OUR LIST OF 2021’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 4): THUNDERING HOOVES, BLACK ROYAL, BOSS KELOID

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2021  3 Responses »
Jan 102022
 

 

The theme of this fourth installment of the list is… groove! To be sure, there are other themes and ingredients in today’s trio of tracks, because they are significantly different from each other in just about every other way. But these songs will get you moving, and because they’re all so damned infectious they’ll likely get quickly stuck in your head if you’re encountering them for the first time.

If you’re stumbling into this series for the first time, you’ll find the preceding Parts (and an explanation of what this list is all about) through THIS LINK.

THUNDERING HOOVES (UK)

This is the first of two bands in today’s installment whose 2021 records I paid attention to as a result of my colleague Andy Synn‘s enthusiastic recommendations. In the case of Thundering Hooves‘ debut album Vestiges he praised not only the band’s name but also anointed this precocious duo as “the UK’s answer to Necrophobic“. And yes, that got my attention. He further wrote: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ECTOPLASMA — “APALLING ABOMINATION”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 102022
 

 

Anyone already familiar with the Greek death metal band Ectoplasma knows they are capable of inflicting a severe beating while simultaneously leading listeners through realms of grotesque, ghastly, and utterly unearthly terror. But what makes Ectoplasma stand out even more from the pack of current bands who revel in ghoulish vintage death metal is the extent to which they integrate attention-grabbing twists and turns as they drag and rush listeners through their sonic horror-scapes.

That talent has been the cause of us writing about them frequently in the past, including hosting a pair of premieres from their earlier releases, and it’s the cause of us doing that again today. This time we bring you the aptly-named “Appalling Abominations” from their forthcoming fourth album, Inferna Kabbalah, which will be released on January 24th by Memento Mori (CD) and Rotted Life (vinyl and cassette). Continue reading »

UIV – FRIGUS

 Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jan 102022
 

(Andy Synn officially kicks off his 2022 coverage with a look at the debut album from uiv)

At last, it’s time to take a look/listen at what the new year has for us, and I’ve decided to get things started with a short-but-sweet review of the debut EP by mysterious underground Death Metal dissophiles uiv.

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VAROSHAN — “…AND THEN THE RAINS CAME”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 102022
 

 

Tomorrow the Finnish label Elitbolaget will release …And Then the Rains Came, the debut album by the multinational band Varoshan, whose members are divided among Helsinki (Finland), Berlin (Germany) and Leeds (UK). But you won’t have to wait until then to absorb what it has to offer because we are now presenting its complete streaming premiere.

What it has to offer is a stylistic amalgam that combines the ethos of hardcore with diverse sonic vibes that bring to mind (as Elitbolaget suggests) the likes of Neurosis, slow-burning Converge, sludge-era Tombs, and Soilent Green covering Black Sabbath, i.e., music that’s “slow, dark, and gritty”. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: BRUTALITOPIA’S TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2021

 LISTMANIA 2021  3 Responses »
Jan 102022
 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Our annual LISTMANIA series includes re-posts of lists from “big platform” music sites and selected print zines, but we usually don’t re-post lists from other metal blogs because that truly would make this long series virtually endless. But as we’ve done in many previous years, we’ve again made an exception for Brutalitopia, because through a variety of MDF hijinks over the years, the NCS crew have become fast friends with the guys behind Brutalitöpia — Tom, Mick, and Durf. The following is a Top 10 synthesis they compiled from their individual lists originally published at their site — which you can find HERE.

******

Once again we survived and are living through the maddening times that are pandemic life, so in lieu of the true and infinite wisdom of family members and friends there were some good ol’ tunes to get us by in the 2021st year of our dark lord.

We at Brutalitöpia got off our collective asses and brought new columns, whether it be weekly bearded workouts or 6 songs from each of us monthly (6+6+6 for the unencumbered, isn’t Mick funny?) Since we do our very best to do exactly what we want, when we want to do it, this annual exercise seemed the perfect example of 11th hour magic that we take pride in over at the Töp, so read on NCS friends and be astounded by the amount of copy/paste and micro edits from our actual lists, hell read them too if you want, otherwise this aggregate below should do. Durf even blurbed about albums not from his list.

Several beers deep, or deep in thought you ask? You, yes you the reader, can decide. Let’s kick 2022 in the balls before it has the chance to be another downer, read on below, onward and upward.

-Tom

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: STANGARIGEL, KLUIZENAER, MUR, SCHAUER, A PREGNANT LIGHT, SIVYJ YAR

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jan 092022
 

It may seem like a paradox, but the less time I have to devote to preparing these columns the easier it is for me to do them. When I have a greater than usual amount of time, I listen to more music, I find more releases that I want to recommend, and then I struggle to whittle down the choices into a group that I can manage to write about in the time I have left.

