AN NCS INTERVIEW: NAMTAR

 Interviews  No Responses »
Mar 032020
 


photo credit – Nadja Geskus Photography

 

(Our Norway-based correspondent Karina Noctum forges ahead with her series of interviews of drummers, and here presents a discussion with Namtar, former drummer with the Dutch symphonic black metal band Carach Angren.)

2020 started with several losses of both musicians and bands in the metal scene. So to join the row of sad news it was announced that Namtar from Carach Angren was going to leave his band, and so I took the opportunity to talk to him.

Carach Angren had a pretty well-conceived and interesting concept, both musically and image-wise, that will continue for sure, but no two drummers are the same. So it remains to see who is going to take his place and how it will turn out. A new album called Franckensteina Strataemontanus to be released on May 29 has been announced, but the news is taken with mixed feelings of course. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ULCERATE, NOMAD, LIKE RATS, HOT GRAVES, BOMBS OF HADES, CHURCH OF DISGUST, HOLY DEATH

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 022020
 

 

At the risk of overloading our readers with new music in light of what we’ve already sent your way over the weekend and this morning (a risk that obviously means nothing to us), here’s a carefully curated collection of chaos to begin the new week. If death metal is your meat and potatoes, this will explode your gastrointestinal tract.

ULCERATE

It didn’t take long for a new Ulcerate song to cause a flurry of comments within our internal NCS group. Not long after the title track to the band’s new album surfaced this morning, my colleagues uttered such exclamations and opinions as “tasty”, “oh shit”, “this is probably the cleanest and least reliant they’ve been on recorded-in-a-cave-next-door style mixing they’ve had yet”, “it’s DEFINITELY more melodic, and the production is warmer, but those are GOOD things”, and “it’s a natural progression from what they were doing on Shrines of Paralysis“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WARLUST — “I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 022020
 

 

“I Spit On Your Grave!” Those are fighting words, and in the song of that name which we’re premiering today through a lyric video, the German hellraisers in Warlust back that disgusted condemnation to the hilt, and simultaneously prove why their new album Unearthing Shattered Philosophies (forthcoming from Dying Victims Productions on April 24th) is such a savage yet multi-faceted thrillride.

Through their previous album, 2017’s Morbid Execution, Warlust amply demonstrated their prowess in discharging electrifying black/thrash, leavened with other ingredients that made it more than an assault of rip-roaring hellfire. But the new album reveals an even further spreading of the band’s dragon wings, demonstrating an elevation in the dynamism and diversity of their songwriting skills, and “I Spit On Your Grave” is a prime example of those achievements. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MAZIKEEN — “VEXATION THROUGH THE GOLDEN SUN”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Mar 022020
 

 

After a scattering of short releases that mainly began emerging in 2017, the Australian symphonic black/death band Mazikeen has completed a debut album named The Solace of Death that’s now set for co-release by Satanath Records and Iron, Blood And Death Corporation on March 23rd.

From its beginning as a solo project, Mazikeen has been the brain-child of Andrew Shiells, but for this new album he was joined by a formidable line-up of allies. With Shiells on guitar and synths, he is accompanied by drummer Marco Pitrruzzella (Six Feet Under, Sleep Terror, ex-Brain Drill), guitar soloist Kris Marchant, pianist Aretstikapha (Plasmodium, Klavierkrieger), and vocalist James Edmeades (Claret Ash).

The album includes eight original songs as well as four cover songs, putting Mazikeen‘s spin on tracks by Mayhem, Dissection, Dimmu Borgir, and Darkthrone. It’s one of the original songs that we present today, a dazzling track named “Vexation Through the Golden Sun“. Continue reading »

REMISSION: “THE TETHER’S END”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 022020
 

 

(This is TheMadIsraeli’s enthusiastic review of the debut album of Australia’s Remission, which was released late last year.)

While I’ve enjoyed the stylistic turn to a degree, melodic death metal in recent years has become too fucking slow and has increasingly lost its sense of technicality.  Everyone who knows me after years on this site is aware that I’m as much of a fan of the melodic death-doom formula as anyone, but I must confess I miss what got me captivated by the style in the first place.  It was the ability of the music to hit a threshold of being fast and technical, yet remaining emotive all the same.

The olden-days bands wrote riffs that were basically 20-second hooks, where the entire passage stuck into your head while skank beats and the like pounded away at high speed.  If it wasn’t that, it was an extremely modern translation of British Heavy Metal into an even heavier context.  I really miss this about melodic death metal of the ’90s and early 2000s, and it’s a bit dismaying that the style has mostly seemed to die off in interest.

Until now. Continue reading »

HARROWED + CALLIGRAM + GEIST – LIVE IN NOTTINGHAM, 01/03/20

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 022020
 

 

(On March 1, 2020, Andy Synn witnessed the performances of Harrowed, Calligram, and Geist at the Chameleon Bar in Nottingham, UK, and provides this review of the show, accompanied by videos that he made.)

It’s a little-known fact, but Hardcore was my “first love” when it comes to “alternative” music.

