AN NCS EP PREMIERE: OKTAS — “OKTAS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Sep 202019
 

 

Genre hybrids within the general ambit of extreme metal tend to be hit-or-miss affairs, and perhaps more miss than hit the further the hybridized ingredients differ from each other. Yet when the creative splicing of divergent ingredients and tonalities truly succeeds, the experience can stand out in ways that don’t often happen in the general run of genre monochromes, and reward the constant search of metal adventurists for something different. In my humble opinion, the self-titled premiere EP by Oktas, which is being released today, is one of those stand-out successes.

By way of background, an okta is a unit of measurement used to describe the amount of cloud cover at any given location. That term became the basis for the name chosen by this group of Philadelphia musicians, led by visual and musical artist Bob Stokes (Drones for Queens), who performs vocals and bass, and including friends of his from previous bands — drummer Rob Macauley and fellow bassist Carl Whitlock of Dirt Worshipper, and minimalist composer Jason Baron from Cloud Minder, who plays the cello with Oktas. (We did mention unusual tonalities, and here we have two bassists and a cellist, but no guitar.)

As forecast, this new EP embraces a range of influences, from ambient minimalism to atmospheric black metal and epic doom metal (and I hear a bit of gloomy post-punk in the mix, too), woven together with a cinematic edge. Lyrically “based in the filth ridden streets of south Philadelphia”, as Bob Stokes has told us, the words transport us “to a world destroyed by mankind’s own hubris, plagued with endless war, constant natural disasters and humanity desperate for redemption”. Continue reading »

ALTERNATIVE RELEASE DAY ROUNDUP

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Sep 202019
 


Apparatus

 

(Andy Synn presents an extra-large Friday round-up of highly recommended new releases, from Apparatus, Consummation, Crypt Sermon,  Eternal Storm, Foscor, Haunter, Soheil Al Fard, Toadeater, Weight of Emptiness, and Witch Vomit.)

Inundated and overwhelmed with new releases as we are here at NCS it’s no surprise that a lot of albums this year have gone unpraised and unremarked upon.

And this situation looks likely to only get worse going into the last quarter of the year, as there’s a frankly astounding number of new albums yet to come before 2019 draws to a close.

Heck, today alone sees highly-anticipated new releases from Cult of Luna and White Ward, an unexpectedly killer comeback from Exhorder, as well as some seriously good new records from less well-exposed, but no less deserving, artists like Coffins, Engulfed, Urn, and more.

But, chances are you’re likely to have already read a lot about all those bands, either here or elsewhere.

So, instead, I’m going to take this opportunity to draw your attention to a bunch of albums (some big, some small) that you may have missed over the last few days/weeks/months. Continue reading »

HIGHER CRITICISM: SLAYER (PART 5) — “REIGN IN BLOOD”

 Album Reviews  22 Responses »
Sep 202019
 

 

(This is the fourth installment in an extensive series of posts by TheMadIsraeli devoted to a retrospective analysis of the discography of Slayer. Links to the preceding installments are at the end of this post. Our plan is to continue posting the remaining Parts on a daily basis until the series is completed.  NOTE:  Through an oversight, the assessment of Hell Awaits got skipped in the sequence, but we’ll have that installment after this one.)

Reign In Blood is rightfully considered the breakout album for Slayer in terms of their really becoming noticed in a more widespread sense.  I say rightfully, but while Reign In Blood is a good album, it’s not great. I think for me this shortfall is due to the fact that it distinctly lacks much of what would hook me about Slayer as I explored the rest of their discography.

Kind of odd, right? Considering this is the record that exposed me to the band.  But my exploration of Slayer’s entire body of work ended up reshaping my perception of this album.  While I like it, I’ve come to think that it’s overrated. Continue reading »

DARKEND: “SPIRITUAL RESONANCE”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Sep 192019
 

 

(Here’s DGR’s review of the new album by the Italian black metal band Darkend, which was released by Dark Essence Records on September 13th.)

This website’s fascination with Italian black metal group Darkend began in 2016 with the release of their cameo-packed third album The Canticle Of Shadows. It made a handful of our year-end lists and even landed a song on the 2016 Most Infectious list when that time came around. Admittedly, we have not been the most up to date with the band as of late, and in fact the last time we really posted about the group’s newly released album Spiritual Resonance was way back in June in a news roundup that included amongst its various bands Blood Red Throne, themselves ahaving received a recent writeup here as well.

The three-year gap between Darkend’s previous album The Canticle Of Shadows and the new one has seen the band gain a few more eyes on them, so Spiritual Resonance arrives with some steam behind it. It’s an interesting disc in comparison to its predecessor, less reliant than before on immediate star-power to grab eyes, and also a shorter disc than before – something that has been a trend for the band, since Canticle itself slimmed down to under an hour versus its older sibling’s hefty hour-and-twelve minutes.

Though one track and about seven minutes shorter than Canticle, Spiritual Resonance retains that previous album’s lofty ambitions (which is clearly a Darkend trademark), with its initially deceiving six tracks each clocking in between six and eight minutes. Wrapped within is a swirling mass of black metal that makes a heavy play for the atmospheric and spiritualistic, while also displaying the group’s knack for grand and sweeping theatrics within each song. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: CARCINOID — “SICKNESS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Sep 192019
 

 

Prepare your hardened ears for a mutated offspring of death and doom that’s as foul as a rotting corpse, as punishing as a jackhammer applied to the spine, and as horrifying as a runaway cancer. All of those ghastly sensations come through with blood-congealing power in “Sickness“, the sickening song we’re presenting today off the debut album by a quartet from Melbourne, Australia, who fittingly call themselves Carcinoid.

