AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VITAL SPIRIT — “IN THE FAITH THAT LOOKS THROUGH DEATH”

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Aug 242020
 

 

Before delving deeper into the sounds of Vital Spirit‘s debut EP, In the Faith That Looks Through Death, let’s begin with the band’s own stated list of musical influences: Ennio Morricone, Taake, Earth, Ulver, Marty Robbins, Dissection, Drudkh, Inquisition, and Wovenhand.

And then let’s add to that this list of their lyrical inspirations: Wovoka, Patti Smith, Chilam Balam, Townes Van Zandt, and the corridos of the Mexican Revolution (with subjects that range from Mayan cosmology and history, to Pancho Villa’s role in the Mexican Revolution, and Wovoka’s Ghost Dance movement).

Got that? Well, you probably don’t, because even though you can read all those names, comprehending how such disparate sources of inspiration could all work together in harness under the coaxing (and the whiphand) of this Vancouver duo is probably a challenge. But when you listen to the music, you’ll discover that it all integrates wonderfully well. And the fact that In the Faith That Looks Through Death doesn’t sound quite like anything else becomes a big part of its attraction. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOUBLE PREMIERE: ONIRIK (“MELODIES OF REFLECTION AND PRAISE”) AND NOITE (“A COR DO FOGO”)

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Aug 242020
 

 

We have a rare double premiere for you today. We have combined them because the songs come from two albums that will be released on the same day (September 25th) by the same label (I, Voidhanger Records), and because the artist behind the two bands is the same man — the Portuguese multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Gonius Rex.

One of these projects is Onirik, and the track we’re presenting today comes from Onirik’s fifth full-length, The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity. The other project is Noite (the Portuguese word for “night”), and the song we now present is the title track from Noite’s debut album A Cor do Fogo (“the color of fire”).

Both songs are fascinating, and together they are even more fascinating because they are so different from each other in their style — though they are kindred spirits in their inspirations. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: VONLAUS, AUÐN, HENOSIS, AL-NAMROOD, ESKAPISM, DYSTOPIA

 SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Aug 232020
 

 

We’ve made it to another Sunday, and I had enough time over the last 36 hours to find new blackened music to recommend. I found more than you’ll discover in this post, but I’m staring down the barrel of a fully loaded gun (every chamber loaded with day-job work I need to tackle today), so the odds are against working up a Part 2. Let’s get to it:

VONLAUS

Even after the warm reception given to their 2018 self-titled demo (reviewed here), Iceland’s Vonlaus still prefer to remain anonymous, though I see that Metal-Archives has identified two of them as members of Above Aurora (whose new album we premiered and reviewed at great length here). They now have a debut album headed our way next month, and its first single is the song I’ve chosen to lead off today’s collection. Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS: JUST BEFORE DAWN, GRISVELOS, PRECAMBRIAN, INNUMERABLE FORMS, DEIQUISITOR, AFFLICTION VECTOR

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Aug 222020
 

 

Sigh. Yet another week when I didn’t have enough time, or didn’t set aside enough, to do even one round-up of new music. I did do a lot of listening last night and this morning, and found enough promising new black metal to fill a two-part SHADES OF BLACK post tomorrow, and then narrowed down other things I found into this post. As the title suggests, it leans mainly into death metal or blackened death of various kinds.

There are four complete releases in the following collection, which I book-ended with singles from forthcoming records.

JUST BEFORE DAWN

One of my favorite practitioners of Swedish death metal, Just Before Dawn, will be returning on September 25th with a new 45-minute soundtrack from the warzones of the last global conflict. The title is An Army At Dawn, and Raw Skull Recordz will handle the release. Once again, JBD riff-meister Anders Biazzi has enlisted a platoon of guests — 10 guest vocalists and three guest guitar soloists, if my count is correct — along with his steadfast JBD allies Gustav Myrin (guitar/bass) and Jon Rudin (drums). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FALSE GODS — “STAY FROSTY”

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Aug 212020
 

 

‘After releasing three EPs since 2015, New York heavy-hitters False Gods are anxious to release their debut full-length, No Symmetry… Only Disillusion, to the world. The result is a brash, bulldozing juggernaut, shifting between between melancholy and rage with the stroke of a riff.”

