SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): SVARTIDAUÐI, JADE, NIGHTGRAVE, DIM LORDS, ANDEIS

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Nov 042018
 

 

Two Sundays ago I had planned a giant edition of this column that included a trio of advance tracks and a trio of full albums, and then Kriegsmaschine‘s new surprise album diverted me. After writing about it I only had time to devote a second feature to the three advance tracks, and put off writing about those three full-lengths. I didn’t get to them last Sunday either, because a short vacation didn’t allow me the time I needed. And I’m not doing it this Sunday either.

This is the way things work in my defective brain. As you can see, this will be a two-part collection of new music (a very large one), but it’s all stuff I’ve discovered in the last two weeks. Those three albums that fell by the way-side two Sundays ago are still in the back of the room with their hands up, waiting to be noticed. I’ve promised myself I’m going to get to them, even if it means preparing a week-day edition of this thing. But for now, let’s get to the newer stuff.

SVARTIDAUÐI

As I hope you know by now, and certainly would know if you regularly hang around our putrid neighborhood, the Icelandic band Svartidauði will be releasing a new album named Revelations of the Red Sword via Ván Records on December 3rd, six years to the day after the advent of their debut album Flesh Cathedral. In mid-October the band provided a stream of a terrifying new song called “Burning Worlds of Excrement”, and now you can listen to a second one. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: OPETH, THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT, ARSIS, ICHOR, DÉCEMBRE NOIR, KÖHLBRAND

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 032018
 

 

I thought I’d round up a quintet of videos that surfaced over the last couple of days, in the hope of making your Saturday a bit more entertaining. I’m going to (mostly) dispense with the usual commentary this time and leave you to go exploring on your own. Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t want your commentary — so please do leave us some!

OPETH

The first one is a live recording of Opeth performing the glorious “Ghost of Perdition” on May 11, 2017. It comes from the band’s new live album, Garden of the Titans: Live at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, which was released on November 2nd by Moderbolaget Records and Nuclear Blast on DVD, Blu-Ray, and vinyl formats. Continue reading »

WAXING LYRICAL: “SPIRES”

 WAXING LYRICAL  No Responses »
Nov 032018
 

 

(In this week’s edition of Waxing Lyrical, Andy Synn posed the usual questions to Paul Sadler of the U.K. band Spires.)

Hopefully I’ve managed to make it more than clear at this point just how bloody fantastic I think the latest (and greatest) album from Mancunian Prog-Metal quartet Spires really is, and so it probably won’t surprise you to learn that I’m already thinking long and hard as to whether to give it a spot in my annual “Critical Top Ten” list, a list whose purported purpose is to provide a wide and robust overview of the year’s best Metal albums… or, at least, as wide and robust a snapshot of the year’s releases as can be made using only ten albums.

One of the reasons the album is so damn good, in my opinion anyway, is the intense focus and attention to detail which the band have clearly lavished on each and every part of each and every song, up to and including the concept-driven lyrics which ultimately play a major role in helping to tie the whole record together.

So, as way of acknowledging the vital importance of these lyrics to the album’s overall success, I managed to convince the band’s vocalist/guitarist (and main songwriter) Paul Sadler to put together a few words for today’s edition of Waxing Lyrical. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF BRITISH: ASCARIS / BLACK TONGUE / INGESTED

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 022018
 

 

(Andy Synn again compiles reviews of new records from the British Isles.)

Just as I said in my previous column (which you can, and should, check out here) the fact that there’s just so much music out there means that it’s impossible for anyone, even someone as smart, debonair, and erudite as myself, to cover all of it.

What this means, at least in regards to my ongoing “Best of British” series, is that if you haven’t seen a band featured here the most likely reason is that I just haven’t heard them yet – either through sheer ignorance, or because of simple time constraints – although there’s always a chance that I honestly didn’t rate them as anything particularly special or worth writing (at) home about.

Today’s feature includes a band who’ve just released their debut album alongside two much more well-established acts (one of whom I’ve only recently taken a shine to), who all deal in weighty, megaton riffage and nuclear-level rage, making this one of the most brutal write-ups I’ve put together all year. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: GOATS OF DOOM — “SOKEUS JOHTAA KANSAA”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 022018
 

 

This is not Doom. Perish that thought immediately. This music is something like the opposite of Doom, something like a blazing meteor or a rocket to the Sun.

This may come as no surprise to those of you familiar with Goats of Doom (though perhaps fueled by a goatish lust, they’re not actually goats either), but for newcomers we thought it best to get the potential misdirection of the band’s name out of the way up-front. And even for those who might have partaken of their previous releases, we’ll venture to say that you’re in for a surprise, too.

This Finnish group’s new album, Rukous, reflects the contributions of a new member, in addition to the founding duo of Scaregod and Inasnum, and it further represents a change of style, as you’ll discover through our premiere of a song from the new release called “Sokeus Johtaa Kansaa“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEGREDO — “PARTE UM”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 022018
 

 

We’ve written before about the music of projects from within Portugal’s Aldebaran Circle — such bands as Ordem Satânica, Trono Além Morte, Occelenbriig, and Voëmmr. And to that list we now add the equally mysterious (and intensely unnerving) Degredo.

This entity’s newest release is a massive one — a double album named A Noite dos Tempos. Each album (Volumes 1 and 2) consists of two long tracks, for a combined run-time of an hour and 15 minutes. In advance of the release of A Noite dos Tempos on November 30th by Harvest of Death, today we premiere the first of the four tracks you’ll encounter as you enter Degredo‘s nightmare realm — “Parte Um“. Continue reading »

IN TWILIGHT’S EMBRACE: “LAWA”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 022018
 

 

If my brain worked better or if I kept better notes about interesting phenomena I could provide an exhaustive list of all the 2018 albums released by notable bands with little or no advance fanfare. Off the top of my head I can name Panopticon, Sargeist, and Kriegsmaschine. And now I can name one more, because yesterday the Polish blackened death metal band In Twilight’s Embrace released a new album without warning.

This is the band’s fifth full-length, following hot on the heels of last year’s Vanitas, which we premiered and reviewed here (at length). Because everyone can listen to it now, and because I’ve only listened to it twice (in rapid succession), having been surprised by its appearance as much as anyone else, I’m only going to share some immediate impressions of Lawa… and they’re obviously positive ones or I’d be keeping them to myself (since at this site we only write about what we want to recommend). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): APOLLYON — “FALSE LIGHT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Nov 012018
 

 

Apollyon come our way from Kelowna, British Columbia. Following last year’s release of their debut EP, Immolation, the band are now on the brink of releasing a very impressive debut album named False Light. The official release date is tomorrow, but we’re very happy to bring you a full stream of it today.

The album is an ambitious undertaking, one in which elements of death metal and black metal play dominant roles but don’t exhaust the musical ingredients that Apollyon have woven into a richly textured musical tapestry. Dynamic change is a hallmark of the record, with carefully crafted variations in tempo, style, and mood a significant source of the album’s considerable appeal. And the emotional power of the melodies is as much a strength as the bruising physicality of these tracks and the instrumental prowess demonstrated in their execution. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: LACERATION — “PERPETUAL SICKNESS”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 012018
 

 

You’re about to be plummeted into a war zone, victimized by a stunningly powerful assault of sound. Your pulse will race, your head will rattle, bruises will appear as if by magic, and we’re willing to bet you’ll be smiling all the way through this slaughtering experience.

The song is “Perpetual Sickness” and it comes from the new EP by the Bay Area death/thrash band Laceration, which is set for release on November 16th by Rotted Life Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: INOCULATED LIFE — “EXIST TO DECAY”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Nov 012018
 

 

Rage and disgust fuel the music of Denver’s Inoculated Life — contempt for the police and the judicial system, fury over the practices of industrial slaughterhouses, outrage over the continual fouling of the environment by human beings — and nihilism clouds their view of the future. We’re fucking up the planet, and “there’s no stopping the damage we’ve caused, no reversing it,” they insist. We’re killing ourselves, inexorably wasting away. And that’s the message of their debut album, the meaning of Exist To Decay: “We are living just to rot in the ground, we aren’t special”.

It’s a damned bleak outlook, a glass that’s not only half-empty but also draining rapidly. You might quarrel with the extent of their resignation to a blasted future, but it’s hard to argue with the strength of their conviction when you hear the music, as you’ll discover through our premiere of this new album’s title track. Continue reading »

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