OVERFLOWING STREAMS: ABYSMAL DAWN, CENTINEX, COGNITIVE, COOLING TOWER, DEATH COURIER, DEVIN TOWNSEND, EVOKER, GRAVEIR, HELLHOOKAH, KRATER, LAMB OF GOD, LAUDARE, MALICYST, WHITE STONES

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 182020
 


Abysmal Dawn

 

Here we are again. with so many new songs and videos that I want to recommend that I’m resorting to what I did last weekend — compiling lots of sights and sounds (which are all over the map in genre terms), accompanied by only very brief comments of my own. I also added one news item that excited me, though there’s no music to be heard yet.

I should add that I hope you are all well, and that you’re doing your damnedest to physically stay away from other people to the greatest extent possible.

ABYSMAL DAWN (U.S.)

We begin with a jackhammering, shivering, and slithering piece of death metal menace, complete with thoroughly beastly vocals and twisted melodic accents and grooves that both prove to be ridiculously catchy. I could swear they actually used a heavy-caliber machibe gun instead of drums for parts of this, and that they tortured a poltergeist for the solos. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SETOML — “THE SHADOWS PATH”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 172020
 

 

We are told that Setoml was the ancient name of a river that flowed into the Pochayna River in Kyiv city, Ukraine. Mentioned in chronicles that date back to the 11th and 12th centuries, it was the resting place of parts of an army of the Turkic Pechenegs who were defeated in 1036 by Yaroslav The Wise and drowned beneath its waters.

Setoml is also the name chosen by a new two-man Ukrainian melodic black metal band, formed by Semenenko Anton (known as one-man project Luna) and Krivoviaz Serge (founder, vocalist, guitarist of I Miss My Death). In Setoml, Anton is the composer of all songs and performer of all instruments, while Serge is the lyricist/vocalist. Their debut album Reincarnation (“Перевтілення”) will be co-released on April 24th by Satanath Records (Russia) and Kryrart Records (Germany).

The song we’re presenting today, “The Shadows Path (Шлях тiней)“, is the track that closes the album. And like all the other tracks, it explores the reincarnation of the soul after death, the symbol of which is the night butterfly. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WASTEWALKER — “VENGEANCE OF THE LOWBORN”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 172020
 

 

Back in 2016 we gave a lot of attention to the roll-out of tracks leading toward the release of Wastewalker’s debut album, Funeral Winds, culminating in a review by our own Andy Synn which praised the band for “blending a punishing backbone of deathly heaviness with an esoteric mix of unusual technical twists and fret-sparking leads.” And now this group of Sacramento stalwarts, whose line-up includes current or former members of Conducting From the Grave, Alterbeast, and The Odious Construct, have completed a new album. Entitled Lowborn, it’s set for release on May 12th.

So far, the band have released a lyric video for one song from the new album (“The Moth“), and today we’re presenting a second one — “Vengeance of the Lowborn“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SEPTIMIU HĂRȘAN (PESTILENCE)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Mar 172020
 

 

(Karina Noctum continues with her series of interviews of metal drummers, and with this one has turned in one of the most interesting, articulate, and in-depth interviews we’ve published in a long time — and we thank Romanian drummer Septimiu Hărşan for devoting so much time and thought to it.)

This is an Interview conducted with Septimiu Hărşan, who is the drummer of the Dutch Death Metal legends Pestilence and is currently working on the release of two albums, one with the Dutch masters of raw brutality Disavowed, which is one of the albums to look forward to the most within that sub-genre this year.

This in-depth interview offers insights into Septimiu’s drumming career, gear, and musical preferences, as well as some good news when it comes to Pestilence and his other bands CodeRed and Necrovile. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HELIOSS — “LA LÈPRE DES HOMMES”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 162020
 

 

The creative fires of the French band Helioss continue to burn as bright as their namesake. Three years after their third album Antumbra, they now return with a new full-length, Devenir Le Soleil, set for release on April 23rd by their new labels Satanth Records and Mourning Light Records. Once again, Helioss mastermind Nicolas Muller is at the helm, joined again by vocalist D.M., but this time also aided by an extravagant array of guest performers, as well as by a live drummer — the very talented Mikko Koskinen (Nullentropy, The Lifted Veil, Proscription).

Musically, Helioss continue to embroider their strongly evocative music with classical orchestration, black metal, death metal, and progressive instrumental flourishes, and today, accompanied by a lyric video, we present a richly textured and kaleidoscopic track that displays all these ingredients in changing shades of darkness and blazing brilliance. Its name is “La Lèpre Des Hommes“. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: BOG WRAITH / MÆRE / PHALANX / SUTRAH / SVENGAHLI

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 162020
 

 

(Andy Synn has decided to collect in one place reviews of five recently released EPs that have provoked very enthusiastic responses. Lots of very good stuff here.)

After spending a significant amount of time last week covering some massive (some might say excessive) double-albums, I thought it might be nice to kick things off this week with a bunch of shorter releases, all of which sit somewhere along the ever-widening spectrum of Death Metal.

So whether you’re looking for something brutal and breakdown-heavy, something crusty and crushing, or something teched-out and transcendent, there should be something for everyone here. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SHATTER BRAIN — “TALK IN FEAR”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 162020
 

 

Is it possible on this day after the Ides of March for me to introduce a premiere without mentioning the coronavirus? Theoretically, I suppose so. In practice, no way, especially when the band’s name is Shatter Brain and their song is “Talk In Fear“.

My brain is feeling pretty shattered at the moment, and there sure as hell is a lot of fearful talk going on. Social activity is shutting down at an increasingly accelerating rate, bars and restaurants are being closed down by government order or because the customers have vanished, service employees are being pitched out of work right and left, hoarders are looting market shelves, health care is teetering on the brink… it’s a shitty situation all the way around.

And that’s why this song is such a welcome tonic — virally infectious, head-busting music for viral, brain-shattering times. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ENEPSIGOS

 Interviews  3 Responses »
Mar 162020
 

 

(On March 27th Osmose Productions will release Wrath of Wraths, the new album by the formidable black metal band Enepsigos, and in this new interview our Norway-based contributor Karina Noctum spoke with V.I.T.H.R (aka Doedsadmiral), who created this new album together with drummer Thorns and new guitarist/bassist Rituul.)

Enepsigos has unique qualities and is innovative in the context of the Norwegian scene. This interview was conducted with one of its founders V.I.T.H.R (Doedsvangr, Nordjevel, Svartelder); the band also includes Thorns (Blut Aus Nord, Darvaza, Fides Inversa) and Rituul as well.

Their latest album Wrath of Wraths is excellent and has a fresh approach to song structure. It has a riff-structure oddness that is something you would have come to expect more from bands coming from Australia or the US rather than from Norway.  It is entertaining to the ear and complex. Nevertheless it has a typical Norwegian-ness to it surfacing here and there, something that adds a lot of groove and feeling combined with a French-like darkness and atmosphere. The dark ambience has been enriched by an eerie atmosphere a la Mercyful Fate, which is awesome. It’s a mix of really good qualities that will for sure put this album in the best-of-the-year lists in the Black Metal genre. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: WITCHTHRONE, ALKYMIST, IMPERIAL SAVAGERY, SCOLOPENDRA, PONTE DEL DIAVOLO, DEKIRA

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Mar 152020
 

 

I think I overdid it yesterday. Putting together those two Overflowing Streams posts mentally wore me out. So I didn’t get a head start on this SOB post yesterday, and wound up figuring out what to do with it this morning. One consequence of the delay is that I decided to avoid writing about complete new releases, which is more demanding (even though it might not seem that way when you read my ramblings). Instead, I picked eight new individual tracks (some of them with videos) from six bands.

I’ll forewarn you that I veered a bit off course for this column and included songs that aren’t strictly black metal, but to my ears are close cousins. If you want stuff that’s more in the main line, you’ll find some in those Overflowing Streams columns.

WITCHTHRONE

The first item I selected is a new video for a new song by the Hungarian band Witchthrone, whose music has both post-metal and black-metal elements. Entitled “Shallow“, the song is one of four on their self-titled debut EP, which is set for release on March 20th. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 2): MASS WORSHIP, KHEMMIS, NITE, ORANSSI PAZUZU, ORPHANS OF DOOM, PANZERFAUST, REVULSION, SECRETS OF THE MOON, SICARIUS, TEMPLE OF VOID, WEREWOLVES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 142020
 

 

Many of us here in the U.S., as elsewhere, are essentially stuck at home. We’re supposed to stay away from our fellow human beings, and there’s not much to do away from home anyway. Fortunately, the virus hasn’t infected the internet so I can still eject new songs and videos at your head, which I’ve been doing at great volume today — a dozen of them in Part 1 of this post (here), and almost another dozen in this one. I mean, what the hell else do you have to do?

Once again, everything is organized in alphabetical order by band name, picking up from the items in Part 1, and I’ve again truncated my usual commentary.

MASS WORSHIP (Sweden)

Get seduced by the dual-guitar intro, stay for the jackhammering of your neck and the vocal scorching of your face… a bitter and battering experience. Continue reading »

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