So says Seeing Red Records, which will release this crusher of an album on October 16th. But none of us need take the label’s word for it, nor Seeing Red‘s references to such compelling influences as Eyehategod, Crowbar, Godflesh, and Killing Joke, because the song we’re premiering today bears out these claims.

The song is “Stay Frosty“, and it does turn out to be as multi-faceted as you might now be expecting. And it really is a crusher that hits hard on multiple levels. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MIASMAL SABBATH — “THE ORACULAR VOICE”

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Aug 212020
 

 

On their debut album Ominous Radiance, the Greek band Miasmal Sabbath have pulled off a neat trick. They’ve combined d-beat death metal with — as the album title itself beautifully conveys — the sound of ominous radiance, which is to say the music radiates a sensation of otherworldly exoticism that’s charged with peril and dreadful grandeur.

The album masterfully accomplishes even more than that, but those are the sensations that probably best describe the song we’re presenting today in advance of the record’s September 25 release by Unholy Prophecies. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PITCHBLACK — “THE WORLD IS MINE”

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Aug 212020
 

 

That’s quite an arresting image up there, isn’t it? It’s the cover art accompanying Death & Disbelief, the forthcoming third album by the Danish band Pitchblack, which is set for release on October 23rd by Emanzipation Productions. The music turns out to be quite arresting too, as already demonstrated by a single from the album named “The World Is Mine“.

That single was released two weeks ago, but one good turn deserves another, and so today we’re premiering a lyric video for the same song. If you missed the single’s release, the video will give you the chance to discover the kind of hard-charging, ferocious, hook-filled melodic death metal that Pitchblack serve up on this newest full-length. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INDOCTRINATE — “FORBIDDEN RITES OF FERTILITY”

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Aug 202020
 

 

The Chilean black/death band Indoctrinate are making their recording debut in September, but are not newcomers to the realms of extreme musical mayhem. Indoctrinate is instead a new slaughtering vehicle for two former members of the now-defunct Sadistik Goathammer (they are also bandmates in Henosis), whose mission was to carry forward the lineage of such bestial rampagers as Sarcofago, Mystifier, Abhorer, Parabellum, Blasphemy, and Conqueror.

Indoctrinate haven’t abandoned those roots, but as you’ll discover through the song we’re premiering today, they’ve leavened their attacks of primitive barbarism with other ingredients that give the music an even more primal and carnal appeal as well as a frightening paranormal aura.

As a harbinger of those sensations, the name of Indoctrinate‘s debut album, which will be released by Unholy Prophecies, is Antilogos: Arcane Transmutation in the Temple of Flesh. And the song we present today is “Forbidden Rites of Fertility“. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SENSORY AMUSIA — “BEREAVEMENT”

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Aug 202020
 

 

Friends, Romans, countrymen (and everyone else out there), lend us your ears… for a bit more than 17 minutes. That is how long it will take for Sensory Amusia (who hail from Perth rather than Rome) to run you through the gauntlet of their new EP, Bereavement. That title may suggest a doom-y, tear-stained experience, but the only tears to be shed will be from those who manage to survive this death metal meat-threshing machine.

A dismal guitar arpeggio backed by the sounds of a drenching and thunder-cracked storm begins to set the mood before the real storm breaks in the EP’s introductory track — a storm of blasting drums, rapidly raking riffage, and mercilessly pulverizing groove. And what comes next are four tracks of death metal chaos interwoven with influences of tech-death, hardcore, and grind. It’s our sadistic pleasure to present a full stream of the EP now, on the day of its release by Lacerated Enemy Records. Continue reading »

AT THE ALTAR OF TECH: ATRÆ BILIS / CYTOTOXIN / DEINÒS / DENOMINATE

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Aug 202020
 


Atræ Bilis

 

(Andy Synn has prepared and packaged together these four reviews for your reading pleasure.)

As every good Metalhead knows, Thursday is the day that the Lord dedicated to Technical Death Metal.

After all, was it not written “and on the fourth day, he shredded”?

So, as the scriptures command, I’ve elected to use today’s column to focus on a handful of bands, each one a disciple of death in one form or another, who choose to worship… at the altar of tech. Continue reading »

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