KING WOMAN: “CELESTIAL BLUES”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  1 Response »
Jul 192021
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of the new album by San Francisco-based King Woman, which will be released on July 30 by Relapse Records.)

Unlike the interviews of the average metal band Kristina Esfandiari does not say this album is going in a much heavier direction than our first one, she just does it. The band’s first full-length, Created in the Image of Suffering, was heavy only by the sheer magnitude of melancholy churned from the sludgey blues it summoned. This new album, Celestial Blues, not only bears a greater emotional weight but carries a more metallic malice.

Sure many of the riffs are depressing at times, which I of course love since darkness and sonic heaviness are what I seek out in music. They lure you in with the introspective title track, teasing a few punchy dynamics. Then slowly the aggression begins to leak from the cracks of the songs. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY (PART 2): INSOMNIUM, FIRST FRAGMENT, COGNITIVE, WORMWOOD, DROTT, DESALMADO, KEHLVIN, AETHEREVM, HAMMERHEDD

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 172021
 

 

This may be the only NCS post of the weekend, and even this one is hurried. I have a work meeting this morning. There’s also a celebration planned for tonight that I have to prepare for. What the hell kind of party requires hours of preparation? One that involves speech-making. But it’s still a party, and has all the earmarks of one that’s going to keep me up past midnight, which means a very late awakening on Sunday and some unpredictable degree of mental incapacitation, which is why there may not be a SHADES OF BLACK column tomorrow.

As for today’s metal roundup: I posted a big one yesterday exclusively devoted to new songs with videos, but big as it was it still didn’t exhaust all the good new tracks that surfaced over the last week. And of course it didn’t include the usual Friday flood of new song reveals. A few of my NCS comrades made sure I didn’t overlook what that Friday flood flung up on the beach, and I’ve included a few of their suggestions as well as a few of my own picks that I left out of that video-only roundup yesterday. Coincidentally all the songs included here also came with videos, hence the title of this post.

What’s missing today, for the most part, is my own commentary. I’ll give you a minute to dab the tears from your eyes… and then on we go…. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GRAVESLAVE — “NO CENTER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 162021
 

 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

That opening stanza from Yeats‘ famous poem The Second Coming has sprung to this writer’s mind more than once over the last year, and came to mind again in thinking about the title of Graveslave‘s new album — No Center — and its title track, which we’re premiering today. But apart from what’s been happening all around us, the times have also had a way of hollowing people out, and it’s that aspect of existence that seems to be the song’s true focus. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FETID ZOMBIE — “BREATH OF THANATOS”

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Jul 162021
 

 

Almost five years have passed since Epicedia, the last album by Mark Riddick’s Fetid Zombie. That long stretch of time didn’t represent a hiatus, because Fetid Zombie continued releasing splits and EPs every year, but the time has finally come for a new full-length. Bearing the title Transmutations, it’s calendared for release by Transcending Obscurity Records on July 30.

Long before this new album it was evident that Riddick’s songwriting wasn’t going to stagnate with the passage of time. Instead, it has become increasingly exploratory and inventive, and those tendencies are in full bloom on the new album. While it may be true that classic death metal heaviness and ferocity are still at the core of the music, it wouldn’t be wrong to call Transmutations a progressive death metal thrill-ride.

As proof of that we’re presenting today “Breath of Thanatos“, an amazing song that’s a genuine kaleidoscope of sound, as elaborate and enthralling as it is punishing and frightening. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: BENIGHTED, BEYOND GRACE, THE BREATHING PROCESS, BURN IN HELL, CHOKE, DDENT, DEVIANT PROCESS, GHOROT, PREY FOR NOTHING

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 162021
 

 

As you can see, I had time enough yesterday to make my way through a lot of music that surfaced over the last week or so, and found a lot to like — even more than you’ll see here, because I decided to devote this round-up exclusively to songs with videos and leave the others for another time. The visual approaches are quite wide-ranging and so is the music. I decided to set them out in alphabetical order by band name, and that coincidentally turned out to make for an interesting sonic sequence.

Get popcorn, or whatever else you like to chew on while glued to a screen, and perhaps a preferred intoxicant, then sit back and get ruined or rapt or both.

