MEMORIAL DAY METAL?

 Off Topic  4 Responses »
May 312021
 

 

In the United States, today is Memorial Day, a national holiday. Here, it marks the unofficial beginning of summer and is typically a time of social gathering and celebration. This year its celebratory aspects are even greater, because many of the pandemic-related restrictions on social activity have been lifted. People are traveling by air and car at levels not seen since March of last year. Bars and restaurants are packed. So are parks and beaches.

I don’t want to pour cold water on any of this, but the Memorial Day holiday was not established as a day of celebration. It was created as a day of remembrance and mourning of American military personnel who died in the performance of their duties. In its earliest incarnation after the Civil War, it was called “Decoration Day”, because mourners honored the Civil War dead by decorating their graves with flowers.

Nowadays, there are still solemn remembrances, but those are usually overshadowed by all the fun-loving activities, and by politicians and businesses who use the day as an excuse to engage in flag-waving glorification of the military. Many of those are the same people who hypocritically do nothing to help military personnel once they’re out of uniform, but badly need help because of physical or mental injuries suffered during their service. Trying to survive apparently doesn’t count nearly as much as dying. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 134): ABYSSKVLT

 THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
May 312021
 

Recommended for fans of: Esoteric, Drown, The Ruins of Beverast

As I’ve been enjoying so much music from Russia lately I thought it made sense to keep to that theme by dedicating this month’s edition of The Synn Report to the dense, doom-laden discography of Abysskvlt.

A word of warning, however, the band’s three albums – the most recent of which was released just a few weeks ago – are definitely not for the faint of heart (or those with a short attention span), as each one clocks in at well over an hour in length.

Not only that, but while each record delivers a spine-tingling, soul-crushing, at times almost asphyxiatingly atmospheric, blend of monstrous, funereal heaviness and bitter, blackened melancholy (along with an undercurrent of eerie ambience reminiscent of sinisterly cinematic artists like Lustmord and Treha Sektori), there’s also an even deeper level of mystery underlying the band’s work, which was conceived as a way to explore Tibetan spiritual culture (particularly the pre-Buddhist tradition of Bön) through the use of traditional Tibetan instruments as well as the incorporation of lyrics frequently written and performed in Tibetan or Shangshung.

As you might have gathered then, each of the group’s albums is best experienced as a complete whole, rather than as a simple selection of tracks, so your best bet is to set aside a big block of time – trust me, you’ll need it – and maybe have someone come to check on you every seventy minutes or so, because you’re about to go on one hell of a journey.

Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BECERUS — “PRIMEVAL IGNORANTIA”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 312021
 


Becerus co-stars

Goat mosh pit!

Hold that thought for a minute.

Back in February you might have caught our premiere of a track named “Primeval Ignorantia” off Homo Homini Brutus, the thoroughly killer debut album by the Sicilian death metal band Becerus. If you did check out that song, or the album as a whole, then you already know that the music of Becerus is surprising in more ways than one.

It’s surprising, first, because this group sound a lot more seasoned than their newcomer status would suggest. But it’s also surprising because there’s more going on in their songs than brutish caveman bludgeoning, which is what some of the outward trappings of the band might lead you to guess.

But if you didn’t catch that previous premiere and have failed to discover the album (shame on you!), you’ll get to experience these surprises for the first time, because today we’re presenting a video for that same song — and it’s a highly entertaining video, one that make clear that these dudes don’t take themselves too seriously, even though their music delivers a serious ass-kicking. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: RITUAL MOON, GRINNING DEATH’S HEAD, PA VESH EN, GROZA, AAMON, GLIMT, THRON, OPPRESS

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
May 302021
 


Ritual Moon

 

Especially after yesterday’s humongous round-up it probably wasn’t smart for me to follow it with another one, but that’s what I’ve done. As you’ve probably figured out by now, careful thinking and reflection never have much to do with my NCS contributions. Impulse and enthusiasm tend to rule the day.

RITUAL MOON (U.S.)

I had intended to fully explore this L.A. band’s January 2021 debut album after listening to an advance track many months ago, but never got back to it until my comrade DGR recently posted about it. He figured it would be up my alley. It definitely is. Continue reading »

THE REARVIEW MIRROR: JOE STUMP, GARY MOORE, JEFF BECK

 THE REARVIEW MIRROR  11 Responses »
May 302021
 

 

We used to have a series called The Rearview Mirror on Sundays. Like many of our ideas, it eventually withered away, like a night-blooming flower that didn’t get enough nutrients from its tenders (us). It provided a vehicle for me and other writers to unearth old albums that meant something to us, and introduce them to people who might not know about them.

It was a good idea, and fun for us to do, but like everything else we do here its survival depended on the intensity of our own innate interest, which is a way of saying that we don’t force anything. Things happen naturally, or they don’t. And so it died, R.I.P., though the entire series is still available here.

