NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TZOMPANTLI

Feb 132023

(We begin a new week at NCS with Comrade Aleks‘s interview of Brian Ortiz, a member of Xibalba and the creative force behind the California death-doom band Tzompantli, whose debut album was released last year by 20 Buck Spin.)

A tzompantli was a type of wooden rack or palisade documented in several Mesoamerican civilizations, which was used for the public display of human skulls, typically those of war captives or other sacrificial victims. Also it’s a death-doom band from Pomona, California.

Started in 2019 as a solo project of Brian a.k.a. Big o))), Tzompantli first shot out the EP Tlamanalli in 2019. Brian has been the guitarist of death metal / metalcore outfit Xibalba since 2007, so he knew how to deal with a lot of instruments and recording witchcraft too. His efforts were noticed by 20 Buck Spin, who soon signed the band. As result Brian’s next album Tlazcaltiliztli was recorded with G-Bone and Mateotl Gonzalez (both perform many of the folk instruments) and saw the light of day through this label in May 2022. However these songs are far from folk and embody the extreme, meat-grinding and bloody side of death-doom.

Now Tzompantli has a full live line-up and I can’t skip a chance to learn more about Indigenous Mexican death-doom from Brian. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: RÄUM, VITRAIL, THYSIA, LUX SINE LUMINE, ORDALIE, KAIVS, MALICIOUS, LESATH

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Feb 122023

Obviously, I had time to pull together a lot of music for this Sunday’s column. I pushed at the usual boundaries by including bands that wouldn’t get a black metal label, but in different ways they’re close enough to blur the borders.

I ordered these seven offerings to create pendulum swings. One of them happens when you reach Lux Sine Lumine, and another happens at the end, with Lesath. In between those two are firestorms. I also thought the flow of the first three worked well, but you’ll be the judge of that.

RÄUM (Belgium)

Les Acteurs de L’Ombre Productions tell us that Räum was founded in Liege, Belgium during the first pandemic year, and perhaps they were influenced by those times. On the debut record’s Bandcamp page you’ll find this description of the music on these four tracks:

“It reveals the vacuity and the auto-destructive nature of the human soul, leading to an endless movement of rise and fall. Like a demon, it needs to burn our world to the ground to [be[ reborn again.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: YSKELGROTH, PINCER CONSORTIUM, FLESHMEADOW, ILLUMINATED VOID

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Feb 112023

I had a fairly quiet Friday night, with just enough spirits over dinner to get loose but not enough to feel wrecked and disjointed this morning. Kept making my way through the first season of “Poker Face“, which is enormously entertaining through episode 4, and then another chunk of pages in the latest Murderbot novel, which I’m forcing myself to ration since I’ll be so morose when I have to wait for the next one.

Anyway, thanks for asking about my Friday night. Pretty sure that’s what those whispers were in my head. But now to drown out all whispers with a few more things I got into this morning. Yesterday’s roundup was heavy on the death metal, so I decided to branch out a bit today, while saving most (but not all) of the black stuff ’til tomorrow.

YSKELGROTH (Spain)

Well, as I said, I didn’t save all the black stuff for tomorrow. This first song was just too good a way to wake people the fuck up. It’s a head-spinning amalgam of symphonic grandiosity, bizarro-world guitar convulsions (with a few bracing gallops and insectile quiverings in the mix), full-throttle madhouse drumwork, bunker-busting grooves, and macabre vocals that stretch far to find so many ways to be ugly. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NIGHTMARER, BONE WEAPON, GRAND CADAVER, VADIAT, ANZV

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Feb 102023

This has been a rare week when we didn’t have at least one premiere on the calendar every day. That gave me the time to do not one, not two, but three round-ups of new songs and videos, including this one. And I ought to have time for a fourth one tomorrow.

The timing has been fortuitous, because the past week or two has been jammed with new singles and advance tracks from forthcoming records that have piqued my interest (and should pique yours), including the following four, with news of a new reissue at the end.

NIGHTMARER (U.S./Germany)

This tremendously impressive band moved from strength to greater strength over the course of their Chasm EP (2016), their debut album Cacophony of Terror (2018), and their Monolith of Corrosion EP (2021), and now they’re returning with a second album named Deformity Adrift that’s set for release on May 5th via their label Total Dissonance Worship in the US and Vendetta Records in Europe. Continue reading »

MAJESTIES: “VAST REACHES UNCLAIMED”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Feb 102023

(Professor D. Grover the XIIIth returns to NCS with the following review of the debut album by Majesties, which is set for a March 3rd release by 20 Buck Spin.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. It is well-established canon at this point that your friendly neighborhood professor is a great fan of Tanner Anderson and his work in Obsequiae. Aria Of Vernal Tombs stood easily as my favorite black metal album and I was skeptical that anything could equal it, and honestly nothing did until Obsequiae‘s follow-up, The Palms Of Sorrowed Kings. Asked now, and I swear to you that I could not choose a favorite between the two, as they are both absolutely brilliant.

I tell you this because when I heard first of Majesties, I grew excited nearly to the point of arousal. Driven by my initial impression of the first track released, ‘The World Unseen‘, it seemed that Majesties was essentially Tanner Anderson and friends performing Lunar Strain-era In Flames-style melodeath, an impression bolstered by the release of a second track, ‘In Yearning, Alive‘. My friends, let me tell you, that seemed like a perfect combination, like the genius who first combined chocolate and peanut butter. And then I got to hear the entire album. Continue reading »

THE RETURN OF CULTHE FEST: APRIL 8-9, 2023 (MÜNSTER, GERMANY)

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Feb 102023

We’re helping to spread the word about the return of Culthe Fest on April 8th and 9th of this year in Münster, Germany, and it’s a triumphant return. The 2023 edition of the festival, which follows a covid-induced hiatus in recent years, features performances by 18 bands from 7 countries on three stages.

The music spans a range that includes black, death, doom, post-metal, and dark folk, and includes headliners Ultha and The Ruins of Beverast, and co-headliners Wolvennest and Sun of the Sleepless. Those are impressive names, but the entire line-up is impressive, and further includes Dawn Ray’d from the UK, Yovel from Greece (in what will be their first show in Germany), and German underground favorites Friisk and No Sun Rises, all of whom had originally been scheduled to play in 2022 before the pandemic forced a delay.

Below you’ll find notes about the complete line-up (most of whom we’ve enthusiastically written about at this site) and a lot more details about the entire event, which also includes a Dark Arts & Crafts exhibition. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GOLOD

Interviews 1 Response »

Feb 092023

(We thank Comrade Aleks for the following interview with Vadim (aka Holod), the person behind the Toronto-based black metal project Golod, whose newest album was released just last month via Ván Records.)

Little is known about Golod. “Golod” translates as “Hunger” from Russian. It’s a solo-project based in Toronto and it’s tagged as “black metal” and “ambient”. Its discography contains two full-length albums – ...to be Lost and Forgotten in Solitude (June, 2021) and the brand new Dnevnik (January, 2023).

It’s also known that the man who stands behind this project is Vadim, whom I interviewed about one month ago regarding another band – Hussar. So actually it was easy to find him and get more information about his lo-fi exercises in Black Art.

Well, do people use this definition in relation to this kind of music nowadays? However, let’s talk a bit about Black Metal Art! Continue reading »

AHAB: “THE CORAL TOMBS”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Feb 092023

(Ahab rose again from the watery depths with a new album that was released last month by Napalm Records, and today we follow that up with a review of the album by our Sacramento-based writer DGR.)

Turns out that when a solid chunk of your region spends the first three weeks of the year under flash flood warnings and with one of its main highways effectively underwater, leading to some very dramatic New Year’s photos that aren’t too far from your house, it’s hard to keep your thoughts cogent around a nautical-doom album, no matter the quality. Who knew? Apologies to Ahab on that one.

It is wild to think about just how large the gap was between albums for Germany’s underwater-doom specializers. You never would’ve figured that a band who had a pretty solid track record of new releases every three or so years would suddenly see a near-eight-year gap between albums, but alas, to keep things succinct, it had been a sizeable wait for the group’s newest album The Coral Tombs – with only live albums and collections in between to keep people interested. Continue reading »

THE SOUND OF SUFFERING

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Feb 092023

(Andy Synn presents three recent releases which might ease your pain)

As some of you may be aware, the last 18 months or so have been a steady stream of set-backs, fuck-ups, and tragic events for me, all culminating (I hope) in my upcoming surgery to remove an infected wisdom tooth.

So… yeah, I’ve been in quite a bit of pain – both physical and mental – for a while now, and this has clearly carried over into my listening habits (especially in the past month or so).

Still, I’ve always found that a good dose of auditory agony can serve as a pretty effective painkiller in other areas of life, so here’s a selection of things that have been easing my suffering recently.

SEEN AND HEARD: ENTROPIA, WILD BEYOND, VANISHMENT, THE GRIFTED, MOROKH

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Feb 082023

As you can see, I was able to finish Part 2 of a mid-week roundup of new songs and videos that began here. Finish it I did, and I’m pretty happy with the musical twists and turns it will take you on, but I’ve still had to hurry a bit more than I’d like to get it wrapped up. Please leave typo corrections in the Comments.

ENTROPIA (Poland)

I’ve already written here about “Retox“, the first single from Entropia’s new album Total, and now there’s another one out in the world. This one is named “Final“.

Prepare to be seduced by intriguingly warped melodies that are both glittering and dissonant, a mercurial but bone-vibrating bass, larynx-lacerating screams, and whip-crack drums. The mood also grows darker and more grim, as well as more nerve-racking and unsettling, but a feeling of fire-borne resilience fights through. Another fascinating track from an always-adventuruous band. Continue reading »

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