REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER: “ASCENSION”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Feb 242020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the French band Regarde Les Hommes Tomber, which is set for release by Season of Mist on February 28th.)

One thing which struck me, in a way that it didn’t first time around, when listening back to the first two albums from underrated Black Metal coterie Regarde Les Hommes Tomber, was just how much their sound, their style, and their whole approach, reminds me of Abigail Williams.

Seriously, just take a listen to the slow-burning menace and spiteful savagery of songs like “They Came… To Take Us” and “The Incandescent March” (from 2015’s Exile) and try to tell me you don’t see/hear the resemblance to Ken Sorceron and co. circa In The Absence of Light/Becoming.

Of course the fearsome French five-piece are far more than just a European derivative of their American cousins, and others have also pointed out some of the band’s sonic similarities to artists like Altar of Plagues, Amenra, and their countrymen in Celeste too, but now that I’ve made this connection in my mind it’s impossible for me to un-hear it.

It also makes me wonder whether the reason for the band’s relatively low profile, at least when compared to some of the French scene, might be because – much like Abigail Williams – they don’t neatly fit into some people’s perceptions of what a Black Metal band should sound like or how they’re supposed to present themselves.

But, just one listen to Ascension makes me think that not only are Regarde Les Hommes Tomber fully aware of all this, they also don’t give a damn about fitting neatly into anyone’s preconceptions. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GOHRGONE — “WEAK ONES DECEIVED”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 242020
 

 

In the well-made video we’re about to present, an ancient warrior draws his sword and makes his way by torchlight into a deep and ominous cavern, drawing closer and closer to the three hooded figures he seeks, three blind sisters who share only a single eye among themselves. By stealth he steals the eye from the witches, holding it as ransom until they tell him what he wishes to know.

Also lit by torchlight, the French death metal band Gohrgone also appear in the video, performing “Weak Ones Deceived“, a song from their most recent album In Oculis, with increasingly harrowing intensity, matching the tension and frightfulness of the tale that’s also depicted in the film. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ETHIR ANDUIN — “LAST STRUGGLE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 242020
 

 

Alexander Ivanovich Vvedensky was a Russian poet who died in 1941 at the age of 37, and whose work is said to have had a formidable influence on “unofficial” and avant-garde art during and after the times of the Soviet Union, though his writing was little-known in Russia until long after his death. During his life he faced repeated arrest and died while being transported to one of Stalin’s Gulags.

One of Vvedensky’s poems, “Potets“, recounts the experiences and reflections of a dying man, including his last conversations with his sons. The poem inspired the Russian band Ethir Anduin to create the song we’re premiering today from Ethir Anduin‘s new album, Pathway To Eternity. The Agony. It is one of eight substantial tracks on the album (collectively they amount to 80 minutes of music), each one with its own concept, but in the aggregate forming a diverse yet unified whole.

The album, which will be released by GrimmDistribution on March 16th, also marks a turning point for Ethir Anduin. The band was formed in 2006 as the solo project of A.V. Fenrir, and while guest vocalists appeared among the seven albums preceding this one, Ethir Anduin now has an official vocalist named Luka, who makes her first appearance with the project on this new album. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TETHRA

 Interviews  No Responses »
Feb 242020
 

 

(This new interview by Comrade Aleks takes us through an extended discussion with vocalist/lyricist Clode Tethra and guitarist Federico Monti , members of the Italian death-doom band Tethra, whose new album will soon be released by Black Lion Records.)

Tethra are a death doom band from Italian Novara, Tethra spend their twelfth year on the scene, and there are two full-lengths plus one EP in itheir discography. Oh, correction – their third album Empire Of The Void is planned to be released by Black Lion Records on the 20th of March.

The album sounds both familiar and refreshingly new. Familiar because it radiates that warm melancholic vibe of classic mid-tempo melodic doom death. Refreshing because of its potent sound and its richness. It’s interesting how Tethra survive – and not just survive but succeed, as the only original member is Clode Tethra, who has provided both deep growling vocals and amazing clean singing in the band since 2008. Other members are relatively new, including guitarist Federico Monti who just left the thrash death band Total Death in order to join Tethra in 2017. Clode and Federico tell Tethra’s story tonight. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: INHUMAN — “CAREFUL WHAT YOU FEAR”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 232020
 

 

At some point in the past, I forget when, one of my NCS comrades argued within our group that we should be more careful in our description of a certain sub-genre of death metal, to make clear that it’s really not a single monolithic sub-genre at all.

If memory serves, he contended that the term “tech-death” should be reserved for bands (many of whom are in vogue these days) who rely on blizzards of frantically discharged, maniacally veering notes and hyperventilating drum work, i.e., the kind of stuff that seems mainly designed to showcase speed and dexterity, everything dialed up to 11, without necessarily producing anything coherent — and sometimes forgetting the DEATH METAL part of the genre descriptor.

On the other hand, he argued, the term “technical death metal” — or as I might call it, technical DEATH METAL — should be reserved for bands who are really death metal groups at heart, with all the gruesome savagery that term usually connotes, but accent their barbarism with technically impressive accents, and do so in service to actual structured songs rather than just putting on chaotic displays of instrumental pyrotechnics.

Which brings us to Inhuman from Costa Rica. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: WOLFHEART, WARDRUNA, DEVANGELIC, ON THORNS I LAY, TETHRA, BLAZE OF SORROW, DÄMMERFARBEN, EXHORDER, TRIBE OF PAZUZU, TURMION KÄTILÖT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 222020
 

 

I’m about to drive to Portland with friends to take in a mainly acoustic show by Austin Lunn (Panopticon), Aerial Ruin, and Mike Scheidt of Yob. That means I probably won’t have a SHADES OF BLACK column on Sunday, though I’ve already written a premiere for that day, so we won’t leave you completely lonesome tomorrow. As for today, I’ve resorted to the “Overflowing Streams” format because there are SO MANY new songs and videos I’ve been enjoying that I didn’t want to cut the list back, and don’t have time to write about them.

Almost everything here surfaced over the last 48 hours. Perhaps needless to say, there’s a lot of variety on offer. I don’t expect anyone (but me) to get a kick out of all this, but hopefully you’ll find at least one or two things to like. Continue reading »

CULT OF FIRE: “MOKSHA / NIRVANA”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Feb 212020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new double-album by the one-of-a-kind Czech band Cult of Fire, which has been released today.)

Czech Black Metal collective Cult of Fire have never been ones to follow the stereotypical path.

Whereas much, if not most, Black Metal styles itself as adversarial – not surprising considering the genre’s rebellious roots – Cult of Fire have always seem less concerned with pushing back against the outside world and more focussed on exploring their own inner world, taking instead their inspiration from Buddhist teachings and Vedic mysticism.

In their own way, of course, this makes them just as iconoclastic as the most rabidly anti-Christian of tremolo-abusers, except that instead of seeking to define themselves by what they’re against, Cult of Fire seek only to define (or redefine) who they are, their true spiritual selves.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising then that the band’s latest musical exploration (released digitally today, with a physical release following next month) comprises a double-disc duology of scorching sounds and meditative moodscapes, as we all know that the search for wisdom is both endless and eternal, and knows no bounds. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AODON — “L’INFIME”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 212020
 

 

The French metal band Aodon made an auspicious debut with their 2016 album Sharphood, but in the roughly four years since then, the band’s composer, lead guitarist, drummer, and screamer M-kha has clearly taken giant strides in the realization of his musical visions, as revealed on Aodon‘s new album 11069, which will be released by Willowtip Records on March 27th. The music here, which is richly textured, seamlessly combines black metal with elements of post-metal, creating immersive and emotionally evocative atmospheric sensations with harrowing intensity, blending mesmerizing melodies capable of both inducing uneasy reveries and soaring to epic heights while also channeling fury and despair with spine-tingling power.

The first single from the album, “Les Rayons“, was a rapid introduction to many of these aspects of 11069, and today we have further evidence of the album’s gripping dynamism through our premiere of the multi-faceted track “L’Infime“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CULT BURIAL — “SORROW”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Feb 212020
 

 

One month ago we came across the debut release of a one-person project from London named Cult Burial. It was a single song named “Consumed“, and its amalgamation of black, death, and doom metal did indeed prove to be an all-consuming experience that enveloped listeners in the bleak and desperate sensations channeled by the music’s creator. Given the striking impression made by that first release, we jumped at the chance to present Cult Burial’s second single today, a track called “Sorrow“.

The lyrics of the new song are no more hopeful than those in “Consumed”, and the music is no less intense. Harrowing roars and mind-scraping shrieks reverberate above moody bass moans, head-hooking drum patterns, feverish riffing, and wailing ethereal tones which add a disturbing aura of eeriness to the music’s sense of inner tension and angst. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): WHITE NIGHTS, ФИЛАНТРОПЪ, NYRST

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 202020
 

 

Did you enjoy the musical chocolates in Part 1 of today’s round-up? I hope you did, and Ii hope you’ll like what’s next, which continues following the theme of diversity that was evident in the first installment.

WHITE NIGHTS

One look at the cover art (above) for White Nights‘ debut EP, Into the Lap of the Ancient Mother, gave me an inkling that it wasn’t going to be the kind of music I usually expect from Iron Bonehead Productions — and it isn’t. Actually, there are two different covers, one for the CD edition and one for the vinyl edition. Here’s the other one: Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries