SHADES OF BLACK: EARTH AND PILLARS, NACHTIG, HOVMOD, NAWAHARJAN, TRAJETO DE CABRA, MAJESTIC TERROR

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Oct 132019
 

 

Everything I’ve chosen for today’s column, until you get to the last selection, are songs from forthcoming albums. The last one is a recently released EP. For each selection I decided to dive right into commentary on the music first, and then follow that with the release details. Let me know what you think about the music.

EARTH AND PILLARS

“Howling” is 18 1/2 minutes long. It begins with howling. Whether wolves, mad dogs, or madmen, it’s hard to tell.  An ominous but bewitching classical guitar melody swells in reverberating tones, eventually overcoming the howling… and then a (howling) storm breaks open. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GRUZJA, VILLAINOUS TEMPLE, CRYPTIC BROOD, CONSTELLATIA, DIPLOID

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Oct 122019
 

 

It’s been a hell of a week, and I do mean HELL. I’ll spare you the details, because no one likes a whiner (except the core supporters of our current President), but mishaps befalling a loved one and demands by my fucking day job have interfered (again) with my NCS time. These round-ups are always the first casualties when such things happen, so I thought I’d use this relatively placid Saturday morning to catch up a little.

I picked the following songs a couple of days ago after a rare opportunity this past week to do a bit of listening. Many other new songs have come out since then, adding to the long list that already existed, but I decided not to listen to anything else new and just get this done.

GRUZJA

Jeszcze Nie Mamy Na Was Pomysłu is the name of the second album by the Polish black metal band Gruzja, whose line-up includes members of Furia, Mentor, and Biesy (among other groups). It’s set for release (CD and digital) on October 22nd by Godz Ov War Productions, but the whole album is already streaming on Bandcamp. Google Translate tells us that the album’s title, in English, is “We don’t have an idea for you yet”. But Google Translate has a habit of mangling its translations of the Polish language, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in that rendition.

When I began the process of selecting music for this round-up, I only found one song from the album (“800 ZŁ”), which grabbed me in a head-lock, and only this morning discovered that the whole record had been launched on Bandcamp. Consequently, my impressions of the album as a whole may be a bit mangled, too, and have certainly been rendered hastily.
Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SLOW — “GÉHENNE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 112019
 

 

As the title suggests, VI-Dantalion is the sixth album to be released by the Belgian band Slow (although the fourth album was separately released on three occasions in varying manifestations of sound). Now firmly ensconced in their own citadel of atmospheric funeral doom, Slow earn their name on Dantalion, but as you’re about to discover, the music is not only slow, it is shattering in the magnitude of its crushing emotional impact.

The means of discovery comes through our premiere of a track called “Géhenne“, which we present through a lyric video in advance of Dantalion’s release on November 8th by code666, a sublabel of Aural Music. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MUR — “THIRD”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 112019
 

 

With their self-titled debut EP released in 2014, the French band Mur (whose six-person line-up includes former members of Today is the Day, Glorior Belli, Mass Hysteria, Comity, and Four Question Marks) began feeling their way, searching for an identity for their music and beginning to establish one. When you listen to their new full-length record Brutalism, which will be released on October 25th by Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions, it becomes apparent that they have arrived, at a place where their confidence is strong and their identity (albeit a multi-faceted one) well-defined. It isn’t so much a sea-change in sound compared to the EP as it is a giant stride ahead on the path they began five years ago.

The album is a fascinating experience because it is such a dynamic one. It offers constant surprises, but does so without losing the bonds that forge all the experiences together into a whole, and without sacrificing the explosive, searing intensity that’s the main hallmark of the record. Today we’re presenting a new song from the album (“Third“) that in itself embodies dramatic change — as well as serving as a blazing example of just how devastatingly powerful Mur’s combination of hardcore and black metal can be. Continue reading »

1349: “THE INFERNAL PATHWAY”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Oct 112019
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Norwegian black meal band 1349, which will be released on October 18th by Season of Mist.)

It’s been well-documented, on several occasions, that my favourite 1349 album is 2010’s Demonoir.

As you can imagine then, I was particularly excited when it was revealed that the band’s new album (released next Friday) was a pseudo-sequel (or is it a prequel?) to that hallowed record.

The only question is, could it be as good? Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MARCHE FUNÈBRE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 112019
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has been a busy interviewer, and we have his second one in as many days, with this conversation he had with members of the Belgian doom-death metal band Marche Funèbre.)

Marche Funèbre is one of representatives of Old World doom death scene who shows good stability, releasing strong works and naturally progressing from album to album. Their debut To Drown (2011) wasn’t an album of the year, but their development on Roots Of Grief (2013) is something you couldn’t miss. Since 2017 they’ve continue to work at a good pace: a third full-length, Into The Arms Of Darkness appeared in 2017, followed by splits with A Thousand Sufferings (2017) and Eye Of Solitude (2018), alongside killer EP Death Wish Woman (2018).

Marche Funèbre is one of the very rare European bands who managed to play a tour in the USA, and as they performed a gig in my home city of Saint Petersburg less than two weeks ago, I saw it as a right time to interview them. Arne Vandenhoeck (vocals), with some help from Kurt Blommé (guitars), are ready to tell a few things about doom, death, and being happy in misery. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VESPERINE — “NOUS, SI PHOTOSENSIBLES”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 102019
 

 

In March of this year Apathia Records released Espérer Sombrer, the debut album of the French band Vesperine. Through their integration of progressive, noise, and hardcore elements into a foundation of powerful post-metal, Vesperine created an experience that should appeal to fans of such bands as AmenRa, Cult Of Luna, Impure Wilhelmina, Neurosis, and Rosetta.

What we have for you today is a phenomenal video for one of the phenomenal songs on Espérer Sombrer, a track called “Nous, Si Photosensibles“. The combination of the surreal and visually arresting imagery and the emotionally shattering sounds makes for a sublime match, and provides an equally arresting reminder of Vesperine’s unnerving power. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: MATTERHORN — “CLARITY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 102019
 

 

I first stumbled across the Swiss band Matterhorn in the spring of last year when they had two songs up for streaming in advance of Iron Bonehead‘s CD release of their debut album, Crass Cleansing, and 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. I further wrote:

“The overall impact is electrifying, not merely because of the speed and explosive energy of the tracks, but also because of the band’s skill in shifting gears on a dime, which they do frequently. The intricacy of their movements and the songwriting skill on display here, coupled with their palpably feral ferocity, set this apart from the vast majority of debuts.”

Now, Crass Cleansing will be reissued on November 22nd by Redefining Darkness Records (U.S.) and Dying Victim Productions (Europe) on CD, and in a new vinyl edition that has been remixed and remastered. The new edition also includes two new bonus tracks (recorded live), as a sign of what the band have been working on for the second album. One of those bonus tracks (“Bydying”) surfaced in August, and today we’re premiering the other one. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PALADIN

 Forthcoming Albums, Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 102019
 

 

(The following conversation is Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Louis, vocalist/bassist of the Quebec death/doom band Paladin, whose debut album was released last month.)

Paladin is a brutal death-doom metal project started by Louis a.k.a. Napalm Holocaust (vocals, bass) from Canadian thrash band Survival Instinct. Louis performs stuff in the vein of Asphyx, Autopsy, and Rippikoulu together with his colleague Will (guitars) and busy maniac N.C. (drums), who has experience in quite extreme yet obscure local metal bands. They’ve been working together in Paladin for about two years, and Vrid (bass) joined them not long ago.

Their debut album Purification Du Mal just saw the light of day on the 20th of September due to the  efforts of PRC Music. As you see the artwork, you may think it’s some Christian stuff, but don’t be fooled, that’s an opposite thing. Louis isn’t a very talkative guy, but he has managed to uncover a few things about Paladin for us. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FLESHMEADOW — “DAYMARES”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Oct 102019
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli introduces our premiere of the new EP by the Norwegian band Fleshmeadow, which will be released via Bandcamp on October 11th.)

I try to avoid hyperbolic statements about how a new or new-ish band to the scene are paving the way for their style or how they’re the sickest fucking thing I’ve heard in forever, but Fleshmeadow are one of those bands to me.

I reviewed and we premiered the band’s debut album Umbra back in 2016‘s final days, and it was one of my favorite records that came out that year.  Their uncanny mastery of technical black metal mixed with touches of ritualistic death metal and a bit of deathgrind really hit a note in my soul that screamed with feral ecstasy.  I’ve listened to Umbra regularly since I discovered it and have eagerly awaited what I would hear next from these blasphemous Norwegian carnage mongers. Continue reading »

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