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 »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WORMHOLE — “THE WEAKEST AMONG US”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 092020
 

 

Granted, we’re not even two weeks into the new year, but listening to Wormhole’s new album is hands-down the most fun I’ve had with a 2020 release so far. And as I think about it, I’m hard-pressed to remember an album from last year that was more fun than this one either.

Don’t get me wrong, The Weakest Among Us will also beat you senseless and leave you staggering toward the nearest ER. That’s actually another part of the fun. But the band’s combination of wild ideas and sheer instrumental exuberance with all that brutalizing obliteration is what brought so many smiles to this listener’s (lacerated) face.  And so, it’s with great pleasure that we’re hosting a full stream of the album today, in the run-up to the album’s January 14 released by Lacerated Enemy Records. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2019’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 4): MISERY INDEX AND WITCH VOMIT

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2019  3 Responses »
Jan 092020
 

 

I had to pause the rollout of this list yesterday. My effin’ day job put the squeeze on my NCS time, and I just didn’t have enough free mental space to get another installment finished. But now we resume. I should be able to post another Part tomorrow, and might do one over this coming weekend to make up for yesterday’s hole in the schedule.

It will probably become obvious why I decided to pair the following two songs: They’ll both tear your damned head off.

MISERY INDEX

This was a tough one. I knew I’d name a song from the latest Misery Index album to this list, but had a devil of a time picking just one. As Andy Synn wrote in his review of Rituals of Power, Messrs. Netherton, Jarvis, Kloeppel, and Morris have become “a veritable Death Metal institution”, and with this 2019 album they produced something “that’s pretty much all killer, and zero filler” — “the sort of musical powerhouse that requires… in fact practically demands… to be listened to on repeat until both your body and your mind have been bludgeoned into submission”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SVENGAHLI — “WRITING ON THE WALL”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 082020
 

 

Alex Weber is a name that will already be known to many of you through his role as bassist (and a vocalist) of the progressive metal band Exist, as well as his session work and his live performances with other bands such as Defeated Sanity and Obscura. What you may not know, but are about to discover, is that Weber has also been devoting time to a progressive death metal project called Svengahli. That project is now looking forward to the March 6 release of its debut EP, Nightmares Of Our Own Design, and today we’re presenting the first single from the record — “Writing On the Wall“.

Before we get to the song — which is a kaleidoscopic marvel — it makes sense to learn about Svengahli‘s inspirations, as related by Alex Weber, and to identify the eye-opening group of guests he enlisted to bring the EP to fruition. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SERPENT NOIR — “GOEH RA REAH: GARM UNCHAINED”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jan 082020
 

 

There are two dimensions to the song we’re about to present, and for some they may join together to create a third. One is the spiritual/philosophical inspiration and lyrical exposition, which draw upon the teachings and practices among initiates of the Dragon Rouge. The other is the music itself. The third… well, we will come to the third in due course.

What we’re presenting, accompanied by a video that enhances the song’s own sorcerous allure, is the extravagant closing track from Death Clan OD, the new album by the Greek black metal band Serpent Noir, which will be released on February 7th by W.T.C. Productions. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: EPITAPHE

 Interviews  1 Response »
Jan 082020
 

 

(Epitaphe is a quartet based in the French Alps, with a debut album released last June, and today Comrade Aleks brings us this discussion with one of its members.)

Aesthetic Death produced a curious volume last summer. I’m referring to the debut full-length of the French band Epitaphe, which is based in the Alps region. They confirm such influences as Incantation, Esoteric, and Immolation, but I would add Misanthrope to this short list too.

It turns out to be an eclectic, avant-garde combination of quite intellectual death metal with doom-death shades. The album is titled simply I, but it’s wrong to blame Epitaphe for a lack of imagination. We’ll try to prove it together with Laurent. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2019: A YEAR-END LIST FROM AUSTIN LUNN (PANOPTICON)

 LISTMANIA 2019  2 Responses »
Jan 072020
 

 

(The year-end lists of Austin Lunn (Panopticon) have been among the most-anticipated features of our annual LISTMANIA series, and after a hiatus last year Austin has again agreed to share with us and you his list of favorite albums from the year just ended — which range across various musical genres, including country music.)

 

Here is a list of albums I enjoyed last year. There were so many, so it’s hard to remember everything… The past year was really busy for me, and it looks like 2020 is gonna be even busier. I’m glad I had tons of music to listen to… so cheers folks. Continue reading »

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