AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): IMPERCEPTUM — “ENTITY OF UNDEAD STARS”

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May 012020
 

 

So far, the German band Imperceptum has released two EPs and four albums. We’ve reviewed nearly all of them. At the risk of oversimplifying the experience of these releases, its creator (who calls himself Void) combines elements of atmospheric black metal, funeral doom, ambient music, and post-metal to create long, void-faring journeys that are both terrifying and beautiful.

To borrow again from what I’ve written elsewhere, the richly textured music moves from immense hurricanes of cataclysmic fury to slower, earth-shattering, and crushingly bleak expositions of doom, to illuminating drifts through astral planes or across the yawning maw of deep space. Sweeping and soaring movements of vast and alien grandeur are juxtaposed against harrowing, blood-freezing storms of shock and awe. All of the releases are immersive; the songs are long, but the spells they weave, both nightmarish and sublime, make the minutes seem to pass without any consciousness that time is passing.

And now Imperceptum is releasing another album, and we again are in the fortunate position of presenting it on the day of its release (a good day, because Bandcamp is once again foregoing its revenue share for purchases made today). This new album is entitled Entity of Undead Stars. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HVILE I KAOS — “RISE, ENGULF, ENVENOM”

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May 012020
 

 

The California-based cellist and composer Kakophonix has contributed his prodigious talents as a session musician to a long list of diverse bands, including Abigail Williams, Chrome Waves, Astralborne, Nòtt, and Grave Gnosis, in addition to performing in previous years as a member of Empyrean Throne (to name but a few of his credits). But it is his personal project Hvile I Kaos (“Rest In Chaos” in Norwegian) that has served as the central focus for his individual artistic trajectory and spiritual practice.

Variously described as “Black Ritual Chamber Musick” and “Cellistic Black Metal”, it has been an evolving vehicle for translating spiritual themes into sensory experiences that do have the atmosphere of rituals. We have previously described the music as “a version of spiritual black metal from an alternate dimension”, occupying “a space that is in between extreme metal and classical music, an abnormality in both worlds, creating a world of its own as it unfolds”.

The newest Hvile I Kaos release is a split EP named Never Without the Pentagram with the solo artist Emerson Sinclair, who has played violin with Hvile I Kaos in live performances over the last few years. Kakophonix tells us that the split EP “flows as a continuous work of ceremonial magick”, a ritual invocation in which Hvile I Kaos opens and closes the circle (and the record) and Emerson Sinclair‘s tracks fill in the middle. “Stylistically it’s best described as occult neoclassical with elements of black metal and electronic music.”

Never Without the Pentagram will be released on July 10th by Metal Assault, and today we are very pleased and very proud to present a video for “Rise, Engulf, Envenom“, the Hvile I Kaos piece that begins the split. In a word, the music is astonishing, and so is the imagery that accompanies it. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: THROWING BRICKS — “READY TO FALL”

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May 012020
 

 

The video we’re presenting here is an arresting collage of images, of film and still photos and hallucinatory visual effects — decrepit structures falling apart and being reclaimed by nature; barren midnight alleys lit by flickering lights; forests bathed in day-glo colors; branches distorted on the surface of a pond; a sleeping woman becoming a plaything for giant shadow hands; x-rays; tombstones; spiders waiting in their webs; naked bodies spinning on their axis; parched earth; computer code… and the Dutch band Throwing Bricks throwing themselves into a performance.

The video is intense and unnerving, a head-trip and a mind-fuck. The music it accompanies, a song called “Ready To Fall“, is also intense and unnerving… indeed catastrophic… and yet in some ways dreamlike. It is, in the band’s words, “a song about the fear of loss. A theme that, sadly, gets more and more relevant every day. This video is based on this deprivation of humanity.” Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: LANTERN, INEXORUM, KHTHONIIK CERVIIKS, NEW HELL, OBSCENE, NADIR, NEMESIUM, WHERE’S MY BIBLE, MORA PROKAZA, C TRIP A, TALE OF TWO

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 012020
 

 

In making my way through the continuing flood of new music over the last 36 hours I hit a stretch of high-energy, technically impressive music with pronounced melodies, albeit with a lot of different embellishments and stylistic intersections (most involving elements of death and black metal). I decided to put those together here, and then veered way off the rails at the end with a trio of songs that make me smile when I imagine your reactions.

LANTERN (Finland)

To begin, let’s consider “Strange Nebula“. You won’t need a telescope, merely your ears and an open mind. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 120): DESTROYED IN SECONDS

 THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Apr 302020
 

 

(For the April 2020 edition of The Synn Report, Andy Synn has combined reviews and streams of all the releases by the California band Destroyed In Seconds, including their newest album Divide and Devour, which was released last Friday.)

Recommended for fans of: Wolfbrigade, Disfear, Trap Them

Though the story of California Crust-Punk/Thrashcore crossover crew Destroyed In Seconds goes all the way back to 2008, my own relationship with the band is only a few years old, as I’d never heard of them before one of my buddies dragged me aling to see them at the 2018 edition of Maryland Deathfest.

I’m not sure exactly what it was about the band’s performance – maybe it was their obnoxiously high energy levels despite their early afternoon slot, maybe it was their general “give no fucks, take no prisoners” attitude, or maybe it was the fun way they ripped the piss out of one of our companions for wearing a black cowboy hat in the pit – but, whatever it was, I was instantly hooked.

Hopefully, if you’re not already familiar with the band (whose third album was just released last week), you’ll be just as hooked by the end of this column, especially if you’re a fan of the sort of down ‘n’ dirty, d-beat driven sound which derives its inspirations from bands like D.R.I. and Dropdead, Exodus and Entombed, Nausea and Napalm Death. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: TØRONTO — “RIDE THE RAILS”

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Apr 302020
 

 

Are you feeling miserable? Anxious over the disease, depressed at being shut in, broke as fuck and wondering how May’s rent is going to be paid? Well, much as we’d like to give you the solution to all those ills, we can’t — except for the ailment of emotional misery. Right now, at least for about four minutes, we can blast those dismal demons into outer darkness. Or more accurately, the Swedish band Tøronto can do that — man, can they do that!

In naming their debut EP Under Siege, it’s almost as if Tøronto foresaw the current siege, and also foresaw exactly what would be needed to break the siege — eight bursts of high-voltage speed metal delivered with a raucous punk vitality, the kind of wild thrill-ride that their label’s publicist sums up as “greased-up NWOBHM colliding headlong into early Razor and Warfare, but overseen by Inepsy, mid ‘80s Discharge, and even Howard Benson-era Motörhead“.

If those references get you salivating, wait ’til you hear “Ride the Rails“, the song from Under Siege that we’re premiering today in advance of the record’s May 22 release by Dying Victims Productions. Continue reading »

SWEVEN: “THE ETERNAL RESONANCE”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Apr 302020
 

 

(Seattle-based NCS contributor Gonzo wrote the following review of the debut album by the Swedish named Sweven, which was released on March 20 by Ván Records.)

When I found out Swedish weirdos Morbus Chron had called it quits after releasing one of the best albums of 2014, Sweven, it was disappointing news. Blending a smorgasbord of musical elements ranging from the throaty assault of Horrendous and the tempered patience of Opeth to ’70s psychedelia, Sweven showcased a band that was positioned to carve their own path through a saturated metallic universe.

Six years after Sweven’s release, that path has taken an unexpected detour. Morbus Chron frontman, guitarist, and songwriter Robert Andersson has unveiled The Eternal Resonance, the debut album from his newest band, Sweven. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: LACRIMA MORTIS

 Interviews  1 Response »
Apr 302020
 

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(On May 27th Talheim Records will release the debut album of the Brazilian band Lacrima Mortis, and that prompted Comrade Aleks to reach out for an interview… which now follows.)

Five hooded figures wearing black masks stand in front of old church, one of them holding rope in its hands. I couldn’t ignore Lacrima Mortis when I saw this photo.

The band was formed in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil, 2016. The band’s members clad their identities with pseudonyms — Requiem (guitars), Dread (vocals), Baud (guitars), Scavenger (drums), and Reaper (bass). There was only the EP Optare Mortem (2017) in their discography until recently, but Talheim Records announced the release of Lacrima Mortis‘ first full-length work, Posthumous, on May 27th, so fans of slow ceremonial doom-death metal be aware!

Meanwhile we’ve taken a glance at the Brazilian underground together with one of the hooded congregation — Requiem. Continue reading »

QUICK HITS: BELL WITCH/AERIAL RUIN, ENTARTUNG

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 292020
 

 

This would have been a good day for an OVERFLOWING STREAMS post, because there’s a great volume of new music I’d like to recommend. But there wasn’t time for that. As a fall-back, it would have been a good day for a SEEN AND HEARD post, with fewer offerings but more elaborate words. But no time for that either. So as a last resort, because I wanted to recommend something today beyond what we’ve already posted, I’ve resorted to a format that is painfully short on music.

The title of the post, by the way, doesn’t mean that the two tracks I’ve chosen are quick ones, only that I’ve had to be quick about putting this together. I do think both songs are fantastic, and go together well.

BELL WITCH / AERIAL RUIN

Stygian Bough Volume I is the name of a new collaborative album by the Pacific Northwest bands Bell Witch (Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shreibman) and Aerial Ruin (Erik Moggridge). These three have collaborated before, both on recordings and on stage, but not in this way. Here, they have composed and performed all five songs on the album as a trio. Continue reading »

VADER: “SOLITUDE IN MADNESS”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Apr 292020
 

 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the newest album by the Polish death metal icons Vader, which features striking cover art by Wes Benscoter and is due for release on May 1 by Nuclear Blast.)

Vader is a tough band to review.  This, of course, is not because of how intricate or deep their music is, it’s because this band’s level of intensity and quality has been so good that “It’s a Vader album” is literally the review.  I love this band’s entire discography — I don’t think they have a single bad, or even just “okay” album or EP in the entire fucking discography.

That also isn’t to say Vader are a one-dimensional band.  They have nuance, and the tiny degrees to which they dial around elements of their sound from album to album make a big difference.  It’s interesting because at this point it basically means we have three types of Vader among which they kind of seem to bounce back and forth: Continue reading »

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