BLACK METAL BONANZA: BLAZE OF PERDITION, GLACIATION, GRIMAH, IZTHMI, KVAEN, SOPHIST, WORTHLESS

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Mar 062020
 

 

(In this post you’ll find a collection of reviews by Andy Synn, focusing on seven black metal albums released during the first two months of the year.)

It’s now just over two months into 2020 and I am already ridiculously behind when it comes to covering new albums.

That’s a particularly galling admission to make considering how great some of the records you’re about to read about are, many of which I’ve been listening to religiously since the start of the year but which, for various reasons, I’ve not gotten around to writing about before now.

Still, the advantage of grouping all these records/reviews together is that if you happen to already like one (or more) of these artists already then there’s every chance you’re going to discover something else to love too.

So, without further ado… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WALK THROUGH FIRE — “VÄGAR MOT SLUTET”

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Mar 062020
 

 

Vår Avgrund, the new album by the Gothenburg-based sludge/doom quintet Walk Through Fire, is not meant to be a joyous experience. Its very name, which translates to “Our Abyss“, foreshadows a 75-minute trip that’s intended to be heard straight through as an integrated piece of music, one designed to drag listeners ever-deeper into sensations of existential dread and misery, despair and anguish.

But while the album’s themes mostly circle around “the inevitability of tragedy and suffering in life – both as individuals, and as a collective”, this does not mean the music itself is relentlessly gloom-shrouded and oppressive, not something to be avoided like the sight of mass graves or a visit to the morgue.  As undeniably dark as the music is, it is also fascinating, and quite often inescapably mesmerizing. In part, that is because Walk Through Fire are open to experimentation — indeed eager for it. And the song we’re presenting today is a prime example of that. Continue reading »

VOLCANDRA: “INTO THE AZURE”

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Mar 062020
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the debut album by Volcandra from Louisville, Kentucy. With cover art by the great Adam Burke, it was released on February 28th.)

Kentucky isn’t exactly a place where you imagine black metal springing from, especially good black metal, but new blood Volcandra are an interesting case study in that regard because not only are these guys really good, they may well be one of the most talented American black metal bands to rise up in the 2010‘s (I’m going to be pedantic and be that “the new decade isn’t till 2021“ guy).  Quite simply, through channeling a combination of Norwegian and Finnish influences on top of an adoption of more American progressive death-metal window dressing, Volcandra may very well have released one of the first great black metal records of 2020. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FERAL LIGHT — “ASSUAGE”

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Mar 052020
 

 

It’s an absolute thrill for us to welcome the return of Feral Light. Originally a three-piece (and now a duo) from Minnesota formed by ex-members of Wolvhammer, Empires, Manetheren, and Finger of Scorn, they released (through Sentient Ruin) a fantastic debut EP in 2016 — A Sound of Moving Shields — that we wrote about twice (including a song premiere). That was followed by a 2017 debut album, Void/Sanctity (via Innit Records), and then by another full-length in 2019 (also on Innit Records), Fear Rides A Shadow, which prompted our own Andy Synn to praise it in his review as an “effortlessly well-realised example of groovesome, bombastic Black ‘n’ Roll at its very best”.

What we are now looking forward to is a new record named Life Vapor, which will be released by Hypnotic Dirge Records on May 8th (CD and digital), with a vinyl edition coming in the fall. And today we’re presenting the first glimpse of the new music through our premiere of a track named “Assuage“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BORGNE — “Y”

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Mar 052020
 

 

Originally the solo project of Bornyhake (whose name has been associated with a significant number of other groups), but eventually expanding into a full band, the Swiss entity Borgne released their first album in 1998, and their path since then has resulted in eight more full-lengths. The most recent of those, entitled Y, on which Bornyhake is joined by keyboardist Lady Kaos and other guests, will be released by Borgne‘s new label Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions tomorrow, and on the eve of that event we’re presenting a full stream of the record.

Borgne‘s musical hallmark has been the integration of industrial music into black metal, with an increasingly atmospheric quality that combines with the compulsive mechanical rhythms and intense, ravaging aggression. All those qualities are very much present and accounted for within Y, yet the combined impact of them on this new record reaches levels of staggering power and immersive intensity that may be the zenith of Borgne’s work to date, putting us in the presence of forces almost unimaginably more vast than we puny humans. Continue reading »

DEVANGELIC: “ERSETU”

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Mar 052020
 

 

(Here’s Vonlughlio’s review of the new album by the Italian death metal band Devangelic. It will be released by Willowtip Records and features cover art by Nick Keller)

This time around I feel fortunate to write about Devangelic’s third opus, Ersetu, to be released via Willowtip this upcoming May 15th.  They are one of my favorite BDM bands from Italy, and this release is their most mature work to date.

This band was formed back in 2012 by Mario Di Giambattista and Paolo Chiti, and they released a two-song promo that just blew everyone away and made me a fan on the spot.  Two years passed and they grace us with their debut album Resurrection Denie”, that is one of my top 10 debut albums from any BDM bands out there. The cover, music, and lyrics represented the full scope of this project with songs that were raw, fast, and in-your-face — 30 minutes of pure madness. Continue reading »

KROSIS: “A MEMOIR OF FREE WILL”

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Mar 052020
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by the North Carolina band Krosis, which was released last month by Unique Leader Records.)

These last three or four years we have witnessed a rather interesting demographic shift in US extreme metal that’s a bit unique to the current era. We’re seeing this in long form with bands such as Fit For An Autopsy, but in the case of bands like Krosis we’re hearing these guys in the middle of their musical journeys. To put it simply, a LOT of people who grew up with or got into heavy music via deathcore and djent primarily are now moving away from those sounds.

It’s only inevitable I think that these bands eventually realize how stifling those sub-genres are, and thus they turn to retaining the best parts about those sounds while embracing more front-and-center extreme metal along with modern progressive tendencies to create something that is wholly a post-2015 or ’16 phenomenon and that’s resulted in some of metal’s best modern music. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: TRIAL BY COMBAT — “EXSANGUINATION EXCITE”

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Mar 042020
 

 

A couple of sleazy harassing dudes fall for the bait and pay the ultimate price — one gets off easy with a bullet to the head, while the other experiences exsanguination by a thousand vicious cuts. Sound exciting? That may depend on how well you react to maniacal torture and abundant blood spatter, which the video we’re presenting delivers in especially vivid fashion (thanks to the filmwork of Mike Sloat). But regardless of your taste for violence and gore, the song accompanied by the video is undeniably a full-throttle thrill ride.

The band in question, Trial By Combat, clearly know how to kick a listener’s pulse rate into high gear, using a hard-grooving, hard-charging amalgam of death/thrash and hardcore as their high-octane fuel. That they’re so good at this isn’t a big surprise, given that this California group from Santa Rosa and Sacramento have been honing their craft for more than 13 years, participating in two Vans Warped tours and sharing stages with such bands as Soulfly, Black Dahlia Murder, Tyr, Hatchet, Aenimus, and many others.

What’s perhaps more surprising is that only now are the band planning the release of their first full-length, after releasing three EPs. But based on the song we’re premiering today — “Exsanguination Excite” — the wait seems well worth it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARA — “JURISPRUDENCE”

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Mar 042020
 

 

A long five years (and change) have passed since the Wisconsin death metal band Ara released their debut album, Devourer of Worlds. That proved to be a serious eye-opener and jaw-dropper, an approach to technical death metal that our review likened to an amalgam of such bands as Anata, Gorguts, and Necrophagist, presenting complexity, dissonance, and brutality, and achieving “a fine balance between beating you down and freaking you out”.

Five years on, and now we welcome the return of Ara, most of whose members also share roster spots in the sludge metal/post-rock band Northless. Their sophomore album Jurisprudence is now set for release on May 15th, and today it’s our pleasure to present a premiere stream of the title track. Continue reading »

KANNUSTAA: A REVIEW OF “KANNUSTAA” AND THE PREMIERE OF “MOTHER”

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Mar 042020
 

 

One glance at the track list for the self-titled debut release of the multinational band Kannustaa will clue you in that their music is not conventional black metal. Song titles such as “To Give and Forget”, “Don’t Leave Me”, “Encourage”, or the track we’re premiering today — “Mother” — point in different directions than more typical misanthropic, anticosmic, or blasphemous lyrical outbursts of the genre. Truth be told, the music isn’t conventional either.

To be sure, Kannustaa are full capable of viciously stabbing your neck with high-voltage electrification. That much was evident from the first track they released, “Don’t Leave Me”. The wild yowling tone of the opening riff is so potent that it almost drowns out the rampant drumming and the throat-ripping vocal madness. The drumming switches gears into more measured cadences, but the thermonuclear guitar work continues to dominate, rising and falling, twisting and turning, flickering in anguish and moaning in despair, slashing and scything and whirring with incredible vitality. Near the end, the bass becomes a bludgeoning presence, helping to send the song out in an explosive, vertebrae-cracking finale. Continue reading »

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