AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: COFFIN BIRTH — “RED SKY SEASON”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 232018
 

 

Here’s a little mental exercise, in three steps. Step One: Gaze upon these names and the roles they perform in the new band named Coffin Birth:

Frank Calleja (BEHEADED) – Vocals
Giulio Moschini (HOUR OF PENANCE) – Guitar
Francesco Paoli (FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, ex-HOUR OF PENANCE) – Guitar
Marco Mastrobuono (HOUR OF PENANCE, BUFFALO GRILLZ) – Bass
Davide Billia (HOUR OF PENANCE, BEHEADED) – Drums

Step Two: Imagine what these men might do if they fully embraced the filthy, corrosive wonders of the HM 2 pedal in capturing, through a nasty amalgam of old school death metal, rock ‘n’ roll, and punk, the sensations of “being forced out of a dead body by its own gasses, drenched in the slime of bodily fluids and reeking stench”.

Step Three: Consider further what might happen if they did all this in a song about a post-apocalyptic scenario — with a title inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SACRIFICIUM CARMEN — “HERMETICA”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 232018
 

 

After immediately making a name for themselves with their 2015 debut album, Ikuisen Tulen Kammiossa, the Finnish black metal horde Sacrificium Carmen are now roaring back with a new full-length named Hermetica, which like the debut will be released on November 16th by Saturnal Records. As the album’s title suggests, the band continue to draw their inspirations exclusively from Satanism and the realms of the occult. As the music demonstrates, they’ve moved from strength to further strength.

The album title track that we’re presenting today as the November 16 release date draws closer is a prime example of the band’s heightened ability to create music of thrilling ferocity and compulsive rhythmic power while lacing their violent volleys with alluring melodies that your mind will hang onto. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): RAUHNÅCHT, VARATHRON, ILLUM ADORA

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Oct 232018
 

 

As explained on Sunday, the surprise release of the new Kriegsmaschine album de-railed my plans for the regular SHADES OF BLACK column, causing me to move the music I’d originally picked into the second part of what had suddenly become a two-part post. And for other reasons I won’t both you with, I couldn’t finish Part 2 on Sunday. Once the whirlwind of Monday began, I couldn’t finish it for yesterday either.

There was a lot of new music I had planned for Part 2, including three full releases — and I still haven’t finished writing about those, given the volume of premieres I’ve been writing about yesterday and today. Rather than delay further, I’m just going to include the individual tracks and videos from Part 2 here and come back to the full albums as soon as I can.

RAUHNÅCHT

My interest in folk metal, which many years ago was once eager, became nearly moribund when I felt like I was hearing very similar Celtic melodies over and over again, regardless of what country they were coming from. Granted, the original Celts spread their culture over a wide swath of Europe, from what we’d now call “The British Isles” to what we now call Turkey. Still, the sameness of the music began to grow tiresome, or maybe I just wasn’t exploring as much as I should have. I still prize ethnic melodies when they’re less familiar to my ears, but in general I’m at the point when I’m hard to win over. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FORBIDDEN RITES — “JUDGEMENT”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Oct 222018
 

 

A twenty-year gestation produces an unusually long wait for a new musical offspring, but in the case of Forbidden Rites it has produced some unusually good new music, rooted in the era when the early seed was planted but benefitting from the passage of time as well.

Under a different name, the band was first begun in 1996 by Mexican guitarists Carlos Martinez and Raúl Campos and drummer Hugo Olivos (Vomitile, ex-Inhearted), but two decades would pass before the band came back to life, this time joined by longtime friend Vlad Marin (ex-Xiuhtecuhtli) on vocals and bass. The results of their collaboration are encompassed by a debut album of black/death metal named Pantheon Arcanum, and in the run-up to its release by GrimmDistribution on November 7th, we’re premiering a track named “Judgement“. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: THOREN — “DALEB DATH”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 222018
 

 

Instrumental metal, perhaps more so than metal with vocals, is a risky endeavor with mixed results. In addition to the risks of mediocrity (which are certainly not unique to solely instrumental performances), there’s the further risk that even when the music is excellent, it can seem to cry out for a voice (at least in the reception of listeners). You can expect to hear the unique dimensions of sound that vocals might add, and be disappointed when they remain absent.

