TORPËDO: “MECHANIC TYRANTS”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 092020
 

 

(We present Todd Manning‘s review of the 2019 debut demo by Germany’s Torpëdo, which was reissued last month by Gates of Hell Records.)

Gates of Hell Records is a subsidiary of Cruz Del Sur Music dedicated to bringing the best of Old School Heavy Metal to the world, and they’ve certainly found a prime candidate in the form of Germany’s Torpëdo. The label reissued the band’s demo Mechanic Tyrants on February 21st, complete with new cover art that captures the spirit of the Speed Metal vibes contained within.

The first thing that is apparent when “Maniac” comes ripping out of the speakers is the band’s ability to successfully blend the raucous sound of early Motörhead with Kill’em All-era Metallica. The album was recorded by the band themselves in a basement and it even captures the sound of that bygone time perfectly. Gritty but clear and powerful. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: APOGNOSIS, HRÆ , VENOMOUS SKELETON, ADAESTUO, SCHWERMUT

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  10 Responses »
Mar 082020
 

 

For this week’s edition of the column I decided to include five complete releases, four albums and an EP, all but one of them released since late January. But my time is short, and so, with apologies to the bands, the only way I’ve been able to manage this is to pursue a strategy of picking only one song per release to focus on, accompanied by just the most general overview of everything else. With luck, this will be enough to seduce people into exploring each release in greater depth, despite the relative shallowness of my own words.

APOGNOSIS

The Greek black metal band Adaestuo is one of two in today’s feature whose past work I was familiar with, and that past work — a self-titled demo in 2016, the Phase 6 debut album that same year, and the Cult of Human Sacrifices EP in 2018 — has been remarkably impressive. The new release is an album entitled Dominion In Polarity. It came out last September, and I really should have written something about it before now, because it’s tremendous. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AETHERIUS OBSCURITAS — “ILYEN A VÉR (BLOOD IS LIKE THIS)”

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Mar 082020
 

 

The Hungarian black metal band Aetherius Obscuritas are certainly capable of mounting musical assaults of cut-throat savagery and spine-tingling wildness, but what makes their new album Mártír stand out from the barbaric pack is, for want of a better word, their adventurousness. The compositions are elaborate and multi-faceted, and the results can seem like musical potions that produce enthralling as well as electrifying effects. The song we’re premiering today, “Ilyen a vér (Blood Is Like This)“, is a great example of such ingeniously conceived and sharply executed adventures.

The core duo that makes up Aetherius Obscuritas, Viktor (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards) and Zson (drums) have been working together under that name for roughly 18 years, long enough to become familiar with each other’s talents and propensities but quite obviously not so long as to settle into stagnancy. In that time they’ve recorded eight albums, including Mártír, but still seem to be pushing themselves into new musical territories, perhaps most obviously on this new album. It follows the last one by a significant five years and will be released on April 15th by GrimmDistribution (Ukraine) and Paragon Records (U.S.). Continue reading »

VIRAL RAGE (WITH ABORTED, NAGLFAR, ENDLESS FORMS MOST GRUESOME, AND NOCTURNAL DAMNATION)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Mar 072020
 

 

Greetings from Coronavirus Central, USA (aka Seattle, Washington, and nearby communities, including the top-secret metallic island from which I administer the globe-spanning depredations of NCS). Things are weird here.

I know you’ll rejoice to learn that I have no flu-like symptoms, just the usual cat allergies. Others are not so lucky. According to the latest reports, there are more than 102 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Washington, 71 of those in the county that includes Seattle, and 16 deaths in Washington, all but two of those in the Seattle area.

Area health care providers are reporting shortages of needed supplies, including masks for healthcare workers. Despite promises by the federal government, there still aren’t enough test kits available to help figure out how many people with symptoms actually have coronavirus. And good luck trying to find hand sanitizer. At least we can still pee on our hands as a reminder to stop touching our faces all the damned time. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BLACK CULT — “COSMIC STORM”

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Mar 062020
 

 

As divulged here, Black Cult‘s second album Cathedral of the Black Cult (2016) made me an immediate fan of their talent for discharging satanic black metal with such flair and dynamism. They proved themselves adept at delivering not only swarming malignant savagery, but also mid-paced dissonance and music with a sinister, occult atmosphere laced with highly seductive melodies.

It was thus welcome news to discover that these Croatians would be releasing a new album in 2020. Entitled Nekropola, it has a street date of March 27th via GrimmDistribution and InsArt Records, who recommend it for fans of Mayhem, Satyricon, Dødheimsgard, and Zyklon. And today we’re in the fortunate position of presenting one of the album’s eight tracks, the aptly titled “Cosmic Storm“. Continue reading »

BLACK METAL BONANZA: BLAZE OF PERDITION, GLACIATION, GRIMAH, IZTHMI, KVAEN, SOPHIST, WORTHLESS

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Mar 062020
 

 

(In this post you’ll find a collection of reviews by Andy Synn, focusing on seven black metal albums released during the first two months of the year.)

It’s now just over two months into 2020 and I am already ridiculously behind when it comes to covering new albums.

That’s a particularly galling admission to make considering how great some of the records you’re about to read about are, many of which I’ve been listening to religiously since the start of the year but which, for various reasons, I’ve not gotten around to writing about before now.

Still, the advantage of grouping all these records/reviews together is that if you happen to already like one (or more) of these artists already then there’s every chance you’re going to discover something else to love too.

So, without further ado… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WALK THROUGH FIRE — “VÄGAR MOT SLUTET”

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Mar 062020
 

 

Vår Avgrund, the new album by the Gothenburg-based sludge/doom quintet Walk Through Fire, is not meant to be a joyous experience. Its very name, which translates to “Our Abyss“, foreshadows a 75-minute trip that’s intended to be heard straight through as an integrated piece of music, one designed to drag listeners ever-deeper into sensations of existential dread and misery, despair and anguish.

But while the album’s themes mostly circle around “the inevitability of tragedy and suffering in life – both as individuals, and as a collective”, this does not mean the music itself is relentlessly gloom-shrouded and oppressive, not something to be avoided like the sight of mass graves or a visit to the morgue.  As undeniably dark as the music is, it is also fascinating, and quite often inescapably mesmerizing. In part, that is because Walk Through Fire are open to experimentation — indeed eager for it. And the song we’re presenting today is a prime example of that. Continue reading »

VOLCANDRA: “INTO THE AZURE”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 062020
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s review of the debut album by Volcandra from Louisville, Kentucy. With cover art by the great Adam Burke, it was released on February 28th.)

Kentucky isn’t exactly a place where you imagine black metal springing from, especially good black metal, but new blood Volcandra are an interesting case study in that regard because not only are these guys really good, they may well be one of the most talented American black metal bands to rise up in the 2010‘s (I’m going to be pedantic and be that “the new decade isn’t till 2021“ guy).  Quite simply, through channeling a combination of Norwegian and Finnish influences on top of an adoption of more American progressive death-metal window dressing, Volcandra may very well have released one of the first great black metal records of 2020. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FERAL LIGHT — “ASSUAGE”

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Mar 052020
 

 

It’s an absolute thrill for us to welcome the return of Feral Light. Originally a three-piece (and now a duo) from Minnesota formed by ex-members of Wolvhammer, Empires, Manetheren, and Finger of Scorn, they released (through Sentient Ruin) a fantastic debut EP in 2016 — A Sound of Moving Shields — that we wrote about twice (including a song premiere). That was followed by a 2017 debut album, Void/Sanctity (via Innit Records), and then by another full-length in 2019 (also on Innit Records), Fear Rides A Shadow, which prompted our own Andy Synn to praise it in his review as an “effortlessly well-realised example of groovesome, bombastic Black ‘n’ Roll at its very best”.

What we are now looking forward to is a new record named Life Vapor, which will be released by Hypnotic Dirge Records on May 8th (CD and digital), with a vinyl edition coming in the fall. And today we’re presenting the first glimpse of the new music through our premiere of a track named “Assuage“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BORGNE — “Y”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 052020
 

 

Originally the solo project of Bornyhake (whose name has been associated with a significant number of other groups), but eventually expanding into a full band, the Swiss entity Borgne released their first album in 1998, and their path since then has resulted in eight more full-lengths. The most recent of those, entitled Y, on which Bornyhake is joined by keyboardist Lady Kaos and other guests, will be released by Borgne‘s new label Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions tomorrow, and on the eve of that event we’re presenting a full stream of the record.

Borgne‘s musical hallmark has been the integration of industrial music into black metal, with an increasingly atmospheric quality that combines with the compulsive mechanical rhythms and intense, ravaging aggression. All those qualities are very much present and accounted for within Y, yet the combined impact of them on this new record reaches levels of staggering power and immersive intensity that may be the zenith of Borgne’s work to date, putting us in the presence of forces almost unimaginably more vast than we puny humans. Continue reading »

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