AN NCS PREMIERE: SATANIZE — “LUCIFERIAN THRONES OF DEVASTATION”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 162020
 

 

I got big smiles from the press materials for Baphomet Altar Worship, the new album by the Portuguese bestial black metal band Satanize. The biggest smile arrived when I saw that the PR material likened the listening experience to a form of Zen. But by then I had already listened to some of the album — and I actually understood the point, hence the smile.

Make no mistake, just as the album art so vividly portrays, the music on the new album is hellish and iron-fisted. It gives no quarter and yields to nothing in its single-minded channeling of demonic malice and slaughtering barbarity. And yet, and yet, the music does surprisingly have the capacity to induce a fugue state. As unhinged as it is, something about the viper-ous melodies and the jet-speed rhythms produces a strangely mesmerizing effect.

Or maybe I should just speak for myself. You be your own judge. Which you’ll be able to do by listening to “Luciferian Thrones of Devastation“, the song we’re premiering today in advance of the album release by Helter Skelter and Regain Records on January 20th. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2020: NEILL JAMESON’S YEAR END EGO FEEDING BULLSHIT PT. III: MORE DEMOS, EPS, AND SPLITS

 LISTMANIA 2020  1 Response »
Dec 162020
 

 

(We continue rolling out a series of year-end lists compiled by Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood). You can (and should) find Part I here (which was also devoted to EPs, Demos, and Splits) and Part II here (which was devoted to dungeon synth).

I don’t have very much of an eye for detail, no matter how much I bullshit about it on my resume, and because of that I constantly miss things when I do lists like this, plus the first two lists (did you read them? You should, they’re remarkable.) were pretty long and attention spans are short.

Really it’s just because I rushed through it like everything else in life, which is why my chapter in the USBM book stops around 2001. Anyway here’s more EPs, demos, and splits. Continue reading »

DEEDS OF FLESH: “NUCLEUS”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Dec 162020
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the new album by Deeds of Flesh, which was released by Unique Leader Records on December 11th.)

I have the honor to write about a band who are considered a classic act by fans of Brutal Death Metal, a band who came to life back in 1993 in Los Osos, California, and whose music has transcended the test of time and inspired many bands in both the BDM and Tech scene.

I remember while living in the Dominican Republic discovering their 1996 debut album Trading Pieces and being blown away as the music started. It left an everlasting impact on my life. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2020: WIL CIFER’S TOP 20 METAL ALBUMS OF 2020

 LISTMANIA 2020  6 Responses »
Dec 152020
 

 

(Today we present a Top 20 year-end list from long-time NCS contributor Wil Cifer.)

I am sure you have already read enough intros to lists this year where everyone commiserates about how we have made it through 2020 and things are going to be better soon. I am here to offer you no such hope. Whatever you resist persists.

If you read what I typically write you know I am consistent in extolling the virtues of leaning into the darkness, if not hinting that I may or may not worship it. My favorite albums this year supported the grim reality that wishful thinking does nothing. The lack of power metal should not be surprising. I have never wanted to hear metal that has anything to do with happiness, and this year I feel stronger about this sentiment. This is not a list of the albums I felt were coolest so I could get virtual high-fives from my peers. These albums are the best because they inspired me to listen to them the most. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2020: NEILL JAMESON’S YEAR END EGO FEEDING BULLSHIT PT. II: DUNGEON SYNTH

 LISTMANIA 2020  2 Responses »
Dec 152020
 

 

(We are grateful once again to be able to share year-end lists compiled by Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood), which this year comes in multiples parts, of which this is the second one. Part I is here.)

As foretold in the first chapter of these lists (I’m trying to get into character), this part in our 2020 journey will be solely dungeon synth releases, of which there have been 16 released just since I typed that first sentence.

This genre has become fucking overwhelming, especially with people being stuck at home, so it feels like there’s a glut of new projects clogging the drain, causing a sewage overflow of forgettable cassettes that are selling out simply because people like buying shit that’s “limited”. And the culture that’s grown up around dungeon synth? That’s another article someone will bitch about that I don’t need to write.

That’s not to say there aren’t great things being released and I know I missed a great deal of them, so this is more just a list of my favorite releases this year and very obviously limited in scope. Enjoy. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ABIOTIC — “SMOLDERED”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 142020
 

 

In the early years of this site, I closely watched and wrote about the meteoric rise of a South Florida band named Abiotic, who quickly vaulted from a couple of singles and a 2011 EP to the release of their 2012 debut album Symbiosis on the Metal Blade label. In considering that album I did my best (at length) to wrestle its mind-boggling escapades into words, but probably failed. With elements that appealed to fans of both tech-death and deathcore, and probably many people committed to mental asylums, the music (I wrote) was “intricately constructed and capably executed — a full-bore onslaught of brain-twisting technical pyrotechnics, munitions-grade explosiveness, and eerie atmospherics”.