The Detroit-based instrumental death metal band Thoren avoid these risks, not only because the music is so astonishingly good, but also because it’s impossible to imagine what vocals might add, or perhaps more to the point, how anyone could perform vocals over these bewildering sonic creations that would fit in any coherent or satisfying way. As proof, we offer “Daleb Dath“. Continue reading »

A(NOTHER) TALE OF TWO ALBUMS: BEYOND CREATION AND GOROD

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Oct 222018
 

 

(Andy Synn has packaged two reviews into this post, addressing the new albums of Beyond Creation, released by Season of Mist on October 12th, and of Gorod, which was released on October 19th through OverPowered Records.)

When I initially wrote and published “A Tale of Two Albums”, comparing and contrasting the most recent Arsis and Revocation records, I had absolutely no intention of ever writing a sequel or follow-up.

However, in conversation with my friends/bandmates recently we got to chatting about the new Beyond Creation and Gorod releases, and I realised that these two would also make great fodder for a co-feature of their own, not only because both bands are going to be on tour together very soon, but also because both Algorythm and Aethra find their respective creators making an effort to expand and redefine their sound… although one of the two albums is certainly more successful than the other in this regard. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DØDSFERD — “DISEASED REMNANTS OF A DYING WORLD”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Oct 222018
 

 

Our world is dying. With each sunset the planet draws closer to its inescapable extinction. It will of course survive our own lives, but what we collectively do may hasten its demise as a hospitable home for our kind and our co-inhabitants long before it becomes a barren cinder. Humankind so often seems determined to make a misery out of the wonders around us, and a ruin of our own best creations.

In seeming contemplation, and condemnation, of a bleak future, the new album of the Greek black metal band Dødsferd is named Diseased Remnants of A Dying World. The album’s title track is the record’s centerpiece in more ways than one. Set dead center in the running order, it’s also the album’s longest track and perhaps its most ambitious as well. In the ebb and flow of its powerful, mood-changing sounds it could be experienced as a far-sighted panorama painted in tones, a foretelling of human blindness, lost glories, and the pain of avoidable but uncorrected failures.

It’s our pleasure to present this immersive, emotionally gripping title song today in advance of the album’s release by Transcending Obscurity Records on December 14th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ABIGORUM — “THE DARKNESS OF AEON”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 222018
 

 

Hallucinogens alter perceptions, thoughts, and moods by interfering with normal brain chemistry interactions, creating sensations and visions that may seem real though they are not — or perhaps instead revealing aspects of true reality that are hidden by the illusions of daily life. But the ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs and plant extracts isn’t the only way to become disconnected from your body and from what passes for reality, and to become more susceptible to visions. You could, for example, just listen to the music of Abigorum.

Abigorum is the name of a project from Saint Petersburg, Russia, that produces alchemical reactions using ingredients drawn from ambient music, black metal, and doom. It’s the creation of Aleksey Korolyov, who is also the label boss of Satanath Records and the founder of the ambient formation Satanath. Abigorum’s newest output, which is set for release on November 6th, is a split named Spectral Shadows with the long-running Australian project Striborg, whose music has evolved over time and now merits the label “blackwave”. From that split we present the premiere of “The Darkness of Aeon“. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): KRIEGSMASCHINE — “APOCALYPTICISTS”

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
Oct 212018
 

 

I slept much later than usual this morning, and to compound the problems that created for my NCS duties, I had barely started writing today’s SHADES OF BLACK column before bedding down for the night, though I had at least finished the job of picking what I wanted to write about. And then when I finally did rouse myself from what seemed like a deep hibernation and had inhaled a gallon of coffee, I decided to take a quick peak at Facebook before turning back to today’s column.

And the first thing I saw was a pair of messages from two generous sources of musical recommendations, starkweather’s Rennie and my Serbian acquaintance Miloš, both of whom were pointing me to a big surprise that did far more to set my nerve endings alight that all that coffee I had poured into myself: Without warning, No Solace released a new Kriegsmaschine album today. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: ACCEPT, OTTONE PESANTE, AZUSA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 202018
 

The subject of this little Saturday round-up of new videos is… happiness…

ACCEPT

Happiness… happiness is being Accept and performing “Symphony No. 40″ before a bazillion people at Wacken Open Air with your own backing orchestra and conductor, stadium-sized video screens, abundant pyrotechnics, a couple dozen cameras filming the event, and a damned good editor splicing all the footage together. It doesn’t hurt that your lead guitarist (Wolf Hoffmann) looks like Bruce Willis. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries