AN NCS INTERVIEW: FAÇADE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 182019
 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks presents a discussion with Pim van Dijk, bassist of the Dutch band Façade, whose new concept album The Eternal Dance will be released on November 29th.)

Dordrecht, South Holland, seems to be a nice place: a lot of ancient buildings, museums, and a National Park alongside swamps in the vicinity… Façade was founded there in 2011, and since then the guys have performed their depressive and quite intricate doom/death metal. At least we could tell that in 2017 when they released their debut full-length Loathe, and now the gents have new material, and things turn to be even more complex.

Façade’s forthcoming album The Eternal Dance not only shows development of the ideas they represented two years ago, but this album also has a thoughtful concept and a more varied sonic palette, as these compositions sound richer and naturally deeper than Loathe. The band grows, it’s good…

Why not discuss these topics with one of its members? Pim van Dijk (bass) is on duty today. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): BLACK ROYAL, MALIGNAMENT, SULPHURIC NIGHT, THANATOMASS, LIOSBER

 SHADES OF BLACK  1 Response »
Nov 172019
 

 

As promised earlier, Part 2 of today’s column collects music that, for want of a better word, is more demonic than what I chose for Part 1. It also includes music from four obscure bands whose music I had never heard before this past week — mainly because these are their first releases. But before I get to those, I’m beginning with something new from an old favorite.

BLACK ROYAL

I have very fond memories of the 2018 album Lightbringer by the Finnish group Black Royal, and in particular of a song called “The Chosen” that I put on our list of Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs for that year. I didn’t expect we’d have another album so soon, but that seems to be the case.

Word is, that an album named Firebride will be out on February 14, 2020, via Suicide Records. And on November 1st the band premiered an occult-themed pagan video (here) for an advance track (which has been released as a true single) called “Pagan Saviour“. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): KARG, WOLVENCROWN, MÁDRA, HVØSCH

 SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Nov 172019
 

 

I have a lot to cover today, not counting a big stack of new albums I might mention by way of excerpts tomorrow, as I did last week, so by way of introduction I’ll say only that I grouped the two sets of songs in these two Parts in a purposeful way. Here, there’s a lot of heart-rending distress to be found (among other things). For the most part, what will come in Part 2 is much more… demonic.

KARG

For more than a decade, Harakiri For the Sky‘s vocalist J.J. has maintained a solo project named Karg, whose discography will soon include a seventh album entitled Trakat. The first single, “Irgendjemand wartet immer“, was released a few days ago. I think it’s best introduced through J.J.‘s comments about the album as a whole: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ENSLAVED, GREY HEAVEN FALL, SNORLAX, BRUME

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 162019
 

 

It was another one of those weeks when I didn’t have enough time for a round-up of new music. I started working on the one you’re about to read last Tuesday, hoping to post it on Wednesday, which of course I didn’t, and Thursday and Friday were failures, too. Since I began working on it, many other worthy new songs have debuted, but rather than spend time assessing those and revising/expanding this round-up, I’m just leaving it as originally conceived.

ENSLAVED

The digital version of Enslaved’s most recent album, 2017’s E, included a bonus track, which wasn’t part of the promo we received in advance of the album’s release, or on the vinyl edition. Looks like the bonus song was also included on most of the CD editions of the record. I never heard it until last Tuesday, when it became the subject of a video that Nuclear Blast released as a way of celebrating Enslaved’s re-signing with that label for whatever they do next. Now I can’t get this song out of my head. Continue reading »

AN NCS DEMO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BRAHMASTRIKA — “EXCARNASTRIAL COMMENCINATION”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Nov 152019
 

 

Irradiated… armamentalized… sulphurous…. Those are among the words scattered throughout the five mouth-filling titles of Brahmastrika’s debut demo, the name of which is itself an overflowing platter of suggestive syllables: Excarnastrial Commencination. Those words, combined with others of more obscure and mystical meaning, foretell a sonic immolation of bestial warnoise that seems to draw as much from inhuman demonism as from the human demonology of catastrophic atom-splitting.

