LISTMANIA BEGINS: THE DECIBEL TOP 40 FOR 2022

 LISTMANIA 2022  25 Responses »
Nov 112022
 

 

It has become an annual tradition at our putrid site to launch our year-end LISTMANIA orgy with the appearance of DECIBEL mag’s Top 40 list, because they always seem to burst from the starting gate sooner than anyone else — and they’ve done it again this year, although about a week earlier than they did in 2021. There’s also the fact that, in my humble opinion, DECIBEL is still the best print publication out there for fans of extreme metal, and their list always generates healthy discussions, so it’s a fitting way to launch the latest LISTMANIA season apart from the list’s early-bird status.

The DECIBEL list will officially appear in the magazine’s January 2023 edition, which hasn’t yet hit my own mailbox, but DECIBEL again decided (for the eighth year in a row) to scoop their own list rather than letting leeches like me leak it (actually, this year they called people like me “enterprising dorks”). They published the list on-line yesterday, and so I can now again re-publish their list without too much guilt, beyond the sheepishness that comes from being one of the factors that forced them to start outing themselves in the first place. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UDÅNDE — “I’M NOT A PESSIMIST, I’M A REALIST”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 102022
 

It’s become commonplace for metal bands to describe their new songs as “personal”, in the sense that they are inspired by real-world events experienced by band members, usually of the distressing or sad variety. Sometimes it seems that such claims are intended to make the music seem more “authentic” (“seem” being the operative word), and sometimes neither the events nor the music have the innate gravity that the bands hope for.

The forthcoming second album by Udånde, Slow Death – A Celebration of Self-Hatred, is also portrayed as a very personal record, but there’s a raw and uncomfortable honesty in the creator’s description of the events that spawned it which transcends the commonplace, and those events are likely to resonate with a lot of listeners. Moreover, the music itself isn’t commonplace either. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KRVNA — “IN THE ABSENCE OF GODS”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Nov 102022
 

The Australian black metal band KRVNA made its recording debut in September 2021 with a demo named Long Forgotten Relic. It was released by Seance Records and consisted of two substantial tracks. In its lyrical themes, and through the visions of imagination spawned by the music, it explored the vampire mythos from the ancient world to Biblical times, and the black forests and mountainous castle crypts of Balkan and Carpathian incarnations of the legend.

Closely following on the heels of that very promising advent, Seance Records then released KRVNA’s debut album Sempinfernus. It too delved into vampyric mythology but in an even more expansive and far-reaching way. Moreover, KRVNA’s solo creator Krvna Vatra at that time disclosed more precisely the nature of his interest in the subject matter, and how it represented themes that extended beyond old tales of the undead. Continue reading »

A TRIPTYCH OF TECHNICAL TALENT: RASTER DENSITY / SUBORBITAL / VORMIR

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 102022
 

Exactly what constitutes the precise definition of “Technical” Death Metal is a controversial topic at the best of times.

After all, doesn’t Death Metal – above a certain number of bpm, at least – actively require a certain amount of technical talent to properly pull it off?

And where exactly does one draw the line? After all, no-one would go around referring to Cannibal Corpse as “Technical Death Metal”, obviously, but many of their riffs (and particularly their bass-lines) are pretty finger-flensing, while Dying Fetus (to pick another “big name” out of the hat) are pretty famous for their face-melting fretwork but are arguably just as well-known for their willing embrace of bone-headed brutality.

Perhaps it’s just an age thing – maybe some of today’s “Technical Death Metal” bands wouldn’t have been referred to as such “back in the day” – or maybe there’s more to it than that.

Whatever the answer is… I don’t have it for you here. But I do recommend you check out all three of the artists/albums featured in today’s article, whether you’re a fan of “Technical” Death Metal or not.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HEIDEN — “ANDZJEL”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 092022
 

In heavy metal, genre scrambles fail as often as they work. We might go so far as to say that failures exceed successes. Most listeners have pronounced preferences in the kind of music they listen to, and even among those who find a certain degree of mixing attractive, there are limits to their tolerance. Even among “music critics”, there’s a tendency to proclaim that genre-crossing bands are either confused about what they want to be or try too hard to be everything to everyone.

Andzjel, the forthcoming ninth album by the multi-talented Czech band Heiden, is undeniably a genre-scramble of a record. Moreover, the band themselves have a pronounced history of change. If you look at Metal-Archives, you’ll see this genre-jumble: “Black Metal (early); Post-Black Metal/Rock (mid); Post-Rock (later)” — and that doesn’t reflect what has happened on Andzjel, which itself represents another pivot. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (WEEKDAY EDITION): MITHRIDATUM, IMPERIUM DEKADENZ, KOMMANDANT, WORMWITCH, FORELUNAR

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Nov 082022
 

 

I decided I would have enough time to prepare a round-up of new songs and videos today. As I checked out candidates, it hit me that a lot of them were in the vein of black and “blackened” metal (with a healthy heaping of death metal in the mix). And so, with apologies to bands in other genre terrains that have also released worthy new music in recent days, I decided to focus this one on the kind of music I usually explore through this column on Sundays.

MITHRIDATUM (U.S.)

I was compelled to lead off with “Sojourn” because of the stunning cover art by The Blazing Seer for this band’s debut album Harrowing. But to be clear, the music isn’t an afterthought. Like the album title, the song is harrowing — a blistering, battering, bleak, and bizarre formulation of dissonant blackened death metal. Through the freakish whining and wailing of the guitars, it applies knives to the listener’s nerves, even when it slows, and the drumwork is as discombobulating as it is electrifying. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SKÁLA — “MOSS AND MOUNTAINS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 082022
 

As of today listeners now have two tracks to hear from The Secrecy, a striking debut album from the black metal solo project Skála, which is set for a December 9 release on cassette tape (and digitally) by the Eternal Death label.

Why is it striking? Well, as these two songs demonstrate, the music deftly straddles many dividing lines, and frequently does so simultaneously — between abrading harshness and ringing clarity, between mourning and madness, between extreme distress and hopeless dejection, between a yearning for something vital that is vanishing and visions of fading grandeur.

In doing all this the songs are often unsettling to hear, but it’s easy to lose yourself in them, and they’re damned hard to get out of your head. What inspired them? We have this partial answer in the promotional materials: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND REVIEW): FELL RUIN – CAST IN OIL THE DRESSED WROUGHT

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 082022
 

(Andy Synn is here to host our premiere of the new album from Fell Ruin, out this Friday via Tartarus Records.)

One thing everybody knows about us here at NCS is that – in addition to our dashing good looks and stunning sexual prowess – we are loyal.

If we write about your band and like what you do then we’re prepared to wait as long as it takes to hear more from you.

Case in point, Fell Ruin‘s debut album, To The Concrete Drifts, hit me like… well… like a tonne of concrete when it was released back in 2017, so when we were asked if we wanted to host the premiere of the band’s long-gestating follow-up I immediately jumped at the chance to do so.

After all, I’ve had Cast in Oil… for a while now, and since I had already planned to review it this week it just made sense to take advantage of this offer.

A word of warning though – the band’s second album is a far different beast than its predecessor. So expect the unexpected.

Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: INNUMERABLE FORMS

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 082022
 

(We’ve been closely following the progress of the Boston-based death doom band Innumerable Forms for the last six years, straight up through a very enthusiastic review by Andy Synn of the band’s newest album, released by Profound Lore in September, and now Comrade Aleks adds to the attention with this interview of the band’s founder, vocalist, and guitarist, Justin DeTore.)

Honestly, I don’t remember where I learned about this death-doom (with heavy emphasis on its death aspect) band from Boston, but I just couldn’t get past a band with such a name. So when I found their second full-length Philosophical Collapse released on September 16th by Profound Lore Records, I added them to my list of “need-to-interview” bands.

To my surprise my request was answered by the band’s founder Justin DeTore, who played in the heavy/doom metal outfit Magic Circle, which I loved, and also took part in Phil Swanson’s heavy metal bands Sumerlands and Vestal Claret! And I need to tell you that Sumerlands’ debut blew my mind! So that was a pleasant surprise, which turned into pleasant conversation.

You see how it was hard, but I did my best to focus on Innumerable Forms, and we’re close to learning what this name means. Continue reading »

LOOKING AHEAD

 LISTMANIA 2022, Metal News  No Responses »
Nov 072022
 

Every year when we approach the middle of November I always seem to have the same thought: “Man, this year really flew by!” Of course at other times of the year I think, “Man time is really crawling like an old crippled man who lost his crutches, can’t this fresh hell go away faster?”

Well, the blurred-time feeling always comes this time of year because I’m staring at the calendar and realizing how much is about to happen this month at our putrid site. We have lots to do, and people seem to look forward to it. But this month we also ask readers to do a lot, to help us out. It’s the beginning of probably the most “interactive” time of year at NCS.

And so I thought now might be a good time to provide reminders for those of you who inexplicably don’t organize your own calendars around happenings at NCS. Here are some key dates coming up: Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries