackened narcotic metal” applied to their past works. Elements of black metal and doom play roles in Eis, and Loather indeed prove themselves quite capable of casting narcotic spells.

But the genre ingredients one might identify don’t really operate as very useful signposts for what the album provides listeners in Loather‘s dark renderings of stress and sorrow, of angst and anger, of power and poignance. The music itself provides the best guide, and so it’s fortunate that we have a part of Eis for you today in our premiere of the song “Mortuary“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: IKU-TURSO — “AT THE CRACK OF DAWN”

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May 312023
 

(In this feature Hope Gould provides the introduction to our premiere of a lyric video for a song from the forthcoming vinyl and tape release of the latest album by Finland’s Iku-Turso.)

It’s no secret that Finland has mastered the art of melody. The country has long been considered a “satisfaction guaranteed” label for riff-seekers, so it comes to little surprise that Finnish black metal band Iku-Turso tread this path with black devotion. Infusing their melodies with the cold northern spirit of days gone by, Iku-Turso’s 2022 full-length, Into Dawnless Realms, has all the makings of a lost second-wave gem. It built upon the band’s five-year path of Finnish melodic mastery while tapping directly into the golden era of ’90s Norway; buzzsaw guitars, spellbinding synth, and vocalist Lafjawijn’s timeless creaky rasp are gateways to the oft-forsaken past.

We previously shared some words about the band’s 2021 EP At The Crack Of Dawn, whose title track has since been re-recorded in English for last year’s aforementioned full-length, Into Dawnless Realms. To hallmark today’s long-awaited vinyl release of Into Dawnless Realms on Wolfspell Records, NCS is premiering Iku-Turso’s lyric video for “At The Crack of Dawn.” Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 159): SPOTLIGHTS

 THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
May 312023
 

Recommended for fans of: Junius, Holy Fawn, latter-day Isis

The music of New York trio Spotlights has been described in a lot of different ways over the years, including “Alt-Metal”, “Progressive Sludge”, and “Post-Metal” (with the latter probably being the most commonplace, thought not 100% accurate in my opinion, descriptor).

Personally, however, I happen to prefer the more evocative – and more provocative – “Doomgaze” label, as this pretty niftily sums up the group’s dramatic, dynamic fusion of simmering, doom-laden guitars and shimmering, Shoegaze-inspired atmospherics.

But genre tags are, ultimately, just useful sign-posts, and if you really want to get to know the band then you need to spend more time immersing yourself in their entire back-catalogue… just like I have for this article!

Continue reading »

MOONREICH – AMER

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May 302023
 

(Andy Synn attempts to atone for our lack of coverage of Moonreich over the years)

While we’ve written about France’s Moonreich here and there before now, the sad truth is that we’ve never fully given them their due (in my opinion, at least).

But the recent release of their truly exceptional new album, Amer offers us an opportunity to make up for this. And I plan to take full advantage of it.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACK EUCHARIST — “ZIZIPHUS PALIURUS”

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May 302023
 

In all of their outward manifestations, including their corpse-painted visages and torch-wielding promo photos, the U.S. band Black Eucharist (who were once known as Black Ejaculate) defiantly brandish the familiar trappings of blasphemous black metal. Their music is lyrically venomous, vile, and fueled by a hateful scorn for the Nazarene and all things associated with him, and violent-demon rage comes through in the music as well.

But if you aren’t familiar with the band, their music is much more multi-faceted than those outward trappings might suggest, and they’ve proven that in spades on their debut album Inn of the Vaticide, which is now set for international release on June 23rd by Stygian Black Hand. In some respects it’s primitive and bestial, but in so many other ways it’s elaborate and genuinely head-spinning.

To back up that assertion, we’ve got a song from the new album named “Ziziphus Paliurus” to share with you today. Before we get to that, however, it’s worth pausing to reflect on the album’s first single, “Deflowering Jerusalem“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: STAGWOUNDER — “DER MODER HEILIGSTER RECHTE”

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May 302023
 

About 18 months ago we had the chance to premiere a fascinating song off the then-forthcoming sophomore album The Shrouded Muse of the World’s Lament by the German black/doom metal band Stagwounder, which was released by Crawling Chaos Records. The album itself was equally fascinating, and not only because of the music. Its conceptual underpinning was a series of aphorisms drawn from a work called Pessimistenbrevier by the 19th-century German philosopher Julius Bahnsen, and we delved into it in some detail in that premiere feature.

We won’t repeat that discussion here, though it’s still worth exploring if you managed to overlook the album. What we’re doing now is to provide a very good reason to track down the album if you’re late to the party, and to give even fans who know the album well an opportunity to revisit part of it in a special way, thanks to a video of Stagwounder performing the song “Der Moder heiligster Rechte” in an unusual live setting. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: OMNIUM GATHERUM — “SLASHER”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
May 302023
 

(What you will find below is NCS writer DGR‘s review of a new EP by Finland’s Omnium Gatherum, which will be released on June 2nd by Century Media Records.)

There’s always a fair share of carny/used-car-salesman when it comes to catching someone’s eye with a new release, and especially when it comes to an EP, so if you had told us ages ago that Finland’s Omnium Gatherum were going to put out an EP that included a cover of the song “Maniac”, we probably would have assumed that’s what was going on. However, in 2021 Omnium Gatherum would put out Origin, which was a release so bathed in musical neon and earworm synth lines that it makes perfect sense for them to cover a song like “Maniac” – if anything it’s perfectly in line with what the band are up to these days.

That forthcoming EP, Slasher, consists of the new title song, the aforementioned attention grabber of a cover, and then two songs that were taken from the Origin recording sessions, roughly translating to the simple conclusion that if you loved Origin, you’re going to like Slasher because it is quite simply more Origin.

If you’ve enjoyed Omnium Gatherum throughout the years, and especially as they’ve embraced their campier side post-The Burning Cold, you’re also going to dig hard into the Slasher EP because even with an eighteen-minute run time, Omnium Gatherum still find a way to create some absolutely lush music with plenty of hair-blowing-in-the-wind-esque guitar and keyboard soloing to justify its time with you. Continue reading »

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