We will present all of these ritualistic manifestations of ruination in due course, just days before the demo’s November 18 release by Dunkelheit Produktionen, but can’t resist the temptation to first share more of the band’s bamboozling linguistic formulations concerning their inspirations and the mutilating sensations of their music: Continue reading »

ALTERNATIVE RELEASE DAY ROUNDUP (CONSTELLATIA, IMPIETY, KOSMOKRATOR, ORM, ORPHANAGE NAMED EARTH, RAGNAROK)

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 152019
 


Constellatia (photo by John Second)

 

(Andy Synn prepared this collection of reviews of six albums, some brand new and some from a bit earlier in the year.)

Phew… I am absolutely swamped at the moment. Writing, recording, practicing… oh, and that pesky day job… are all keeping me exceptionally busy. Plus I’m currently tackling a (thankfully) mild dose of the flu. All of which means I’m more behind than usual when it comes to reviewing new (and not so new) albums.

Still, I’m not going to let a little thing like a complete lack of time stop me from ending the week on my own terms, so here’s a handful of albums for you all to check out over the weekend. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NIGHTBEARER — “LYCANTHROPIC DEATH SQUAD”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 152019
 

 

Once upon a time our site had a recurring feature called “Eye-Catchers”, in which we chose music to explore based solely on the records’ cover art. Had that feature not been laid to rest, Nightbearer’s debut album Tales Of Sorcery and Death would have been an obvious and undeniable choice. Seriously, just look at that stunning cover art by the great Juanjo Castellano Rosado!

But in the case of these German death-dealers, we also would have been very interested in their new album based on the strength of their first release, the 2018 EP Stories From Beyond (which is definitely worth tracking down (here) if you haven’t heard it). There’s a song on that EP named “Ferocious Sorcery”, and that title captures much of what makes the band’s sound so transfixing.

Nightbearer’s penchant for interweaving paranormal themes and necromantic artistry into their brand of Swedish-style chainsawing brutality is lavishly displayed on the new album, which draws from the realms of fantasy and horror for its lyrical themes, influenced by the writings of such masters as J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, and Stephen King. And today we have a prime example in our premiere of the aptly named “Lycanthropic Death Squad“, in advance of the album’s release by Testimony Records on Friday the 13th of December. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: HORRIFIED — “FORGOTTEN THRONES”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 152019
 

 

Over the course of a career that began in 2012, the UK band Horrified have released three albums and a pair of shorter releases. and have continually pushed themselves in new musical directions. As the follow-up to their last album, 2017’s Allure of the Fallen, they’ve recorded an eye-popping 30-minute EP named Sentinel that’s perhaps best characterized as progressive death metal, but isn’t strictly beholden to that genre label, or confined by any other single pigeon-hole. Inventive in its composition and technically remarkable in its execution, it’s an adventurous thrill-ride that’s full of surprises.

Sentinel will be released by Testimony Records on December 13th, and today we’re presenting the second single from the record (following a previously released song called “The Pessimist“, which we’re also streaming below). The title of this new one is “Forgotten Thrones“, and it’s a great example of this band’s formidable talents. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THE DROWNING

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 152019
 

 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks presents a conversation with members of The Drowning, whose new album was released on November 8th by Transcending Obscurity Records.)

Over a sixteen-year career the Wales-based doom death crew The Drowning have recorded five full-length albums, and their most up-to-date work The Radiant Dark has been released by the now-famous Indian label Transcending Obscurity Records. The gentlemen honed their skills for years, and logically the new material demonstrates highly effective songwriting and powerful expressive delivery. The songs balance on a verge of old school doom death (leaning to the Paradise Lost doom sound) and more modern meaty and melodic death doom, so the album has already got its portion of praise.

I hope that the collaboration with Transcending Obscurity, and this interview with Mike Hitchen (guitars), Dicky (bass), and Matt Small (vocals), will help The Drowning reach a wider audience. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NOVA — “NOI MAI VINTI”

 Premieres  7 Responses »
Nov 142019
 

 

My own exposure to the Italian pagan-inspired black metal band Nova came through their second album, 2017’s Soli Contro il Mondo (“alone standing against the world”), which we reviewed and premiered here, and which I proclaimed one of that year’s best and most exciting black metal albums.

It’s thus thrilling to know that these Venetians are returning with another album this year. Its title is Veniamo Dal Cielo (“we come from the sky”), and the same label (ATMF) that released the first two albums will be releasing this third one, too — on Friday the 13th of December. The title track from the album is already out in the world, and today we present a second one — “Noi mai Vinti” (“We, never defeated”). Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries