SEEN AND HEARD ON THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR: ITERU, INTIG, (DOLCH), NAVALM

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Dec 312019
 


Akos Fulop cracks his whip during the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Kecskemet, Hungary, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2019 when shepherds, horseherds and story-tellers wave farewell to the year 2019 with singing and whipcracking. (photo by Sandor Ujvari/MTI via AP)

 

Ii won’t say this is becoming a tradition because I can’t remember if I did it before last year at this time and I’m too fuckin’ lazy to find out and who knows if I’ll still be alive this time next year? But anyway, for at least the second annum in a row I’ve decided to end the NCS year with a playlist of music and then roll into the New Year with another one tomorrow.

I feel pretty comfortable that I’ll be able to write the one for New Year’s Day in the morning because, once again, I’m planning a quiet new Year’s Eve at home with my wife. After more than a few decades of severe misbehavior, the idea of a quiet night and a New Year’s Day without a cataclysmic hangover has become very appealing. No more January 1 mornings wondering, “Is the blood on my shirt mine?”, “Whose room is this?”, and “Where did I leave my pants?”

For these SEEN AND HEARD round-ups I usually pick from the songs I’ve added most recently to the list of new music to check out (a list I update nearly every day). But this time I decided to do something different. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2019: A TOP 20 LIST FROM GONZO (PART 2)

 LISTMANIA 2019  13 Responses »
Dec 312019
 

 

(This year we were joined by a Seattle-based writer who goes by the nickname Gonzo. He has contributed both lively concert reviews and equally lively album reviews, and today he brings us Part 2 of a year-end list that sings the praises of 20 albums — the top 10 of them today, and you can read about the first 10 here.)

The top 10 was a tough one this year, but whittling it down to the final product turned out to be a helluva fun time. The theme of the year seemed to be “pushing boundaries,” and I think my #1 choice did that better than any other crazy genre-defying piece of music I heard all year.

While I go smoke the rest of this joint, go read the rest of my list. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 116): DREADNOUGHT

 THE SYNN REPORT  1 Response »
Dec 312019
 

 

(Here we are, at the end of December and the end of 2019, and just under the wire Andy Synn has turned in his SYNN REPORT for the month, choosing to review all the albums by the Colorado band Dreadnought, including their latest album Emergence, which was released in September by Profound Lore.)

Recommended for fans of: Madder Mortem, Ludicra, (latter-day) Opeth

Having dedicated the last several editions of The Synn Report to the nastier, gnarlier end of the musical spectrum, I felt it would be fun to end the year in something a little bit proggier.

Actually, make that a LOT proggier, as the multi-instrumental marvels of Dreadnought (whose repertoire accentuates the traditional form of bass, guitar, drums, and vocals, with added embellishments from flute, piano, mandolin, and saxophone, to name but  a few) arguably err more towards Folk, Prog, and Jazz – particularly on their earlier albums – than they do Metal.

That’s not to say that the Colorado quartet don’t have their more metallic moments, as they’re entirely capable of deploying a writhing, blackened riff or snarling shot of vocal venom whenever the need calls for it, but these harsher, heavier elements are just one small part of a rich creative tapestry which favours patient, proggy melody and indulgent artistry over instantaneous impact. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2019: A TOP 25 LIST FROM VONLUGHLIO

 LISTMANIA 2019  5 Responses »
Dec 312019
 

 

(For the 8th year in a row, here’s our friend Vonlughlio’s list of the best brutal death metal albums of the year that’s about to end.)

So it’s that time of year, at which I am lucky enough to share the top Brutal Death Metal albums of 2019, and what a great year for the genre it has been. As usual, the list-making process has been nothing but a clusterfuck, because it has been difficult to compile my favorite 25 albums released this year. But it must be done, and I can say for this year that I am content with the end result.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Islander for letting me do some write-ups and year-end lists since 2012 for this genre, which is one of my favorites in the Death Metal Universe. I also thank the writers and other contributors of NCS; because of them I can discover great bands each day.

With no further ado, below are my favorite 25 BDM albums of 2019. Later on this will become part of the Blast Family Top 50 BDM albums of the year. So for now, here is the list: Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2019: A TOP 20 LIST FROM GONZO (PART 1)

 LISTMANIA 2019  7 Responses »
Dec 302019
 

 

(This year we were joined by a Seattle-based writer who goes by the nickname Gonzo. He has contributed both lively concert reviews and equally lively album reviews, and today he brings us Part 1 of a year-end list that sings the praises of 20 albums — 10 of them today and 10 more tomorrow.)

Well, here we are — another year of music in the books, and another unnecessarily long stretch of time spent agonizing over which albums I felt worthy of compiling into another year-end list.

I won’t lie — 2019 made things crazily difficult. There were some truly bat-shit releases that laughed in the face of genre typecasting and raised the bar. Conversely, there were some albums that stuck to a particular mold and ended up kicking unholy amounts of ass while doing it. Truth be told, I haven’t had this much fun discovering new music in the better part of a decade

With that, I’ll stop blabbing. Here’s my list. Hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CARCINOID

 Interviews  No Responses »
Dec 302019
 

 

(Today in the annals of NCS interviews we present Comrade Aleks‘ discussion with the Australian death/doom band Carcinoid, whose debut album was released this past fall.)

This filthy and sick death doom outfit was formed just one year ago by Az (guitars), Carter (drums), Jess (bass), and Josh (vocals). All of them previously played in different underground bands, but the will to perform this macabre metal from the graveside unites them. The result of Carcinoid’s efforts are the full-length debut Metastatic Declination (Memento Mori, October 2019) and a split with the Russian death metal crew Gosudar (Fucking Kill Records, October 2019).

I’ve tried to root out the band’s origin and other details in this interview with Carcinoid’s collective mind. Continue reading »

UNDERGROUND METAL FOR THE TRVE CURMUDGEON (BEST OF 2019 EDITION)

 LISTMANIA 2019  8 Responses »
Dec 302019
 

(For the 9th year in a row, we asked our old friend SurgicalBrute to weigh in with his year-end list of favorite albums and/or EPs. As expected, his list adds many names of some especially savage underground releases that haven’t appeared before in our 2019 Listmania series.)

By the time you read this, the year, and the decade, will be just about over, Listmania will be in full swing, and if you’re anything like me you’ll probably be ready to shove an icepick into your eye if you have to read one more list showing the same 10 albums you’ve seen on a dozen other websites.

Yes, Tomb Mold and Blood Incantation put out really good albums, but unless you’ve been living under a rock you already know that… no one wants to see the same names again and again. So, with that in mind, Islander has once again turned to me to save you out-of-touch causals from the boredom of the mainstream by giving you a brief glimpse into the metal underground. Grab your bullet belts and corpse paint, because only the grim and trve are allowed beyond this point …enjoy the music \m/ Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: RAPTVRE — “ECHOKAMMER”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Dec 302019
 

 

The German band Raptvre picked a fantastic song to showcase in the video we’re presenting today. It displays so many of the attention-grabbing qualities that made their 2019 debut album Monuments of Bitterness one to remember (and which caused our own Andy Synn to herald it in a year-end list here at NCS).

The song is “Echokammer“, and the video (beautifully filmed and edited by Noel Auch and Julian Baron of Brainthrill Studio) captures Raptvre‘s performance of the song at the band’s album release show on November 23rd in Cologne. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: MALOKARPATAN, NADSVEST, SVRM, BANNWALD, QAYIN REGIS, UKLARHET

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Dec 292019
 

 

Just three days left, including this one, before time consigns 2019 to the history books. Although we’re spending more and more time looking ahead to the records that will be released in 2020, we’re not finished with our reflections about metal in 2019. We will have more year-end lists from NCS writers and guests to share with you throughout the coming week, as well as the launch of our Most Infectious Song list, and at least Mr. Synn and I still plan to review some 2019 releases we haven’t gotten around to yet.

I’m doing some of that in today’s column. I picked three advance tracks to recommend from forthcoming 2020 albums, but the other three items are albums or EPs released this year, one of them as far back as August, which already seems like an eon ago. Hope you like all of it.

MALOKARPATAN

I’m a bit late getting to this first track, which debuted 10 days ago. That surprised even me, because I’ve been a fascinated follower of Malokarpatan from the beginning. The song is the first one revealed from this Slovakian band’s third album, Krupinské ohne. Its conceptual nature has been described by guitarist Adam as follows: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TYRANNIC

 Interviews  1 Response »
Dec 272019
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us this interview with drummer/vocalist R of the Australian underground band Tyrannic, whose latest record was released by Séance Records in February 2019.)

This project from Sydney has spread the bestial morbid vibe of savage Celtic Frost / Hellhammer-oriented thrash / doom metal for almost nine years. Did Tyrannic succeed on their path? Some way, yes — Séance Records helped them to break through releasing their first full-length Ethereal Sepuclhre (2018) and the fresher EP Exterminating Angel. How do things go in the deep Australian underground? R (drums, vocals) is here to shed some light on Tyrannic’s gloomy existence. Continue reading »

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