BENIGHTED (France)

Benighted teamed up with Metal Injection for the premiere of a lyric video for a new digital single, “A Personified Evil,” which includes guest vocals by Francesco Paoli from Fleshgod Apocalypse. As if the song weren’t slaughtering enough without him. Continue reading »

MOANHAND – PRESENT SERPENT

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jul 152021
 

(Andy Synn travels to Russia once more and returns with one of his favourite albums of the year)

I know I’ve said it before, but it probably needs reiterating – June was so packed with releases that I feel like it’s going to take me all of July just to catch up with everything I/we missed.

Of course, that means that I’ll have to spend August catching up on July, and September catching up on August, so… maybe some hard decisions are going to have to be made regarding what does and what doesn’t get written about just so I don’t fall even further behind.

But there was absolutely zero chance that I wasn’t going to write about this one, as Present Serpent – the debut album from one-man “Blackened Dream Sludge” outfit Moanhand (aka Moscow-based multi-instrumentalist Roman Filatov) – has swiftly become, for me at least, one of the defining albums of 2021.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ANGUISH — “HEREIN I BURN”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jul 152021
 

 

On August 4, 2021, Sun & Moon Records will release a new album by the “Necro Doom” band Anguish from Uppsala, Sweden. Entitled Doomkvädet, the album adds to a discography that includes a few shorter releases and the previous full-lengths Through the Archdemon’s Head (2012), Mountain (2014), and Magna est vis Siugnah (2018).

To help introduce the new album, today we’re presenting a lyric video for a frightening, soul-suffocating track named “Herein I Burn“, one that brings into play ingredients of traditional occult doom, but merge them with elements of death metal and other sonic elements that help create a truly unearthly and terrifying atmosphere. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BRILLIANT COLDNESS — “PHANTASM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 152021
 

 

Last month we had the pleasure of premiering a mind-blowing song off the new album by the Ukrainian technical death metal band Brilliant Coldness, and today we’re premiering another extraordinary adventure from the album, a song named “Phantasm” that will be released as a single on July 16th. And although we’ll later repeat some of the background info we provided in our first premiere, what we’re going to do now is jump straight to the music.

Brilliant Coldness are the kind of band who don’t waste time. It’s as if there’s a timer ticking down and they’re going to explode if they don’t eject the music as fast as they can and without delay. And so “Phantasm” immediately discharges wild, cavorting riffage that feverishly needles at the listener’s mind over bullet-spitting drumwork and equally febrile and fantastical bass escapades. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ATRA HAERESIS — “PRETIUM?”

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Jul 152021
 

 

The song we’re about to premiere through a lyric video is one of those which we sometimes accompany with a warning — that you’d better take some big gulps of air before diving in, because it’s so exhilarating on so many levels that you’ll need the extra oxygen. And on top of that we should add the warning to loosen up your neck muscles, because its powerfully hammering grooves will trigger the good old headbang reflex in extravagant fashion.

The song we’re talking about, “Pretium?“, is a powerhouse track from the debut album by Atra Haeresis, an international black/death band that features members from such other projects as Ethir Anduin, Obscuration, and Навьяра, along with mastermind Alexander Dorokhin and a trio of guest performers. The album, named Pretium, is set for a joint release on August 26th by Satanath Records, Kryrart Records, and Death Portal Studio, and a tape edition will also be available through Void Wanderer Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HELL STRIKE — “HELLSTRIKE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 142021
 

 

The allure of some metal releases begins and intensifies even before you hear a single note. Sometimes that allure is even more intense when you don’t have a previous musical repertoire from the band that would more concretely tell you what to expect, which is the case with Hell Strike‘s debut EP Hellstrike.

In the case of this writer, the allure and the intrigue were first kindled by the pedigree of Hell Strike‘s line-up, which features members of Ascended Dead, Ritual Necromancy, and Bloodsoaked. And then it intensified upon seeing the EP’s cover art by Misanthropic Art (which turns out to be an effective visual rendering of the diabolical atmosphere of the sounds). And then the allure became greater still upon seeing comparative references in the press materials to the likes of Sadistic Intent, Grotesque (Sweden), The Chasm, Necrophobic, Mortem (Peru), and Order From Chaos.

Sometimes after becoming intensely enticed in such ways, we’re left downcast and disappointed after listening to the music. But as you’ve no doubt already guessed from our hosting of the EP’s full streaming premiere a couple days before its release, all the excited expectations were not merely fulfilled, but exceeded. Continue reading »

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