AN NCS PREMIERE: FIRES IN THE DISTANCE — “THE CLIMB”

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Feb 282020
 

 

Fires in the Distance is a Connecticut-based band that includes three members of the long-running melodic death metal project Archaic Decapitator. Their friendship and existing familiarity with each other’s talents created a smooth path into this new project, but the musical conception of Fires in the Distance gave it a distinct identity, one that draws upon death/doom influences as well as inclinations toward atmospheric and progressive metal. Among their inspirations, the band cite such groups as Man-Eating Tree, Type O, Enshine, Swallow The Sun, Amorphis, and Dark Tranquillity.

The band’s debut album, Echoes From Deep November, is now set for release on May 22nd. Conceptually, as the band have told us, “The record primarily encompasses a perpetual struggle with mental health, primarily living with major depression. The songs generally reflect the progression of going through the peaks and valleys of torment and internal rationalization of existing with chronic mental illness.”

Serious and decidedly melancholy subjects, to be sure, and the music does indeed have strong emotional resonance. But listening to it is far from a depressive experience, as you’ll discover through our premiere of the album’s opening track, “The Climb“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ENOID — “JE NE VOLERAI PLUS DANS LES CIEUX”

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Feb 282020
 

 

If you’ve been paying attention, this is the second time this month when we’ve mentioned the name Bornyhake. The first time was when we premiered a song from the new album by Borgne (here), the Swiss band that he began in the ’90s as a solo project. Today, the subject is another one of this prolific musician’s musical endeavors, a solo black metal project that bears the name Enoid.

Enoid’s debut album appeared in 2006, but already an eighth full-length has been readied for release. Entitled Négation Du Corps, it will be ushered into the world on March 20th through the combined efforts of Satanath Records and The Ritual Productions, and today we’re presenting a ravishing track from the album named “Je ne volerai plus dans les cieux“. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: YAWNING VOID

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Feb 282020
 


photo by Photo by Jami Kallioväli

 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks spoke with three members of the Finnish band Yawning Void, whose music is black/death/doom from the depths of the void….)

Our constant readers may remember the interview we did with the crushing death doom band Solothus from Suomi. We had a nice chat in December, and now their new album Realm Of Ash And Blood has been announced by 20 Buck Spin Records — it will be out on March 27th — don’t miss it!

So if you remember, we finished that interview on a bit of an awkward note about Yawning Void, a kind of blackened death doom outfit from Turku that includes three of Solothus’ members. I wish I could announce the release date of their new album, but true to say it’s blurred, though we had a great conversation with TKI (drums, keyboards), KTK (vocals), and VTK (guitars). Well, Yawning Void’s debut Streams Within was actually officially released by Weird Truth Productions only in October 2019, so it’s still an actual thing – grim, thick, and lightless as our miserable world which “keeps spinning towards unknown paths of doom”. Continue reading »

DEMONS & WIZARDS: “III”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  2 Responses »
Feb 282020
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of the new album by Demons & Wizards, which unites the talents of Jon Schaffer (Iced Earth) and Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) and was released by Century Media on February 21st.)

Fifteen years later and this project has returned.

Before we get into the meat of the metal here it should be said that I am pretty picky when it comes to power metal. This might surprise some since I grew up listening to the bands that influenced power metal. Even when Helloween came out with Keeper of the Seven Keys pt 2, I was still on board. The only problem was the bands who took inspiration from that album were too happy for me. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: ABYSMAL DAWN, BONES, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, IGORRR, IKU-TURSO, INCEPTION OF FALL, NITE, NYREDOLK, SYMBOLIK, TYRANT OF DEATH, VELNIAS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 272020
 

 

Once gain I’m resorting to the round-up format I use when I’ve run out of time to provide my own scintillating commentary about each of the new songs and videos I’ve chosen to throw your way. For the most part, you’ll just have to listen and then imagine how eloquent and evocative I would have been.

In compiling today’s large selection, which is presented in alphabetical order, I had assistance from my colleague DGR. In fact, he recommended six of the 11 items you’ll find here.

 

ABYSMAL DAWN

This new Abysmal Dawn track, “The Path Of The Totalitarian“, is the second single from the band’s new album Phylogenesis, out April 17th on Season Of Mist. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AMNUTSEBA — “TABULA”

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Feb 272020
 

 

Over the course of two demos released by Caligari Records in 2017 and 2018 (and later released in a vinyl compilation by Iron Bonehead Productions), the enigmatic French band Amnutseba demonstrated a mastery in the creation of unpredictable and unnerving black metal. In reviewing them (here and here), we characterized the first demo as “dissonant, delirious, and disorienting”, “fiery and ferocious, marauding and majestic, eerie and ominous”, and the second one as “pensive and petrifying, brawling and beautiful, unearthly and apocalyptic”. And the reviews included a lot more adjectives besides those.

Amnutseba’s creations on those first demos spawned so many adjectives in this quarter not only because the music was so intricate and labyrinthine but also because it produced so many visceral responses, usually frightening but also mesmerizing, and in its bewildering permutations it was also capable of seeming revelatory.

Little wonder that so many underground-dwellers familiar with Amnutseba have been so anxious for a full-length album by this mysterious entity since falling prey to those first recordings, and now we’re about to get one: On March 27th Iron Bonehead Productions will release the first Amnutseba full-length, the name of which is Emanatism. Not surprisingly, it is wondrously otherworldly — and scary as hell. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: REEK — “CONDEMNED BY THE HANDS OF PAIN”

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Feb 272020
 

 

Probably ’til the end of times, fans of old Entombed will debate the merits or demerits of the band’s movement from Left Hand Path through Clandestine and into the “death ‘n’ roll” of Wolverine Blues. But it’s clear that the Swedish band Reek don’t mourn that transition but instead celebrate it, as you’ll discover through today’s premiere of a track from their debut album, Death is something there Between, which will be released by Testimony Records on April 24th.

A debut album it may be, but the members of Reek are accomplished veterans. Leading the way are Håkan Stuvemark (Wombbath, Pale King) and Rogga Johansson (too many bands to name), who have collaborated before in the progressive death metal band PermaDeath. Here, Stuvemark and Johansson both play guitar, and this time Stuvemark is also the vocalist. They’re joined in Reek by their PermaDeath teammate Jon Skäre (also Defiatory, Wachenfeldt) on drums and by bassist Mathias Back (Fimbultyr).

With that kind of talent assembled under the name Reek, listeners will predictably have high expectations, and those expectations will not be disappointed. Continue reading »

TURIA: “DEGEN VAN LICHT”

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Feb 272020
 

 

(This is Mike Johnson‘s review of the new album by the Dutch black metal band Turia, which was released by Eisenwald on February 14th.)

Feel the chill gnaw at the marrow of your bones, as you trudge through the frozen snow. Shards of ice feel sharper than obsidian as they tear away beneath your cloak. Each step a masochistic delight as the lure of the great grey summit beckons you forth.

It stands amongst its peers with a crown of haze masking its highest peaks. As time disappears the ascension up an unforgiving pass becomes a torrent of lunacy as the shadow of a giant looming over you blocks the sky. A sliver of hope emerges as the pass opens to reveal the sun, its soothing warmth brings a spark of euphoria before disappearing in the shadow of the natural obelisk towering above piercing the sky.

An atmosphere such as this, sonically, should be dissonant, unforgiving, and a relentless fury of pure despair. Turia, a Dutch black metal trio, portray a scene of majestic desolation weaving lush landscapes soaked in reverb into a serrated hail composed of vicious tremolo riffs. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NORNES

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Feb 272020
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us this interview of the French band Nornes, which focuses on their 2018 debut Vanity and, of course, other things… including the band’s new EP Threads, which will be released on February 28th through Sleeping Church Records.)

I try to avoid interviewing bands with only an EP and demos in their discography, with rare exceptions like it was with Marble Chariot who at least continued their pilgrimage under the Carcolh moniker… But when reverend Rodolphe of the Barabbas band advised me to take a look at Nornes from Valenciennes, I couldn’t refuse.

And indeed they remain a very cool trad-doom band with both clean and harsh vocals, despite the fact what their one and only EP Vanity was released in 2018. Where’s the new stuff. men? Here you’ll find an answer to this question, a few facts about the band, and one French joke. Don’t forget to turn on the play button and listen to their EP (you’ll find it below), I need to return to my beer. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HADOPELAGIAL — “AMUNRE”

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Feb 262020
 

 

Hailing from Leipzig, Germany, Hadopelagial is a two-man black metal strike force (vocalist/lyricist Ghoul and C.C., who does everything else) whose members were once bandmates in Humanitas Error Est. In their new formation they’ve recorded a self-titled debut album that will be released on March 18th by Satanath Records, and today we’re presenting one of its eight tracks, a wonderfully dynamic song named “Amunre“.

The tone of the song’s opening riff is as dismal and bleak as a mass grave, and the music methodically stomps and stomps as Ghoul utters his proclamations in a vicious and imperious voice. But while the oppressive qualities established by that opening movement don’t disappear, the music soon becomes a white-hot melee of turbocharged percussive obliteration, seething, swarming riffs, and unhinged vocal ferocity. Continue reading »

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