AN NCS PREMIERE: FUNERAL CHASM — “MESMERISING CLARITY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 142021
 

 

The song we’re presenting today from the debut album by the Danish duo Funeral Chasm is a formulation of funeral doom that seems to occupy a dream state between life and death. Haunting, harrowing, and beautiful, the multi-faceted track fashions both an experience of ghostly elegance and grandeur — and one of torment, turmoil, and ravaging upheaval.

At least lyrically, “Mesmerising Clarity” was based upon a pair of mushroom trips by the band’s Danny Woe, one so disturbing that he terminated the trip and a second that reached a point of completion and became therapeutic. Whether intended or not, the music seems to trace such an experience as well, though (as suggested above) the music is capable of generating other visions in the listener’s imagination, and of making other emotional connections. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER, AKVAN, IDOLOS, SKOGNATT, TRNA

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Jun 132021
 

 

Sadly, I’m hurrying to complete this Sunday’s collection because, not so sadly, I slept much later than usual. I didn’t get much of a head start on the column yesterday, so the preponderance of the effort was left to these rapidly waning morning hours. Fortunately, as always, you’ll have the music streams, which are more important than my too-meager words anyway.

As bookends for the collection I’ve chosen advance tracks from forthcoming records, and in the middle are three complete new releases.

DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER (Germany)

The opening song I’ve chosen, “Ymir“, combines dismal chords and sprightly, pinging keys, a skipping kind of march and a hammering gallop, nasty growls and scorching screams. The music becomes panoramic and magisterial, and flickering guitars give it bursts of ebullience, but the music’s overarching moods are ominous and anguished. The accompanying video is fascinating. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: BEHEMOTH, LORNA SHORE, ZEAL & ARDOR, SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL, NYTT LAND

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jun 122021
 

 

Well, this didn’t go at all like I expected.

First and foremost, I didn’t expect to write anything for the site today. Thanks to the revival of the Waxing Lyrical series by Sir Andy Synn (no, he hasn’t been knighted yet, but surely it’s just a matter of time, innit?), we had a Saturday post. No need for me to make one. I thought I’d just spend some time listening instead.

It happened that the first thing I explored was a new song and video by the Siberian shamans Nytt Land — and then unexpected things began to happen. I noticed a new Behemoth video in the YouTube sidebar that I hadn’t known about, so I watched/heard it. And then I noticed a new Lorna Shore video in the YouTube sidebar and thought, what the hell why not? And then the YouTube sidebars led me to Zeal & Ardor and Slaughter To Prevail. And now here we are. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: NECRONAUTICAL

 WAXING LYRICAL  No Responses »
Jun 122021
 

 

(Eleven months have passed since Andy Synn delivered an installment of his Saturday interview series on lyrics in metal, but as the following article reveals, the series has been hibernating rather than dead.)

Damn, it’s been quite a while since we’ve published one of these articles hasn’t it?

The reason for this is both simple and complex. While I really enjoy doing them, and quite a few of our readers seem to enjoy them too, the existence of Waxing Lyrical as an ongoing column is predicated both on me having time to put each entry together (and my time has been stretched pretty thin over the least year) and finding enough bands who are willing and eager to participate (oddly enough, not as easy as you might think).

Still, I’m hopeful that today’s edition is going to be the first in another long run of pieces highlighting the art (and effort) behind the lyrics behind the music we love, and I/we couldn’t ask for a better way to resurrect the column than by talking with bassist/co-vocalist Anchorite (aka Matt McGing) of NCS-approved Black Metallers Necronautical, whose fourth album, Slain in the Spirit, is scheduled for release on August 20 via Candlelight Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THYRFING — “JÄRNHAND”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 112021
 

 

Eight years on from their last album, the acclaimed De ödeslösa, the Swedish Viking/pagan metal band Thyrfing will be bringing forth their eight full-length on August 27th through their new label, Despotz Records. Consistent with the band’s inspirations of Norse mythology, its title is Vanagandr, an alternate name for the wolf creature known by the more familiar Fenrir.

