COME TO GRIEF – WHEN THE WORLD DIES

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 192022
 

(Andy Synn is stricken by the new album from New Hampshire nihilists Come to Grief)

Do you know Grief?

I don’t mean that in the metaphorical, metaphysical sense of “have you experienced great sorrow and loss”, I’m talking about the band, whose four albums played a pivotal role in defining the unforgivingly brutal Sludge/Doom sound of the late 90s.

If you’re not familiar with their work, well, that’s partially our fault, as we haven’t really written about them very much (the fact that they formed, broke up, re-formed, and re-broke up all before this site even existed certainly doesn’t help) though we’ve certainly recognised and remarked upon the heavy (and I mean that in all senses of the word) influence they’ve had on many, many other bands we’ve written about over the years, including Hvrt, Mastiff, Body Void, and more.

I ask this because, as some of you might have guessed, Come to Grief is the new (well, not that new, they’ve been going since 2017) project by former Grief members Chuck Conlon (drums) and Tony Savastano (guitars), and while familiarity with their former band isn’t a pre-requisite to enjoying When the World Dies, it might help prepare you for the brutal barrage of bitterness and spite which you’re about to experience.

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AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THIRTEEN GOATS — “RETURN TO RUIN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 182022
 

The words and animated visuals in the lyric video you’re about to see reflect utter disgust with the vile and lying regimes that have dominated many nations in recent years, and proclaim only one answer: Bring it all to ruin, and start again. And in the electrifying song you’re about to hear, Vancouver-based Thirteen Goats begin the process themselves, by doing their furious best to pulverize everything around them and burn it to the ground.

This new song, “Return To Ruin“, is the first single from Thirteen Goats‘ forthcoming debut album Servants of the Outer Dark, a gut-punching and head-hooking offering of death metal that borrows liberally from many of the genre’s subsets, as well as bringing in elements of thrash, black metal, and grindcore. The band introduce the album in these words: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OKTAS — “COLLATERAL DAMAGE”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
May 182022
 

In September 2019 we had the great pleasure of premiering the debut EP of Philadelphia-based Oktas, a fascinating record about which we spilled a flood of words and attempted to sum up as one that embraced a wide range of influences, “from ambient minimalism to atmospheric black metal and epic doom metal (and maybe a bit of gloomy post-punk in the mix, too), woven together with a cinematic edge”.

Hundreds of books have already been written, and thousands more will be written, about what has happened to the world in just the two years and eight months since that EP was released, a time filled with traumatic upheavals, many of them unforeseen and others foreseen but blindly ignored. Certainly not the easiest time for the making of new music, among all the other traumas. But it’s good to see that this band persevered, as others have, and now they have a new album on the way and we have another premiere to support it. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: INANNA

 Interviews  No Responses »
May 182022
 

 

(Last month Memento Mori released the superb third album by Inanna, their first one in 10 years. We helped spread the word through this premiere, and the occasion also prompted Comrade Aleks to get in touch with the band. Today we present that great conversation below.)

There are bands which grant not only the twisted pleasure of listening to their (extreme) music but also with a simple communication, and the Chilean outfit Inanna gave me both. Their new album Void of Unending Depths was released by Memento Mori in late April, and I’m excited with their wicked, a bit blackened, and progressive, death metal rituals.

Why rituals? Well, because the band’s lyrics deal with things extra-terrestrial, occult, and divine. There’s a sense of Lovecraftian madness here, do you feel it? And besides that, the guys are absolutely easy and interesting interlocutors, so let’s not waste our time with just my mumbling, and let’s get straight to the point. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ORNÆMENTAL SHINE, ATRAMENTUM, TOMBS, NON SERVIAM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 172022
 

I have the freedom to do whatever the hell I want with these round-ups, which should mean an absence of any pressure but somehow doesn’t work out that way. No one tells me to pick this song or that song, no one will live or die (or succeed or fail) depending on what I pick, and I guess the only “wrong” choice is one that no one else likes. So where does the pressure come from?

Damned if I know. Some gremlin in my head that gnaws at the wiring and gibbers “You could have done better! You could have done more!” Begone you devil, I’d rather forget about you and listen to these devils instead:

ORNÆMENTAL SHINE (U.S.)

Not too long ago I, Voidhanger Records launched a flurry of new album announcements and advance tracks from each of them. Eventually I hope to touch on all of them. Today I’ll touch on Deima Panikon, the debut album from Ornæmental Shrine, an avant-garde U.S. quintet that includes members of Uada and Black Hate. Continue reading »

BLUT AUS NORD – DISHARMONIUM – UNDREAMABLE ABYSSES

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
May 172022
 

(Andy Synn gazes into the undreamable abyss of the new album from Blut Aus Nord)

Call me an elitist if you will (though I think my track record would prove otherwise), but it’s both amusing and exasperating in equal measure to see people whose knowledge and awareness of Black Metal is… let’s say, limited… suddenly acting like an authority on the genre simply because their favourite rock star decided they wanted to dabble a little.

Don’t get me wrong, I actively welcome new blood, new voices, new ideas – the last thing I want is for the genre, or any genre, to become creatively stagnant – but maybe try and actively learn something about the scene, and all the bands who’ve been actively innovating within it over the years, before making wild, misinformed declarations that make you sound like an ignorant jackass?

Also, let’s face it, a lot of the time when people say “best” they really just mean “most accessible”, and while “accessible” doesn’t necessarily mean “bad” (I can give you umpteen examples of bands who actively got better once they started producing their more “accessible” material) it’s also worth pointing out that just because something is easy (or easier) to listen to that doesn’t necessarily make it good either.

This album, however, is most definitely not an easy listen… but, then, anything this good rarely comes easy.

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AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VIOLENTOR — “MANIFESTO DI ODIO”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
May 172022
 

 

Imagine turning the key in the ignition of a hulking road machine, feel your bones vibrating from the power building within it, and then having the thing take off of its own accord, slamming you back against the headrest and threatening to cause your heart to explode from your chest as it blazes ahead like a rocket fueled by hellfire.

That’s one way of thinking about the riotous onslaught of Violentor‘s new album Manifesto di Odio, which will be released on May 20th by Time To Kill Records. Speed metal and thrash are this Italian band’s weapons of choice in their campaign of defiance and rage, augmented by “blackened” armaments of blasting drums and merciless swarming riffs. It’s the kind of furious high-octane thrill-ride that will get your own motor running fast and hot. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OUR DYING WORLD — “VEIL OF THE REAPER”

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May 162022
 

 

We’ll make you a solemn promise: Whatever condition you happen to be in now (unless you’re in a coma), the song and video we’re about to present will make you feel orders of magnitude more alive, accelerating your heart-rate, igniting your fast-twitch muscles, and spinning your head like a glorious top. And for those of you who want your music to attack like a pack of rabid dogs, it fills that need, too.

The song is “Veil of the Reaper“, and it comes from Hymns Of Blinding Darkness, the forthcoming second album by the Los Angeles band Our Dying World. The new album marks a significant departure from the music on their full-length debut, Expedition, moving in directions that may spawn memories of such bands as Children Of Bodom, Nightwish, and Dimmu Borgir, and you’ll get a vivid understanding of that when you hear “Veil of the Reaper“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TISHINA — “Јутро Последњег Дана”

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May 162022
 

 

Tишина (“Tishina” or “Silence”) is a new melodic doom/death project founded by Serbian musician Branislav Panić, known for his work in the blackened death metal band Bane. Under the banner of Tишина, he has drawn upon the influence of such bands as Saturnus, October Tide, Mourning Beloveth, and Doom:vs, among others, and the results are now captured on a debut album named Увод… (“Uvod…” or “Introduction…”), which was inspired mainly by a book of poems named Nad Vodama Aheronta by the Serbian author Predrag Rava.

Увод… will be co-released on May 30th by Satanath Records, Hypnotic Dirge Records, and The End Of Time Records. As that day fast approaches, we are now presenting a song from the album named “Јутро Последњег Дана” (Jutro Poslednjeg Dana), which is a remarkable amalgam of sensations, both spellbinding and hard-hitting. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HORNS & HOOVES, DEUS VERMIN, DINBETHES, VELJESSURMA, BRII

 SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
May 152022
 

I forgot that my spouse planned an outing for us this morning, so I’m hurrying. Thankfully, I had time to make these selections before this morning. I think they will provide a scintillating musical adventure for the adventure-seekers among you. It was definitely an adventure for me, since I’m pretty sure I hadn’t heard the music of any of these bands before, and they’re all making their first appearance at our site. Without further ado, let’s go….

HORNS & HOOVES (U.S.)

Brooklyn-based Horns & Hooves will have their debut album I Am the Skel Messiah released on June 17th by Invictus Productions. Not having heard their 2016 demo Consecrate the Marrow or their 2017 EP Morbid Lust, I didn’t know what to expect, and so the album’s first advance track popped my eyes wider and dropped my jaw to the point of unhinging. Continue reading »

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