I’m not really making a concerted effort to revive The Rearview Mirror today. In fact, the song that prompted me to make this post isn’t even old. But it’s a tribute to a long-lost artist and it made me re-live some treasured memories of my own, so I thought this one-off addition to the series, almost three years after it expired, was the right format. (And don’t worry, SHADES OF BLACK is still coming later today.) Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: AT THE GATES, NIGHTRAGE, AGRYPNIE, CLOUD RAT, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, BONES OF THE EARTH, PRAISE THE PLAGUE, MENTAL CRUELTY, PROGENY OF SUN, DELUSION, INFESTATION, ANTUCO, TRIALOGOS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 292021
 

 

To improve your Saturday, and quite possibly your whole weekend, I’ve collected a baker’s dozen of new songs and videos (including a couple of previously hard-to-find tracks from forthcoming reissues).

I grouped these 13 offerings in ways that I thought made sense. As usual for these kinds of posts, I didn’t take time to track down and upload artwork or purchase links, and I decided to organize my meager introductory comments by the categories I’ve arranged. (Don’t punch me too hard because of the category labels I chose, because I do realize they’re not 100% accurate.)

MELODIC DEATH METAL

The first two choices here were recommended by DGR, and the above label clearly applies to both. Andy Synn recommended the third one, and although most people wouldn’t categories Agrypnie as melodic death metal, I do think their new song fits well alongside the first two. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RUACH RAAH — “SKULLS CRACKED”

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 282021
 

 

In your searching for new metal, if you need to check off boxes like “melodic”, “nuanced”, “forward-thinking”, “intricate”, or “soulful”, you should probably stop reading right now. On the other hand, if adjectives like “filthy”, “feral”, “primitive”, “carnal”, and “ferocious” are on your list, you’ve come to the right place.

With vitriol surging in torrents through their veins and no regard for the well-being of their listeners, the Portuguese black metal band Ruach Raah (now stripped down to a duo) are returning with their third album, Misanthropic Wolfgang, which is set for release by Signal Rex on June 30th. Based on the music, we’re guessing that the title isn’t an homage to Mozart but is instead a contraction of “wolf gang”. They do indeed sound like wolves on the hunt, racing their listeners into the ground with teeth bared — or maybe more accurately igniting a desire among listeners to run with them on their wild romps.

And make no mistake, as abrasive, rabid, and riotous as the music is, it’s primally infectious stuff — which you’ll discover through today’s premiere of the new album track “Skulls Cracked“. Continue reading »

SHEVILS: “MIRACLE OF THE SUN”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
May 282021
 

 

I continue to write about this Norwegian hardcore punk band (I’m calling them that here, though as you’ll learn, that’s an overly simplistic genre label) despite the fact that their music just hovers on the edges of what we usually cover here. Why is that?

I suppose part of the attraction is that I was into punk long before I was into metal, and even though (thanks to this blog) extreme metal has almost entirely supplanted punk in my listening, it’s still capable of striking a chord. But that’s not the whole story of why Shevils have grabbed me again, this time with their new album Miracle of the Sun — their best work yet and a marked evolution in their sound.

Though it would probably go too far to call Shevils a “metallic hardcore band”, the punch in their music still has heft behind it, enough to raise welts. And the songs also carry a dark intensity, an emotional fabric woven in multi-faceted ways, and that’s one of the key qualities that also draws me to metal.

Moreover, the songs are so full of hooks they would leave a fisherman envious and greedy. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3): SORDIDE, MORAST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 272021
 

 

And now we come to the third and final Part of today’s new-music roundup. If you’ve been following along, you know that Part 1 consisted of music from two doom bands and Part 2 corralled songs from two death metal bands. And so perhaps it’s predictable that I’ve got two black metal bands in this final installment.

SORDIDE (France)

I hope Sordide’s new album Les Idées Blanches has been on your radar. I’ve done what I can to help that happen, having previously written in glowing terms about its first advance track, “Je n’ai nul pays”. And now that a second track has emerged, I’d like to continue the drumbeat. Continue reading »

SILVER TALON – DECADENCE AND DECAY

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
May 272021
 

(Andy Synn has decided to break the cardinal rule of our site – again – by throwing his weight, and his words, behind the new album from Portland Progressive Power Metal paladins Silver Talon)

The ability to compare one band with another – or with many others – is, in my opinion, one of the most valuable tools in a writer’s arsenal.

Oh, sure, it can be abused and misused – so can any tool – but being able to say that “band [a] sound a bit like band [b]”, or “like the bastard child of [x] and [y]” or “a more modern version of [z]” is a great way to put your reader in the right sort of mindset, and give them some useful context and perspective, to help them appreciate the music they’re about to hear and/or read about.

Still, even I’m willing to admit that it can sometimes be used as a crutch, especially in cases – such as this one – where there’s one particularly obvious comparison that would be far, far, too easy to make.

So, to challenge myself, I’ve decided to review the new album from Progressive/Heavy/Power Metal posse Silver Talon without explicitly mentioning that band at all.

Will I be able to do it? Quoth the raven…

Continue reading »

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