AN NCS INTERVIEW: BLIDVINTER

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May 082020
 

 

(It is rare to read an interview that’s so endearing in its candor and humility as this one, brought to us by Comrade Aleks, with Joakim Lundbäck, the Swedish man behind the band Blidvinter, whose debut album Petrichor was released this past March.)

Blidvinter is a solo project of Joakim Lundbäck who chose to work in the direction of mixing progressive death and melodic doom metal. The EP This Solitary Creation (2015) turned out to be a good teaser to the debut full-length Petrichor, released only a month ago.

Joakim’s material is multilayered and rich with a wide range of moods, from temporary melancholy to blind fury, and this storm of emotions is clad in tight, dynamic sound. Petrichor offers you a 50-minute journey in this dark realm of Joakim Lundbäck, so why not to talk with its author about the things we meet on our way? Continue reading »

SECRETS OF THE MOON: “BLACK HOUSE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 072020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the forthcoming seventh album by Germany’s Secrets of the Moon, which will be out on May 8th from Prophecy Productions.)

Like any tool the use of comparisons, comparing one band to another, can easily be abused (remember back when Deafheaven first started to get big and it seemed like every review had to find a way to reference them somehow?) but it can also be an effective way of connecting with readers and putting them in the same mindset as the writer.

Some bands, and some fans, seem to really hate it, however, and can respond with surprising venom and vehemence to any suggestion that their music isn’t totally unique and utterly incomparable…

Now, Secrets of the Moon may not have reacted that badly to the reviews of their previous album, many of which, my own included, included glowing comparisons to the likes of Alice In Chains, Fields of the Nephilim, The Cult, and more, but they clearly took a little bit of umbrage to the use of so many different references to describe their music, so much so that the PR materials for Black House make a big point about how the album can’t be defined with such reductive methods.

And so, in an attempt to respect the band’s wishes, I’ve decided to write the following review without making a single direct comparison to any other bands.

Well, maybe one… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SKELETAL — “BURNING HATRED”

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May 072020
 

 

Bitterness and Burning Hatred is the name of the new album by the Finnish death metal band Skeletal. The name also sums up the emotions that a lot of people are feeling these days — living under regimes that are leaving broke, hungry, and hopeless people to fend for themselves while gambling with their lives due to deceit and incompetence in dealing with the pandemic.

Those aren’t exactly healthy emotions, and a cathartic purging of them every now and then is probably a good idea. The Skeletal song we’re premiering today off the new album provides exactly that kind of experience. Rather than gloomily seething and poisoning itself with its own venom, the song is a tremendous thrill-ride, and the kind of music that makes you feel like you can hold your head up, bare your teeth, and survive anything. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SATHAMEL — “RAISE FLAME FROM ASH”

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May 072020
 

 

I slept on Sathamel‘s debut album Horror Vacui, but I’m awake to it now, thanks to the opportunity to present the following playthrough video for one of its electrifying tracks, “Raise Flame From Ash“.

Of course, playthrough videos were fixtures in the metal scene long before the current plague, but are now even more vital ways of allowing musicians and fans to stay connected. And, as in this case, they continue to be vehicles for introducing people to releases they might have missed. This is an especially good introduction (or reminder, for those who are already aware of this UK band’s work), because it’s a guitar playthrough for a song that’s a blazing guitar powerhouse (even though it’s a love song!). Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (DEATH METAL EDITION): I THE INTRUDER, DEFEATED SANITY, OMNIKINETIC, ABYSSUS, CLAIRVOYANCE, INISANS, SEPULCHRAL FROST, VOIDCEREMONY, PUTRESCINE, LIBERATIA

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
May 072020
 

 

I know I’m damned lucky to still have a job when so many people have been thrown out of work, but the job has been annoyingly intrusive lately. And by “intrusive”, I mean that it unexpectedly interferes with my grand ideas for NCS posts. This post, for example, is grand and gargantuan, but the job that pays me has delayed its appearance and constricted my time to the point that I’ve had to strip away most of the writing I had in mind. I’m cognizant of the likelihood that depriving you of my complete thoughts will cause widespread weeping.

As the title signifies, I decided to make this round-up death-centric — but there are lots of flavors of death metal represented here and different directions being pursued. I might have figured out a good way to order the flow, but didn’t have time to think about that either. So, just be prepared to bounce around.

I THE INTRUDER (Tunisia)

“Check this steamroller. Nasum-like grind with choppy tech riffs to break things up. Complete barbarian war vocals. From Tunisia. What the hell, Omination, Ayyur, and now this….” Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NAXEN — “TO WELCOME THE WITHERING”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
May 062020
 

 

Following their very well-received EP To Abide in Ancient Abysses, the German melodic black metal band Naxen completed work on their first full-length, a record entitled Towards the Tomb of Times, and it is now set for release by Berlin’s Vendetta Records on June 5th. As described in the promotional materials for the album, over the course of four tracks spanning more than 47 minutes of music, the record “explores the weakness of mankind, the unavoidable loss and the inevitable failure of our species”:

“Acknowledging that all hope is lost and remains redundant in the end, transcendence is sought through fire, the perishment of flesh and death as the ultimate liberation. These feelings of existential disappointment, depression and despair flow through the melodies, revolve in the lyrics and are captured in the visuals (by Arjen Kunnen)”.

These are serious subjects, and the music is a match in its tremendous dramatic power — as you will discover through our premiere of the opening track, “To Welcome the Withering“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BLIGHT — “ELSEWHERE & ELSEWHEN”

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May 062020
 

 

Rising from obscure underground dimensions within Montreal, and inspired by studies of esoteric dark arts, the occult black metal band Blight now invite us to enter their Temple of Wounds, a full-length necromantic experience that will be released by Svart Records on the 5th of June.

In April the band delivered a striking first impression of this, their debut album, by releasing a lyric video for a song called “A Violent Light“. It provided not only an insight into the band’s lyrical themes (which explore “deep facets of inner alchemical transmutation, and antinomian philosophies”), delivered with literary flare, it also revealed an eclectic and arresting dynamism in their music.

And now, we have the opportunity to provide a further sign of what looms within Temple of Wounds as we premiere a lyric video for another song from the album, this one named “Elsewhere & Elsewhen“. Continue reading »

ENGUTTURALMENT CEPHALOSLAMECTOMY: “GLAM NOT SLAM”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
May 062020
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the debut album by Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy from Evansville, Indiana. The album was released by Gore House Productions on April 24th.)

It’s been a while since I did one of my small reviews for NCS, but due to the current world situation and my work taking most of my time, I haven’t had not a chance to sit and write about my favorites releases in BDM so far.

I would like to take this opportunity to write about a project named Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy from the USA, which started as a parody of the classic 2007 debut album from Cephalotripsy, considered a Slam classic in the scene. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: YETI ON HORSEBACK — “NOTHING”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 052020
 

 

Almost four years ago I learned the error of leaping to faulty conclusions about the music of Yeti On Horseback based on their band name. Their name seemed fanciful, maybe even fun-loving. The music on their 2016 debut album The Great Dying, as it turned out, was as serious as a heart attack and just as life-threatening, a fashioning of doom metal with a nihilistic vision and an apocalyptic impact that was somewhere over on the other side of a black galaxy from anything light-hearted.

Here we are nearly four years later, and this group from London, Ontario, Canada, haven’t softened their stance or become mellower with the passing years. Their new single “Nothing“, which we’re premiering today, is stunningly dark and dauntingly massive, and dynamic in a way that only reveals different dimensions of devastation, shaking the earth and the soul in equal measure. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ANGES DE LA MORT — “WHERE SPIRITS NO MORE SHINE”

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May 052020
 

 

Last November the Montreal black metal duo Anges de la Mort (ADLM) made an electrifying debut with a self-titled EP, presenting four tracks packed with visceral rhythmic hooks, virally infectious riffs, scalding vocal savagery, and a flare for dynamic changes. The band rocked, thrashed, seethed, and ripped their way through 18 gloriously wild, action-packed minutes guaranteed to connect with a listener’s reptile brain but equally capable of sending the kind of chills down the spine that come from the apprehension of danger.

The EP benefited from clarity of production (and mastering by Joel Grind), but stood out most of all because of the animal magnetism of ADLM‘s top-shelf song-craft, the pin-point execution, and the sulfurous ferocity of the vocals.

It was clear that this band had the goods, and now we’re in the fortunate position of providing proof that lightning can indeed strike twice in the same place, and that proof is a new ADLM single named Where Spirits No More Shine, which we’re premiering in advance of its release on May 7th. It includes the title song plus the fascinating contrast created by an accompanying acoustic B-side track named “Where Night Shadows Shall Speak“. Continue reading »

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