ANCST: “SUMMITS OF DESPONDENCY”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Sep 152020
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Berlin-based Ancst, which will be released on September 18th via Lifeforce Records and the band’s own label Yehonala tapes.)

Evolution is a strange thing. For the most part it’s such a glacially slow process that its effects are almost invisible, except in hindsight. Yet it’s also extremely unpredictable, sometimes progressing in random fits and starts, or even the occasional dramatic leap, in a manner that seems to defy understanding.

Musical evolution is no different. Different bands evolve at different rates, and in different ways, especially as new members – and new musical DNA – are introduced.

But, you know what they say, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”, because while Blackened Metallic Crust-Punk crew Ancst may have cycled through quite a few members over the years (with stalwart mainman Tom S. as the band’s constant linchpin) as well as a few different sounds (their alternate, drone-based material is also well worth a listen) their third album (which is something like their 20th release overall, not counting demos and compilations) finds their sound largely unchanged and their modus operandi – big riffs, big blastbeats, and even bigger vocals – still just as intense, and just as effective, as ever. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISRUPTED — “HUMAN STEW”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 142020
 

 

It is time for all true slaves to old-school Swedish death metal to prostrate themselves and prepare to worship. What we have for you is a track off the new album by the Swedish heavyweights Disrupted, who should be recognized as pack-leaders among the modern-day bands who have embraced the legacy of Nihilist/Entombed, Interment, Grave, and God Macabre and proudly (and savagely) carried it forward.

We’ve observed before (as have others) that this old, often-emulated style of HM-2-driven death metal horror can’t be tinkered with very much or it loses the right to claim the name. And so what addicts of the style (including this writer) are after isn’t novelty or nuance but spirit and skill, not merely devotion but the songwriting chops and executioner’s talent needed to both trigger adrenaline and stick a song in your head like a rusted, blood-caked spike.

Disrupted have become masters in those black arts, and although they don’t really need help, they’ve got some über-talented guests along with them for the hell-ride of Pure Death, which is the name of the new album — set for a CD release on October 26th by Memento Mori and for a vinyl LP release on October 9th by De:Nihil Records. Continue reading »

A SEROCS PLAYLIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 142020
 

 

If you missed out on the June 26 release by Everlasting Spew of Serocs‘ new EP Vore, you should fill that gaping hole in your life immediately! It really is an extraordinary record, one that we referred to as “a brutalizing, electrifying, high-speed carnival ride”, so head-spinning in its conception and so technically extravagant in its execution that (as we wrote before), if it doesn’t leave you with an ear-to-ear smile, the virus may have mutated and given you facial paralysis.

We’re so high on the EP that we welcomed the chance to share with you a playlist created by two Serocs stalwarts, guitarist Antonio Freyre (who first started the band as a solo project) and guitarist/bassist Antoine Daigneault. Together they assembled 22 tracks in a Spotify list, focusing ion music that has inspired them, and that list is a hell of a great ride all its own. Here’s what the two men had to say about it: Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ORDINUL NEGRU — “NEBUISA”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Sep 142020
 

 

In just two days Loud Rage Music will release Nebuisa, a new EP by the Romanian band Ordinul Negru, but you won’t have to wait to hear it, because we’re presenting a full stream today.

The EP seems to be a bit of a musical collage, at least in the way the songs came together, but the combined effect of the four tracks is to create a ravaging and ravishing experience. The music is richly multi-faceted, often intricate, and elaborate in its combination of moods and energies, again proving that Ordinul Negru‘s approach to black metal, which includes inventive songwriting and superior musicicianship, is neither conventional nor mundane. It stirs up the emotions but equally arouses the imagination, and has an electrifying visceral impact as well. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ABDUCTION / NOCTURNAL PRAYER, ABYSS / BESNA, ALGHOL / PANZERWAR, SHAGOR

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Sep 142020
 

 

As I forecast in Part 1 of this column yesterday, Part 2 focuses on three splits, two of them released within the last week and one of them whose arrival is imminent. And to close this Part, like the first one, I picked an enticing advance track from a forthcoming debut album.

ABDUCTION / NOCTURNAL PRAYER

The first split, Intercontinental Death Conspiracy, pairs the UK band Abduction (from Derby) and the Canadian band Nocturnal Prayer (from the wilds of Newfoundland and Labrador). It was released on September 7th by Inferna Profundus Records in variant LP vinyl editions, and digitally. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): BARGHEST, TRYBLITH, NARKVLT, MYSTHICON

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Sep 132020
 

 

As you can see, I’ve planned a two-part column today. This part includes too-brief reviews of three albums and comments about an advance track from a forthcoming record. In Part 2 I’ve gathered some splits and another advance track. I haven’t written all of Part 2 yet and am not sure I’ll get it done today, because the Seahawks are playing their opening game of this weird NFL season, and I’m not going to miss it. So, maybe Part 2 comes tomorrow…

BARGHEST

I’ve taken my sweet time writing about Barghest’s new album, not for lack of desire but because of one diversion after another. But it’s an album that I can neglect no longer, because I’ve continued to listen to it off and on since before its mid-July release. And as someone who’s constantly flitting from new thing to new thing, that fact alone is meaningful. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: DEPHOSPHORUS, KAUNIS KUOLEMATON, KRAKEN DUUMVIRATE, L’HOMME ABSURDE, MOS GENERATOR, ONSEGÉN ENSEMBLE, ORDINANCE, QONIAK, THANATOPSIS, THOKKIAN VORTEX, THROANE, VOX MORTIS, YOVEL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 122020
 

 

Greetings, ladies and germs. As promised in yesterday’s round-up, I have MANY more selections of new music for your listening pleasure. Does this mean that I’m now caught up in showing you what I’ve discovered? Oh, hell no! I will have more in tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK column (and still won’t be caught up).

To speed things along I’m just throwing you the music streams and my usual impulsive commentary, sans artwork. Later today I’ll fill in the art, a few more details about the releases, and the usual ordering and FB links. The following tracks are presented in alphabetical order by band name (with Greece coincidentally represented at the beginning and the end), and I’ll tell you that the music is all over the map stylistically.

DEPHOSPHORUS (Greece)

This first song is such a heavyweight neck-wrecker at the beginning, although filaments of ravishing melody rapidly spiral out from beneath its bone-breaking rhythm. However, the song also explodes in breathtaking fashion — a storm of battering drums, blizzard-like guitars, and truly wild, howling vocal ferocity. The track is tremendously thrilling in all of its course-changes, which include sweeping, fire-bright sonic panoramas; the sludgy heft of the low end is a thrill all its own. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FRIDAY: KATLA, DARK TRANQUILLITY, UNIFORM, MESSIAH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Sep 112020
 


Katla

 

(Our friend Gonzo returns with anoher Friday selection of new music, this time actually posted by our editor on Friday!)

 Doing these columns over the past few weeks has made me intensely aware of my perception of time. Some weeks feel like days, some days feel like weeks. Nothing makes sense anymore. We’re all living in a Black Mirror episode that’s been left on repeat after being force-fed enough LSD to turn ourselves into spiritual mediums for an alternate dimension where capitalist houseplants have enslaved humanity.

Fortunately, there’s new music to distract us from our inevitable fate at the hands of some power-worshipping azalea. And where would we be without it? I don’t want to imagine that dark alternate reality.

Sticking to the darkness of the current reality seems sinister enough.

The good news? If dark and sinister is your musical preference, I can’t recommend this week’s new releases enthusiastically enough. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HANGING FORTRESS — “BURNED ALIVE”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Sep 112020
 

 

“Hardcore-infused Death Metal seems to be what all the kids are into these days… Made popular by the likes of Nails followed by Gatecreeper, both borrowing heavily from Swede legends Entombed, bands are finally beginning to branch out, shying away from the blatant Stockholm worship for a more American influence (whether for better or worse). While many seem to fall in the pit of mediocrity, some do it convincingly enough to catch my attention.”

Add that’s how the proprietor of Redefining Darkness Records begins his introduction to Hanging Fortress, a band from the benighted confines of Toledo, Ohio. The Cleveland-based label will release the band’s debut album Darkness Devours on November 6th, and to help launch pre-orders for it today we’re bringing you a savage album track named “Burned Alive“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SKYLESS AEONS — “DIMENSIONAL ENTRAPMENT”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Sep 112020
 

 

We’re told that the origins of Skyless Aeons can be traced to “an errant bus ride” in London (Ontario, not England) around 2014 during which drummer Martin Burchill and guitarist Nicholas Luck met up for the first time. It will probably be a while before close encounters on a bus plant the seeds for bands again, but in those less infectious times this one did. And from that meeting, Skyless Aeons grew into a fleshed-out entity following the joinder of vocalist Nathan Ferreira and bassist Steve Oliva.

Those four released a debut EP named The Era of Famine in 2016, but it’s fair to say that the band were still searching for their identity then, using death metal as the backbone of their sound. However, their debut album Drain the Sun, which will be out on October 2nd, is a more distinctive and arresting reflection of the band’s interests. The care devoted through two years of songwriting shows, and the results are both intriguing and very impressive — as you’ll see when you listen to our premiere of an album track called “Dimensional Entrapment“. Continue reading »

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