SEEN AND HEARD: DARKENED, GRAVEYARD, ZURIAAKE, GEIST, KARST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 062019
 

 

I had time last night to check out a bunch of new songs that surfaced in recent days, and from that listening excursion I decided to pick the ones below for a Tuesday playlist. Serendipitously, all the bands have one-word names. However, both their locations and musical styles are diverse. You’ll encounter varieties of old school death metal, black metal, metallic hardcore, and death/crust — and I hope you’ll like all of it, because I sure as hell did.

DARKENED

Metal-Archives lists two long-defunct bands named Darkened, one from Sweden and one from the UK. The Darkened whose music I’ve chosen to begin today’s round-up is obviously neither of those, though the line-up of this new band does include members from Sweden and the UK — as well as the U.S. The band may be new, but those members will be known to many of you through their numerous other projects: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SADOKIST — “DRIVEN BY DISGUST”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Aug 052019
 

 

In many of their outward trappings, Sadokist come across as a crude-and-rude, foul-and-filthy, hell-blazing band of blasphemous barbarians. And yeah, they really are all that. “Evil Sado Fuckin’ Speed Metal of Death!!!” is their mantra, and those aren’t empty words in their case. But one listen to the song we’re premiering today is convincing evidence that these Finnish devils are much more nuanced and diabolically dynamic songwriters than the most superficial trappings might suggest. Their songs are meant to electrify the senses, but a lot of the undeniably high voltage derives from how much they pack into each track.

The song we’re presenting today, “Driven By Disgust“, is one of nine tracks on Sadokist’s shit-hot second album, Necrodual Dimension Funeral Storms, which follows 2014’s Thy Saviour’s Halo, Held by Horns. It’s set for release by Hells Headbangers on August 30, on CD, LP, and tape. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): HAUNTER, MUSEUM OF PAST ARTIFACTS, GRUE, ARGHAST, ORISON WRETHE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Aug 052019
 

 

I might have bitten off more than I can chew in the concluding installment of this column, which began here yesterday: After opening with one advance track, I’ve included complete streams of four album-length or EP-length releases. There’s also a risk that I’m serving up a platter of blackened metal that’s too heavily laden for most of you to consume. I’ll have to hope that you at least sample everything. You might find one or more prized additions to your music collection.

HAUNTER

As I organized the selections in this second segment of this week’s column, it seemed fitting to begin and end it with the talents of Elijah Tamu. Here at the beginning you see an example of his striking visual art, in the cover of Sacramental Death Qualia, the new album by Texas-based Haunter. At the end, his musical talents will be on display. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN, A MYSTERY, ARNAUT PAVLE, SOVEREIGN, GRAVATUS

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Aug 042019
 

 

Writing today’s column was tougher than usual. While listening to my long list of music candidates last night and planning what I would write about, the news about the massacre in El Paso broke. And when I woke up this morning, planning to inhale coffee and begin writing, I was greeted with the reports of what happened in Dayton, Ohio overnight, when 9 more people were executed and more than two dozen were injured. Those tragedies brought the number of mass shootings in the U.S. this year to more than 250 (defined as 4 or more people shot or killed in a single incident, not including the shooter), and the number of deaths in mass shootings to 51.

I guess depression and rage are among the chief emotions channeled through black metal, but these events still didn’t put me in the best frame of mind for this project, despite being wracked by that same mixture of feelings over the last 24 hours. I do have plans for a second installment of new music in this series, but the best I can hope for is to finish it in time for posting on Monday.

UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN

For many of us, Unaussprechlichen Kulten have become one of those bands whose every release is mandatory listening. And so it will be with respect to the fifth album from this Chilean cult, Teufelsbücher, which will be released by Iron Bonehead Productions on October 18th. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BORKNAGAR, SUR AUSTRU, TRIANGLE FACE, GROUCH, WET TEMPLE, GRIMIRG

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 032019
 

 

In a rare showing of restraint, I didn’t slaughter millions of brain cells last night in celebrating the end of the work week. Consequently, I woke early this morning without feeling like I’d contracted the plague while asleep, and spent a block of time making my way through many new songs that had come my way over the last couple of days. From those I picked this collection.

Today, in addition to emphasizing stylistic diversity, I decided to focus even more on lesser-known names than usual, though it’s always our standard practice to make sure we’re not just writing about what everyone else in the metalverse is writing about. Having said that, I couldn’t resist beginning with a name that’s undoubtedly been on the lips of vast throngs since yesterday’s song reveal. And that name is…

BORKNAGAR

In his review of 2016’s Winter Thrice, my friend Andy remarked that “it only takes a quick glance at the Membership Timeline on the band’s Wikipedia page to see how many different members and line-ups the group have gone through over the years, while somehow still retaining the same creative drive and overarching musical identity that first brought the band together”. That list will become longer now, with the impending release of Borknagar’s 11th album, True North, which features new drummer Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow and new lead guitarist Jostein Thomassen. Missing this time around are Vintersorg, Jens Ryland, and drummer Baard Kolstad, who had made his first appearance on Winter Thrice.

On the other hand… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: RUNESPELL — “ALL THRONES PERISH II”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Aug 022019
 

 

Nearly two years ago we premiered a complete stream of Unhallowed Blood Oath, the debut album of the Australian black metal band Runespell. It seemed to be a portal into the past, in more ways than one. It linked arms with the venerated traditions of Scandinavian second-wave black metal, and it also created a mythic atmosphere, one that cast the mind’s eye back into distant centuries, to times (whether imagined or real) that spawned sagas of warlike defiance and sacrifice, of bloodshed and bereavement, of heroic striving and irredeemable loss.

A second Runespell album, Order of Vengeance, arrived the following year, but the creative fires within Runespell’s alter ego Nightwolf have remained unquenchable. A third album, Voice of Opprobrium, is now set for release on September 6th by Iron Bonehead Productions, which also released the first two albums. And today we have the premiere of one of the new record’s six tracks, a song that calls us back to one of the most moving tracks from the debut album two years ago. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 111): KRYPTS

 THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Aug 022019
 

 

(In this July edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy Synn focuses on the albums released to date by the Finnish band Krypts, including a review of their most recent album, Cadaver Circulation, released this past May by Dark Descent Records.)

Recommended for fans of: Incantation, Desolate Shrine, Tomb Mold

Fearsome Finnish four-piece Krypts are one of the best bands in Death Metal right now.

As a matter of fact, in my humble opinion, their punishing blend of humongous, heaving riffs, putrid vocal vomit, and dread-inducing Doom is absolutely second to none, and looks to have achieved its ultimate apotheosis on the group’s latest, and greatest, album, Cadaver Circulation, a record which can honestly go toe-to-toe, round-for-round, with the very best of them.

That’s not to downplay the intensity or impact of their previous two releases though, as the band have always been consummate wielders of “the riff”, and have, likewise, always possessed a certain gift for songcraft which ensures that even their foulest metallic offerings are as virulently infectious as they are absolutely crushing. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): ESOTERIC, 1349, DODENBEZWEERDER, MATTERHORN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 012019
 

 

The music in the first Part of today’s round-up of new music leaned into the deathlier side of the metal spectrum, but this second Part is more all-over-the-place. Once again, I’m starting with the announcement of a new album, even though I don’t yet have music from the record to share with you.

ESOTERIC

We don’t make a habit of simply posting announcements of new releases because there wouldn’t be enough hours in the day for that kind of thing. Plus, our main mission is to recommend music we enjoy that we’ve actually heard. But this week I’ve made several exceptions to that rule based on the eye-catching nature of cover artwork, coupled with high levels of confidence that the music is going to be exciting. I’m doing it again here, in the case of funeral doom icons Esoteric and Lisa Schubert‘s cover artwork for their new album, A Pyrrhic Existence. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): BODYFARM, SORCERY, COFFINS, DEVOURMENT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 012019
 

 

Today’s round-up of new music and videos again comes in two-parts, which is more a statement of optimistic expectations than a present reality, since I haven’t started work on Part 2 yet. As for the present reality of Part 1, it’s focused on the deathlier side of the metal spectrum. As I did earlier in the week, I’ve also inserted an announcement unaccompanied by music, which I rarely do, but again couldn’t resist.

BODYFARM

I’m beginning with that announcement. Even though there’s no music yet to share from Bodyfarm’s new album, I couldn’t resist adding it to this collection because Dan Seagrave‘s cover art is so spectacular (this series, after all, is called SEEN and heard for a reason). There’s also the added attraction of this Dutch band’s previous releases, which provide solid reasons for expecting good things from the new one. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SABOTAGE — “THE ORDER OF GENOCIDE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 012019
 

 

Thrash comes in a variety of flavors, even if the metalsphere hasn’t been quite as maniacally devoted to concocting sub-genre labels as it has in the case of death metal, black metal, or just about everything else. So, to say that Sabotage is a thrash band only goes so far in giving you a sign-post to the direction of their music. Even to add the further data point that they claim influence from Bay Area thrash doesn’t tell the whole story.

As you’ll discover through our premiere of this Indian quintet’s debut EP in advance of its August 3rd release, they’re definitely skilled at cooking up the kind of high-voltage riffs that are capable of getting a mosh it into a full froth. But this isn’t “party thrash”. Although you certainly can party hard to this music, these dudes are bone-breakers, with a penchant for brutal grooves, and an equal flare for anthemic melody, spectacular soloing, and politically charged lyricism, all of which elevates their fierce music above a lot of the been-there, done-that, beer-soaked sloppiness that we also call thrash. Continue reading »

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