OUR LIST OF 2018’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 33): BEHEMOTH, VOLKOLUN, SEAR BLISS

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2018  6 Responses »
Feb 252019
 

 

With this post I’m beginning the final week of this list, bound and determined to end it by Friday, when the third month of the year begins. With that brutal deadline in mind, I spent hours this past weekend looking at what was left on my gigantic list of nominees for these awards and listening to many of them. The listening was enjoyable, but it was still a harrowing experience — because even though this 2018 list has turned out to be longer than in any previous year, there are still SO MANY SONGS I’d like to recognize, beginning with these three:

BEHEMOTH

Behemoth‘s latest album, I Loved You At Your Darkest, seemed to stir up a hornet’s nest of controversy. Sure, there were plenty of people who lavished it with praise, but a lot of the accolades came from sources that seem to reflexively give every release by every “big name” their highest ratings. The album didn’t evoke quite so much enthusiasm in other quarters, where fans were dismayed by some of the ideas the band tried on for size, and by the more “rock ‘n’ roll” feel of the album as a whole. Continue reading »

RELICS OF HUMANITY: “OBSCURATION”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Feb 252019
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio‘s review of the new EP by the brutal death metal band Relics of Humanity from Minsk, Belarus.)

This time around I have the opportunity to review Relics of Humanity‘s new EP Obscuration, released via Willowtip Records this past 22nd of February. I have been listening to it non-stop and have to say that the music is back to the veins of their first album, Guided by the Soulless Call (which is their best work in my opinion).

The band have been active since 2007 and have released  demos, two albums, a compilation, and now this EP. One of the things I like about the project is that they have a specific sound to their music that is very recognizable, and have been able to maintain it through the years. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KULL, MALOKARPATAN, DEMON’S GATE, ABDUCTION, SKALDIC CURSE, DRASTUS

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Feb 242019
 

 

This week I’ve chosen advance tracks from three forthcoming albums, two tracks from a recent split, and one complete album that’s just been made available for streaming in advance of a March 1 release (and it’s one of the best of the year so far). And with that, let’s just go right into the music.

KULL

Bal-Sagoth won’t need an introduction for many of you, but for others, it was a UK band conceived in 1989 by Byron Roberts in an attempt to form what he called “a sublimely symphonic black/death metal band swathed in a concept of dark fantasy & science fiction, inspired by the celebrated style of the grand pulp horror and fantasy literature of the 1930’s”.

He was eventually joined by the brothers Chris and Jonny Maudling to form the core songwriting group, and Bal-Sagoth released their first demo in 1993. They followed that with six albums, three on Cacophonous Records and three on Nuclear Blast. The last of those was The Chthonic Chronicles in 2006. Continue reading »

RIDICULE

 Mosh Pit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  38 Responses »
Feb 232019
 

 

I’m going to regret this. Hell, I already regret it, mainly because the critique I’m about to present will drive more clicks to the article I’m criticizing (whose main purpose was obviously to attract clicks in the first place), but also because the full back-story leading to the points I want to make is only slightly shorter than War and Peace; tedium might be the only victor in this exercise.

So why am I writing this despite those regrets? I’ll come back to the reason in due course. But first, the back story, which I’ve slightly condensed in an effort to combat tedium-induced catatonia. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GOATKRAFT — “GOATKRAFT’S COMMAND”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Feb 222019
 

 

Sometimes the wishes we send into the void are granted. Last month, after hearing the first advance track off the debut album of the Norwegian deviants in Goatkraft, I publicly proclaimed that such a sulphurous spell of black pestilence had left me hungering for more, and since then my hunger has been fed by a chance to hear the album as a whole. What’s more, I have the opportunity to infect your mind with another new song from the same record (spreading infection is such a rewarding experience).

The song we present today is “Goatkraft’s Command“, and it further confirms Goatkraft’s command over the weaponry of bestial black metal, as fully and ferociously revealed on Sulphurous Northern Bestiality, which will be released by Iron Bonehead Productions on March 22nd. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DEVIN TOWNSEND, BONG-RA, EFREETI, DER BLUTHARSCH AND THE INFINITE CHURCH OF THE LEADING HAND, OBSCURE INFINITY, HEDONIHIL

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 222019
 

 

Here are six songs and videos that stood out from the pack in my seeing-and-hearing session last night and this morning. Some other items also stood out, and perhaps I’ll get to those tomorrow (perhaps along with other things I’ll find today). Everything below is new, except for the second song and video, which is newly discovered.

DEVIN TOWNSEND

This first video is actually a last-minute addition. I had this round-up nearly ready to go when I noticed a message from my comrade DGR that read as follows: “New Devin Townsend video out in the wild. Does a good job highlighting how batshit the songwriting is. Still has its ‘Space Enya’ moments”. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF BRITISH 2019: ANTRE / ITHACA / MASTIFF

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Feb 222019
 

 

(Andy Synn prepared this trio of reviews for new releases by bands from the UK.)

For whatever reason, I’ve really struggled to pull together an edition of “The Best of British” so far this year. Despite receiving numerous suggestions and recommendations, only a few have really stood out to me.

Thankfully the three albums featured here, all released over the course of the last month, have proven to be the exception(s) to the rule, and are all well worth checking out if you’re interested in keeping abreast of current developments in the UK scene.

Two of these records represent a pair of highly anticipated, highly promising, debuts from a couple of new-ish names, while the third is a stunningly savage sophomore release from one of the country’s most punishing purveyors of sickeningly heavy Sludge-core.

So, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Antre, Ithaca, and Mastiff. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2018’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 32): ANTLERS, REBEL WIZARD, BARÚS

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2018  8 Responses »
Feb 222019
 

 

I’m starting to feel the wolf at my heels. Honestly, I could easily keep this list going for another month, and that would be a helluva lot easier than stopping next week, but since it’s the only 2018 year-end list in the known universe that’s still rolling out in FEBRUARY 2019, I feel pressure to stop. Maybe it’s only self-imposed pressure, but regardless, it’s pressure, and I’m feeling it.

Something is going to get left off this list when I finish next week, the omission of which will make me miserable the day after I stop. Many somethings, most likely. But there’s just no way I could omit  these three songs.

ANTLERS

Speaking of year-end lists, it was Andy Synn‘s 2018 “Personal Top 10” list that finally made me pay close attention to Antler’s second album, beneath.below.behold. Stupid of me to wait so long, since Mr. Synn had reviewed the album eight months earlier and pronounced it “one of the most pleasant surprises of the year so far”. But this is definitely one of those better-late-than-never situations. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BLACK ANVIL, SLAVES BC, WORMWITCH, SACRILEGIA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 212019
 

 

After finishing this morning’s previous posts, I just barely had enough time to grab a few new songs for this round-up before having to surrender to my fucking day job. Based on what’s on the slate tomorrow, I think I’ll have time for a few more then.

BLACK ANVIL

Following up on their latest album, 2017’s very good As Was, New York’s Black Anvil have a new EP named Miles headed our way, a release that was written, performed, and recorded as a tribute to late The Devil’s Blood guitarist/vocalist Selim Lemouchi. DECIBEL mag, which premiered the EP’s opening track earlier this week, describes Miles as retaining “the barely-restrained insanity of Black Anvil’s previous releases while also embracing more melody and vulnerable emotion”, and that description is borne out my the song they premiered, “Iron Sharpens Iron“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): LUCIFERA — “LA CACERIA DE BRUJAS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Feb 212019
 

 

It wouldn’t be wrong-headed to label the music of La Caceria De Brujas as “black thrash”, but that label really doesn’t do it justice. For most of its 39-minute duration, this fourth album by Colombia’s Lucifera is a brazen race, fueled by the kind of feral ferocity that most people have come to expect from South American devil-thrash, but there’s uncommon depth to this music. As fierce and scorching as the music is, it’s also loaded with melodic hooks, and it achieves a feeling of divine Bacchanalian glory — summoning visions of wild exultation, of spirits set free by sorcerous conjurations.

La Caceria De Brujas will be released by the German label Dunkelheit Produktionen on February 25th (with a vinyl edition coming the next month), and today we’re presenting a full stream of this remarkable album. Continue reading »

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