Abiotic followed up Symbiosis with 2015’s Casuistry, which was a crusher, and still displayed lots of technical adventurousness but also moved in the direction of more melodic and catchier songs. And then Abiotic went silent on the recording front, a silence that has lasted for more than five years. But the silence has ended, because on February 12th the band’s third album Ikigai will be released by The Artisan Era — and it’s our pleasure to bring you a track from it today, a song named “Smoldered“, which is presented through a fascinating music video. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2020: NEILL JAMESON’S YEAR END EGO FEEDING BULLSHIT (PT I): EPS, DEMOS & SPLITS

 LISTMANIA 2020  3 Responses »
Dec 142020
 

 

(We are grateful once again to be able to share year-end lists compiled by Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood), which this year comes in multiples parts, of which this is the first.)

I noticed a pattern when I look back on all the year-end lists that I’ve been allowed to shit up your newsfeed with and it seems that every other year is packed with records I’m passionate about and then a year that’s kind of bleak and I struggled to pull together a list greater than ten or so. Seeing that this has been an interesting (beautifully understated) year, I’m going to break that pattern with a multi-day extravaganza broken up into parts culminating with the best from all categories because, as a self centered prick, I’ve got a lot of releases to share with the four of you who are interested, as well as commentary and all the other shit I roll into a ball to make myself feel important at this time of the year.

Today I wanted to start out with a list of EPs, demos and splits that I’ve really latched onto this year, as well as corresponding Bandcamp links to support the artists and labels wherever applicable. Sound rad? Fucking right. Let’s begin: Continue reading »

FUCKED AND BOUND: “SUFFRAGE”

 Reviews  No Responses »
Dec 142020
 


photo by Uly Curry

 

(Our friend Justin C., who has spent most of his metal-writing career in recent years as a stalwart at Metal Bandcamp, has brought us this guest review of the latest album by another group of friends — Seattle’s Fucked and Bound — which will be re-released by Quiet Panic on December 18th.)

Pre-pandemic, “Two Minutes to Late Night” started as a YouTube talk show hosted by a corpse-painted Jordan Olds, a.k.a. Gwarsenio Hall, with various metal luminaries as guests. Sadly, not even the hermetically sealed black box that is St. Vitus in NYC is safe, so they had to stop filming, but as a way of keeping themselves (and us) entertained, they started recording covers with their socially distanced friends. They may be a little more obsessed with all things Glenn Danzig-related than what’s healthy, but they’ve produced some scorchers, including White Zombie’s “Super-Charger Heaven”. I knew Lisa Mungo, guest vocalist on this track, from her work in He Whose Ox is Gored. She does a better Rob Zombie than Rob Zombie does, so it’s a fun watch, but the video credited her with a different band, Fucked and Bound.

I knew this name, but I couldn’t remember from where. After some internet sleuthing–and be aware that searching “Fucked and Bound” a lot will have an interesting effect on your search suggestions–I was reminded that they put out a full length called Suffrage in 2018, but sadly it had gone out of print and off of Bandcamp. So how to get more?

Well, we’re in luck, because label Quiet Panic is re-releasing the album on December 18th. I actually ordered the vinyl for this thing, and I don’t even have a record player. Such is my excitement to get that download. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TAAK

 Interviews  No Responses »
Dec 142020
 

 

(With gratitude to Comrade Aleks, as always, we bring you today his interview of two members of the Estonian band Takk, whose new album Põgenemiskatse was released in April of this year.)

Taak is a late incarnation of the first Estonian doom band, Dawn Of Gehenna (1993 – late ’90s). They returned back to Tallinn’s underground in around 2005 with almost the same lineup, song lyrics written in Estonian, and driving an updated sound. Keeping these features untouched, the men developed their approach and learnt how to extract crushing doomy tunes from their instruments with maximum efficiency.

Here is a story behind Taak’s new release Põgenemiskatse (“Attempt to Escape”), told by Mart Kalvet (vocals) and Kristjan “Christ“ Virma (keyboards, guitars). Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2020: STEREOGUM’S LIST OF “THE 10 BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2020”

 LISTMANIA 2020  7 Responses »
Dec 132020
 

 

Stereogum easily qualifies as one of the “big platform” web sites whose year-end lists of metal we perennially include in our LISTMANIA series. Of course, the site appeals to an audience of music fans much larger than devoted metalheads, but its staff includes a talented and tasteful group of metal writers who among other things are responsible for the site’s monthly “The Black Market” column, which has been a great source of discovery for extreme music for eight years running now.

It follows that Stereogum‘s annual metal list is one I especially look forward to seeing every year, and the 2020 edition appeared last Friday. It again consists of only 10 entries, collectively assembled by Ian Chainey, Aaron Lariviere, and Wyatt Marshall. As usual, it’s preceded by a long essay that offers thoughts about the year that’s about to gasp its last breath, this time written by Ian Chainey. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries