SEMJAZA FOR NO CLEAN SINGING (PART 4)

 Listmania, LISTMANIA 2019  7 Responses »
Jan 142020
 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Beginning with 2014, Semjaza, the main creative force behind the Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade, shared with us his year-end lists of favorite metal and non-metal releases. We did not have a 2018 year-end list from him because at that time he had embarked on a much more extensive project that would not be limited to releases from that year, but would encompass recommended music across the significant span of his listening (a significant span both in years and in genres).

This extensive list was completed many months ago, and so although it includes 2019 releases, it doesn’t include all of them that might have been on it. The delays in beginning to post the list were our own, not Semjaza’s. And there have been further delays in our posting of this second part, again our fault. With a bit of good fortune, we will post the remaining Parts much more quickly.

Part 1 included an introduction to this entire series, lists of favored split releases and full-length releases, and a special focus on French black metal. You can find all of that here. Part 2 (here) was devoted to more recent releases that Semjaza listens to most nowadays, and Part 3 was a continuation of that list (here), which focused on releases by Invictus Productions. This Part 4 is a further continuation, focusing on releases by Iron Bonehead and World Terror Committee. Continue reading »

NERO DI MARTE: “IMMOTO”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jan 142020
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Italian band Nero Di Marte, which is set for release on January 24th by Season of Mist.)

As someone who occasionally dabbles in releasing music himself, I’ve often pondered when exactly the “optimum” time to release an album is.

After all, put something out too early in the year and you risk being forgotten about by the time all the December “End of the Year” lists roll around, but put something out too late and you’re probably going to struggle to get yourselves into contention for the summer festival season.

Nero Di Marte clearly have good reasons for deciding to release their new album right at the start of 2020 however, as Immoto is such a dense, intricately layered piece of work that it’s likely to take their audience the rest of the year to fully unpick and unpack everything it has to offer! Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NACHTLIEDER — “AVGRUNDEN”

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Jan 132020
 

 

We have been following the activities of the talented one-woman Swedish black metal band Nachtlieder since 2014, commenting on the 2013 self-titled debut (here), 2015’s second album The Female of the Species (here), and the third album Lynx in 2018 (here). Nachtlieder is a prime example of a band that began strong and grew stronger with each successive release.

Now, Nachtlieder has recorded a new EP named Views From the North Vol. I. As its title suggests, the EP is the first in a planned series of EPs with material that Nachtlieder’s Dagny Susanne did not feel was a good fit for the albums. This first volume is a collection of demos from 2009-2016 that were re-recorded and properly produced in 2018.

In advance of the forthcoming EP (which will be released by Nigredo Records in late February and has now become available for pre-order), Nachtlieder has just released a digital single from the EP named Avgrunden, which is paired with a B-side consisting of an acoustic demo recoding of “Autumn Walk“, a song from the band’s second demo that won’t be included on the EP.

Today we present a video for “Avgrunden“, along with some insights about the song and video, and some thoughts about the music. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): REVENANT MARQUIS — “YOUTH IN RIBBONS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Jan 132020
 

 

Youth In Ribbons, the new album by Revenant Marquis, is shrouded in mystery, not merely in the chilling sensations of its sounds but also in its inspirations. No less mysterious is the source of the music, a prolific yet anonymous Welsh musician, whose idiosyncratic creations confoundingly combine the mind-mutilating assaults of raw black metal with a certain style of wraithlike, hallucinatory melodicism that one might even call elegant. Images of a fine-fingered and well-dressed vampire come to mind, seductive in its allure but lethal in its promise.

When I first discovered the album I was struck by the photograph on its cover and by curiosity about what the album’s title might signify in the context of that image. As I wrote here, after listening to the first advance track, I had my own interpretation: The beauty, the innocence, the aspiration in that face, the brightening of the flowers — it’s as if the band were saying, “Here’s what you might have looked like when your dreams for the future were still bright, and now let us show you what life is really like”.

And hence, I thought of the album title as a reference to youth torn to ribbons, rather than adorned by them. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: KURB SAATUS

 Interviews  1 Response »
Jan 132020
 

 

(In this interview conducted last year Comrade Aleks spoke with Eric Buizert, vocalist/bassist of the doom Dutch melodic death metal band Kurb Saatus, who first came to life in the ’90s and released their debut album in 2019.)

Kurb Saatus from the Netherlands celebrated their 25th anniversary last year with the release of… their debut full-length album!