In the run-up to the new album’s release, the band have already released two striking videos for two striking tracks from the new record, “Döp dem i eld” and “Jordafärd”, and today we’re privileged to bring you a third single, again accompanied by a tremendous video — filmed at the fortress known as Bohus Fästning along the old Swedish-Norwegian border, and directed by the great Patric Ullaeus. The song is “Järnhand“, which translates as “Iron hand”. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLACK CEREMONIAL KULT — “CROWNED IN CHAOS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 112021
 

 

On June 14th the Chilean black/death band Black Ceremonial Kult will add to their collection of demos and splits that have been released since 2014. The newest release, which will come our way via Godz Ov War Productions, is named Crowned In Chaos. As you will discover through our full stream of the EP today, that title is well-chosen.

The band draw their inspiration, and the source of their powers, from occult mysticism, and it obviously leads them into frightening and dangerous places, because their music as represented on this new EP is unmistakably — and inhumanly — frightening and dangerous.

Through the first seven tracks of this 11-track release, the music alternates, creating chilling visions as well as explosions of breathtaking violence and madness, yet the tracks flow into each other seamlessly, creating a massive hallucinatory psychosis. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, WORMWITCH, MOROS

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 102021
 

 

In between bouts of activity driven by my fucking day job today, I had just enough time to pull together this relatively short round-up of new sounds — two tracks (both with videos) from forthcoming albums, and one recently released EP.

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM (U.S.)

WITTR’s new album has been officially announced. Entitled Primordial Arcana, it’s set for release on August 20th by Relapse Records. Coincident with that they released a video for the song “Mountain Magick“. The band made the video themselves, and filmed it “in the northern reaches of the Olympic Mountains and the ancient forests that shroud the foothills”. They also recorded, produced, and mixed the album themselves. Continue reading »

BLACKER THAN THE BLACKEST BLACK – ANGRRSTH / GENUNE / SORDIDE

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 102021
 

(Andy Synn is here again to celebrate three fascinating recent releases you may have missed)

Maybe it’s the contrarian in me, but I’m finding that even as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer (much, much warmer, in point of fact, if this week is any indicator) I’m actually listening to even more Black Metal than usual.

Oh, sure, I know the genre is traditionally associated with ice and snow and northern darkness, but I’ve definitely found that some bands – some, not all – also serve as the perfect soundtrack to burning days of blazing skies and blistering heat.

There’s just something about the seething buzz of the guitars, the ringing melodic arpeggios, the windswept howl of the vocals – something primal and elemental – that so often fits my mood during the searing summer months, which is why I’ve decided to dedicate today’s column to three artists and albums who’ve found themselves in regular rotation for me in recent weeks.

Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEATH ON FIRE — “A HELL OF OUR OWN DESIGN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 102021
 

 

For just a three-track EP, Death on Fire‘s Six Foot Box is a vibrantly diverse and dynamic experience that manages to hit home in multiple ways. After reaching the end, it’s really easy to loop back around to the beginning, to re-live the experience and try to get a better understanding of how the band managed to provoke such a reflexively visceral and physical response while simultaneously moving emotions in such different and powerful ways. By then, the songs have just dug their hooks deeper under the skin, even further strengthening the desire to go back to them.

You can pick out songwriting and recording techniques (and a dark world-view) that flow across all three tracks, but trying to dissect and enumerate all the stylistic strains in the music (which seem to span about five decades of rock and metal history) is a much more difficult task, though probably easier if you’ve got some gray hairs in your head. It’s better to just appreciate how well this Indiana band have integrated the sounds that inspired them.

What we have for you today, in advance of the EP’s July 16 release, is the premiere of the EP’s second track, “A Hell of Our Own Design“. It now joins the closing song, “Begging For Air“, as publicly available streams — but we’ll also give you a written preview of the EP opener as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MARRAS — “AS NIGHTS GET DARKER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 092021
 

 

When last we wrote about the Finnish black metal band Marras the occasion was the premiere of a song from their strikingly good 2019 debut album Where Light Comes to Die. A new album, Endtime Sermon, provides the occasion for us to revisit them, through yet another premiere. Like the first album, this second one will be released by Spread Evil Productions. It’s destined to hit the streets on July 9th.

A story lies behind the song we’re presenting today, “As Night Gets Darker“. It’s a story inspired by Finnish writer Boris Hurtta, who just passed away in February 2021, and thus the song is a tribute to him. The band tell the tale as follows: Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries