STRANGE TRIPS (PART 1): EMPTINESS (“VIDE”) AND DIALETHEIST (“ECSTASY AND FUTILITY”)

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Apr 202021
 

 

(DGR has been spending his listening time with some strange musical creatures and has offered his thoughts about them in a two-part collection of reviews, of which this is the first.)

I could probably pay off a month’s worth of bills if I had a nickel for every time I’ve started a dive into a particular release with some variation of ‘this is gonna be a weird one’. But there’s a certain joy I take in continuing to do that in between the varying issuances of brutality and violence that we typically cover.

Sometimes it’s a good breather and other times it feels like a peek into where metal might be expanding in the future, a gaze into realms otherworldly and difficult to describe, where the artiste roams free and unshackled. Mostly, it’s because, despite the fact that strangeness may abound and take us off the beaten path, that can still appeal to many a listener in the world of No Clean Singing.

It’s still metal, because I guarantee you that the constant breaking of conventions and the fusing of different moods into strange creatures is certainly enough to challenge a listener on what they may consider musical. Sometimes it’s in the atmospherics. Sometimes it’s how a band might embrace minimalism. And other times it can be due to just how strange the collection of influences and instrumentation is. Often  it might feel like this is the room where we get to adjust our turtle-neck sweaters, sip on our classiest alcohol, and pretend to be as high-minded and pretentious as we can possibly get.

Long story short, the two that I’ve paired up today are albums I’ve been listening to quite a bit since their release, and while one name is likely more recognizable, I assure you that for both you’ll probably want to buckle up, because this is gonna be a weird one. (I have another pairing of reviews still to come tomorrow.) Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ODRADEK ROOM

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Apr 192021
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us another very interesting interview, this time with Artyom Krikhtenko, the main man behind the fascinating Ukrainian band Odradek Room, whose newest album was released not long ago through a division of Solitude Productions.)

Odradek Room (from Mariupol, Ukraine) is one of those rare bands with their own vision and ways of unleashing their creative stream. Named after Franz Kafka’s imaginary creature, they have held on to an abstract emotional doom-death pattern with progressive feeling (and avant-garde edge) for about twelve years. They paint vast canvases of despair and grief in gloomy and violent colours, but this elegant and sometimes complex mix has its play of light and shadow.

Odradek Room’s third full-length album Painted Mind was released about seven weeks ago, and together with the band’s mastermind Artyom Krikhtenko (vocals, guitars, keyboards), we try to explore Odradek’s nature for you. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MORBID BREATH: “ANCIENT BEASTS”

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Apr 192021
 

 

Like many metal genres, thrash manifests itself in different ways, though some would say the variations are much more limited than in the sonic realms of (for example) death and black metal. And perhaps because variations on the style seem to operate within a limited range, the quality of the riffs becomes all the more critically important.

To cut to the chase, the Swedish band Morbid Breath write riffs that are lethally infectious. And as you’ll discover from our premiere of a track off their debut EP In the Hand of the Reaper, that’s not the only thing they do really well.

The febrile, pulsating riff that launches “Ancient Beasts” sinks its hooked claws into the listener’s brain damned fast, backed by punishing drum bursts, heavy and mauling bass lines, and savage, serrated-edge death-metal growls.  When the rhythm converts to a hammering gallop the band introduce an element of the supernatural through an eerie, sinister chord progression, and there’s a glorious, swirling and screaming guitar solo in the mix, as well as jolting sequences that will kick-start your headbang reflex.

But it’s that opening riff, which repeatedly rears its venomous head, that makes the track so fiendishly addictive. The punishing heaviness and bestial vocals are sweet icing on the cake. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): PARAPHILIA — “PRIMORDIUM OF SINISTER BUTCHERY”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Apr 192021
 

 

The Portland-based brothers SP and KRP are current members of Maestus and have joined forces before in such bands as Arkhum and Pillorian — all of them groups that we’ve devoted a lot of appreciative attention to over a long span of years. And now they’ve collaborated again in a new project named Paraphilia that embraces death metal influences of a particularly vicious and evil breed.

Their first effort under the Paraphilia name is an EP entitled Primordium of Sinister Butchery. As you’ll discover through our full streaming premiere in advance of the EP’s April 23 release, that title was well-chosen. “Primordium” refers to the first stage in the development of an organ, and the music is most definitely sinister and butchering. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: FLAMMENKVLT, SZNUR, ISELDER, GRAB, NEBULA ORIONIS

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Apr 182021
 

 

I miscalculated. I spent time over the last couple of days listening to music and developing a big list of releases to include in this column. I knew that my spouse and I and some friends were supposed to drive over to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington today, but what I didn’t realize was how early the trip was supposed to begin — too early to do all the writing I had planned. And I went to a baseball game last night, so couldn’t get a head-start.

Due to this miscalculation, I’ve had to cut back on the amount of music (though it’s still a lot), but also to shrink the volume of words. No idea when or if I’ll get to everything else that was originally on my mental drawing board, but I hope you’ll enjoy what’s here.

FLAMMENKVLT (Austria)

The following video is intense and moving. It depicts bruised, hollow-eyed, and frantic women who have been beaten by men — hospitalized, driven to the brink of suicide, and worse — as well the suggestion of girls subjected to similar abuse. Intertwined with that are feverish montages of other imagery, both frightening and hallucinatory. The band’s rage over the subject matter comes through most powerfully in the vocals, but not only there. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN, THY CATAFALQUE, AKIAVEL, SIDEREAN, VIOLATED GRAVE, [4672], WINTER ETERNAL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 172021
 

 

Roadburn Redux is going on right now. It should be a “must watch, must listen” event for me (and for you), but I’ve had too many distractions the last few days to glue myself to my computer and take it all in. Sadly, I can’t do that this weekend either. All I’ve done so far is to check out a few songs and videos, and I’ve included two of those (which were premieres) at the front of today’s round-up — along with a bunch of other good stuff I discovered over the last 24 hours.

To see the full line-up of events at Roadburn Redux go HERE. You’ll see that it includes both live and pre-recorded music, some of it full sets and some of it individual songs and videos, including premieres. You’ll also see that if you have missed something, the streams and videos will remain on-line at the Redux site until the evening of April 20th.

AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN (Netherlands)

Next month this excellent Dutch band will release their ninth album, As The Morning Dawns We Close Our Eyes. At Roadburn Redux they premiered one of its songs along with a video for it. That song, “Melancholia“, is true to its name in some of its moods (which have a wistful quality) — but the rambunctiousness of the rhythm section, the vibrancy of the gleaming guitar harmonies, and the soaring brilliance in the high end are bursting with life (and the strangled harshness of the vocals are vicious). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER, ΛΔΛΜ, ANHARAT, GO AHEAD AND DIE, CHADHEL, TOOTH AND CLAW

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 162021
 

 

Since we’ve only had two posts today, and because I found myself with a little extra time this morning, I decided to get a head-start on the usual Saturday round-up of new songs and videos. As is sometimes the case, there’s not a lot of rhyme or reason to why I chose the following items, and there’s a risk of whiplash as you make your way from one to the next. There’s also a greater-than-usual percentage of videos included here — I think they’re all very good in different ways.

I will come back later when I have a bit more time and add the rest of the usual artwork and links.

DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER (Germany)

Savage, crazed, blazing, and viscerally propulsive in its tribal rhythms — those are the immediate impressions of this first song, though I must admit that the wild and transfixing video that accompanies the song is a big reason why I picked it. It suits the music supremely well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANTIMOZDEBEAST — “SINS OF THE MUSE”

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Apr 162021
 

 

We’re about to take a mad leap off our usual beaten paths, flying off a precipice into a chaotic collage of sounds that differ stylistically from the genres of our usual focus but are still extreme and, yes, still metal (at least in part).

What we’re doing is premiering a track named “Sins of the Muse” from a forthcoming EP by the Floridian project AntiMozdeBeast (the solo work of one Gabriel Palacio). Entitled The Ritual, the EP is a melting pot of industrial, harsh electronics, metal, and a general affinity for the macabre (which extends to the varying vocals). Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: STERBEFALL — “VERBOGENE GRAS”

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Apr 162021
 

 

Verlorene Zeit is the forthcoming third album by the band Sterbefall from Voronezh in central Russia. Through a hybrid of black metal and post-metal the album gives voice to feelings of despondency, depression, self-hate, and pain — feelings that also lead into expressions of rage and bitterness. The two labels that will be releasing in on April 23rd — Satanath Records (Russia) and Fog Foundation (Italy) — recommend it for fans of Dystopia Nå!, Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Amesoeurs, and Hvøsch.

Those other names used as reference points are enticing inducements for Verlorene Zeit, but even more so is the song we’re premiering today, “Verbogene Gras“. Continue reading »

PANOPTICON: “…AND AGAIN INTO THE LIGHT”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Apr 152021
 

 

Next month the world will get a new Panopticon album. Like all Panopticon albums, but maybe more so than any other, it’s a very personal expression, a reflection of a pivotal time in its creator’s life and a form of therapy as well. Its principal theme or message, as Austin Lunn told us in the interview that accompanied our announcement of the album in mid-January, “is atoning for wrongdoings and failures, growing and changing, casting off darkness and returning to hope again… returning to and improving on a better version of myself”.

In that same interview, Austin described the message in another way, with reference to the photographs of his partner and aesthetic collaborator Bekah that accompany the record: “All of the photography Bek took for the album are of places within a couple hours’ drive from our house, either in Minnesota or Wisconsin. The places aren’t as meaningful as the plants that grow there are… a metaphor for regrowth, healing, and survival. The photography is mostly taken in bogs… so the plants grow top towards the sun from the murky waters and moss below. That’s essentially the concept of the album”. Continue reading »

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