AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HORSE DRAWN — “AMONGST GHOSTS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Aug 042020
 

 

We’ve already seen abundant evidence that pandemic shutdowns and searing economic calamity haven’t crushed musical creativity. Those two ruthless giant hands may be doing their best to choke the life from artists (along with the rest of us), but they haven’t succeeded. In fact, rather than becoming numb or being struck dumb, many musicians have continued to record new music, and for many of those the work has itself become a mental and emotional survival mechanism. Horse Drawn is a case in point.

This Ohio-based duo — multi-instrumentalist Jonny Doyle (Coldfells) and vocalist Bryce Seditz (Plaguewielder) — haven’t been prolific, but their output under the Horse Drawn name has for this writer become must-listen material. While in the midst of the giant mess we all now find ourselves in, they’ve recorded a new EP named Amongst Ghosts that’s being released today, and we are happily spreading the word through this premiere. Continue reading »

VOUS AUTRES: “SEL DE PIERRE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 042020
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of Sel de Pierre, the new album by the French band Vous Autres, which will be released on September 25th by Season of Mist Underground Activists.)

The French seem to have a history of creating black metal not afraid to stray from the blast-beaten path. On their sophomore album this duo continues the tradition. Their debut album was one of 2019’s best black metal releases. This one might not be as blatantly heavy, but it makes up for this in the expansive array of sonic colors they paint these songs with.

While this album is much more atmospheric than their first, I would not label them “post” anything. Sonically, are there elements in the same zip code as post-rock? Yes, but they are gracefully ugly with chilling dissonance. The album’s third track even has an instrumental interlude that would not be out of place on a Nine Inch Nails record. Where most atmospheric black metal takes on a droning meditative quality, here it’s used in the same unnerving way that horror movies manipulate you with their scores. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RECORRUPTOR — “MORIBUND”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 032020
 

 

On the 21st of this month the death metal band Recorruptor, who are based in Lansing, Michigan, will release their second album The Funeral Corridor, which follows their well-received 2017 debut full-length, Bloodmoon. Pulling from inspirations both old and new, they’ve created a brace of well-conceived and well-executed songs that collectively make for a dynamic experience, showing themselves capable not only of discharging sensations of monstrous menace and electrifying savagery but also packing their onslaughts with melodic and rhythmic hooks that dig deep and are difficult to dislodge (even if some of them are seriously unsettling).

We have a prime example of these talents in the song we’re premiering today through an official video, a track named “Moribund” that’s pure undiluted evil. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GARTH ARUM — “FINALLY IN THE ABYSS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 032020
 

 

The second album by the Spanish band Garth Arum has been a long time coming, and not simply because it follows 2013’s The Dawn of a New Creation by seven years. The project’s alter ego NHT, who has also been a fixture in such groups as Autumnal, As Light Dies, Aversio Humanitatis, Deemtee, and Keltika Hispanna, first conceived of the album in 1997. Ten years later he rearranged and re-recorded it, but still wasn’t completely happy with the results. And then last year he began revisiting the work again.

The result is The Fireflowers Tale. All the compositions have again been completely re-recorded, this time in a professional studio, with new arrangements, new instrumentation, and a new conclusion. The album will be released on August 24th by the Spanish label Darkwoods, who recommends it for fans of Arcturus, Ved Buens Ende, Dødheimsgard, Code or Fleurety. Today we’re premiering a multi-faceted and dramatically changing song from the album, one named “Finally In the Abyss“. Continue reading »

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 »

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