OUR LIST OF 2019’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 22): MATTERHORN, HELLRIPPER, ULTRA SILVAM, MAN MUST DIE, GORGON, TYRANT GOATGALDRAKONA, EXULANSIS, BORKNAGAR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2019  8 Responses »
Feb 022020
 

 

As predicted at the end of yesterday’s penultimate segment of this list, I spent hours agonizing about what to include in this final Part. And in the end, despite the internal misery occasioned by having to make a final choice among so many strong remaining candidates, it’s still a largely random outcome — even though this final episode includes a LOT more songs than usual. Basically, I went with my gut, slightly aided by my brain, which thought this sequence of tracks might be a fitting conclusion. At a minimum, it’s more directly in line with the title of this list than yesterday’s choices.

The first three songs are guitar spectacles, the fourth and fifth ones keep the savage energy in the red zone in different ways, the sixth moves into malevolent brutishness (with serious risk of sore-neck syndrome), and then we shift gears into downright epic territory with the last two stirring and marvelously multi-faceted songs, which seemed the right way, in farewell, to express how glorious metal was in 2019.

MATTERHORN

I first stumbled across the Swiss band Matterhorn in the spring of 2018 when they had two songs up for streaming in advance of Iron Bonehead‘s CD release of their debut album, Crass Cleansing, and I came away very impressed. I had a tough time categorizing the music, describing it then as a stew of extremity that included elements of thrash, speed metal, punk, black metal, and death metal — and the overall impact was electrifying. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BLACK CROWN — “LAHAMU: THE AWAKENING”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Feb 022020
 

 

When the passing of Necrophagia vocalist Killjoy effectively brought an end to that storied death metal band, Necrophagia bassist The Mountain VVitch eventually turned his unquenched musical impulses toward a new project named Black Crown. A demo named The Rise of Astaroth appeared without fanfare, but was noticed, and now Black Crown will release a debut album through the combined forces of Satanath Records (Russia), More Hate Productions (Russia), and The End Of Time Records (Ireland) on March 14. Entitled Caverns Of Thantifaxath, it includes nine demonic invocations, one of which we’re premiering today through a lyric video.

Black Crown self-proclaim their music “Black Ritual Metal”, and this new song, “Lahamu: The Awakening” does indeed sound like what the lyrics manifest — the invocation of a fearsome warrior demon. No solemn supplication this, but rather a conjuration made of fire and fury, of cold poison and ominous sorcery. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2019’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 21): GAAHLS WYRD, SWALLOW THE SUN, ARCTIC SLEEP, KLONE

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2019  5 Responses »
Feb 012020
 

 

I missed two weekdays in the rollout of this list, and I want to make up for that, so that’s the justification for breaking my promise to finish this list by the end of January. I have this installment today, and I’ll have another one tomorrow, and then on Monday I’ll tie things up with a black bow by listing all the songs from start to finish. Of course I won’t really be finished, because a ton of deserving songs will have been omitted. I will just have forced myself to stop.

Today’s four songs are all well-deserved exceptions to our porous rule about singing. The musical styles of the songs are all different from each other. All together, they make for an enthralling (and infectious) playlist.

GAAHLS WYRD

Wil Cifer reviewed GastiR – Ghosts Invited for us, and concluded with this paragraph: “This is one of the few albums this year that I have been able to just leave on a let-play all day, on endless repeat, and not get bored with it. If you do not need your black metal to live on blast alone and prefer the feel of darkness, then this is more than worth your time”. Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: LEECHED + GEIST + TUSKAR – LIVE IN NOTTINGHAM, 30/01/20

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Jan 312020
 


Leeched

 

(Andy Synn turned in this review of the performances by Leeched, Geist, and Tuskar in Nottingham, England last night — January 30th — with some of his own video documentation of the experience.)

Sometimes, despite all our best intentions, things just don’t work out quite the way we want them to.

That was certainly the case this evening, as, for various reasons which I won’t go into here, I ended up being massively delayed getting to this show, and therefore missed both the local openers Pemphigoid and Underdark.

This was actually doubly-unfortunate too – firstly because while I’ve never been the biggest fan of the latter, the last few times I’ve seen them it’s felt like they’re finally starting to live up to (at least some of) the hype , so I was hoping to see if this trend continued, and secondly because I’ve not yet managed to catch the former band live, and this was going to be my first chance to do so.

Still, putting aside these regrets and recriminations for the moment, I suppose you’re all wondering how the rest of the show went? Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2019’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 20): OBSEQUIAE, GRYLLE, VÉHÉMENCE, SÜHNOPFER

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2019  1 Response »
Jan 312020
 

 

2019 was a banner year for medieval black metal, and in this 20th installment of the infectious song list I’ve included four of my favorite tracks from four of my favorite albums in that fascinating sub-genre. I’ll quickly add that this installment could have been longer, and I apologize in advance if I omitted an album you think should have been included here. In my defense I’ll note that this is the first time in this year’s list when I’ve included four songs instead of three or two. (To check out all the other songs that have preceded these three, click this link.)

OBSEQUIAE

Our old friend Professor D. Grover the XIIIth (ex-The Number of the Blog) reviewed Obsequiae’s new album for us in late November, closing with the observation that “there is no doubt in my mind that The Palms Of Sorrowed Kings is the best album released this year”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: OSSAERT — “IV”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jan 312020
 

 

Ossaert is a new one-person Dutch band, hailing from the river-wreathed city of Zwolle in northeastern Netherlands. The band’s first full-length, which also includes the work of session drummer W., is named Bedehuis, and it will be released on February 14th by Argento Records. The four songs on the album (which total 35 minutes of music despite the small number of tracks) don’t have names, only numbers.

I came across the opener, “I“, on Bandcamp before listening to the album as a whole, and wasted no time writing about it in one of our weekly SHADES OF BLACK columns. The song saturates the senses, delivering full-throttle drumming, rapidly gouging riffs, insanely flickering leads, febrile bass lines, and a rich array of harsh and clean vocals, which collectively become astonishing. Near the middle, a new riff appears which conjoins feelings of bleakness and grandeur, and becomes magnetically attractive.

The song attacks and it soars, and its intensity is unrelenting. I found it tremendously exciting — maybe “breathtaking” is a better word. And so when we were given the opportunity to premiere another track from Bedehuis, that was an easy “Yes!” Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MARBLEBOG — “THE OBSCURED MIRROR OF INFINITY”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jan 312020
 

 

Marblebog was born as a solo project from the mind of Hungarian musician Gábor Varga in 1998. It began with a focus on black metal and ambient music composed under the inspirations of nature, and the results were three full-length albums and a significant number of splits leading up to 2010, when Marblebog was laid to rest. Ten years passed after the last Marblebog release, a recording of the band’s only live show, on June 5th 2009 at Matchitehew Assembly in Chicago, but now Varga has resurrected the project and created a new album named Kietlen.

This new album was first released by Dread Records on December 21, 2019, in a very limited run of cassette tapes, but on February 15th it will be given a more extensive release, on CD and digitally, by Cyclopean Eye Productions. Today we present the album’s fifth track, “The Obscured Mirror Of Infinity“. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: BOB MALMSTRÖM — “SÄLJ ÅLAND”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 312020
 

 

Nu Metal. Love it? Hate it?

Hold that thought.

This year the Finnish “borgarcore” band Bob Malmström are celebrating their tenth anniversary, and in addition to popping champagne and blowing out candles they’ve chosen to commemorate the occasion by releasing a series of three split 7″ vinyl records. The first of those, Sälj Åland, is with the long-running Finnish melodic hardcore band The Enchained (whose history extends back to 1997). Bob Malmström‘s side of the split includes two tracks, and today we’re spreading the word about the band’s video for the title track. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DJEVEL

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Jan 312020
 

 

(This is Karina Noctum‘s interview of T. Ciekals, the principal creative force behind Djevel and NettleCarrier. The focus of the discussion is Djevel, whose most recent album was released last October by Aftermath Records, but the conversation includes news about both bands, as well as a third one, Ritual Death.)

On the occasion of Djevel’s release concert for their latest album called Ormer Til Armer, Maane Til Hode in Oslo, I got to talk to its mastermind T. Ciekals about the particulars behind his musical creations. I think pretty few bands now evoke the Black Metal ambience of the old days in a convincing and natural way like Djevel do. This is one of the reasons I had to include Ormer Til Armer, Maane Til Hode in my year-end list. In this interview there is also some good news not only of Djevel, but of NettleCarrier as well, which is another one of T. Ciekals‘ creations that I consider to be excellent and absolutely recommend to all of you who thirst for dark music. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MOLOKEN — “UNVEILANCE OF DARK MATTER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 302020
 

 

Twelve years into their career, the Swedish genre-benders in Moloken, who hail from the cold climes of Umeå in the north, have completed their fourth album, Unveilance of Dark Matter. It represents the band’s most adventurous, most thrilling, and quite possibly their most unnerving, work yet. Attempting to pin down the style of the music is like trying to pin mercury to a wall. It constantly escapes any such futile efforts, and is all the better for it.

One might try to make a list of the ingredients — which range from modern hardcore to progressive rock, from sludge to post-metal, from doom and death to black metal (and funk) — but a mere list isn’t very elucidating as to how the band have interwoven such disparate traditions. You really have to just hear the album, and to marvel at all the surprising twists and turns, as long as you understand that Moloken are going to constantly challenge you, and to dismember any sense of comfort and self-satisfaction you might be feeling before you begin.

Wiser minds might just stop there and let you experience the full stream of the album we’re presenting on the eve of its release by The Sign Records, but of course no one will ever accuse us of being very wise, and so we’ll yield to the near-irresistible temptation to comment, in detail, on how these 11 ambitious tracks strike us. Continue reading »

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