ORDER OV RIVEN CATHEDRALS: “THERMONVCLEAR SCVLPTVRES BLACKNESS”

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Nov 072019
 

 

(We present DGR’s review of the new third album by the Italian technical death metal band Order Ov Riven Cathedrals, which will be released at the end of this month.)

The last time we checked in with the mysterious duo behind hyperspeed death metal band Order Ov Riven Cathedrals was as recently as last year, with their second full-length album Gobekli Tepe. That album arrived a little under a year after the group’s debut record, The Discontinuity’s Interlude, which is one hell of a creative pace to try and up-keep, and in some ways Gobekli Tepe reflected that, at times feeling like the duo were stretching themselves a little too thin.

That disc sought to expand upon the musical themes found within its predecessor and saw the group’s sound doing so as well, making usage of multiple samples, a myriad of electronics and synths working their way behind the group’s frenetic pace, about fourteen more minutes’ worth of music, and a new-found obsession with nuclear reactions that has become even more obvious with the group’s newest album – this time with a little more time in the hopper, close to a year and a half.

Thermonvclear Scvlptvres Blackness  – a title befitting the Dimmu Borgir school of “three awesome words as album title” method – seeks to pick up right where its predecessor left off and mostly does just that, with the band’s chosen tempo applying not only to their music but apparently to the release schedule as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CHARLENE BERETAH — “RAM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 062019
 

 

Nearly three years ago we premiered the debut two-track EP of the Swiss band Charlene Beretah, whose name is in part a tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket and the appelation that Private Gomer Pyle bestowed upon his M14 rifle, the one he ultimately used as the instrument of his own destruction. At that time a duo who performed their music using only guitar and drums, the band deployed elements of crust, sludge, black metal, and doom to create sensations of wrenching devastation. We summed it up this way: “Negative, ruinous music for negative, ruinous times, both songs push you toward the abyss, but Charlene Beretah are good at what they do; you may go willingly.

In the years since then the original two-some, Charlene Petit and Thierry Beretah, have been joined by a third marauder, Jean Goisse, and they have also completed work on a debut album named Ram — which does indeed hit like a massive battering ram. It’s supremely destructive. And it also does really nasty things to your mind, and to whatever sense of emotional balance and comfort you might enjoy. It makes an enormous first impression, something like the bomb crater left by a megaton warhead in the midst of dirty urban streets, and the smoldering rubble it makes of a listener’s mental and emotional health isn’t easily reassembled or easily forgotten.

Ram will be released on November 8th by Division Records, but we’re detonating the whole damned thing right now. Continue reading »

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT / BAST / ABDUCTION – NOTTINGHAM 04/11/19

 Concert Reviews  4 Responses »
Nov 062019
 

 

(Andy Synn was fortunate to catch the Nottingham stop on Imperial Triumphant‘s current European tour, with support at the show by Bast and Abduction, and transmitted the following report along with videos of the performances.)

If you’re not at least a little bit concerned about the state of the underground Metal scene in the UK then you’ve not been paying enough attention.

It’s nothing to do with a lack of talent, by any means, as there are innumerable bands out there right now who are all more than capable of going toe-to-toe with the best that the rest of the world has to offer. No, the real concern is a combination of two factors.

First, there’s the ongoing gentrification of our inner cities, with rising rents and rapacious developers continuing to exert crushing pressure on our small-to-mid-sized venues (we’re losing two of my favourites, Temple of Boom in Leeds and The Flapper in Birmingham, very soon), which in turn results in both greater competition for dates between bands as the live circuit contracts and more and more promoters/venues pivot towards courting more profitable, mainstream-friendly fare.

Then there’s the ongoing travesty of Brexit which, regardless of the politics behind it, is going to make it much more difficult for small/medium sized bands to tour the EU, and is likely to also cause problems for foreign bands wanting to tour the UK (where the margin of feasibility, when all costs and logistics are summed up, is often razor-thin).

So please, make sure to support your local promoters and local venues whenever and wherever you can. Because without them gigs like tonight’s extraordinary experience just wouldn’t be possible. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MORTEM (STEINAR SVERD JOHNSEN)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Nov 062019
 


photo by Irene Vold

 

(Norway-based NCS contributor Karina Noctum had the chance to interview Steinar Sverd Johnsen, co-founder of the legendary Norwegian black metal band Mortem (as well as Arcturus), about the genesis and the resurrection of Mortem (whose new album Ravnsvart was released by Peaceville this past September) and other related subjects, and we present that discussion below.)

Mortem was formed back in 1989 by Marius Vold (Thorns, Arcturus) and Steinar Sverd Johnsen (Arcturus, Covenant, Satyricon). They released a demo whose artwork was made by Dead (Pelle Ohlin) and had Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth) as its producer. After the demo the artists devoted their time to other endeavors and nothing else was made.

Now they have reunited and produced a skillfully crafted album named Ravnsvart that counts the talents of Hellhammer (Mayhem, Arcturus) and Tor R. Stavenes (1349, Svart Lotus), making it one of the best BM releases this year.

In this interview with Steinar you will find all the information about things past, present, and future of this Black Metal supergroup. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HELLEBORUS — “SAPROPHYTIC DIVINATIONS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 052019
 

 

Many of us often hope for unions of visual, musical, and lyrical artistry, the integration of sights, sounds, and words that manifests a cohesive vision, with each part elevating the others and making possible a more compelling holistic experience. Such achievements are less common than we might wish, but the Colorado band Helleborus have given us one through their new album Saprophytic Divinations, which will be released by Redefining Darkness Records on December 6th.

This won’t come as any great surprise to people who are familiar with the band’s 2016 debut album, The Carnal Sabbath, or their 2017 single “Prayer of the Undying“, both of which we wrote about here, and yet the new album seems an even more fully realized reflection of the band’s far-reaching aspirations.

Before today Helleborus had already revealed one example of that artistic integration referred to above, presenting a song called “Alraun Ghost” along with artwork created for the track by Stefan Todorovic (Atterigner) of Khaos Diktator Art, and today we’re presenting another one — revealing both the title track and Stefan Todorovic‘s artwork for the album. (In the days ahead Redefining Darkness will share yet a third track and the artwork created for that song as well; all three pieces of art will be included in the 6-panel digipak CD edition of the record). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WITCHBONES — “THE SEAS OF DRAUGEN”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 052019
 

 

The record to date of Witchbones‘ creativity is something like the sudden and explosive release of immense pressures building within a vacuum-sealed canister. This Portland band’s sole creator, Vardlokker, took the form of Witchbones only last year, but beginning in January of this year has generated a torrent of releases — three EPs, two compilations, a debut album (We Haunt Ourselves), and now a second album, The Seas of Draugen. The previous recordings were self-released digitally (with Death Kvlt Productions handling the Akasha 2 compilation), but this new album will be ushered into the world by Iron Bonehead Productions, on CD and LP.

Like the undead horrors from Norse myth that are referred to in the album’s title, The Seas of Draugen is indeed a preternaturally horrifying black/death assault on the senses, one that seems to intertwine aquatic themes with otherworldly monstrosity. It generates waking nightmares through sound, none more terrifying than the title track we’re presenting today in advance of the album’s December 6 release. Continue reading »

HIDEOUS DIVINITY: “SIMULACRUM”

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Nov 052019
 

 

(On November 8 Century Media will release the new album by Italy’s Hideous Divinity, and today we present Andy Synn‘s review of the album.)

Italian stallions Hideous Divinity have been turning brutality into extreme art for over a decade now, with every album being that little bit faster, heavier, and more technical, than the one(s) before it.

The question now arises though – when your whole aesthetic is based on having everything turned up to eleven all the time, how do you sustain the same impact (and interest) as time goes on, without totally desensitising your audience in the process? Continue reading »

REFUSED: “WAR MUSIC”

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Nov 052019
 

 

(Seattle-based NCS contributor Gonzo has delivered this review of the new album by the Swedish hardcore punk legends Refused, which is out now via Spinefarm Records.)

Few album titles in 2019 have been as well-suited as War Music, the latest slab of anti-capitalist post-punk from Swedish icons Refused.

Never ones to shy away from politically charged subject matter, the Swedes have only seemed to build on the energy of their phenomenal 2015 comeback album, Freedom, and channeled it into a compact 10 songs of vitriolic angst that’s just waiting to be the soundtrack to the next time a protester throws a Molotov cocktail at a government building. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BLACK BEAST — “NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 042019
 

 

On November 8th Primitive Reaction will release Nocturnal Bloodlust, the debut album of Finland’s Black Beast — which arrives a long 13 years after their last release (a split with Bloodhammer), so long ago that many of you may not be aware of their existence (I was not). But this debut full-length blazes like a meteor in the night sky, and should quickly elevate them from cult obscurity to a more exalted place in the Finnish black metal star-field.

Nocturnal Bloodlust presents a transfixing blend of bestiality, lust, and anthemic grandeur, with great song-craft to go along with the band’s unwavering devotion to rampant flame-spewing demonism. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ARKONA, PUTRASCENSION, KAWIR, REVENANT MARQUIS

 SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
Nov 042019
 

 

This column is a day late, shorter than I’d planned, and written more hurriedly than I would like. Yesterday was full of personal obstacles to working on this, and I’ve got to leave home at an early hour this morning for a one-hour drive to the county courthouse because I’ve been summoned for jury duty. Three cheers for democracy!

It’s unlikely I’ll be put on the jury, but I have a feeling I’ll be stuck in the courthouse all day, which will play havoc with getting anything else done for NCS today other than this post and a premiere/review that I managed to finish last night.

ARKONA

If you’re not a fan of the Polish band Arkona it must be because you’ve never heard their music (even though they’ve been around since ’93) or you just don’t like black metal. I can’t think of a third reason. Their new album (the seventh of their career), Age of Capricorn, is one of my most anticipated releases of this fall/winter. It’s coming out December 13th via Debemur Morti Productions. Continue reading »

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