OBSIDIAN TIDE: “PILLARS OF CREATION”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 112019
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the debut album by the Israeli band Obsidian Tide, which was released on August 29th.)

It’s an exciting time to be a fan of the proggy end of the Rock/Metal spectrum.

Not only have Tool just released their long-awaited fifth album, but the end of the month will see the release of both a brand new Opeth record AND a remixed/remastered (and even proggier) version of Cynic’s brilliant 2008 comeback album, Traced In Air.

But what if I told you that a little-known group from Israel had recently released an album combining the best elements of all three of those bands?

Would you be interested?

I thought you might. Continue reading »

CONCERT REVIEW: IRON MAIDEN — LIVE AT THE TACOMA DOME, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

 Concert Reviews  6 Responses »
Sep 102019
 

 

(Our Seattle-based contributor Gonzo re-joins us with another lively concert review, this time reporting on Iron Maiden‘s performance in Tacoma, Washington, on September 5, 2019.)

“It’s only gonna get better from here,” bellows a spry Bruce Dickinson, addressing the Tacoma Dome crowd while standing under a replica Spitfire plane. Dickinson and his band of merry men in Iron Maiden had just torn through iconic opener “Aces High,” complete with said plane dangling from the top of the stage like a marionette during the song’s entirety. This alone would be an impressive spectacle for any live act to pull off, but for Iron Maiden, it’s the warmup.

At this point in the band’s storied career, to expect anything less than this from Iron Maiden would be silly. At 61, Dickinson is as energetic as someone half his age, and Steve Harris and the rest of his bandmates in the indispensable UK metal crew aren’t far behind. Not surprisingly, then, would the band’s 2019 Legacy of the Beast tour be anything less than spectacular? Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DOWNCROSS — “WHAT LIGHT COVERS NOT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Sep 102019
 

 

The debut album by the Belarusian black metal band Downcross, which we premiered in February, proved to be one of the best surprises of the new year, which was then barely two months old. The duo of vocalist/drummer Ldzmr and guitarist Dzmtr demonstrated impressive skill as songwriters and performers, creating emotionally powerful tracks loaded with magnetically attractive melodic hooks, physically compulsive rhythms, and dynamic changes of mood. With such abundant talent on display, Mysteries of Left Path left me quite interested to hear what Downcross might do next. I just didn’t expect I would find out so soon.

Not even seven months later, Downcross are on the verge of releasing a second album, What Light Covers Not, on September 11th. Of course Downcross didn’t start working on these seven new songs for the first time after their debut album was released. The process probably began long before that. But it might still be fair to wonder how good the album is, given the relatively short time between the two releases. Though my own opinion is obvious — because today we’re premiering the new album, as we did the first one — I’ll just make it explicit: What Light Covers Not is really, really good. Continue reading »

NECRONAUTICAL: “APOTHEOSIS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 102019
 

 

(After a hiatus due to personal obligations, DGR returns to our devoted cadre with this review of the new album by the UK band Necronautical, which will be released by Candlelight Records on CD and gatefold vinyl on September 30th.)

It’s funny that in total run-time, black metal group Necronautical’s latest album Apotheosis is actually two minutes shorter than its predecessor, The Endurance At Night. There exists a temptation after a few spins, to describe Apotheosis as a much bigger album than its predecessor but in terms of actual time spent that is clearly not the case.

Apotheosis marks Necronautical’s third foray into the black metal void, adding their own cinematic and melodic flourishes along the way. It is also the group’s third album to feature seven songs, re-establishing one of a handful of patterns now recognizable throughout Necronautical’s music. Continue reading »

ALGEBRA: “PULSE?”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 102019
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new album by the Swiss band Algebra, which will be released on September 30 by Unspeakable Axe Records.)

Progressive thrash metal has always been a tricky sub-genre to tackle, mostly because a lot of the time it just ends up not being thrash anymore. It usually tends to become more like traditional heavy metal with some experimental stuff in it or it becomes death-metal-influenced and looks to bands like Death, Pestilence, etc., to derive its progressive tendencies. Finding progressive thrash metal that’s thrash, while being progressive, while also maintaining the adrenaline mainline intensity and riffing intricacies of the genre, is actually pretty difficult.

For the record, my definition of progressive is not the “power metal but long songs and instrumental virtuosity” brand like Dream Theater, etc.  I think many people would agree that progressivism in metal tends to manifest itself with… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RANK AND VILE — “KILLDOZER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 092019
 

 

The band is Rank and Vile (a nice play on words). The name of the song is “killdozer.” — intentionally lowercase, the period intentionally inserted at the end, just like all the song titles on their new album redistribution of flesh. (same with the album title). Regardless of punctuation choices, the song title is absolutely accurate. It is an audio killing machine, as heavy as a bulldozer, but capable of moving with the speed and agility of a big cat chasing prey on the savanna.

This death-grind unit from Portland, Oregon, only came together last year, but the newcomers aren’t tyros. And they already seem to have a very clear vision for their music, which pulls influence from the sounds of bands such as Entombed and Gatecreeper, Rotten Sound and Megrudergrind, and Black Breath. The results of their work turn out to be savagely mauling experiences, and big adrenaline triggers. Continue reading »

DAWN RAY’D: “BEHOLD SEDITION PLAINSONG”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 092019
 

 

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Liverpool-based black metal trio Dawn Ray’d, which will be released on October 25 by Prosthetic Records.)

It’s a bold move for a band to wear their politics loudly and proudly on their sleeves these days.

Actually, scratch that… it’s always been risky for bands to speak openly about their political allegiance, be it left, right, or otherwise, despite Metal’s long history – from “War Pigs” to “Suffer the Children” to “Toxic Garbage Island” – of speaking out against militarism, corruption, and other societal ills.

After all, politics (along with religion) is one of the things that seems to bring out our most tribal instincts, often in the worst possible ways.

The risks for any band are, therefore, quite obvious. The more political you get, and the more polemical you become, the more you risk dividing and alienating your potential audience, and most artists, at some point in their careers, find a way to balance their musical ambitions with what they want to communicate so as to reach as many listeners as possible.

But, of course, where Dawn Ray’d are concerned, such compromise clearly isn’t an option. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BARBARIAN SWORDS — “[CENSORED]”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Sep 092019
 

 

The album Worms by the Spanish band Barbarian Swords was a late-year discovery for us in 2016, made possible by a request from Satanath Records and Cimmerian Shade Recordings that we host a premiere of the album stream. Not knowing what awaited me, I explored the music before giving an answer — and was blown away. In an attempt to describe the music in the review that accompanied the premiere, I wrote:

“In its predominant forms, Barbarian Swords traffic in a twisted but very compelling hybrid of doom and black metal — nihilistic and barbaric, moldering and mesmerizing, and frequently unnerving. And there are massive headbang triggers lurking like landmines in the album, too.”

I put one track from the album, “Outcast Warlords”, on our list of 2016’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, and later we premiered the lyric video for another potent (and addictive) track from the album — “Pure Demonology“.

Since then these Spanish blasphemers have participated in a three-way split (Tetrarchia Ex Bestia), which was released in June of this year, but they’ve also cooked up a new eight-track release entitled “[Censored]” that will be presented on October 18th by Third I Rex. The name of the release isn’t really the word “Censored”. The name is… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GOATBURNER — “VORTEX OF CHAOS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 092019
 

 

Unless Goatburner are clairvoyant they probably couldn’t have known, when this premiere was arranged, that their song “Vortex of Chaos” — which is about the obliterating power of an immense hurricane — would be released barely one week after the monstrous Hurricane Dorian absolutely destroyed portions of the Bahamas, leaving more than 70,000 people homeless and a death toll of 44 (at this writing) before moving on to ravage the Outer Banks of North Carolina and now far-eastern Canada.

On the other hand, their debut album Extreme Conditions thematically focuses on the extreme and unpredictable weather events that are increasingly plaguing the current world. If Hurricane Dorian had not followed the completion of the album, some other horrific extratropical or tropical cyclone undoubtedly would have. But this Finnish duo composed of Keijo Niinimaa (Rotten Sound, Morbid Evils, Age of Woe) and Jaakko Forsman (Ratface, Skulmagot) are aware of Dorian now, and Keijo provided this comment not long after that hurricane’s tragic destruction in the Bahamas: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: HIDEOUS DIVINITY, CATTLE DECAPITATION, NILE, PEDOPHILE PRIESTS, HELLRUNE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 072019
 

 

I’m always reluctant to do what I’m doing in this post, i.e., just inserting videos and song streams without any commentary.  Trying to describe music I want to recommend, and to explain why I’m recommending it, is a continuing challenge, but I must admit it’s also fun for me (and cathartic to get my feelings about the music  off my chest). Unfortunately for me, if not for you, I don’t have time for that today. Still, I think there might be some value in the filtering/selection-process itself, and in alerting people to things they might have overlooked on their own.

Even though I’m keeping quiet, I hope you’ll feel free to share your own reactions in the Comments. And with that, here we go… Continue reading »

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