That’s the situation I find myself in today. Because my spouse has been out of the house a lot over the last couple of days galavanting around with one of her visiting sisters, I plowed through a lot of new music. The listening sessions were a blast, but then I had to engage in a painful winnowing process. The results may be painful in a different way for you: Even after the winnowing, today’s column provides a lot to take in, and might put added pressure on your bank accounts if you find as much to like as I did.

Speaking of how much music I’ve included today, I narrowed the albums down to three new ones (which is still more than usual for these SOB installments), and then sprinkled in some advance tracks from forthcoming records, plus one new EP. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: VASTATUM, A PALE DECEMBER, NEUROTECH, DEATHCULT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 082022
 

 

I had grandiose ambitions for this Saturday round-up, but remembered at the last minute that I had to join a Zoom meeting this morning for the job that pays the bills around here. After that ended I didn’t have time to pull together any more music than what you’ll find here from a quartet of bands. But these four have enough high-energy intensity to keep your heart-rate elevated from start to finish (and probably for a while afterward too).

VASTATUM (Canada)

The whining sounds of this first song swells over turbulent drumming and throbbing bass notes, and then swirls like wind-driven flames. Fiery vocals join the fray as the riffing generates a sound that’s both tormented and glorious. The incendiary intensity of the music subsides, and it becomes more mysterious and hypnotic, and then it roils again, with a feeling that’s beleaguered and desperate, as the vocals become even more shattering in their tortured extremity. The lead guitar whirls once more in a mad dance as the sound fades away…. Continue reading »

THE MOST ANTICIPATED ALBUMS OF 2022 (DON’T BE MAD)

 Forthcoming Albums  54 Responses »
Jan 082022
 


photo by Art Wolfe

January is a time when many music publications, including metal-centric ones, publish lists of the new year’s “most anticipated albums”. We’ve done that here from time to time, but not in a long time. And don’t be mad, but we’re not doing it now either. I’ll explain in a minute.

Lots of albums are already now on people’s radar screens, thanks to announcements from late last year and the nearly 10 days of January that have already passed. Among the bigger names, 2022 will see new records from Amorphis and Dying Fetus, Voivod and Immolation, Lamb of God and Obituary, Rammstein and Terror, Cult of Luna and Ghost, YOB and Eight Bells, Crowbar and Arch Enemy, Allegaeon and Dark Funeral, and I’ve seen rumors of new albums coming from the likes of Amon Amarth, Behemoth, and Meshuggah. There are also new EPs on the way from Napalm Death, Abysmal Dawn, and Centinex, to name just a few.

Some, but certainly not all, of those releases will be of interest here at NCS, but we tend to focus on more underground names, and I think our readers do too. However, once you get past the names like those above, trying to prepare a “Most Anticipated” list becomes a project that’s a lot more daunting and time-consuming. Which is why I’m not doing it today (though I guess it’s possible some of our other writers might attempt it). What I’m doing instead is inviting YOU to leave a comment identifying 2022 releases that YOU are looking forward to. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2021’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 3): 1914, ARCHSPIRE, BEASTLOR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2021  4 Responses »
Jan 072022
 

 

Way back in Part 1 of this series (two whole days ago) I explained that before I began winnowing down the list of candidates it had 630 entries on it — a combination of my own ideas, suggestions from readers, and nominees from NCS writers DGR and Andy Synn. I also noted that among that enormous number of songs only 11 bands had four or more entries. Two of those bands — 1914 and Archspire — are responsible for two of the picks I’m announcing today. And it happens that both of those bands did very well for themselves in the 2021 YE list sweepstakes as well, not just here but in other lists I’ve seen around the web.

The third selection in today’s installment flew much lower on the radar (or beneath it), despite the record being the work of a very well-known musician. Hopefully, mentioning it today will help spread the word a bit more, because it’s great. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WOLFBASTARD — “HAMMER THE BASTARDS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 072022
 

Anyone with eyes to see and a mind that hasn’t been brainwashed or turned into docile slag knows full well that the world is mainly ruled by bastards — bastards in the boardrooms, bastards in the halls of government, bastards in the church. They do what they want, they get their way, and they’re rarely held to account for all the ways in which they make the lives of the powerless so much more miserable than they need to be.

What ought to be done? Isn’t the answer obvious? HAMMER THE BASTARDS.

That’s the name Manchester (UK)-based Wolfbastard gave to their new third album, which is set for release by Clobber Records on January 14th, and they back that message to the hilt with their music, which is a feral and ferocious barrage of D-Beat, crust punk, black metal, and blackened hardcore that takes no prisoners and asks for no mercy.

The press materials for the record include an evocative summing-up of the sensations the album channels, and it’s worth quoting here before we give you our own impressions along with a complete streaming premiere: Continue reading »

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