SHADES OF BLACK: LAERE, HORDE OF HEL, SECOND TO SUN, CYNABARE URNE, MARTWA AURA, OVER THE VOIDS…, SEVENTH

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Aug 022020
 

 

This morning the words from an old soap opera popped into my head: “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” One reason might be obvious: The current world is a gigantic shitshow, and we’re being brutally reminded on a daily basis how swiftly and inexorably our lives flow away.

But it might also be because yesterday I read a fascinating article (here) about soap and skin and how Procter & Gamble created that show and many others to build a market for skin care products we probably didn’t need, and in the process invented modern American advertising.

It might also be because I’m rapidly running out of NCS time today, and so will have to be brief in what I write about these songs I’ve chosen to recommend.

LAERE

“Tenebrae” is a storm-tossed sea of sound whose heaving melodies are laden with fear and desperation. The song conjures vast panoramas of dark crashing waves and lightning-scarred skies, as well as the hopelessness of abandonment and isolation. Its desolating emotional intensity is heightened by the throat-shredding wretchedness of the vocals, and the gloom of somber spoken words. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF, INFERA BRUO, KALT VINDUR, HAD, BASTURMA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 012020
 


All Thoughts Fly

 

Another week is nearly over in which I had very little time to listen to new music apart from what I agreed to premiere, and only did a scattered job of trying to add to my list of things to check out eventually. I’m not optimistic this state of affairs is going to change any time soon. I did take advantage of this Saturday morning to jump around randomly in my list. I tried to balance bands whose names I knew with unfamiliar names, and from what I heard I picked these songs and videos — four that surfaced during the past week and then an older EP I just discovered.

ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF

When I first thought about how to order these selections I was going to end the round-up with the following video, as sort of a palate cleanser and mood-changer. But upon slight further reflection I realized that would have been tremendously unfair, because I can’t remember another video I’ve seen this year that’s such an extraordinary match of sights and sounds. So, we begin here… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: UNHOLY VAMPYRIC SLAUGHTER SECT — “FORCED GENUFLECTION ON ADORING GORED KNEES”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Jul 312020
 

 

Vampiric lore, especially in popular culture, has been dichotomous. On the one hand, vampires are depicted as ruthless predators capable of bestial savagery, rending human flesh in feeding frenzies of seemingly insatiable blood lust. On the other hand, there has also been a persistent aspect of dangerous romance in the canon, especially in more modern times — a side of the undead that is magical and seductive (if no less lethal), perhaps a remnant of humanity and perhaps merely a different stratagem for successful predation.

Of course, there are more aspects than these two which are revealed through the many centuries of vampiric legend and art, but these two may come to mind first in listening to the song we’re premiering today from the new third album by the Massachusetts black metal band Unholy Vampyric Slaughter Sect. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: MARCHE FUNÈBRE — “WHEN ALL IS SAID”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Jul 312020
 

 

From album to album the Belgian band Marche Funèbre have marched from strength to further strength, becoming more assured in their songwriting and more expansive in their incorporation of varying ingredients into their core musical framework of doom and death. Through three albums and a small group of shorter works dating back to 2009, they’ve proven their ability to intertwine crushing heaviness, gloomy moods, up-tempo intensity, and distinctive melodies — and to make full use of the striking versatility of Arne Vandenhoeck‘s voice.

What is also evident, and pleasing to fans who have been following Marche Funèbre from the beginning, is that they have evolved, stretching their talents to come up with new and increasingly powerful ways of standing out from the pack of doom/death bands that surround them — not radical revisions, to be sure, but natural changes that suit and strengthen the myriad appeals of their creations.

It is perhaps a measure of the self-confidence that has accumulated over more than a decade of working together that Marche Funèbre have chosen the longest track from their new hour-long album Einderlicht to introduce the record to the public. That song, “When All Is Said“, is the one we’re premiering today through a lyric video in advance of the album’s joint release on September 25th by Hypnotic Dirge Records, Solitude Productions, and The Vinyl Division. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 123): DESCEND

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Jul 312020
 

 

(We’ve reached the end of July, and for this month’s edition of THE SYNN REPORT Andy Synn has prepared reviews of all the albums released by the Swedish band Descend, including their latest full-length released on June 26th by Aftermath Music.)

Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Ihsahn, Disillusion

Stockholm stunners Descend have been quietly making a name for themselves in the more progressive circles of the Death Metal underground for a while now, developing a well-deserved reputation as a reliable source of intricate instrumental arrangements and rock-solid riffs that deliver all the primal punch you desire while also engaging your higher brain functions with every dynamic twist and turn.

But, for whatever reason, the Swedish quintet have never really broken through into the wider Metal consciousness in the same way that a number of their peers and predecessors have managed to.

All that might just be about to change however, as their recently released third album, The Deviant, is both a major step up for the band and a potential contender for multiple “Album of the Year” accolades.

Before we get to that, however, I invite you all to come with me on a deep dive into the group’s discography, where you’ll find that there’s also a lot to love in the band’s back-catalogue too. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NECROLEPSY — “CLOT OVER CONCRETE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 302020
 

 

Time brings change, sometimes unexpected, sometimes planned. When multi-instrumentalist Muttaki Shafayath and vocalist Ruzlan Safat created Necrolepsy in Sylhet, Bangladesh during 2012, they dedicated themselves to goregrind. They launched an EP named Exhibition of Mutilated Apparatus in 2014, and followed that with a sequence of split releases from then into 2016. In that year, Necrolepsy fell silent, though its members continued to create together in the stoner doom band Moonshiner, which released a self-titled demo on 2017.

But the ensuing years brought even further changes. Muttaki moved to Toronto, and Ruzlan moved to Dhaka. And when they decided to resuscitate Necrolepsy across the span of thousands of miles, they decided to focus more heavily on death metal than they had in their earlier goregrind-rooted music. With that new focus, they’re at work on an EP projected for release in 2021, and today we’re premiering its first single, which will be released for download on July 31st.

Today we’re presenting a stream of that single — “Clot Over Concrete” — and it is a spectacularly wild ride. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CARACH ANGREN (SEREGOR)

 Interviews  3 Responses »
Jul 302020
 

 

(On June 26th Season of Mist released Franckensteina Strataemontanus, a new album by the Dutch symphonic horror metal band Carach Angren, and in this new interview DJ Jet caught up with guitarist/vocalist Seregor to discuss the album and many other topics of interest.)

 

Seregor, please give us a little history about Carach Angren, on how this band came about and what you wished to express through it.

Good day, we are a horror metal act from the southern parts of the Netherlands. Founded in 2003, we started off as a side project when we were active in former trash/blackmetal act “Vaultage”. As soon as this band seized to exist Carach Angren became fully operational as a three-headed formation and that machine never stopped roaring, going and growing. Ardek and I always had a distinct taste of how this band should sound, feel and look. Fast, high, blasts, low, complex, full, symphonic, emotional etc. Continue reading »

DROUTH: “EXCERPTS FROM A DREAD LITURGY”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 292020
 

 

(July 31 is the date set by Translation Loss Records for the release of the new album by Portland, Oregon’s Drouth, and here we have Andy Synn‘s review.)

It looks like this week is going to be (another) one dedicated to the underdogs.

After all, I’ve already written glowingly about Question and their killer new album, which could well end up on a few “Album of the Year” lists come December, and I’m almost done putting together this month’s edition of The Synn Report, which covers another band whose latest (but largely unheralded) record also deserves a lot more praise and attention.

Then there’s today’s feature, covering the second album from Portland-based blast-fiends Drouth, which looks set to finally (and firmly) put them on the Black Metal map. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SVNTH — “ERASING GODS’ TOWERS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 292020
 

 

As we wrote at time of our last premiere for this Roman band two years ago, in genre terms they were hard to pin down. At the time of that 2018 release (an EP named SVNTH) one could tick off references to black metal, post-rock, and Pink Floyd-inspired psychedelia, with a nod toward experimental flourishes — and you could also hear ambient sounds and folk-oriented digressions with a dark cast.

As we observed then, just making a list like that might make you think of a juggler feverishly trying to avoid dropping any of the multi-colored spheres he’s whirling through the air, but Seventh Genocide (who have begun shortening their name to SVNTH) made their amalgamation of myriad influences sound effortless. All those changing colors weren’t distracting; they just made the music more engrossing.

Which is one reason why we’ve been so curious to see what they would do on their next release. That next release turns out to be an album named Spring in Blue, which will be released by Transcending Records on August 28th. The band have previously released a first single called “Wings of the Ark“, and today we present a second one — “Erasing Gods’ Towers“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BURNT OFFERING — “THE NIGHT OF HARVEST”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 292020
 

 

“Darkness fell on the village. The night scattered silver stars across the sky shining with blackness. Harvest Night. The Night of the harvest of souls. Among the stellar myriad, one of the stars is the brightest One. The One that is the essence. The One which is the key. The One which is the Lord of the harvest of souls. On the waves of steppe grasses They wander without haste. Those whose will is the Star. Those whose blood is the Star’s light. Whose eyes keep its reflection. Whose ghostlike flesh will reap some primitive lives. The sickle is raised to reap. It is the Harvest Night!”

Those words are the backdrop fashioned by the multi-national trio Burnt Offering to the song we’re premiering today from their debut album Harvest (“Жатва”), which will jointly be released by Casus Belli Musica and Beverina on August 20th. Those words, and the song, also channel the inspiration of the band members Nameless Enemy, Blind Idiot God, and Asbath (from Darkestrah) to pay tribute to the raw archaic black of the early ’90s Scandinavian scene, and early Ukrainian black metal groups such as Astrofaes — a time “when Black Metal was a source of terror and sorcery”. Continue reading »

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