In fact, bands like Earth Crisis, Shai Hulud, and Vision of Disorder weren’t just some of my earliest encounters with music outside of “the mainstream”, but were my gateway into Metal too.

And while my tastes have definitely moved on since then, I’ve still retained a lot of love for the more metallic side of Hardcore, especially when/where it collides with other, even heavier, genres (last year’s Fuming Mouth and Totaled albums being prime examples).

My attendance at this evening’s gig was, therefore, pretty much mandatory, as all three of the bands on the bill (all of whom I’ve written about here before) have, over the course of the past couple of years, developed a well-deserved reputation as some of the best proponents of Metallic Hardcore that the UK has to offer.

And how was I going to say no to the opportunity to see them all together in a small local venue no more than twenty minutes from my house? Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ABYSSFIRE, BÂ’A, GAVRANOVI, AT THE ALTAR OF THE HORNED GOD, ERRANT, SVARTKONST, AUTOMB

 SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
Mar 012020
 

 

For this column I originally picked six tracks from forthcoming albums or EPs. I thoroughly enjoyed all these songs, and they have the added benefit of being very different from each other, with highly variable (and sometimes only tenuous) connections to the traditions of black metal (the column is called SHARES OF BLACK for a reason).

At the last minute, however, I also added one new album. I discovered it upon waking up this morning, thanks to a message from Rennie (starkweather). It was an explosive way to wake up, but man, it did wake me the fuck up. So I’m starting this column with it. I also hope I’ll have time to write a few words about some additional full-length releases I want to recommend from the blackened realms. But I have a lot on my plate at the moment, so I’m not daring enough to call this Part 1. Fingers crossed that I’ll get a companion to this column finished at some point during the coming week.

ABYSSFIRE

Yesterday, on Leap Day, the Russian death/black band Abyssfire vomited forth their blasphemous debut album, adorned with hellish artwork by Nether Temple Design. I have listened to it once, so far, and the music is completely in keeping with the album’s title: The Raging Hearts of Hell. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GRAVESPAWN — “BARBARIAN MISANTHROPY”

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Mar 012020
 

 

The ringing tons of an archaic instrument announce the song we’re premiering today through a video, and an ancient, mythic atmosphere continues to cloak this musical tale of warfare and death as it unfolds and moves through changing moods. The song, “Barbarian Misanthropy“, comes from the new album by Gravespawn, which will be released on March 21st by Satanath Records.

That album, The Elder Darkness, is is the third full-length to be released by this southern California black metal band in a career that’s now roughly 16 years old. Once again, it is the work of a single individual, Reaver, though here he’s aided by session drummer Baalgrath and bassist/backing-vocalist Advorsus. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (GUEST EDITION): IFERNACH, PAN-AMERIKAN NATIVE FRONT, ANGES DE LA MORT, KENAZ, WARMOON LORD, VULTYRIUM, Í MYRKRY

 SHADES OF BLACK  6 Responses »
Feb 292020
 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: With just a few modest changes, the following post was an extensive e-mail we received from our valued supporter Speelie, intended as suggestions of black metal we might check out and recommend to others if we liked it. But with his permission we decided to simply pass on his worthy ideas straight from him to you. We’ll have other suggestions for you in the usual SHADES OF BLACK column tomorrow.

While my primary area of historical study is the Second World War, I also study the military campaigns involving Native Americans and the Canadian First Nations. An offshoot of the latter is the colonial history of Quebec.

During the 17th and 18th Centuries, it was a fascinating place. The harsh climate worsened the effects of epidemics and famine from crop failures. The French and the natives generally got along decently, but many natives resisted attempts to Catholicize them. The Jesuits sent reports known as Relations back to France yearly, and these have been preserved. So have many tribal traditions and oral histories.

Both of these sources recount that they saw the other as including dangerous and powerful sorcerers in their ranks. Quebec also faced devastating raids by the Iroquois and invasions by the British. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 118): YURI GAGARIN

 THE SYNN REPORT  No Responses »
Feb 282020
 

 

(In this SYNN REPORT for the month of February 2020, Andy Synn assembles reviews of all the records released to date by the Swedish band Yuri Gagarin, including their new album, released in late January.)

Recommended for fans of: Oranssi Pazuzu, Dark Buddha Rising, Sleep

One of the many joyful elements of writing each edition of The Synn Report – beyond the simple pleasure of being able to introduce you all to new artists and albums every month – is the way in which it encourages me to switch up my listening habits on a regular basis.

Case in point, after going from Tech to Grind to Death to Black to Prog to ‘core over the last six months now it’s time to switch things up once again with Space-Rock cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin.

Despite hailing from the metallic mecca of Gothenburg, Sweden, the five-piece are probably one of the least “Metal” artists we’ve ever featured as part of The Synn Report.

However that doesn’t mean they don’t bring their own particular style of heaviness to the table, adding a delicious dose of distortion to every juicy, psychedelic jam and fuzzed-up instrumental freak out. Continue reading »

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