AN NCS PREMIERE: BASTARD PRIEST — “EYES OF THE POSSESSED”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 222020
 

 

More than seven years ago I was moved to compile a list of the best Swedish death metal albums I had heard during the five preceding years, i.e., from 2008 through 2013. Just putting that list together was a reminder that the style is not monolithic, even though there are certain common attributes that tend to stand out.

In the intervening years we’ve seen both a revival and resurgence of older bands and the appearance of new bands who’ve been drawn to those ancient yet deathless sounds. One of the releases I included in that 2013 list was Bastard Priest’s second album, Ghouls of the Endless Night. That album came out in 2011, and had followed quickly on the heels of the band’s debut full-length, Under the Hammer of Destruction (2010). But the band broke up in 2013 and we’ve heard nothing further from them… until now.

Just last year the Bastard Priest duo of Matt Mendoza and Inventor re-formed, and are now returning with a new 16-minute EP aptly entitled Vengeance…Of The Damned, which will be jointly released on July 24th by U.S.-based Electric Assault Records, Mexico-based Chaos Records, and Japan-based Record BOY. Today we’re stoked to bring you the premiere of one of the new tracks — “Eyes of the Possessed“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FIDES INVERSA — “I AM THE ICONOCLASM”

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Jun 222020
 

 

Six years have passed, with one tremendously good EP to bisect the timeline, since the Italian black metal band Fides Inversa released their last album. Now they are returning, finished at last with years of work that have culminated in a new full-length. The new album, Historia Nocturna, has been set for release on July 22nd by W.T.C. Productions. It’s no exaggeration to say that the album is stupendous — larger than life in its sound and profoundly unearthly and diabolic in its atmosphere.

In the intervening years the core of the band –drummer/vocalist Omega and guitarist/bassist Void — have remained intact, joined here by vocalist Wraath (from Behexen, Dark Sonority, and Darvaza, among other groups). In Historia Nocturna they have created a dynamic listening experience, one in which the songs channel ravaging chaos and terrifying, awe-inspiring grandeur but also seem to pass through dimensional veils to join in a communion with spirits of the damned. The song we’re premiering today, “I Am the Iconoclasm“, is a stunning example of all those qualities. Continue reading »

DEFEATED SANITY: “THE SANGUINARY IMPETUS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 222020
 

 

(We present Vonlughlio’s review of the new sixth album by German stalwarts Defeated Sanity, which is set for release by Willowtip Records on July 24th and features cover art by Jon Zig.)

Today’s review concerns a band who have been dear to me as a fan for more than 10 years.  Their music has given me great joy, through good and bad times.  They are one of the best Brutal Death Metal acts out there, with classic releases that will be forever remembered.

I am talking about Germany’s Defeated Sanity, originally formed by Lille Gruber (drums) and his late father Wolfgang Teske (R.I.P.).  After their inception, the project released a series of demos and splits from 1996 through 2003, and their debut album Prelude to the Tragedy (2004) became one of my favorite debuts ever by any band in the genre. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NON SERVIAM, MALICIOUS, HELLRIPPER, PALACE OF WORMS, DUNWICH, VALRAVNE, FLAME, ASTRAL WINTER

 SHADES OF BLACK  9 Responses »
Jun 212020
 

 

I had a big block of uninterrupted time to myself yesterday afternoon, with my spouse out of the house at a safe birthday celebration and the cats sleeping. So of course I spent the time digging through my list of new black metal(ish) music in preparation for this column. You see the results: More time means more picks.

NON SERVIAM (France)

I have Cvlt Nation to thank for this first discovery. The introduction to their premiere was brief and didn’t include much detail about the music, but the blaring headline did the job: “Listen To Non Serviam’s Salem – It’s Depraved And Sick! This Band Sounds Like NO OTHER!” I also thought the cover image was fantastic, and so decided to see what was going on with the music. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PRIMITIVE MAN, REBEL WIZARD, CULT BURIAL, CYTOTOXIN, OČI VLKA, VIOLENT MAGIC ORCHESTRA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jun 202020
 

 

In many weeks the title of this round-up hasn’t been entirely accurate, because although I post them on Saturdays, sometimes I’ve listened to the songs before Saturday has arrived. Not this time.

This time I let the entire week go by without listening to much new music other than what I had agreed to premiere. My day job has been unusually annoying this week, and I continue to be distracted by the unnerving daily news of what’s happening in the world around us. This time, after gulping a couple of cups of coffee, I started the day by trying to catch up, and these selections survived that Saturday morning sifting process.

Needless to say, I didn’t make much headway in my giant list of things I wanted to check out from the past week (and the weeks before), but I had really good luck with what I did decide to check out.

PRIMITIVE MAN

I contend that there’s no better “intro” to a Primitive Man song than the gashing of ears with feedback, because what usually happens next is an ugly and unnerving experience. Why sugarcoat it? Continue reading »

ALTERNATIVE RELEASE DAY ROUND-UP: ACÂRASH / AVERSIO HUMANITATIS / DÈARTH / FORNICUS / GRAVENCHALICE / SXUPERION

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jun 192020
 


Acârash

(This is a collection of reviews and full-album streams assembled by Andy Synn.)

As everyone knows, the devil has all the best tunes, so today’s “Alternative Release Day Round-Up” has a demonic, Black/Death theme to it.

It also, for once, actually includes quite a few albums which are only just seeing the light of day today… although even the “oldest” albums featured here were all released within the last month or so. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SOMBRE HÉRITAGE — “ALPHA URSAE MINORIS”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jun 192020
 

 

This road to this album premiere began in much the same way as yesterday’s premiere of the superb new album by Serment. In mid-May we posted an article by our friend Speelie that focused on Métal Noir Québécois. Along with Serment, it included the news that Sepulchral Productions would also be releasing, on the same day, the debut of Québec project Sombre Héritage, the title of which is Alpha Ursae Minoris.

With our interest having been piqued by that news, we paid close attention to the first track that Sepulchral Productions revealed from the album, a song that shares the band’s name — and it proved to be damned exciting, prompting the inclusion of the song in one of our Shades of Black features. And now we have the chance to bring you a stream of the entire record in advance of its June 24 release date. Continue reading »

COMP YOURSELF ON JUNETEENTH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 192020
 


The just-discovered original handwritten “Juneteenth” military order informing thousands of people held in bondage in Texas that they were free

 

Today is Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. It was on June 19, 1865, that Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. To help celebrate the day, Bandcamp has announced that “from midnight to midnight PDT, and every Juneteenth hereafter, for any purchase you make on Bandcamp, we will be donating 100% of our share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.”

To be clear, this isn’t the same as what Bandcamp did on June 5th (and will do again on July 3rd), when it waived its share of sales of digital music and merch on the site. Today it will still collect its share, but it is promising to donate that share to a cause that aligns with the Juneteenth celebration. And that provides an added reason to consider purchases on Bandcamp today.

It also provides a reason for me to do what I’ve been meaning to do for a couple of weeks — to spread the word about some recently released compilations of underground music on Bandcamp. I know that I probably overlooked some, but these are the ones I made note of when I saw them. If you know of others, please leave a Comment. (Some of these are name-your-own-price downloads, but if yoiu kick in some money for those, Bandcamp’s pledge will still apply.) Continue reading »

BIESY: “TRANSSATANIZM”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 182020
 

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Polish band Biesy, which was released by Godz Ov War Productions on May 8th.)

Black Metal is, let’s face it, an inherently contradictory genre.

By turns both fearlessly progressive and rigidly (some might even say “religiously”) conservative, infinitely malleable yet stubbornly inflexible, it’s the sort of place where bands can preach rebellion and non-conformity on one hand while ostracising anyone who dares to colour too far outside the lines on the other.

And while I love pretty much everything about it – the sound, the fury, the blending of avant-garde artistry and punk-as-fuck attitude – I’m also not afraid to acknowledge the high camp of it all either, considering how much time I’ve spent in small, dark rooms, watching shirtless, make-up covered men with pseudonyms like “Goat Impaler” and “Ultra Sodomite” hammering out priapic hymns of uber-masculinity, all while rocking a borderline-erotic amount of leather.

So it’s actually kind of surprising that it’s taken so long for someone to connect the obvious dots between the nihilistic escapism of Black Metal’s corpse-painted pageantry and the performative, provocative world of drag, but that’s exactly what the mastermind behind Biesy has done, adopting the persona of blue-haired punk-rock princess “Faustyna Moreau” to create an album designed to make you question your own prejudices and preconceptions about the necro-metallic arts. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SERMENT — “CHANTE, Ô FLAMME DE LA LIBERTÉ”

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Jun 182020
 

 

One thing leads to another, sometimes with terrible results, sometimes with great ones. Fortune has smiled upon us this time.

In mid-May our valued ally Speelie prepared for us an overview of recent and forthcoming black metal releases from Québec (Métal Noir Québécois), and the first band he highlighted was a solo project of Forteresse guitarist Moribond named Serment. A few days later Serment released the first two tracks from the debut album, Chante, Ô Flamme de la Liberté, and presented them together in a single stream. The music was so striking that we were moved to write about it immediately (here).

And now we have the opportunity to premiere a stream of the entire album, which is set for release on June 24th by Sepulchral Productions, a label that has been home to many brilliant releases of Québécois black metal. Continue reading »

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