Speaking of fitting names, the title of that album, which will be get a vinyl LP release on November 1st through Blood Harvest, is Metastatic Declination. In keeping with these naming conventions, Blood Harvest‘s publicist writes (and we can’t resist quoting him): “So odorous, pugnacious, and hideous is the music that this quartet belch forth, it verily sounds like a radioactive, cancerous growth bubbling up from a post-apocalyptic landscape.” Continue reading »

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

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Sep 192019
 

 

The broad genre of doom metal bears that name for a reason. In different ways, the sub-genres under that banner summon sensations of dread, despair, gloom, and grief, sometimes of supernatural origin and often deriving from the familiar afflictions of daily human existence and the ultimate one that awaits us all at the end. But while the genre label of doom may have the naming rights for all our woes, it has no monopoly on the channeling of those feelings through extreme music.

Certain schools of atmospheric black metal are equally devoted to soul-crushing sensations, and arguably are even better suited to capturing the severity of intense suffering and the madness it can produce. The self-titled debut album by Iffernet that we’re premiering today in advance of its October 2nd release is a prime example. It presents emotionally wrenching music that penetrates deeply, relying on continuing cycles of squalling and searing riffs and severely tortured vocals to saturate the mind with changing moods of abandonment, fear, pain, delirious agony, and crushing grief. The album is a colossal panorama of despondency and despair that’s unrelenting in the intensity of its devotion to those visions, and so powerful in its achievements that it won’t leave most listeners unaffected. Continue reading »

HIGHER CRITICISM: SLAYER (PART 3) — “HAUNTING THE CHAPEL”

 Album Reviews  15 Responses »
Sep 192019
 

 

(This is the third installment in an extensive series of posts by TheMadIsraeli devoted to a retrospective analysis of the discography of Slayer. Our plan is to continue posting the remaining installments on a daily basis until it’s completed.)

I really want to know what inspired Slayer going into the writing of Haunting The Chapel.  It’s such an overnight transformation that the question of what caused it to occur boggles the mind. This EP is one of the best ever created in the history of metal.  It’s a top 10er at minimum.  It’s concise, vicious, and unrelenting, and the song-writing and riff-craft speak to a release that had obsessive amounts of loving attention and detail put into it. Everything about this EP is in that sweet spot between speed, technicality, drama, and unrelenting brutality. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BLASPHEMOUS COVENANT — “HURRICANE OF NOOSEFIENDING”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Sep 182019
 

 

The California-based black metal band Blasphemous Covenant is a rabid and riotous assault force created by members of Byyrth and Thy Sepulchral Moon. They describe their debut album, the accurately titled Disruption… Havoc, as “blind chaotic hatred sealed against its will inside a cage, frothing at the mouth, ready to destroy those that dare to open the gate.” Also absolutely accurate. The music violently assaults the senses with pure fury and sears the brain with its abrasive intensity and mutated tonalities. It is raw black metal that will indeed leave you scraped raw and gibbering like a lunatic.

But as you’ll find when you listen to the partial track we’re premiering today in advance of the album’s September 20 release by Grey Matter Productions, there are qualities in the music that you might not be expecting from that preceding description, and a method of execution that isn’t typical either. Continue reading »

CULT OF LUNA: “A DAWN TO FEAR”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Sep 182019
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Sweden’s Cult of Luna, which will be released by Metal Blade Records on September 20th.)

It’s only natural for any fan to want a band’s new album to be the best thing they’ve ever done.

Partially it’s because we’ve all been conditioned to believe that if an artist’s newest release doesn’t sell more, get a higher score, increase their exposure, etc, that it’s somehow a failure, but there’s also the simple fact that, as fans, we want the bands we love to keep getting better, to keep impressing and surprising us and making us feel that electric frisson of excitement every time.

As a writer/reviewer you’ve got to be doubly careful about this. After all, if you start throwing around 10/10 scores every time a band’s newest release drops, what does it mean when their next one is even better? Do you pull a Nigel Tufnel and go up to eleven? And does every subsequent album get a higher and higher score?

I suppose that’s one benefit of not using numerical scores here at NCS. Our readers are forced to actively engage with what we write in order to find out what we really think about an album, rather than just lazily relying on context-less numbers that never give you the full picture.

So when I say, as a huge fan of this band, that their latest album ultimately falls a little short of the stupendously high bar set by both Vertikal and Mariner, you shouldn’t be disheartened. Because this is still Cult of Luna we’re talking about, and A Dawn to Fear remains a thrillingly heavy, emotionally resonant journey regardless. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SELENITE — “CHANNELING CHANTS FROM BEYOND”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Sep 182019
 

 

Mahasamadhi is the debut album of Selenite, a project created by Stefan Traunmüller of the ’90s symphonic black metal band Golden Dawn. Here, he wrote and recorded everything, joined by professional opera singer Antonia Gust on two tracks. The music could be thought of as an amalgam of funeral doom, doom/death, and maybe a bit of symphonic black metal, yet the resulting fusion stands apart from all those antecedents, creating an experience that is both terrifically heavy and mesmerizingly mystical.

Clues to the visions captured in the songs can be found in the project’s name, which has two meanings: “Selenites” was the name given by certain sources to imagined inhabitants of the moon during the 19th century (and to extraterritorial civilization of lunar creatures encountered by human explorers in H.G. Wells‘ 1901 novel First Men in the Moon). “Selenite” is also the moonstone, a white gypsum crystal that is thought to calm and soothe the mind and to bring tranquility.

Further clues can be found in the album’s title. We are told that “Mahasamadhi means the intended death of a yogi who has reached unity beyond duality and is free from all karma,” and thus the integration of Sanskrit mantras and Eastern spirituality is part of Selenite’s concept. Continue reading »

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