Yes, I’m not kidding, this outfit who perform melodic death with minor doomy elements was formed back in 1994 but there were only a split with Officium Triste (1996), the single Never Forgotten, and a bunch of demos in their discography until May 2019 when The Withering was released. There are two members from the original lineup in Kurb Saatus — Hans van Wingerden (drums) and Eric Buizert (vocals, bass). So Eric is here! Continue reading »

SEMJAZA FOR NO CLEAN SINGING (PART 3)

 Listmania, LISTMANIA 2019  4 Responses »
Jan 132020
 


photo by Vamperess Imperium

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Beginning with 2014, Semjaza, the main creative force behind the Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade, shared with us his year-end lists of favorite metal and non-metal releases. We did not have a 2018 year-end list from him because at that time he had embarked on a much more extensive project that would not be limited to releases from that year, but would encompass recommended music across the significant span of his listening (a significant span both in years and in genres).

This extensive list was completed many months ago, and so although it includes 2019 releases, it doesn’t include all of them that might have been on it. The delays in beginning to post the list were our own, not Semjaza’s. And there have been further delays in our posting of this second part, again our fault. With a bit of good fortune, we will post the remaining Parts much more quickly.

Part 1 included an introduction to this entire series, lists of favored split releases and full-length releases, and a special focus on French black metal. You can find all of that here. Part 2 (here) was devoted to more recent releases that Semjaza listens to most nowadays, and this Part 3 is a continuation of that list. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2019’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 6): NOCTURNUS AD AND KONKHRA

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2019  2 Responses »
Jan 112020
 

 

The two songs I decided to join together in this 6th installment of the list come from bands who made comebacks last year — and not the kind of comebacks that tend to produce yawns or regrets. Both of the albums were excellent, and I’d go so far as to say that the first of those was one of the best comebacks ever recorded. Obviously, both of them were also home to some very addictive songs as well.

NOCTURNUS AD

Nocturnus carved their name in the death metal history books with the groundbreaking 1990 album The Key, after which certain members of the band trademarked the name and then fired the band’s founder Mike Browning (who also co-founded Morbid Angel). He carried on with other members of Nocturnus under the name After Death, releasing a handful of demos between 2002 and 2009, and a split with Unaussprechlichen Kulten in 2012. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COFFIN CURSE — “GRAVE OFFENDER”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Jan 102020
 

 

Greedy fans of classic and crushing death metal should circle January 27th on their calendars in red, because that’s the date on which Memento Mori will release Ceased To Be, the mortifying debut album of the Chilean duo Coffin Curse.

Formed in 2012 by Inanna’s Max Neira (guitars, bass, vocals) and later joined by drummer Carlos Fuentes, (Inanna, Sol Sistere), Coffin Curse have drawn their inspirations from such early ’90s U.S. icons as Morbid Angel, Monstrosity, Obituary, Immolation, and Deicide, as well as the menacing and mind-mauling ministrations of Pentagram (Chile), Death, Possessed, Sepultura, Massacre, Slaughter Lord, and Necrovore.

All those names are strongly suggestive of Coffin Curse‘s horrifying musical mission, as are the band’s previously released demo, three EPs, and one split effort (with Violent Scum), but today we have an even more potent and penetrating sign of what Ceased To Be holds in store, through our premiere of the album’s penultimate song in the track list, “Grave Offender“. Continue reading »

SEMJAZA FOR NO CLEAN SINGING (PART 2)

 Listmania, LISTMANIA 2019  9 Responses »
Jan 102020
 


photo by Vamperess Imperium

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Beginning with 2014, Semjaza, the main creative force behind the Greek black metal band Thy Darkened Shade, shared with us his year-end lists of favorite metal and non-metal releases. We did not have a 2018 year-end list from him because at that time he had embarked on a much more extensive project that would not be limited to releases from that year, but would encompass recommended music across the significant span of his listening (a significant span both in years and in genres).

This extensive list was completed many months ago, and so although it includes 2019 releases, it doesn’t include all of them that might have been on it. The delays in beginning to post the list were our own, not Semjaza’s. And there have been further delays in our posting of this second part, again our fault. With a bit of good fortune, we will post the remaining Parts much more quickly.

Part 1 included an introduction to this entire series, lists of favored split releases and full-length releases, and a special focus on French black metal. You can find all of that here. This Part 2 is devoted to more recent releases that Semjaza listens to most nowadays. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2019’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 5): HIGH COMMAND AND IDLE HANDS

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2019  4 Responses »
Jan 102020
 

 

I’m usually pretty deep into the rollout of these annual lists before I get to some actual (gasp!) clean singing. But I’m getting there much faster this year with one of these two songs, both of which were immediate ear-worms, and proved to be lasting ones as well.

HIGH COMMAND

Pretty often, people pat themselves on the back when they were listening to a band back when only a tiny sliver of their current audience knew anything about them. I’m giving myself a pat on the back. I’ve been a drooling fan of High Command from Worcester, Massachusetts since 2016 when I heard their debut EP, The Secartha Demos (reviewed here).

I did some further drooling in print when they released their next EP, The Primordial Void, in 2017. Last year, at last, High Command released a debut full-length entitled Beyond the Wall of Desolation, via Southern Lord. Continue reading »

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