AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CONTRARIAN — “ONLY TIME WILL TELL”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 172020
 

 

There’s a lot to be said about the new Contrarian album Only Time Will Tell that we’re premiering today, from its concept to its composition and its execution. In a nutshell, those subjects involve heavy-metal escapism, wildly adventurous ideas, and extreme virtuosity — and all those aspects of the music are connected.

The album’s escapist qualities are certainly evident in its layout, artwork, and the lyrics through which the narrative unfolds. The artwork is lavish, and invokes the kind of intersection between fantasy, science fiction, and metal that has been a persistent feature of the genre for decades (if you’re uncomfortable being a nerd, then you’re a sub-par metalhead!).

And in the tale itself, Contrarian again use the adventures of their recurring protagonist “the cloaked contrarian” to convey ideas involving philosophy, theology, and science — this time by sending him on a travel through time in an effort to eradicate past sins and to bring about healing, while also raising the question whether time does indeed heal all wounds. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NADER SADEK (WITH KARL SANDERS AND DEREK RODDY)

 Interviews  4 Responses »
Nov 172020
 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: On November 20 the Egyptian metal artist Nader Sadek will release a remarkable EP named The Serapeum, which grew out of a collaboration in Egypt among Sadek, Karl Sanders (Nile), Derek Roddy (Serpents Rise), and Mahmud Gecekusu (Perversion).

The music on the EP also includes contributions by bassists Ben “Barby” Claus (Gorod) and Dominic “Forest” Lapointe (Augury) and vocalists Morean (Dark Fortress) and Shaun LaCanne (Putrid Pile), as well as Alex Zubair (Nephelium) creating eastern harmonies and drones, and Nancy Mounir adding theremin hauntings to the mix. Sadek himself recorded the vocals inside the inner chamber of Dahshur’s “Red Pyramid” (the pyramid of Snefru).

We will have the pleasure of premiering a full stream of the EP on November 19th. And today we’re presenting an interview about the EP that DJ Jet conducted with Nader Sadek, as well as a few questions she posed to Karl Sanders and Derek Roddy, and their answers. The circumstances in which the interview was conducted were unusual, and perhaps in time they will be revealed when and if it is safe to do so. Continue reading »

DARK BUDDHA RISING: “MATHREYATA”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Nov 162020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Finnish dark underlords of psychedelic drone, Dark Buddha Rising, which was released by Svart Records on November 13th.)

You know, despite existing on pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum, Drone and Grind have a weird amount in common… at least, they do from my perspective.

For one thing, both styles are – in my experience – more enjoyable live than on record (with some notable exceptions, of course), and both make a lot more sense to me when they’re mixed in with more… let’s say “traditional”… forms of Metal.

This means that if you want to get me bumpin’ ‘n’ grindin’ then you’d best inject a heavy dose of Death Metal along with it. And if you want me to embrace the Drone you’ll need to bring the Doom too.

On top of that, they both exist in that weird space where, although I understand what people mean when they use these terms, I can’t necessarily define them.

But, to paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart, “I know it when I hear it.”

Case in point, Dark Buddha Rising’s seventh album straddles the line between genres so adroitly that I still can’t tell you exactly where it lands.

My head says it’s Drone, but my heart says it’s Doom, and my guts… well, my guts just say that it’s one of the best albums of the year, and yet another career highlight from Finland’s favourite sub-sonic sorcerors. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GOATCRAFT — ANOTHER TRACK FROM “MEPHISTOPHELIAN EXORDIUM”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 162020
 

 

Almost two weeks ago we premiered a track from Mephistophelian Exordium, the forthcoming double-album by the “necroclassical” project Goatcraft which will be released by Hessian Firm on November 20th, and today we present a second one.

For those who may have missed the first premiere, which included a lot of background information about Goatcraft and this new release, Mephistophelian Exordium unearths demo recordings that Goatcraft‘s alter ego, the pianist and adventurous keyboardist Lonegoat, made near the beginning of his journey as a solo artist roughly ten years ago. Originally distributed to friends and acquaintances on CDR, those tracks are finally getting an official release on this album. The album also includes a 2015 radio performance that was broadcast live on-air by KSYM in San Antonio, Texas, as well as the song “Mephistophelian Exordium,” which was written and recorded in 2015 while Lonegoat worked on Goatcraft’s third album, Yersinia Pestis.

The track we’re premiering today, which appears on the album as “20 Untitled“, comes from that early demo compilation. It’s a long piece that was all improvisation, and the effect of listening to it as it mounts in intensity is both spellbinding and frightening. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GOLGATA — “RÅTTFÅNGARENS DANS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 162020
 

 

The duo who founded the Swedish black metal band Golgata in 2014 were both born and raised in the southern part of Sweden, and we’re told that the landscape of their region became a vital part of their inspiration, which has carried through to the conception of their forthcoming second album, Tempel. Satanath Records, who will be releasing it on November 30, describes it as “a journey through barren landscapes on a quest for the remedy of this bitter state called living”, and a representation of “the beauty of the human darkness and how it sometimes is the only factor for survival”.

Satanath also recommends the music for fans of Skogen, Grift, and Fellwarden, among others, and those references are good signposts for Tempel’s immersive, melancholy atmosphere and the feeling of reverence that comes through the music, along with its sensations of panoramic sweep and unchained fury.

Today we’re presenting the third track from the album to be revealed so far, along with a strong recommendation that you check out the first two as well. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: BEHERIT, HYRGAL, FUNERAL CANDIES

 SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Nov 152020
 

 

I’m not quite sure what got into me when I began focusing on what to cover in today’s edition of this column. Let’s just say that most of it is off the usual beaten paths. It’s also slightly more compact than what I usually manage, but that’s because I put a lot of time into another column today, which itself includes black metal. Check that one out here if you haven’t yet.

BEHERIT

Two days ago Beherit made a surprise album release — at least it came as a surprise to me, the first new music in 8 years. Bardo Exist is a massive thing, a 37-minute first half consisting of 11 songs and a second half that’s the 23-minute title track. I probably shouldn’t be writing anything about it because I’ve only listened to it once, but I know myself: If I don’t jump on something quickly, I get carried away to other things by the flood-tide of new releases. So here are some immediate reactions: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SUNDAY: TRIBULATION, INFIRMUM, NOCRUL, KAVYK, TAUR-IM-DUINATH, ZVIJER, MAESTUS, MANY SUFFER, KRASSEVILLE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 152020
 

 

One look at the title of this post tells you it’s a mega-sized round-up. Deprived by my fucking day job of the time to do round-ups during the work-week, I’ve been left to do them on Saturdays. But I had to do non-NCS work yesterday too, so here we are, with a Sunday collection of new songs and videos.

Big as it is, this post barely dents my list. But picking the music of these nine bands made sense to me, because I was again lucky to listen to songs which seemed to line up nicely into a playlist that flows rather than jars. For those of you who come here on Sundays for SHADES OF BLACK, fear not because I still plan to write that column too (though it will be short), and you’ll find some black metal below as a head-start.

TRIBULATION (Sweden)

To begin, I’ve chosen a new song and video named “Leviathans” by the Swedish band Tribulation. My appreciation for their music took some time to grow after they began changing their musical course, but witnessing their amazing performance at Iceland’s Ascension Festival in 2019 made me a true believer, and this new song does nothing to shake that. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SPEEDKILLER — “CIRCLES OF BLOOD”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 132020
 

 

Based on this band’s name (Speedkiller) and their nation (Brazil), you might be expecting raw and ripping black thrash, or perhaps balls-to-the-wall speed metal, and Speedkiller do indeed give you high-voltage doses of thrash and speed, but their debut EP Midnight Vampire turns out to be a much more multi-faceted experience, in which the band also draw on elements of death metal and classic heavy metal — and a genuine talent for cooking up addictive melodies and hook-heavy riffs, and delivering the experience within a supernatural atmosphere.

Speedkiller leaped into this new EP after releasing only a couple of singles via YouTube, and when you hear it you’ll understand why both Helldprod Records and Edged Circle Records leaped at the chance to release it. Sadly, covid-related delays at manufacturing facilities have recently caused a postponement in the EP’s release date from December 11th to January 29, 2021, but to tide you over until then we’re presenting a track from the album today named “Circles of Blood“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BESTIALIS — “RITUS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 132020
 

 

Just yesterday I was confessing that one of the reasons I’m so open to hosting premieres every day is a selfish motivation — because it affords the opportunity to discover new music from new bands that I might otherwise miss (and that you might miss too!). Sometimes those opportunities bring thrilling surprises, and today it has happened again through the discovery of a fascinating German black metal band named Bestialis.

What you are about to hear, on the day of its release by Vendetta Records, is the debut recording of this group, an EP named Ritus. The formidable success of the EP will be less surprising if you understand that Bestialis is the result of of a long-term artistic and spiritual conspiracy between two artists — vocalist Lastaurus and guitarist Absorber — who have been making music for 20 years; both of them are part of northwestern Germany’s Culthe Collectiv/Culthe Fest (Münster).

What they’ve achieved is both conceptually and musically tantalizing. In their lyrical focus, Bestialis focus on a concept “whose basic premise is to understand humans as – primarily and in the most positive way – animal beings, and thus, at its essence, to explore, proclaim and worship the bestia or beast in man.”. Ritus thus offers an introduction to this concept and puts into its narrative tales of prehistoric bull cults and Persian mythology (such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, provided in the band’s own reinterpretation). Continue reading »

FATAL CASTRATION: “DIVERSED PARADIGM OF LUNACY”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 132020
 

 

(In this post Vonlughlio recommends the second album by the Filipino brutal death metal band Fatal Castration, which was released on November 6th by Sevared Records.)

One of the joys of the internet is that moment when out of the blue you find a new band that just blows you away the moment you push play and the first notes emerge. This is the case of FC from the Philippines, who released their second offering Diversed Paradigm of Lunacy a week or so ago via Sevared Records.

This project was born back in 2009, and as they were deep underground there was not much information about them, not until the release of their debut album Perishan Grinder back in 2014. The release included songs from a 2008 demo that I could not find. But I’m not going to dwell on that album, but will say that it’s straight-forward BDM with a raw sound that’s capable of captivating from the get-go. Continue reading »

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